Feb 12

Written by:
2/12/2012 12:21 AM 

 

The beauty is in exploring the unknown.  On this voyage, as in life, there are high points and lows.  Passing through a low I usually take stock of the highs that came before and ponder what chain of events will lead back to the next.  This time things started on the little island of Palau Weh months before.

Three Polish friends, two Indonesian scuba instructors, and this American sailor were clustered around a table in the wee hours of the morning.  Conversation flowed lubricated by the black market brandy and beer provided by the fine establishment of O'lala.  One face in particular had my full attention.  As the night ended, contact information was exchanged and we all parted ways.

Three days sailing later I found myself in the hectic beer soaked tourist destination of Phuket, Thailand.  I took advantage of the fast wifi and ate my weight in Thai red curry chicken then decided it was time to move on.  The fast pace of the party scene dominated by drunken westerners behaving badly with beer girls and the ever present Thai ladyboys was more than I could handle.

Over 10 days Jargo carried me slowly down peninsula towards Malaysia.  In no hurry I stopped at half a dozen nearly deserted islands.  The coral isn't in the best of shape and days are rare when visibility is good enough to see more than two meters.  Nevertheless, swimming everyday and walking on sandy beaches kept the days full.  Eventually I pulled into Langkawi, Malaysia with no time to spare.

Over a few emails it was decided I'd be spending New Years in the North Sumatran province of Banda Aceh.  This was the current home of one of the Poles and we saw no reason not to carry on the conversation from Pulau Weh.  Thanks to the budget airline Firefly tickets were cheap as chips and I was on my way.

Aceh province has been the scene of a bloody civil war pitching the Acehnese against the Indonesian government.  Aceh wants independence.  The conflict was brought to an immediate halt with the boxing day tsunami of 2004.  As many as 300,000 people lost their lives with the giant wave.  Today there is not a person in Aceh who doesn't have a story to tell about losing a loved one to the great wall of water.

Arriving in Aceh on the 30th of December I had very limited time to pull together one of my favorite holiday traditions, black eyed peas and cornbread.  A stroke of luck in a western style grocery in Phuket delivered both the dried peas and a box of Jiffy cornbread mix.  Now in Aceh I had to find some sort of meat to replace the usual pork and figure out what local seasoning would work with the meal.  The whole time a pretty Polish face was staring over my shoulder looking on with extreme skepticism.
Eventually the pot went on the burner and chicken peices, peas, onion, garlic, and a spicy chili paste began to simmer.  Five hours later the Jiffy mix manifested itself in the form of pancakes, no muffin tin being available.  On the whole, I think the struggle to bring the dish alive made it taste all the better. It even won over the skeptical Pole.  The good luck dish is still working its magic.

As the week drifted by there was one word that I couldn't get out of my mind.  Elephants.  Kasia had befriended a local who was managing the Aceh Conservation Response Unit or CRU.  The CRU uses trained elephants to protect humans and wild elephants alike.  The wild herds roam though the dense jungle forests in search of food eating nearly one ton of fruit, vegetables, and foliage per day.  Where they wonder into settled areas the locals are quick to become angry.  In the elephants need to eat they often destroy the locals crops.  Sadly, as the population grows the people are pressing further and further into the elephants traditional feeding grounds.  Conflicts are bound to happen.

The CRU elephants patrol the feeding grounds in conflict.  Where wild elephants are encountered, the rangers mounted atop elephants light and throw fireworks.  The small explosives scare the wild giants further back into the forest.  The working elephants have been well trained to tolerate the noise.

My encounter with these giants will stay with me for the rest of my life.  Two massive grey beasts trundled out of the jungle and right to the edge of camp.  Encouraged by Abot, the assistant director, I reached out to the big male.  This wouldn't happen in the States.  The grey skin felt like the non-slip surface of my boat.  The deep brown eye stared not at me, but into me.  There was an amazing mix of strength and gentleness to this wonderful beast.  These working elephants, Idea and Wingu, taught me a respect for their kind I'd never known before.  I'll never be able to look at a circus elephant again.

There have been many wonderful days since those elephants.  The truth is that too much has happened to even be able to capture the experience in a blog post.  In short, after Aceh, Kasia and I met for a week in Kuala Lumpor exploring the city.  She applied for a new passport that takes two months.  By contrast, the American Embassy added 40 new visa pages to my passport in under an hour.  After KL we returned together to Jargo for a week and explored the little bays and island splendor that is Langkawi, Malaysia.

Rested and recharged we did a 25 hour bus trip from Malaysia to Chiang Mia, Thailand.  We sit here now enjoying the food, people, and city life.  Soon we'll return to Jargo and start down a new path.

I am not ready to leave SE Asia.  At the earliest I'll continue exploring until July or August then cross the Indian Ocean to South Africa via the Sunda Strait.  To do that I need to begin making some money.  Three years without a job and the cruising kitty is almost gone.  The idea is to run backpackers at budget prices between known destination.  I knew the day would come when the savings would run dry. To continue I'll have to make my way by the sweat of my brow.

In reality, this voyage is only just getting started.