Lampung Lagi!

Lagi means again... Lampung again!

Before I start, apologies. I went to Bali in between these two Lampung trips, but didn't get round to writing about it. It was pretty awesome again. I stayed with my friend Septi and we went around on the motorbike and had a few adventures including staying in some locals' house overnight. Crazy.

Septi and me at the Antonio Blanco museum in Bali, with traditional frangipani flowers!

So, Lampung. I told Desta that I wanted to try and go to Krakatau. The 1883 eruption of this volcano was a much-studied topic in my geology A Level so it's amazing that I'm here and have the opportunity to actually go there and see it. Desta agreed to help me and I got the travel there on Friday night to meet him at about six in the morning on Saturday. We made our way to Kalianda, right in the south of Sumatra and to a little village called Canti, where the jetty was. We happened to bump into two of Desta's friends there who then joined us on our adventure. Whilst waiting for our boat to leave, the other boats seemed to be offloading a neverending supply of bananas. I've never seen so many bananas before in my life. Boats were literally filled from floor to ceiling with bananas.

Ready to depart for Sebesi. Maybe you can spot some bananas in the background...

Our boat was due to leave at one. In the end it was more like one-thirty as the guys loaded on motorbikes to the roof, other supplies and things like watermelons and stuff. We sat ourselves on the roof ready for the journey. The trip took about an hour and a half, past countless little deserted islands, many of which look like they were once fiery volcanoes.

The boat stopped at our destination - Pulau Sebesi. This island is a few kilometers away from Krakatau and Desta says that you are usually able to find tour groups from Jakarta staying here, before their voyage to the volcano the next day. However this weekend was not just a normal weekend for most people in Indonesia. Saturday night was the start of Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month. On this night most people go to the mosque and celebrate, have a feast before fasting begins. So we weren't able to go to Krakatau this time. Don't worry I'll get there one day!

Anyway, we hung out on the beach a while and took lots of photos. Probably about a million, as all Indonesians seem to love taking photos. After sunset we walked deeper into the island to find the village, and the mosque. It was great being able to visit a tropical island that is not overrun by tourists. You can really see how people live their normal lives. At the moque there were masses of people all there to pray and welcome the start of Ramadan. We found the leader of the mosque who said I could wait in the little house at the side. I had a little nap as I hadn't got much sleep the night before and by the time the others came back from praying, the whole mosque had cleared out and was deserted again. I told them I thought that was very quick for the start of a big festival and they assured me that everyone would be back again in about an hour at eight pm. Sure enough this was true, and the mosque leaders shared their food with us. They also offered for us to stay in the mosque overnight, as our other option was to camp on the beach under a threateningly overcast sky. We were grateful for this and after watching some of the village boys practising on the giant drum that would wake people in the night times for their meal times, we went to bed.

Sebesi Island - looks like an extinct volcano.

The next day after arriving back on the mainland, we went to Desta's friend Yuni's house for a while to have a rest. Despite the fact that she was fasting that day, she had still made me some food to eat, which I thought was a really nice and thoughtful thing to do, seeing as it must be difficult to be around lots of tasty food when you're not allowed to eat it. Anyway, it was delicious and after that I joined the others for nap time!

From Yuni's house to Bandar Lampung, where Desta lives, we decided to save money, be adventurous and hitchike. Many people just passed us by, but after about thirty minutes a lorry driver stopped and allowed us to climb onboard. He had come from Jakarta and would finish his journey in Bandar Lampung, perfect. I'd never been in a truck before, it was quite slow-moving, many things overtook us on the way, but it was still pretty fun and exciting and novelty for me. I don't think I'd try hitchiking on my own, but with other people it's good, I think it shows you the generosity of a lot of people.

Once we got back to the city we found a travel company for me to get a ticket for my journey back to Palembang. Everyone at the office was excited to see a white girl, photos and questions as usual. We then went to eat something for Desta to break his fast. A nice meal of soto, kind of like soup with rice noodles and chicken, and other ingredients. A detailed description, I bet you can taste the distinct flavours on your tongue as you read this.

The driver on my journey home was possibly the craziest I've encountered. Driving at about 100 miles an hour he would not stop for anything in his way, but just beep beep beeeeeeep while us passengers prayed they would get out of the way in time. No accidents so that's good. People say that the Palembangnese are loud and sound like they are angry all the time. This man was obviously from Palembang. Everything he did was like normal volume times five million. Voice, music, whatever. There was also a prolonged torrential downpour in the middle few hours of the journey. In the darkness it was impossible to see more than one or two metres in front of the car. Very unnerving, especially when there are no cat's eyes, white lines in the middle of the road, street lights, or lines showing where the road edges are. So what did the driver do? Just kept on going of course. Can't say I wasn't a little bit nervous for the safety of everyone in the car, but we made it back in one piece. And the benefit of having a MENTAL driver was that I arrived home a couple of hours earlier than otherwise, and got about four hours snoozing before going back to normal everyday life. Back to work again, the crazy weekend behind me, all but a memory.

It's July now. WHOAH. In roughly 4 weeks it'll be the Idul Fitri holiday, the celebration at the end of Ramadan. Planning a trip to Padang and Medan with Paddy. I'll DEFINITELY tell you all about that. Bye for now!