We planned a quick stopover back in South East Asia enroute to Perth, Australia. The original plan was for Emily to hop over to Indonesia to visit the coffee farms that her company purchases from while I waited for her in Singapore. But a few weeks before we left India Emily decided to apply for an Australian working holiday visa (I tried a few years ago to apply for one but was denied on grounds of poor health and decided not try again). For most people this is a quick procedure...answer a few questions online, pay your money and two or three days later voila. However, if you spent more than three months in certain areas in Asia you are considered a risk for Tuberculosis. So back in India emily had to head off to Bangalore to have a chest x-ray. Simple enough you say, well, normally yes, but not when your x-ray gets lost somewhere between bangalore - new delhi - canberra - sydney or hobart. Happy, happy, joy, joy!So eventually after waiting both in India and South East Asia for the x-ray to turn up we decided it would be quicker for Emily to have another x-ray in Singapore. But that was almost a month later and the new one still needed a week or so to be processed. So rather than a quick stopover in Singapore we ended spending over three weeks in the region. We were burning our cash way too quickly in Singapore and end up traveling to malaysia on two separate occasions to wait out emily's visa application. The following blog details how we spend our three weeks in limbo.
Emily's visit to the Permata Gayo Co-operative in Northern Sumatra
Emily can take the wheel for this section
Hi everyone! So yes, I left my injured husband to head out on my own adventures in Sumatra, Indonesia. Ethical Bean's best selling coffee is our Sumatra and I was excited to meet the real life farmers growing the tasty beans! The province of Aceh is known for its delicious coffee, but it is also known for the incredibly horrific civil wars that have recently wreaked havoc and ruined lives. It was only in 2005 that many Acehnese people were able to return to their land. Since then they have been rebuilding their homes and farms in hopes that their personal security will remain intact. To find out more detail about my time there and the history of the Aceh people check out my latest blog at www.ethicalbean.com/blog.
During my brief stay in Sumatra, Mr. Armia, GM of Permata Gayo Fair Trade Coffee Cooperative (left) and Mr. Sulaiman who works for CTB, a Dutch importing company (right), were my constant companions, translators, drivers - basically my incredibly gracious hosts.
This is one of the co-op members turning coffee on tarps to keep it drying out evenly.
This is inside the Permata Gayo Cooperative office. The foreground is of snacks provided in the morning and the guy is one of the coffee collectors who buys ripe/picked coffee cherries from farmers (paying fair trade prices - of course).
Coffee cherries heading into the pulping machine to be stripped of their bright red skins.
Inun Diana (mother of Diana) laughing as I take her picture. The women picking coffee were incredibly giggly. I couldn't help but laugh along with them.
Neighbourhood kids pulling back the coffee cherries so we can get a better picture. These kids were super cute and playful.
Juryati, or Inun Safwa (her name is not spoken after her first child is born - from then on she is Inun (mother) of Safwa (her eldest daughter). If we had the same customs Chris' sister Carley would become "Mother of Cadence" for the rest of her life. Juryati, who's name is allowed to be written, is a woman full of spunk. Even though we didn't speak the same language her cheeky sarcasm and dominant personality shone through easily. Supposedly she is still asking about when I will come back and join her family for a meal. I really felt a true connection to her.
Here are a few co-op members from the village, chilling out as the women are working. Second from the right, Mr. Israd, is Juryati's husband. He collects coffee in the village and his house also doubles as the village's coffee processing plant.
I was presented with a Permata Gayo Cooperative t-shirt. Pretty cool eh?
This is how you say thank you in Gayo language. I worked all day at trying to get it right but each time I still received gails of laughter after I said it. i think they got the point.
Even the random box beside a coffee huller had Fair Trade written on it. Compared to the Fair Trade co-op in Laos, this co-op had a much better understanding about what Fair Trade meant.
Secretary Wadia (who was married two days before Chris and Me), in the foreground. her head covering is very typical for the region. In fact you would see mannequin heads with the latest head scarf fashions regularly in shop windows. These head coverings are very serious as they also need to be tight enough to cover all of the woman's neck. A couple pins in the back show how the stretchy scarf is fashioned. The blurry man in the background is bringing me Durian. I can officially say I tried it and probably won't again.
Here is a picture of the local fish from Takengon's large lake.
