How to waste a week

    Pulah Weh was almost a total waste of time, effort and money. We left our Hong Kong hotel on Friday morning. The rest of the day we spent sitting around airports or sitting on planes. We arrived in Medan late that night. We did have an interesting conversation in the Kuala Lumpur airport with Evelyn and Tony Soo, who live in Kuala Lumpur and were going to Singapore for a wedding. We exchanged Facebook and e-mail information before their flight boarded.
    Saturday was more time in an airport, on a plane, in a taxi, on a ferry, in a taxi until we arrived at Rasa Seni. Sunday we spent twiddling our thumbs at Rasa Seni, transiting between there and Nagoya Inn and twiddling our thumbs at Nagoya. Face Time with Travis and family was a welcome break. What strides communications technology has taken in the past few years!
    Monday we twiddled our thumbs at Nagoya until the taxi arrived at 11 to take us to Ibioh Beach. We had the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday to explore the area (it takes about 10 minutes to walk from one end of the village to the other so we went back and forth several times). We finally got our snorkel gear wet on Monday afternoon and Doreen took some pictures. The entry/exit area was rocky but manageable, the fish life was plentiful but the coral was non-existant. It was a welcome break and we enjoyed our time in the water.
    We decided against an excursion to the other side of a small, off-shore island to an area called the ‘Coral Garden’. Doreen had read on-line that there had been significant coral bleaching in the area (after we had committed ourselves). Given the cost and the fact that we didn’t want to be packing wet gear, we passed. Instead, we sat by the water and contemplated nature and existence (and twiddled our thumbs). The tedium was relieved by watching a couple of local kids at play.
    We also had some great conversations with Joe, an American from Portland, Oregon who has been living and working in Asia since he graduated from the University of Washington. He’s  currently finishing his research for a Master’s in applied linguistics so he had some interesting observations about the culture, language and mores of the southeast Asia area. I think he was as grateful as we were to find somebody with whom to converse in English.
    Wednesday was back to the grind. Taxi at 6:30 am. Ferry at 8 am. Taxi to the airport in Banda Aceh. We did get to stop by one of the monuments to the tsunami which devastated this area - the ferry boat that ended up 4 km inland, an awesome display of the power of nature. Then it was another series of wait, fly, wait, fly, taxi until we finally arrived at the All Seasons Hotel in Yogyakarta at 9 pm. So, six days for an hour in the water with no coral. Oh, well.
    Transiting through the airport in Jakarta, the capital city, was interesting. We had checked in for both flight in Banda Aceh in the morning so we didn’t have to pick up our bags. We also had our gate number and seat assignments. We confirmed with the airport desk upon arrival and went to our designated gate area (A2). There were a lot of people waiting and, since this was the domestic side of the airport, announcements were made only in Indonesian. This caused Doreen some consternation.
    About half an hour before we were due to board, there was an announcement and a large group of people got up and went marching off down the hall. Not our flight. About 20 minutes later, they opened the boarding gate and a very large group of people came marching down the hall and through the gate. Again, not our flight. We found a couple of young Indonesian guys who were booked on our flight so we thought we’d use them as signposts..
    More waiting. Boarding time came and went. Fifteen minutes late, the boarding gate opens and an announcement is made. We watch the young guys and they’re not moving. Down the hall comes another very large group, through the gate and onto the plane. Doreen’s getting a little frantic by now and decides to speak to the counter girl about our flight. She’s told that our flight is now boarding but it’s been changed to gate A7. They just haven’t announced that yet. I pass this information on to the two young guys and we head off down the hallway to find gate A7. I don’t know why they have you wait in one area and board in another but it sure produces some last-minute scurrying.
    The 737 we’re on is configured for 213 people and there are no empty seats. Everybody seems to have at least six pieces of carry-on (so much for the airline’s weight limit). I’m amazed at the ability of the cabin attendants to cram all this stuff into the overhead bins. By the way, it wouldn’t do to travel on this airplane if you were anywhere above average size. I’m barely 5'11" and my knees were jammed up against the seat in front even sitting up straight. Thank God it was only an hour-long flight.