I left on Wednesday night by travel. (Noun: a vehicle too big to be a car, too small to be a bus, but not a minibus because there are only seven seats.) The driver gave me not much choice but to sit next to him, so I agreed. He said it was so I would be able to look at the view through the front window, despite the fact that it would be dark for almost the entire journey. We left Palembang at 9pm and I was able to scrutinise the driver's crazy driving skills closely. Who needs hands to drive? Is probably a popular belief of his, as he would often use his elbows to steer whilst completing other tasks with his hands like texting, lighting a cigarette, or rooting around in the top mirror and sun shield to find money and then counting it. Safe. He lent me his cushion so I could sleep against the window. A delightful fleece fabric with a lovely design of two creepy looking Victorian doll girls. After about ten hours we arrived in Bandar Lampung. He wouldn't drop me at a bypass to wait for my friend Desta because he said I'd get killed so we went to the office to wait for him to come and get me. In this time I chatted some more with the driver, and he found it weird that I hadn't eaten on the journey even though people don't generally eat at night because thery're sleeping then. Anyway he bought me bubur ayam (chicken porridge) and soon after that Desta arrived and we were on our way to start our adventure in Lampung.
So we walked a while to the central market of the town, and caught an angkot (public transport - van thingy) to the bypass that I ideally should have been dropped off at. Here we sat down in some shade to wait for two of Desta's friends. While waiting here many curious people came to say hello and ask for photos. One of these people went by the name of Nova. He owned a motorbike shop just across the street and invited us to wait in there. We went over, he made us coffee and put some tunes on that he thought would impress us, including Gwen Stefani and Fergie's London Bridge. All very weird, but funny. During this time Desta and Nova also became friends on Facebook. More about this later, this case is yet to be closed! Anyway, Desta's friends Dee and Ritha arrived and we could continue our journey.
Our destination was Way Kambas national park. We took countless angkots and buses, halfway in met up with Desta's friend Deddy who would be joining us, and finally hired an angkot to take us directly to the park for the last leg of the journey not covered by public transport. On the way the rain started to bucket down, so fun times riding along the bumpy roads with no windscreen wipers. A quality vehicle. And then the angkot broke down, so we spent about an hour waiting for it to be repaired before we were on our way again. We got to the park and drove in, and then deeper inside. When we got out we walked a few hundred metres and the elephants came in to view. So many elephants! Quite a beautiful sight, but then we noticed that they were tied there for the night. I'm not sure if they also have wild elephants in the park but these ones were kept there for people to ride and see the elephants up close and stuff. First first (see title!) - touching an elephant. We took lots of pictures and hung around for a while before heading back towards home.
In a way the journey back was more challenging as public transport all stops after a certain time in the evening. We decided to give hitch hiking a go. Finally a man stopped in a nice car. He asked us to pay him as he would be going out of his way. When my friends were agreeing on a price in Indonesian, I heard him say the word "bule" which means foreigner/white person. I thought hmmm. So I asked Desta what he said and apparently he thought the price was ok because the rich bule could pay for everything. This made me go off him a fair bit, but at least we got a lift home. We arrived back at Desta's house and soon after went to sleep. Loooong day.
So that was day one. Day Two! We got up relatively early and got on our way. A few angkots later, after saying goodbye to Deddy and Ritha along the way, we arrived at the seaside. Beautiful blue seas with a view of the peaceful, green, little islands just offshore. Deddy then reappeared with a motorbike and we went to find "Desta's Spot" - his favourite secluded snorkelling place. We stayed under the water for hours. I was amazed by the colourful and weird-looking corals and aaaaalllll the little (and some big) fishies swimming around. SO many fish!!! Dee had an underwater camera so she took lots of cool photos. Unfortunately the water was quite shallow and I didn't realise coral was so sharp, but I managed to cut up my leg, hands and feet quite nicely. It was painful for a few days after. Now at the dry and itchy stage mmm nice. Also, suncream does not last long underwater, aaaaghhh sunburn. Need to remember to learn from this for next time. Second and third firsts of the weekend: snorkelling and lying in a hammock. Lovely.
We found a camping spot on the beach for the night and were joined by another Couchsurfer from Egypt, Mustapha. Very cool guy. Got attacked by mosquitoes during the night. Cooled off in the morning with a morning dip in the sea. Amazing way to start the day. We said goodbye to Dee and Deddy and made our way back to the city.
In the afternoon we found ourselves at Lampung Urban Day, an event set up to show off the talents of the skaters and BMX-ers of Lampung province. We watched a BMX competition and ate some mie ayam (chicken noodles). After this we went back to Desta's house to clean ouselves after two days of swimming in the sea and getting dirty, nap and just chill before the evening's antics. We got back and were greeted by Desta's mum. She was talking to him in Indonesian but some of it I managed to get. The guy from the motorbike dealership had come the the house four times looking for me. Creeepy. Anyway after showering and napping etc. we left the house again to go to Lampung Fair, celebrating all things Lampung. There were giant scary masks, stalls, exhibitions and information about different places in Lampung. It was really crowded and we had lots of photos taken of us and lots of "hello misteeer" shouted at us. They don't seem to realise that there's a difference between mister and miss in this country. There was a firework display comparable with that of a back-garden bonfire night to top off the celebrations. Overall a really enjoyable and nice evening. We went home tired and ready for sleep.
The next day we all got up late. Mustapha hadn't slept properly for over a week due to many crazy and unfortunate events so we left him to it and went out to try and purchase me a train ticket to go back to Palembang that night. Unfortunately all the seats seemed to be sold out so we had to go with plan B. I would be taking the bumpy road back to my city. Booked it, all good, the would pick me up from the petrol station at eight. Went back to have brunch and Mustapha was now up and about. Desta's sister came in to warn us that Nova was coming over and told me to hide in my room. I did so but after about half an hour he still hadn't left. Desta came up with a crazy plan of sneaking out the back way and going to his uncle's cow farm. We did this and it was a nice way to escape from a creepy man you've only just met. We walked past rice paddies and little countryside homes. The cow farm was on a little mound with a pretty pond with lotus flowers and cool frogs. Desta's uncle also had a damp shed type place where he grew mushrooms to sell. A nice little insight into the lives of real Sumatran people.
The journey back to Palembang was not as fun, eventful or comfortable as on the way, but for some reason it didn't seem as long. I arrived back at seven am Monday morning. Time to relax before work. A super-amazing weekend of discovery and firsts. I will be back in Lampung before I leave this country to visit the Krakatau volcano, I really hope anyway. This weekend I'm leaving for Bali, May is definitely holiday-tastic. I will write about that too I can tell you're excited.
Ok, well I hope you made it to the end of all that and are still awake. Bye bye!
