Thursday August 9, 2018
4:30 a.m. Griya Arida Hotel
Banda Aceh, Sumatra

The plan is to get back on my bike this morning and head out of town. I’m still drawn a little bit to the paradise tourist island of Pulau Weh, but unless I get a sudden irresistible urge, I don’t think I will be going there. But you never know.

I was just sitting here considering my options, and, of course, it started to rain. The weather was perfect the last few days both in Kuala Lumpur and here in Banda Aceh. Hardly a drop of rain. But the second I wake up with the intention of cycling anywhere, it starts to rain. What is this power that I possess? I summon the rain clouds with my mind brain.

My one full day here in Banda Aceh worked out pretty nicely. Aan had a gig as a master of ceremonies at a wedding. It appears that this is one of his regular jobs. He does this all the time. He is a professional master of ceremonies. He puts on a rented costume of traditional clothing, and he MC’s weddings. I guess he has the good looks, the charm, and the stage presence to do that and get paid well for it. He did one yesterday and he is doing another one today. At some point yesterday, I went with him to his outfitter’s where he dropped off his current outfit and picked up a new one. It was a new experience for me to see a small business like that.

When Aan’s job was finished, he dropped by my hotel and picked me up. From here, we went to his small apartment where he changed out of his MC clothing and put on street clothes. I enjoyed that very much because I got to see his place. I couldn’t give a definitive summary of how he lives his life, but I got a much better idea yesterday. He refers to himself as an influencer, and it’s a job or career that he sort of stumbled into. He basically maintains a large social media presence, and then various companies and government branches approach him to help market their products or services. So he’s the brand rep for a variety of products. And he acts in commercials. I don’t have the full scope of everything he does, but that is the basic idea.

Friday, August 10, 2018
5:00 a.m. Griya Arida Hotel
Banda Aceh, Sumatra

I ended up staying in Banda Aceh yesterday and last night. It rained heavily the entire time I was packing up and getting ready to go, and then I couldn’t face going out there cycling in those conditions. I got the idea that I could compromise. I could stay in this room for the morning while it rained and then still check out and take a ferry to Pulau Weh later. That plan made a lot of sense because this hotel is expensive, and hotels on Pulau Weh are also generally expensive. If I have to pay a premium fee, I might as well do it on the tropical island paradise.

Unfortunately that plan also fell apart. At first, I had trouble figuring out when the ferries left. I had to take the slow car ferry so that I could put my bicycle on it, and every single website listed different times for the ferry departure. And it changed from day to day. And no one could agree on what time the ferries left on Thursday. I ended up giving up on that idea and mentally committing to just staying here in the hotel in Banda Aceh for another night.

Around 11 a.m., I decided to go out into the city on my bike. My goal was to go to the ferry terminal in person and ask what time the ferries left on Friday. This was the old verbal versus physical thing. There was no way I could find out the ferry schedule through words. So I would have to physically go to the ferry dock and see for myself. At the same time, I could see more of Banda Aceh and perhaps even go to the Tsunami Museum.

It may not be easy to believe, but I was about ten minutes away from the hotel on my bicycle when it started to rain again. It was clear when I left and it had been clear for a couple hours. But practically the moment I went outside, the rain began. It rained hard, and I was soon soaked through to the skin. But I kept going.

The ferry dock was about ten kilometers from my hotel, and it took some effort to get there. And the whole trip was for nothing. Everything was closed. There were perhaps five or six ticket windows that I saw. It wasn’t clear what the ticket windows were for because they all looked different. But it didn’t matter since they were all closed and nobody was around. Worse than that – and typically for a country like Indonesia – there was no information posted anywhere. There was no ferry schedule of any kind to be found. And there were no people around either.

This is an old, old rant of mine, but it deserves repeating. I’m just astonished that even a country like Indonesia would have a situation like this. After all, Pulau Weh is one of the three largest tourist attractions in Sumatra. There is Lake Toba, the Bukit Lawan jungle treks, and Pulau Weh. Tourists come and go from Pulau Weh every single day. Tourists show up at this ferry dock every single day. And every tourist wanders around trying to find out when the ferries leave and how they can buy a ticket. And this has been going on for many decades. Every day for decades. And yet, at no point has anyone decided to post a schedule of either ferry departure times or ticket window opening hours or prices or length of the trip. It’s insane. It blows my mind. As I have said many times, if I had a job at this place, I would put up a schedule on the very first day. It doesn’t matter that the schedule wouldn’t be 100% fixed. This is Indonesia, and I understand that things change, things run late, bad weather can cancel ferries. But there clearly is a schedule that they try to adhere to. Post that with the disclaimer that sometimes it changes or ferries run late or get canceled. But put up something. And even if the schedule is variable, the prices aren’t. Why aren’t those posted? And why isn’t the approximate arrival time on Pulau Weh posted? And, finally, why aren’t the ticket window hours posted?

