Simeulue Day 5 : Deserted Island of Sindamaha

“What day is it?"
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.

Yes. It was my favourite day too as we finally go to Sindamaha Island. As wrote in the previous post, it wasn't an easy arrangement. Today we made really really really sure that we'll get the boat. Yes, it was confirmed. They said the boat was waiting. We went to the port. Waited for 1.5 hours. No boat coming. They said  they were filling up the engine oil. We waited again. Till we lose patience as we spent 2.5 hours waiting with no news if the boat would really come.

We took initiative to have a look at the boat place. So stressing as we found out the guy were still working on the boat engine. They said it was flooded last nite and the engine died. Heh! We gave them pressure with bitchy angry look to get it done as soon as possible. It worked rather well. After 30 mins, finally the boat was ready. A shocking news was there were some uninvited passenger. Really bothering. The boatman wife invited 2 of her friends and their kids to join the boat trip. And  we also had to pick up Nanik's in law as they're joint too. Without notification, of course. I started complain it was too many people on the boat. But they pretended not listen. Arrrghhhh. So we thought of a strategy. We showed them we're unhappy and annoyed. Sour face :p. It worked. Hehehe.  

They decided to stop by at the other island. Fiuuuu… I really wanted a quite time and freedom to enjoy the beach. Free from the kids and free from people looking at us.

30 mins boat trip, it was indeed a nice one. We saw some baby islands on the way, school fish and a group of small fish jumping in and out from the water. So nice!! Finally we came to enjoy the deserted island. It's a small island with probably  1 km2. Very small. No people lives here. Some part has soft white sand, however most of part of the beach covered with small stones and dead corals. I put on snorkelling gear and started strolling around the beach. A lot of coral, Napoleon fish, HipoTang, Anthias, Goby and Star Fish.

As the weather heating up. I moved to the shade and built my nest. Enjoying the best thing about private island. Tranquility, ocean breeze and natural sound of wave. Awesomeness.

Almost Rain

After the rain

Sunbathing and fishing

TIPS TO GET HERE:

• Boat rent IDR 200k for the whole day.
• Once the price agreed, make sure to the boatman that they will not change the price in the middle of the trip.  They do it almost every time. Just be firm.
• Boat have no roof. Prepare big hat and generous sunblock with high SPF.
• No one in the island. Bring enough food and drink.

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Simeulue Day 4: Waterfall in the Jungle

People said about the waterfall inside the jungle. But not many people going there yet. Simply because the track is quite rough. No developed path. Learning from the last time trapped in the mud and I almost lost my flip flop, I clearly needed a pair of sport shoes. Thanks to Nanik who borrowed me her shoes and it was perfectly fit. Other problem was I didn't bring trouser that cover up my legs. Well, show must go on. So short could still do.

Together with us were Scott - an American guy who lives in Simeulue for few years, some locals who get used to with the track and a little boy who's just got very excited to join. The track is 3km distance. Number is of course shorter than marathon 10K. But difficulties level… ahmmm. It's a real jungle, babe. At the beginning the track was pretty nice. Savana with some muddy spots. Remind me about mine sweeper game. We needed to guess which spot is hard enough to step on to or we get trapped in the mud. After savana, then river with bamboo bridge. Don't think of well-built bamboo bridge. It was only 3 bamboo's lined up together, but the other two seems fragile. So practically it's only 1 bamboo to cross the river. A real balance game. I like it ;). Cuz I'm quite good at balancing and stability challenge. Thanks to my yoga class!

The jungle is typically tropical rain forrest with canopy trees and lianas. We had to be very careful as there were a lot of trees with spikes, while the path was a bit slippery. If we got slipped we might accidentally touch them and gonna be very ouuuchhh--hurt!! Few times, there was no path yet. The local helped us cut the bush and trees and build a new path. After we walked for nearly 1.5 hours, then we decided to just follow the creek as we're pretty sure it'll lead to the waterfall. It was only 30cm deep. But sometimes we have to cross the one with 60cm deep. Wet all over then. Though it's also fun as we saw water lizard, dragonfly with interesting colour. Golden green -- not light green that I used to see. Another 1 hour river trekking before we finally arrived to the waterfall. yeayy!!! Couldn't wait to jump to the water and it was brrrrr… hahaha. pretty cold :D. Water fall is 30 meters high. I really want to jump from above. Just too bad, it's very stoney and the path's quite slippery.

It was sooo refreshing to soak in the cold water after tiring trekking. I even forgot that i had runny nose.

Just swim swim swim.

It's really good to have Scott with us as he has been here before. He knew what to prepare. Which is…yummy lunch!!! Home made fried chicken and rice. Complete with the sambal. Ah, purrrrrfect! We don't have plate, so we pushed the time machine and back to Flinstone era. Make use of leave to become our plate and tree branch to become our spoon. Naaaiiicccee!

We couldn't stay long as the sky got so dark. We had to leave before the rainfall. But then it was too late. Rain fell not long after we leave the waterfall. I was really worried about my camera and phone since my backpack isn't the waterproof one. Lesson learnt for next time. I think it's better to have a dry bag for my love of outdoor world. We made natural umbrella from leaves. But yeas.. we still got wet after all. Another worry was the water level increasing and the current became stronger. Pretty scary for me! I didn't bother to think about dirt, mud or anything else. As long as I could arrive to the other side of the river safely. Wet but safe. It was such a big relieve when we finally reach the village. 

