Poor Man's Boat Trip

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

I met up with Aaron, Dennis and their friends Evan and Tony on Nias. I've been wanting to check out the Banyaks and Simeulue for ages and was hoping to pull together a crew in Nias to share the costs of a boat with. After some initial hesitation the boys were convinced and I started to organize it. I spoke with Uni, the guy I stayed with here in 1999, and he called up his friend Harefa who owns a fishing boat. I took a bemo in to Teluk Dalam and checked out the boat. One of the guys was not impressed and wanted out. Back at Sorake his friends said they were going with or without him. So, he was in, reluctantly. After three more days of bargaining we settled on a price and itinerary with Harefa. Seven days at 1.2 million Rupiah per day. That works out to about $25 per person per day. The next day I was back on the bemo to Teluk Dalam to do the shopping. Teluk Dalam gets a pretty bad rap from most surfers that pass through there but to be fair it's not that bad. The smell of durian permeates the markets and the open sewage on the streets is pretty nasty but, the locals are friendly. I loved cruising through the market, bargaining with the ladies and loading everything onto the bike to take back to Harefa's place. We were up early the next morning and once again on a bemo to Teluk Dalam. The boys and I ran around doing some last minute shopping and loaded up the boat. We had to carry everything along a sketchy, broken, rotted wood plank dock, then cross a boat loaded with squealing pigs to get to Harefa's boat. Evan helped carry some live bacon on a stick off the pig boat that was docked next to ours. The locals loved it. The pigs kept screaming. The pigs just wouldn't quiet down. I swear you could see in their eye's that they knew where they were headed. I called into Mom and Dad to let them know where I was headed then finished loading the boat. The 35 foot Indonesian fishing boat with 20 surfboards, gear and food for five hungry boys and three crew seemed to look fine. Everbody was stoked to be starting out on this adventure. Once we got underway heading out to sea the boys started settling in and finding their own comfortable piece of the boat. Tony was on the bow of the boat downing beers and planning how to best use his daily ration of Vodka. Evan and Aaron laying down in the center of the boat next to the banana's cuddling. Aaron actually was hugging his surfboard ready to abandon ship at the first sign of trouble. Dennis and I were sitting central in the middle of it all keeping in the shade. We'd been motoring a couple of hours and everybody seemed pretty happy, even with a bit of rain and wind hitting us. We stayed pretty dry under the tarps and stretched out. Then Harefa called me over. One of the pistons had cracked and our seven day trip was over after only two hours. We limped slowly back to Lagundri which luckily was nearby. After talking to the boys we decided not to wait for another part or to get another boat. The good news is that I'm writing this four days later and it's been raining non stop since I got off the boat. I was pretty happy with Captain Harefa and would definitely head out with him another time. He knew the storm was coming and didn't want to take any chances. Good man. Next time I'll try to get a better weather forecast before getting on the boat....