Overall, it was an incredible, but short, trip to Sumatra. I learned more then I can possibly retain. Luckily for me, I had my computer and took a ton of notes to reflect on later.Chris' solo adventure in Singapore
while Emily was off on her adventure in Sumatra I was cameraless in Singapore and don't have much to show for my time there. The following pics were taken after emily rejoined me in Singapore. However I can bore you with some thoughts on Singapore (feel free to scroll past if you haven't already):
Culture shock on our first arrived in India back in December was well...shocking. But coming after flying from India singapore it's hard to imagine that the two countries exist on the same planet let alone only a three hour flight apart. No litter or rubble in the streets. No loud honking rickshaws trying flatten us. Organized chaos turned into organized perfection. Singapore is likely the cleanest and most well manicured city on the planet. Most backpackers who travel to Asia automatically think that an obligatory stopover in Singapore is something to be endured only because it's a well connected gateway to more exotic countries. I have to admit that it's all to easy to fall into this mindset. When we were India just going shopping for mundane items was enough of an adventure to keep you occupied for half a day. It felt like a real accomplishment just to buy a bunch of bananas. But in Singapore every thing works and works very very well. The organization and efficiency of Singapore is something to be marvelled at. But for a backpacker it can be a bit dull since part of the fun of travel is to place yourself in an unfamiliar environment. In singapore that's next to impossible. No challenge = no fun. With Emily away in Sumatra I had five days to spend on my own in singapore and decided to put aside any preconceived notion of a 'boring' city.
This was actually my second time Singapore (well forth if you count layovers in the airport). I spent about 36 hrs in the city back in 2001 on my way back to Canada after a year in Australia and 2 months in Bali. At that time I was unimpressed with the city. I felt that Singapore was too concerned with technology and business and how competitive they were compared to USA. I was left with the impression that Singapore is a very one dimensional country. Maybe I wasn't aware of it at the time or maybe the city has changed a lot since then but this time around I felt like the city was much more dynamic. Although still business minded, they have also fully embraced the arts. I found Singapore to be much more colourful and interesting. Where once the apartment blocks seemed to be drab and lifeless, with a touch of paint in what seemed to be a city wide beautification project all the buildings have taken on a new vibrant life.
Singapore is an engineer's city. Being an Engineer I was in awe of the efficiency of the city that created ease for it's citizens. In singapore everything is bright and new. I was left with the feeling that anything that hindered progress was torn down to make way for a new and improved version. Sometimes tearing down the old to make way for the new can leave a city feeling superficial, but when talking to a singaporean it becomes quite apparent that they are more than happy to have a functioning city and wouldn't have it any other way. Which actually makes a lot of sense considering that most of the people are migrants from nearby countries that are still a long way off from being developed nations. As a traveller, those other countries may have more appeal, but for people living their day to day lives in those countries, dynamic and multicultural Singapore is a beacon of hope to what' its neighbours may one day achieve.
With emily back in town we were able to get back to photos:
With a fresh coat of paint and some architectural features, these once monotonous buildings were given a new lease on life.
We were off wandering aimlessly exploring the streets of Singapore when a younger well-dressed lady approached us while doing the 'pee-pee' dance and asked us to watch her shopping bags while she ran for a toilet. She ran off to a conveniently close porta-potty which just happened to be occupied. Quickly she ran back to ask us if we could continue to watch her bags while she searched for another toilet. We agreed and then she ran off the closest bush and hiked up her squirt and start peeing into bush in downtown Singapore. I would have been had by the gag but emily was quick to point out that her original 'pee-pee' dance was a little to dramatized. Of course it could have only been 'just-for-laughs' pulling pranks on unsuspecting tourists. We stuck around the set for a little while to watch the action behind the scenes. Here's the director on the right showing the actress how to 'pee in the bush' in a more convincing way.
Nothing in Singapore is thrown up haphazardly, even this McDonald's cafe is beautifully laid out.
Singapore is great city, just don't step out of line
Art in a local cafe, showing the new tolerance for artistic expression even of contentious issues.
Singapore is expensive, well sort of, it's expensive for backpackers who've been traveling around south east asia for months, but not expensive by european or north american standards. A couple of days after I first arrived I found an article in a local magazine with tips on how to see a lot in Singapore without spending a fortune. I found it to be a great guide to the less touristy sites in the city. When we were out at one of the recommended cafes we ran into the author of the article and just happened to still have the magazine with us. So emily posed with him and the article for this shot. 
