Asia 2006: Random Bozo goes to Pekanbaru

Peripatetics (blog entry)

First, a huge thank-you to all who have texted, commented, spoken, telepathed or otherwise communicated good wishes.

I'm out of hospital but have a few meds to take and a schedule to take them on. Also, my main complaint (too yucky to blog about unless you really want to know!) is gone, gone, gone. Hoorah!!!!!!

Stramash starts here

So, you know I was trying to get to Pekanbaru in Sumatra (instead of Medan - aarrgghh). OK, so there are today no direct flights from Singapore to Pekanbaru and the Jakarta-to-Pekanbaru flights are all full today. So rather than risk being stuck in Jakarta, I'm risking getting stuck in Batam.

Batam is an Indonesian island 45 minutes by ferry from Singapore. From there I can get a flight to Pekanbaru (with Merparti [risk of an aarrgghh there too]). So I'm in Singapore's ultra-modern ferry terminal. What a change from India! Roads are smooth as a baby's bum, systems are organised and ferry staff are informative. Plus this cybercafe sells food. So, gonna sign off with the following: this is the flight I should be taking:

Depart Batam 1540, Arrive Pekanbaru 1630: Flight MZ 225.

Failing this, I'll come back to Singapore and take a direct flight tomorrow. I hope I don't have to do this because folk have arranged to meet me in Pekanbaru today. Yibble! Will let you all know, probably via getting my dad to put up an entry, when I do. (And to make it even more fun, he'll be in Germany so I'll have to text him, then the Rheinheitsgebot will insist that he has to write the entry in in svitzer-dootch.) Gotta love it!

By the way, my camera is still out of it!

Recollections

• Panic and anxious calls when I found there was no way to fly directly to Pekanbaru
• A long taxi-ride from Singapore airport, via ultra-modern and clean wide boulevards, to the ferry terminal
• sitting in a cybercafe in the terminal, after joking with the ticket-sellers
• eating stir-fried tofu and drinking fruit-juice
• another taxi-ride through Batam to its airport
• an argument with someone who tried to queue-jump me as I bought my flight to Pekanbaru
• anxious waits for my credit card to be accepted and my ticket to be handed over
• children playing in the airport foyer, and looking at me slightly nervously - a whitey with a huge rucksack, a lungi and a cuddly pig. (Remember Indonesia is mostly Islamic!)
• smoking my first kretek. The brand was Dji Sam So: they had sugar in the paper around the mouth-end (they were tapered) to make them even more addictive. I spat it out after a few puffs but within days these would become my number 2 smoke of choice
• arrival in Pekanbaru and finally meeting with Dita and her family
• arrival in Pekanbaru proper and seeing the outside of the Governor's palace
• being allowed to sleep in Dita's room - she shared with her sister (Icha) - and feeling honoured by this
• eating tofu, tempeh, sambal and rice - could you ask for more?
• being taken on a boat trip and introduced to some soldiers hanging around near the lake
• above all, the welcome, as if I was long-lost family

In under 24 hours I'd been in thee countries - Rondomness was on overdrive!