I saw two other foreigners there. They were two young backpackers from somewhere in Europe. I spoke to them briefly, and they said they had no information either. The ticket windows were closed when they got there, and they hadn’t been able to find a schedule either. They managed to speak to one man, but it wasn’t clear whether he worked for the ferry dock or not. And he gave one of those rambling answers that made no sense at all.

I managed to find one door that was open and led down to a dock. I locked up my bike and walked down there to see what I could find out. I had a chat with one Indonesian man, and he also gave a very rambling answer to my question. It made no sense at all. It was a jumble of contradicting times and dates for when and if a ferry would go. He gave so many different times that a time had barely left his mouth before it was interrupted by the next time. And he reversed himself so frequently and changed his mind so often that he ended up saying nothing at all. It was not very promising, especially as the slower car ferry was not as frequent as the passenger ferry. From this man and later from Aan, the only strategy they could offer was showing up as early as possible on Friday if I wanted to go. There might be a ferry at eight in the morning, they said. So I should show up by at least seven. And then I’d have a chance of getting that ferry. The problem with that strategy is that chances were very good based on everything I’d read and heard that there would be only one ferry on Friday, and it would be leaving at two in the afternoon. And with the usual delays, the scheduled departure of two p.m. would, in fact, take place at three p.m. or four p.m. or be canceled due to bad weather. So I’d be looking at arriving at seven a.m. and then waiting a minimum of seven hours. If I were taking a ferry to another country or to a distant island, I’d have no choice. But this was just an afterthought. I thought it might be fun to hop on the boat, zip over to Pulau Weh and check it out. But it wasn’t worth it to me to invest that much effort amid so much uncertainty.

It was still raining hard while I was at the ferry dock, and it continued to rain as I rode back to the hotel. I gave up on the idea of going to the Tsunami Museum because I didn’t want to slosh through the museum in soaking wet clothes. Though, now that I think about it, being soaking wet is kind of appropriate for the experience. As I was riding along, I got a message from Aan. I had told him that I was staying in Banda Aceh for another day, and he had just finished his wedding job. He wondered if I wanted to get lunch or coffee. I told him that I was at the ferry dock and it would take me about forty minutes at least to get back to the hotel and change into dry clothes. He misunderstood me and thought I was about to get on the ferry to Pulau Weh. But we sorted out that misunderstanding, and we eventually met up at my hotel.

From there, we went to a new and fancier coffee shop because Aan had a meeting with a men’s perfume company. They were interested in hiring him to be a brand ambassador for their company, and they wanted to talk with him about that. Aan said it was fine that I came along. It was fun to watch Aan in action. He had changed out of his wedding MC clothes and into nice street clothes. And when we got to the coffee shop, he popped open the glove compartment of his car and pulled out a bag of men’s grooming products. He set about applying moisturizer or hair gel or some other products and then he put on some of the men’s cologne from this company. He offered me some, but I declined.

From there, everything happened in Indonesian, so I don’t have a clue what they talked about. Aan first talked to a table of four young men. I shook all their hands, too, and I tried to look impressive and sound impressive for Aan’s sake. But it turned out that they were just some guys that Aan knew. They weren’t from the Laki cologne company. We then went to a table out back, and there was one man sitting there and Aan joined him. He indicated I should sit there, too, and we ordered coffee and some food. After a while, three other young men sat down. And they were all wearing Laki T-shirts. So these were reps from the company that Aan was hoping to land a gig with. Aan made some kind of pitch and answered questions. And they eventually left. Aan said at their next meeting, they will sign the contracts and finalize the details. In an amusing twist, Aan found out that the company reps didn’t pay our bill. He said it was expected that they would pay for everything we had ordered, but they didn’t.

I spent the rest of the day back at my hotel. And the day as I defined it didn’t last long. Despite staying in a very expensive hotel, I hadn’t gotten much sleep, and I was exhausted. With plans to leave in the morning, I hung out in my room for as long as I could and then I just turned off the lights and went to bed. I think it was 7:30. And I woke up this morning at just after 4:30. I think it was 4:37 and I was woken up by the call to prayer coming from a nearby mosque. So I got nine hours of sleep. I feel much better. I’ve been listening hard, but I haven’t heard any rain yet. I also haven’t seen any, though I don’t have a very good view out of this room. It’s looking good for a departure on my bike today.