Singapore is a beautiful showcase of multicultural harmony. They have some magnificent religious buildings including this mosque in Little India.
Singapore is the most humid place i've ever been and is likely has more air conditioners per sq.mile than anywhere else in the world.
Downtown Singapore
Malaysian BorneoWe were spending way too much money in Singapore and needed to escape to a cheaper location to wait out emily's visa application. We found a cheap flight to Borneo and were off on a side adventure the next day. Our first stop: Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah Province in Malaysian Borneo.
Waterfront in Kota Kinabalu (or K.K. as it's more widely known)
Fishing boats docked in K.K.
Local mural artist
Malaysia also uses strong arm tactics to keep people inline. Although we couldn't take a photo of it we also saw a sign in the immigration area upon arrival that said "death to drug trafficers" follow by "Welcome to Malaysia"
Sunset from the rooftop of our backpackers in K.K.
The next day we headed east to visit Mount Kinabalu national park and walked around the nature trails. Here's a fiddlehead.
Trees in the rain forest.
It was a cloudy day with a few patches of sunshine.
Native insects. This bug looked like a leave when looking down from above.
Here's a newspaper clipping we saw in our hotel of the world's smallest man holding the shoe of the world's tallest man. What this has to do with our travel blog, I'm not quite sure.
Next morning the clouds cleared up and this was our view from hotel room. Mount Kinabalu is the tallest mountain in South East Asia.
This is the view in the other direction from the hotel
Later that day we took an arduous bus ride to the other side of island to see orangutans in one of several rehabilaitaion centres. (It was arduous because we were stuck by the stinky bus toilet for the entire ride only to learn 4 hrs in that we were on the wrong bus. We drove for another 1 hr or so, then pulled over a mini-bus at the side of the road and chartered it to take us to the proper city).
Sign upon entry of the rehab centre asking visitors not to bring in poisons such as bug spray which could harm the o-tans.
Everyday at 10am and 3pm the o-tans are fed bananas, sugar canes and milk. Here's a mum and her baby.
Another mum and baby
After feeding they headed back into the jungle.
We were kicked out of the rehab centre between the feeding times to allow the o-tans to be undisturbed. Back at the hotel we got caught in a torrential downpour.
Bamboo trees outside of our hotelS
Second feeding in the afternoon. This lady o-tan came right up beside us and seemed just as curious about us as we were about her.
Hanging out in the bushes surverying the tourists.
We were allowed to take pictures, but we had to keep very quiet in order not to scare the o-tans.
Did you ever think it would be really romantic to volunteer in a rehab orangutan centre??? Chances are you just be standing around telling tourists to keep it shut rather than milking baby orangutans.
There were other monkeys in the rehab centre, although not the star attraction, they were nice to watch too. This mum and baby snuck up underneath us.
After a night and day with orangutans we head to Sandakan on the coast and found out that to see other wildlife would be prohibitively expensive. So unfortantely we had to pass on the sea turtles and probsicous monkeys. Instead we took a tour of a local village followed by a boat cruise to see fireflys. We stopped along the way to sample sugar cane juice. It's very sweet but still refreshing.
Our guide actually lived in the village that we visited. Almost all of the families in the village (which was actually quite large) were related to him, including these children.
Bridge over a stream.
This man is tapping the coconuts to get fermented coconut milk in order to get boozy.
Charcoal oven. We're a bit confused on how it works due to lanaguage barriers but basically wood is burned in here for 8 days or so, then left to cool for another 4 days and then magically it turns into charcoal.
Typical village home.
This guy gave us a demonstration of how to climb coconut trees. He's cut off the top of a rice bag to create a strong loop of woven material which is loops around his feet to help him scurry up to the top. It turned out that he was actually our boat man for the river cruise later that evening.
Local kids waving to us as we passed under a bridge in our boat.
Full moon on the river. Later after it got darker the trees came alive with fireflys. The trees twingled like a x-mas tree.
Our guide. He was very nice and his name was something like 'ask me'. It was easy to remember because upon introduction he said "my name asme if you can't remember just ask me.'
