from the horizon

When my parents came to visit me in Indonesia, I took them to Bukit Lawang, a former Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, bordering on a National Park. They got slightly closer to nature than they expected…

Disclaimer: Contact with Orangutans is strongly discouraged, as it can lead to infection by human diseases. However, as you can see in the video, Jackie, the orangutan, came straight out of the jungle and attached herself to my mother. Some history may put this into context: Jackie had previous had a baby, who died, due to eating plastic rubbish which had been left in the jungle, and since then has been approaching people who entered the park; My mother is a psychotherapist. After the incident Jackie followed us to the river at the edge of the park – her feeling of loss and need for connection was very apparent.

My work took me to the island of Nias, off the coast of Sumatra. This is one of the more remote and poorer parts of Indonesia, and close to the epicenter of the earthquake which caused the tsunami. I fortunately also got a chance to travel round the island.

Stone jumping was a traditional method of of training warriors for battle, which has become a modern method of extracting money from tourists (about $10 for a jump).

I was impressed by the town square, as it provided a large public space for the community. The historical reason for this space isn’t so pleasant – it was used to gather the troops before battle. I wonder How many public spaces around the worrld eixst because of such militaristic orgins?

For those of you who are interested, here’s a quick video tour of my house in Banda Aceh. This is actually my old house, as I have now moved into a (much) bigger house with some friends.

Beijing is the perfect city for biking – practically flat with bike lanes everywhere, so I decided to hire a bike and go for a ride. Once again, putting my viewer’s needs in front of my personal safety, I made a video, so you guys don’t feel like you’re missing out.

It’s worth noting that the original video was longer, but in efforts to fight copyright infringement, YouTube has limited videos to 10 minutes – which apparently is apparently enough, given the quantization of our generation. I tell you, YouTube totally cramps my artistic vision! I still have the “uncut” version, with extended scenes and bonus footage – maybe it will be on the DVD release.

I’m a big fan of the TED (Technology, Engineering, Design), which is an annual conference. Although attendance costs $6000, all of the presentations are available online, and can be downloaded. The latest presentation by Hans Rosling is a gem (It’s 20 minutes long, but well worth it, especially for the surprise at the end). Hans Rosling was initially a doctor, has worked in Africa, and is involved in international development. One of his focuses is development statistics, and making them more accessible.

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On Saturday, 2 Europeans, 2 Americans, 4 Aussies, 2 Kiwis and a South African, a fellowship of sorts, headed off into the jungle in search of a far away beach.

Though the journey was perilous, fraught with dangers of the jungles and wrong turns, our trusty guide (the other Kiwi) managed to lead us to the beach (see video), via a “scenic detour” to a particular stream.

Videoing while biking has its dangers, but these at the risks I’m willing to take for my audience (and yes, there were monkeys, you just can’t see them – watch for the moving trees!)

Biking in Banda Aceh is a slightly different experience, and I’m not just talking about all the “Hello mister”s I get riding down the road (and women on bikes get a lot more attention), or the crazy traffic. I’m talking about the Toucan. Read the rest of this entry �

This is my third time working in Indonesia, and I’m going to be here from 6 months in total, so I thought it was about time to make a serious attempt at learning Indonesian. I’d heard that the best place to do this was in Yogyakarta, so I took a week off work booked myself into a language school.

It’s been a while since I’ve been at school, and I’d forgotten that I’m not actually the best student. This is mainly because I enjoy playing more than studying. Fortunately the language school (Wisma Bahasa) I chose had the motto “Teach no words only create situations in which you learn and enjoy communicating in the language”, which suited me perfectly. The classes were one-on-one, and I quickly managed to start joking round in Indonesian, which I figured was essential to my learning process. My finest moment was the creation of the word “memonyet”, which according to the rules I was taught means “become like a monkey”. Read the rest of this entry �

As promised here is another video I put together with footage from around Banda Aceh. Hopefully it gives you an idea of what it is like here.

As part of the ongoing reconstruction effort in Banda Aceh the UN blew up a water tower. I should probably mention that the water tower was damaged by earthquakes and had been looming over the city block like a derelict UFO for a couple of years.

I was a little unimpressed by the explosion (I blame Hollywood), however I was fairly certain that it was the recently elected governor pressing the fire button, who just happens to be an ex-GAM (Free Aceh Movement) leader. Adds an extra layer of irony: Rebel Leader Blows Up Infrastructure of Banda Aceh with Support From the UN (I resisted the urge to use that as the post title)

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