Made in Sumatra

I decided to spend the day in Indonesia instead of the few hours I spent on the plane Saturday sitting on the tarmac in Batam. As we were flying into Singapore the pilot got on the speaker and said we were just circling around for a while until a storm blew over Singapore and we could land. About five minutes later he came on again and told us we were going to land in Batam Indonesia to get more fuel. It did seem very odd but surprisingly reassuring since "the landing on the Hudson" A few people did scream when we bumped down but all in all in was quite peaceful.

Today ( Sunday) I decided to take the ferry across to see what I could discover on my own outside of the airplane. It is 45 minutes by ferrry but light years away from Singapore. Singapore is such a modern city. Everything works, the streets are fantastic and you can actually walk on the sidewalks without tripping over the broken stones and the buildings I know Daniel would love.

Batam, on the other hand, is like a third world country. You can see the pictures of one of the towns, the houses just outside of town and the condition of the infrastructure. I have to wonder how this is possible when Singapore, which is in sight of Indonesia seems to have all of the modern conveniences and Batam has none? Surely they have the same resources, weather, types if people and so on or maybe not!

When I went to the market, one of the sellers told me to buy a pair of shoes...they are good, he assured me, because they are made in Sumatra. For some reason, I will always remember Sumatra from my grade five geography class, probably because I loved the name. I have to keep pinching myself that I am actually going to all of these places!

Michal, I took your advice and shelled out the $12 for the best massage in town. Daniel, it was just like the one we saw but maybe nicer, and I even, for a moment, considered letting them put hot rocks on my back, but we shall leave that to Matt. I did, however, go for the "aroma" therapy, so at least I know what that means now. They light a candle with incense and put it in a corner of the room so they can charge you an extra $2 or $3 dollars.

As usual, I rented a taxi for the day and toured the island. There are five golf courses, new homes popping up for the foreigners and so on but for the average guy in the street, life does seem pretty dire.In fact, the taxi driver asked me what Singapore was like as we stood over the ocean looking at the buildings of Singapore. It seemed so surrealistic that he was asking. Something like Plato's cave analogy.

Singapore, on the other hand, seems to be absolutely thriving. There were tons of people on the MRT, the ferry was packed with tourists and everything seems to work around here.

Tomorrow I go to a conference (and I have to pay attention because Tuesday I am leading a session debriefing what we learned)I will keep you posted if I learn anything new.