09062010 Sangatta blog entry
Life takes surprising turns.
Our morning duties included a stroll to post office. We were not lucky. The prices to send a parcel to Europe were outrageous; a letter 100g was “only” 13€...and not to mention my snorkeling equipment that would have been 91,05€. Insanity. Not even in Finland mailing stuff is that expensive.
Later, in a good faith, we took the bus from Berau to Samarinda, but ended up having a ride from HELL. Sitting our way on the front seat, we were able to keep our eye on the road too clearly. Pavement ended every 20m, the mud holes were huge and there was one retard-(un)helping hand-mechanic-type of thing sitting next to the driver and laughing all the time when we hit the ditches and he also surely needed a hearing aid based by the loudness he used his voice. Our driver maybe had won his drivers license from the lottery of the mentally AND physically challenged people, where he probably got his car helper as a bonus gift. Anyway, he had some talent indeed. He mastered skillfully to aim the bus to every single hole on the road. He also started racing with another bus driver, almost hit the other bus and in the end hit a massive ditch that made the passengers to be thrown all over. Finally he hit another big ditch and broke the bus. It was of course nice to see the milky way again for the 45 minutes they fixed the engine.
Simone took tranquilizers for the rest of the trip and we decided to take the next stop at Sangatta to sleep over. The total travel time by this far had been 14 hours. My headache had gone worse (had had it for 5 days already) and I wanted to get some medicine prescribed by a doctor. We stopped at a small restaurant. At that moment I could not even think anymore. We asked everyone for help, and the only answer we got from men, was that there is no hospital in the town (...where there was a big company for the coal mining industry?!?). The restaurant girls were a lot more helpful; they gave us the address and phone number for a hospital and after a minute told to give me a ride to there! Leni drove me with her scooter to the hospital and waited for the whole examination before drove back to the restaurant. I got the medicine and was offered a bed to sleep while waiting for Simone.
Meanwhile Simone had been eating, having a coffee, talking with the girls and arranging a hotel room with the help of these nice ladies. She was awake more than 24 hours. We slept quite ok from that afternoon until next morning.
Today I have been talking with the sisters who helped us, with the help a dictionary and drawing. I also went to eat to a nearby restaurant and met there a wonderful Chinese Indonesian lady who spoke good English. She told that the word had been spread over that there are 2 Western women in the town. I was also talking the local police officer and we even discussed beyond the normal small talk- more than countries, climate, my age, my health, my marital status...we talked about money, traveling, planting trees for a safe income in the future, racism against the Chinese community in here etc.
And when I got back to the hotel, Simone called me that she saw a mother orangutang with a baby!
Life takes surprising turns.
Our morning duties included a stroll to post office. We were not lucky. The prices to send a parcel to Europe were outrageous; a letter 100g was “only” 13€...and not to mention my snorkeling equipment that would have been 91,05€. Insanity. Not even in Finland mailing stuff is that expensive.
Later, in a good faith, we took the bus from Berau to Samarinda, but ended up having a ride from HELL. Sitting our way on the front seat, we were able to keep our eye on the road too clearly. Pavement ended every 20m, the mud holes were huge and there was one retard-(un)helping hand-mechanic-type of thing sitting next to the driver and laughing all the time when we hit the ditches and he also surely needed a hearing aid based by the loudness he used his voice. Our driver maybe had won his drivers license from the lottery of the mentally AND physically challenged people, where he probably got his car helper as a bonus gift. Anyway, he had some talent indeed. He mastered skillfully to aim the bus to every single hole on the road. He also started racing with another bus driver, almost hit the other bus and in the end hit a massive ditch that made the passengers to be thrown all over. Finally he hit another big ditch and broke the bus. It was of course nice to see the milky way again for the 45 minutes they fixed the engine.
Simone took tranquilizers for the rest of the trip and we decided to take the next stop at Sangatta to sleep over. The total travel time by this far had been 14 hours. My headache had gone worse (had had it for 5 days already) and I wanted to get some medicine prescribed by a doctor. We stopped at a small restaurant. At that moment I could not even think anymore. We asked everyone for help, and the only answer we got from men, was that there is no hospital in the town (...where there was a big company for the coal mining industry?!?). The restaurant girls were a lot more helpful; they gave us the address and phone number for a hospital and after a minute told to give me a ride to there! Leni drove me with her scooter to the hospital and waited for the whole examination before drove back to the restaurant. I got the medicine and was offered a bed to sleep while waiting for Simone.
Meanwhile Simone had been eating, having a coffee, talking with the girls and arranging a hotel room with the help of these nice ladies. She was awake more than 24 hours. We slept quite ok from that afternoon until next morning.
Today I have been talking with the sisters who helped us, with the help a dictionary and drawing. I also went to eat to a nearby restaurant and met there a wonderful Chinese Indonesian lady who spoke good English. She told that the word had been spread over that there are 2 Western women in the town. I was also talking the local police officer and we even discussed beyond the normal small talk- more than countries, climate, my age, my health, my marital status...we talked about money, traveling, planting trees for a safe income in the future, racism against the Chinese community in here etc.
And when I got back to the hotel, Simone called me that she saw a mother orangutang with a baby!
2 comments:
Toiv lääkkeet autto ja säryt on huspois-tiessään!
I wish you recover quickly from your headache. Keep on posting on this blog, please, it's very nice reading your stories. all the best
Emidio
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