Detainee

Well now I can add detainee to my life experiences.

Was assured at KL that my indonesia visa was valid, arrived in Banda Aceh and was denied entry. They were going to put me on the next plane back to KL but a bird flew into the engine, so I was stuck!

Lots of people on the plane were from NGO's as I got to know as we milled around the airport for several hours, the detainee and the people who were meant to take the next flight.

So as I could not leave indonesia, Airasia put me up in a great hotel - gracious! - and I got taken out to dinner by a contractor there, a dutch guy called gan, who felt sorry for me as he saw me shed a tear after 24 hours in transit and about 2 hours sleep! Went to a fantastic local sea food place the bribed the cops so there was beer! He had been in Aceh since the tsunami, and had done education sessions for months in the area. He was from a dutch company, and was an environmental officer....still not quite sure what he was doing....

Next day went site seeing, the ships that came inland during the tusnami are now tourist attractions, mostly local tourists I was the only bule. There is a steamer/ cargo ship in the middle of the town and a large fishing boat on top of a house (people still live in the remains of the house). Driving around and learning how much water there was was scary, most of the city was covered in 5 metres of water mixed with, trees, cars etc.

Apparently after the tsunami there were so many ngos large and small at banda aceh that no one knew what others were doing, so there were people doubling up on projects all over the place, and doing things with out any community consolatation. A US funded desalination plant is a swimming pool, as there was no local facility and training to run and maintain it!

The Japanese built a few towers for people to escape to if there is another one. Banda Aceh now has better facilities than most major cities in Indonesia due to all the NGO projects and big budgets.

Meet an english guy Nick who worked for the UNDP (developement program) at the hotel who gave me a lift to the airport in the UN car. We got a taxi into KL together, and he was on his way to a pork restaurant and invited me along. Ended up having a great few hours, mohitjos, petalma reisling, and a pork platter later, oh and another bottle of wine.

He has been living in dalfor in sudan for the last 1.5 years, showed me photos the area and told storys about the region. He was on a 2am flight so went back to the airport, and I started to look for some where to stay at 11pm at night. I was a little tipsy.

As luck would have it the waitress pointed me at a guest house only 50 metres away, so I got a room there. All good.

On the up side, meet more great people and dont have to be around devout muslims and ramadam any more. So I am wearing a summer dress in KL to celebrate.