Heading down south

Note: I will be posting pics later.

After two relaxing days here in Lake Toba, I will be heading down south and switching hemispheres for a bit. While about 2/3 of Sumatra, and about 1/5 of Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) is north of the equator, the rest of Indonesia is in the southern hemisphere, including its capital Jakarta (nee Batavia from the colonial days). For those who love coffee and worship Starbucks (dad), I should also note that here "Sumatran coffee" isn't a luxury--it's the local brew, as "Java" is for Jakarta.


I'm leaving bright and early on a 700 am ferry back to Parapet, where I will then catch a shared taxi back to Medan that should get in around noon. I've managed to arrange it so I will be heading straight to the airport, as I am booked on a 13:55 flight from Medan to Jakarta on Garuda Flight 189, which will set me down in Jakarta around 4pm.


Fortunately, having already crossed the equator, I won't have to go through an old sailor ceremony that was basically like running the gauntlet for those that hadn't before crossed the equator (although it would be an interesting setup in the airplane aisle).


People who study fear and irrational beliefs know that it is pretty common for people to be more afraid of things that they are statistically less likely to fail--for example, you are more likely to be killed in a car accident on the way to the airport than you are on the actual airplane, but more people are afraid of flying than driving.


Well, such was the case for me today. Indonesian airlines don't exactly have the world's safest reputation, and all but four are on the EU blacklist and formally banned from flying into Europe because of shoddy maintenence practices. Even though the travel agent was pushing for me to take a cheaper flight on one of two blacklisted airlines, I insisted on paying the 25 bucks more to fly on Garuda, the flag carrier, and one that is not banned from the EU (although all Indonesian were banned at one point). It was either them or fly on Lion Air, which has new planes, but commercial aviation forum scuttlebutt from people who work in the SE Asian aviation industry is that the pilots don't exactly know how to fly them, and that they have issues with tailstrikes on takeoffs, or Batavia Air, whose motto "Trust us to fly," isn't exactly comforting.


On the other hand, I had no problem going helmetless on the back of a motorbike driven by a confessed user of hallucinogens on steep, rutted, and slick roads.


Speaking of hallucinogens, magic mushrooms are actually legal in Indonesia, which is quite surprising given that the arrival card that all passengers must fill out clearly states "death to drug traffickers in Indonesia" in unmissable red letters. That said, I can't think of anything stupider than using such drugs in a foreign country when there is a potential for things to go wrong.


On the topic of regulated or partially regulated substances, Jungle Juice is quite a popular beverage in the rural areas of Indonesia. Anyone reading this who has gone to college in the past decade knows that "jungle juice" in a university setting is merely some kind of cheap powdered fruit bunch mixed with the cheapest handle of liquor one could by from the local liquor store. In other words, it has no relation to the actual jungle.


Jungle Juice in Indonesia, though, is the beverage more commonly known as Palm Wine--and more deserving of the "Jungle Juice" moniker since it is distilled from palm trees. The nature of the substance means that it will never become popular in the U.S.--it is only good for a matter of hours before it goes bad. I had a sip of the stuff, and it tastes kind of like it looks--a lemonade/milk mix. Not horrible, but not that good either--and definitely takes some getting used to.

Was actually following the NFL Draft for a little bit this morning on the internet--kind of weird how it was going on live at night while I was having my breakfast.