A morning full of events
This morning a few guys and me decided to go climb a nearby mountain. Seems easy enough, huh? Well, we took off down the road and after about an hour we were getting close.
The first thing that happened was that this young woman driving a motorcycle decided to turn right from the left side of the road without signaling or looking or anything. The motorcycle in front of me just missed her but I plowed right into her. She was knocked clean off the bike and her bike kept going a ways and ran off into the woods. I managed to keep my bike up and stopped on the side of the road. Everyone turned out all right and there was only some minor damage to the bikes. After talking with her parents and helping them with some medical costs we were on our way again. Hopefully that is one indonesian who will look before entering a major freeway now. Seriously though, that has been the source of more near accidents for me than all other causes put together. When Indonesians turn left off of a road they slow down and get all the way over to the right side and then just fly across without looking or signalling. Same the other way. They also just fly out into roads from cross streets without looking. I'm suprised more aren't killed.
Anyways, eventually we made it to the base of the mountain where there is a military base so we stopped to ask permission to climb the mountain. They told us we needed to go back up the road and report to a mobile brigade so we did that. Unfortunately I was under the mistaken impression that passports are for entering and exiting COUNTRIES and in Indonesia they are for mountains as well. I got a thorough grilling for only having a copy of my passport and not the original and for not having reported to the police in Banda Aceh yet. Talk about freedom of movement. Oh, he also scolded me because I should have know because it is the same in America. We have to carry around our passports and report to the police when we arrive in a city. When I corrected him that it isn't like that in America he didn't get much happier. Eventually he let us go with stern orders to report and always carry our passports with us. I guess next time I decide to climb a mountain I won't forget my passport.
We did find some hills to climb which was almost as good. Turned out to be rather fun after the rough stuff in the morning. I'll be leaving for bandung in the morning so that will be a great break.
The first thing that happened was that this young woman driving a motorcycle decided to turn right from the left side of the road without signaling or looking or anything. The motorcycle in front of me just missed her but I plowed right into her. She was knocked clean off the bike and her bike kept going a ways and ran off into the woods. I managed to keep my bike up and stopped on the side of the road. Everyone turned out all right and there was only some minor damage to the bikes. After talking with her parents and helping them with some medical costs we were on our way again. Hopefully that is one indonesian who will look before entering a major freeway now. Seriously though, that has been the source of more near accidents for me than all other causes put together. When Indonesians turn left off of a road they slow down and get all the way over to the right side and then just fly across without looking or signalling. Same the other way. They also just fly out into roads from cross streets without looking. I'm suprised more aren't killed.
Anyways, eventually we made it to the base of the mountain where there is a military base so we stopped to ask permission to climb the mountain. They told us we needed to go back up the road and report to a mobile brigade so we did that. Unfortunately I was under the mistaken impression that passports are for entering and exiting COUNTRIES and in Indonesia they are for mountains as well. I got a thorough grilling for only having a copy of my passport and not the original and for not having reported to the police in Banda Aceh yet. Talk about freedom of movement. Oh, he also scolded me because I should have know because it is the same in America. We have to carry around our passports and report to the police when we arrive in a city. When I corrected him that it isn't like that in America he didn't get much happier. Eventually he let us go with stern orders to report and always carry our passports with us. I guess next time I decide to climb a mountain I won't forget my passport.
We did find some hills to climb which was almost as good. Turned out to be rather fun after the rough stuff in the morning. I'll be leaving for bandung in the morning so that will be a great break.
posted by Randall Knutson at
1:27 PM
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