We stopped along the way to visit a fish farm. The local villagers who can no longer get enough fish from the ocean to sustain themselves were taught how to make fish farms by the local government. I generally don't agree with fish farms but it's hard not to see the benefit in this particular case.
Back at the airport to Singapore I noticed this poster outside the male toilet. It's part of an effort to increase santition in toilets. On the poster it says in english "zero dirty toilet - my commitment" and for the benefit for those with poor eye sight, at the very bottom it says: "Theme song - the public toilet is crying." Ahhh...what's not to love about asia?
Air Asia, we like it cause it has cheap flights!
Back to singapore for a second timeDilapidated building. They're so rare that they're photo worthy.
At the corner of Kandahar St. and Baghdad St. Needless to say we didn't linger for long.
Old mosque and a gothic building. The architecture in Singapore is fantastic.
Still no australian visa, Back to Malaysia again. This time to Pennisular Malaysia.Malacca
Malacca along with Singapore and Penang (further north in malaysia) were the three major ports along the Malacca straight is a narrow passage between Indonesia and Malaysia. I believe about 20% of world goods pass through this straight and it has always been a major trade route. So Malacca has a long historical legacy. The best part of the city now is the chinatown where chinese merchants have been living for centries.
Malacca is now a bit of an artist enclave. There were a ton of musicians playing all over the city and they even had their own distinct style of artwork as per the photo above and the following four pics.
Giant candles outside a chinese buddhist temple that took a few days to burn.
Lantern lined streets in old Chinatown.
St. Francis peaking through the tops of the buildings around sunset.
Malacca church, famous for the red color. Emily's parents have a strikingly similar picture (circa 1979).
aerials and birds (there's a 'v' formation in the centre of the shot)
dusk in Malacca
Kids amusement rides.
Night club in Malacca. A little while later a keyboardist, bassist and guitarist showed up to provide entertainment. They used a drum loop on keyboard to keep the beat for their jam. It was a pretty poor display of musicianship. After a couple of songs I offered up my services as a drummer. Then a few minutes later their actual drummer showed up along with a singer and they quickly transformed into a very talented quintet. Unfortunately they still called me up to sit in with them. I may have been improvement upon their keyboard based drum loop, but a far cry from the skills of their live drummer. Although i was still happy to play the drums after a 6 month hiatus.
Me sitting in with the house band.
St Francis church by night
Em in our favourite Malaccan breakfast joint.
Cyclo-Rickshaw.
More pics from our favourite breakfast joint.
Recycled bottles made for great decor in the cafe.
whoooo's thaaaaat girl.....emily
booooorrring.
Jonker Walk aka chinese night market.
Isn't this the sweetest thing. An older couple took to the stage to sing karoke in front of hundreds of strangers.
Elephant in the light park with my lady friend in the foreground.
Em and the disco.
Me at the Disco.
Malaysian seem to think food tastes better if it comes in a ball shape.
One of several dance competitions that we ran into in Malaysia. This one was held outside the mall in Malacca. Malls are the centre of social life in Malaysia and Singapore for that matter.
Karaoke booths inside the mall. Each one of these booths had up to 4 people honing their skills.
We found a restaurant in the mall serving conveirbelt sushi. It was cheap. I can't believe i ate the whole thing.
Malaysians really really like McDonalds. So much so that they proudly display their VIG or VIP status on the windshield of their cars. On a friday night we stopped in to a McDumpster for a sundae. The place was more packed out that then night club we just came from.
Old mosque in the centre of china town in Malacca.
Chinese Laterns
Em
Paddle Wheel
More Lanterns
Jonker Walk Night Market
More night markets
Tioman Island. Location of the movie Bali Ha'iMalacca was fantastic but there wasn't enough there to hold our attention for more than a few days so we headed to the east side on the peninsula and caught a ferry to the idilic island of Tioman. Well it was blissful until emily came down with dysentery. Hence the reason why the following pics are only scenery shots.
Two days into our side trip to Pulau Tioman we received word that emily's visa was approved and made a b-line back to Singapore to catch a flight to meet Sarah (emily's bridesmaid) and Jayden (Sarah's son and our ring bearer) in Perth. It's great to see them again and it's also great to take a break from travel. We'll be here for the next month or so and the big surprise of late is that em's parents are set to arrive in Perth in just over two weeks!!!Love,
Chris & Em
Chris & Em
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