Day 67 – Indonesia

December 11, 2009 - Bukittinggi to Padang, Sumatra to Jakarta, Java, Indonesia

Today we are bound for Jakarta to visit Eric’s relatives, so we start things off with a nice breakfast – fruit salad, eggs, toast, fried tomatoes and hashbrowns.

The plan is to take a bus from Bukittinggi to Padang and then from Padang, catch a flight to Jakarta.

About a month before we arrived, Padang was hit by number of earthquakes. Indonesia is located on a pretty volatile piece of land – there’s lots of volcanic activity, so although tremors and earthquakes are quite common, the recent quakes in Sumatra were particularly devastating.

As we drive through Padang, we go through some of the areas that were hit and it’s amazing to see how the buildings were affected. Two buildings standing side by side that appear to be of the same construction and one will be left standing, maybe with a few cracks, while the other has been totally destroyed.

However, the spectacular thing for us to see is how resilient the communities are. Despite the destruction, they’re all up and running, carrying on as best they can – some people are living in half ruined houses, but you can tell they’re working on rebuilding as best as they can. There is evidence of outside forces helping to reestablish the communities, but it seems they do not plan on waiting – they’re going to get back to normal as fast as possible, which we think is awesome.

We arrive at the Padang airport and unfortunately, our flight is delayed. As compensation, the airline gives all of the passengers a drinking box of iced tea and a pack of Oreos. It may not seem like much, but we thought it was hilarious to look around a waiting room filled with adults, all sucking on drinking boxes and eating cookies.

After a two hour wait, we take off and say good-bye to Sumatra. When we land in Java, we get our luggage, find a reputable taxi and finally arrive at Eric’s cousins, Lynda and her husband Ian’s place.

Eric and Lynda have never actually met, so the plan on arrival had been to relax and catch up. But seeing as it’s midnight and we’re exhausted, we do our basic introductions and then go straight to bed.