Adventures while Jason was Sick

Today we arrived in Singapore! I've been really excited to come here because my Uncle Bill and Aunt Lucy used to live here, and I've been hearing about it since I was very young. We are staying in Little India and haven't gotten to do much yet, but tomorrow are meeting with a friend of my aunt's who is going to show us around a bit. It should be a nice treat!

It was a bit sad to leave Sumatra--probably the hardest it has been to leave any place so far. We spent our last few days at Lake Maninjau, which is another crater lake. Unfortunately, Jason was sick the whole time so we didn't do very much. However, we had a cabin with a porch less than 20 feet from the water, so it's not a bad place to just sit. And it rained a LOT. It definitely made up for the 2 1/2 months that we didn't see a drop. Bingo, the man who owned the homestay, was wonderful! I enjoyed some nice conversations with him, and got to use the kitchen and cook with him a bit. One day I decided to occupy myself by going to town and getting ingredients to make chicken quesadillas while Jason rested. Iwan, one of the guys who worked at the homestay, offered to take me on the motorbike and help me get what I needed, and we had a great time driving around. We stopped and got vegetables and fruit, and then I said I needed chicken. Iwan took me to the home of an older couple and we walked around back to the large chicken coop. I figured they raised the chickens and kept the already prepared ones in their home, but Iwan told me, "You can choose your chicken." I couldn't bring myself to choose which chicken would be my dinner so I let the old woman pick one, and watched as she slit its throat over a sack her husband held. The sack became red as the chicken flopped around, and after a few minutes it was still. I almost lost it when they took the bloody chicken out--until a few months ago I didn't eat meat and this was a bit much for me! Fortunately she skinned it for me and put it in a plastic bag. We ate it less than 2 hours after it was killed--probably the freshest chicken I've ever had! Slightly traumatic but an interesting experience--Jason was disappointed he missed it.

Last night we encountered our first unpleasant Indonesian. We took a long and chaotic bus ride to Pekanbaru, which is where we flew out of this morning. Apparently we reached an area where almost no one knew English, and took about 30 minutes trying to convey we wanted to go to a hotel. We finally got a cabdriver who could take us there--he didn't speak a word of English but was very nice and took us to a hotel and then to KFC. The meter on the cab had been running the whole time, but when we came out of KFC we noticed it had been turned off. When we reached the hotel I handed him 50,000 rupiah, which is what the fare should have been based on the meter (a little over $5 US.) He shook his head at me and said he wanted 150,000! I shook my head and tried to hand him the correct amount again. He became quite agitated and slammed his wallet down on the roof of his car. Jason and I walked toward our hotel and fortunately the owner, who spoke good English, came out. We explained the situation and he spoke to the cab driver and told us we were right, but the cab driver refused to leave. He came to our door and continued to demand more money. Jason offered another 10,000 and he wouldn't take it. After about 15 minutes of talking with him and the owner, Jason said he would give him 20,000 more, but if he wouldn't take it he was closing the door and eating dinner. The guy finally accepted and Jason handed him the money with his hand out to shake it. The cab driver grabbed the money and yanked on Jason's arm. I probably would have hit him, but Jason only lost his temper a little and called him a bad word in English. Apparently he used the one English word the guy knew, because he lunged at him. Fortunately the owner was between them and ushered the guy out. Other than him we've only encountered wonderful people! Sumatra is the place, more than any on the trip, that I wish everyone I know could see. I guess that's part of why it's so great though, there are so few tourists there.

The next month is going to move rather quickly--we only have a few days here, then fly to Jakarta to work our way through Eastern Indonesia. We are working on putting pictures up now that include orangutans from our trek and both of the lakes. Jason is fortunately feeling much better and we're hoping for good health for awhile! It's difficult to stay healthy out here, we're always eating weird things.