Time for a warm up. We took a short break. I was craving for hot tea as I shivered from the cold. Mike told me there's a nice cafe up in the hill with wonderful view overlooking the ocean. We drove there. And he was right. It felt like a big reward to have hot tea and boiled chicken noodle. I ate a lot. hahaha. noodle, cake, bean cake. A little greedy monkey for this time. I deserved this  though, didn't I?

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Simuelue Day 3: Keep Calm and Teaching Kids

Need to say that many time to ourselves.

It isn't easy to arrange things in here. Plan for day 3 is island hopping. Mike had made a boat arrangement through Nanik's grandparent a day before. We had the boat confirmed this morning. So we were very excited. I prepared my snorkling gear, load my backpack with foods, camera, swimming suit, sunblock. On the way, we bought more bottled drink. Yet, when we arrived at Nanik's grandpa place, he said there was no boat. The boat has gone fishing and will come back at 5pm. So it's pretty upsetting as we don't have much time in Simeulue  and we want to explore as much as possible.

So then we just drove around and see if any interesting beach. We saw once from the uphill road. A blue clear water. Then we tried to come closer. But the track was pretty tough. It was unfinished road. We couldn't take our motorbike. So we walked in and tried to follow the buffalo path. We ended up trapped in the mud and it was jungle at the end. It wasn't the shortcut to the beach :(.

We got back to our motorbike and drove again till we got really hungry. It's also not easy to find place to eat.  Seems people here are self sufficient. Even if we find one, it's only either indomie goreng or Indomie rebus. But this day we're lucky to find warung sold rice and home cooked food. Though it was just fish and sambal. As usual people are curious and flocking around just to see Mike. But then I had to be the one get busy answering their regular question what's your religion thingy. More kids coming in and we entertained them with english speaking practice as some of them just entered Junior High School and learn English. I asked them to show me their english lesson book. I'm pretty shocked they had to learn 2 foreign language at the same time: English and Arabic. Something wrong with this country education, kids are given to much things to absorb. When is the time to have fun and explore what they're passionate about? After all 80% what they learnt at school will just stay in their school bag.

Anyway, we tried to have fun with this english lesson practice. It was nice except that at the end of the lunch the warung owner charged 1DR 50k for just eating rice, a piece of fish, 3 Teh Botol and nothing else. Oh ha.. Keep calm & stay cool. This is Simeulue.

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Simeulue Day Two: What does Haram Mean?

Rain was very bad on my 2nd day in Simeulue. It had been for day and night. Initial plan was to go for jungle trekking and waterfall. But, for sure it's a-can't-do. The track would be too slippery and not to mention about flood. So we just relax at the porch. I looked at beach in the front and the greeneries at its surroundings. My mind flew back to last year, the same time I did overland trip in Flores and passing Riung - a very poor and dry area. I could understand the hard life in that place since water is almost as rare as gold. But poverty in Simuelue, I just couldn't believe it. The island has it all. Beautiful beach for tourism, fertile land for plantation, open ocean for fisheries. It just need a good hand to start scratching. But it also need a mindset change to let it tickle since this place definitely needs outsider's help.

And I heard Nanik, the lodge owner, share stories about her struggle educating local people about welcoming tourist. Local chased western tourist with knife, stole their bikini and called Nanik a whore for hosting tourist. In general, local sees tourist as a threat. They will ruin the culture and spread the disease. Well, not all local. Cuz the real local we met  are mostly all nice, relax and friendly. It just there is system and few people who provoke them to be cautious and being a close-minded one. 

Simeulue people is this friendly when there's no religion push. Very welcoming and loves to blend.

A funny thing, when we dropped by to warung or local eateries, people looked at me head to toe and the first question they asked is "what is your religion?" When adult threw me that question, I lied about my religion as I don't want to deal with the next question or any preach for not wearing headscarf and wearing short. 

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Simeulue Day One - With motorbike we find it all

Yes.. no need to hurry. Since Simeulue is not that big and it surprisingly has very good road infrastructure. A smoothly asphalted one. Way better compare to Jakarta. With a plus, nearly zero traffic. We need only to be careful not to hit goat or water buffalo that passing by sometimes.

I was pretty anxious before departure. Mostly it because of all the first-time-thingy. Flying with a really small plane. Visiting a strict muslim district. Travelling without much plan and information. But all the anxiety start fading away as go through moment by moment. 

The Susi Air flight wasn't as scary as I thought. The flight time from Medan-Simeulue is only 70 mins. The plane flew low that I could follow its shadow crossing Sumatera Island, Pacific Ocean and then entered the Island of Simeulue. At that time my anxiety started turning into excitement. I can never resist the picture of white sandy beach  and blue water. I do think that I was a mermaid back in my past time!

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Simeulue : Pre-Trip

Menjadi tantangan sendiri untuk travelling ke tempat yang masih jarang di kunjungi turis. Terutama dalam urusan packing karena saya nggak tahu pasti di sana ada apa saja. Sedikit khawatir karena Pulau Simeulue yang akan saya kunjungi ini termasuk dalam wilayah propinsi Aceh. Saya kurang tahu, apakah mereka juga menjalankan hukum syaria dan menerapkan batas-batas khusus berpakaian. Dan saya pun sibuk googling dan telpon Mike berkali-kali untuk meyakinkan celana pendek atau bermuda tidak dilarang disana. Buat lebih amannya, akhirnya saya memasukkan juga rok agak panjang dan kaos lengan panjang ke dalam koper.

picture courtesy of YouQueen.com

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