An enjoyable weekend - biking, entertaining and a new kayaker is born

The earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia has had some small affect on me. I’ve sent a few people from my staff to go there. One guy is from the area and I think he is very happy to be able to go to help. It may mean that I go there later, they are doing an initial assessment and if they find that we can be of assistance then no doubt I will go there to have some involvement. Everyone in Indonesia, including Rachel and I are wishing the best for the people of West Sumatra affected by the quake. At all the traffic lights there are people collecting money to help.

We have had a nice weekend in Banda Aceh. On Friday night I was tired after work. We went out to dinner at the vegetarian café, Jamboe Hijau which used to be on the other side of town a 30min drive away and is now 5min from my work or 10min from our house. After that we dropped by to visit our friends Lisa and Guido which was fun, they do live on the other side of town! Rachel hadn’t seen them for a long time due to travelling.

Saturday morning I got up really early as I woke up a little preoccupied with work and the habit of the noise from the mosque. I went out surfing which was nice in the dawn light (or lack of it). I went to the bit with the small waves so it was not dangerous or anything, but quite fun and refreshing.

Saturday, I decided to join the Saturday morning bike ride. It was billed as a 45km ride for a picnic on the beach. Lisa and Guido had prepared the picnic and Guido proceeded to carry the entire picnic the whole way there. That was probably 20kg of homemade pesto on pasta, drink, home-made bread, salad with dressing, brownies, cheese spread… the list goes on. There is a big hill on that ride and true to his superhuman cycling strength Guido proceeded to be the fastest up the hill despite carrying all the picnic! The ride was pretty tough for some of the less experienced cyclist but everyone made the beautiful picnic spot and enjoyed the delicious food. The beach by the picnic spot was wonderful and we swam a little before heading our weary bodies back.

Some of the group decided to hire a public transport (labi-labi) to get 40km back to town. We’d done 60 odd km by that stage. I joined this group to get home and help Rachel with dinner. Lisa, Guido and Tim cycled back over the very large hill and made it home at 7pm.

Saturday night we entertained about 9 people at our house which is really great for such occasions. Rachel made some delicious Indian food as did some of our guests. We had a few beers (bought from the Chinese store wrapped in softdrink boxes) and chatted. Lisa and Guido were included in the crew and they stayed the night in our spare bedroom, as you can see we are well equipped for visitors now so please come over ;-)

Sunday was a nice and lazy morning cooking up some food and talking more.

Sunday afternoon, I taught Guido to roll the kayak. He learnt very quickly and managed his first roll after an hour in what we call the cave lake – a small pond behind a dam on a river that starts in a limestone cave about 30min from Banda Aceh. Some local people were looking on and were as impressed as I was when on his first try without any assistance Guido failed his first roll attempt and then got up the second time. Lisa’s inauguration into the kayaking world should start soon…

So everything is good here in Aceh as we go into another week. Rachel is busy with her work and this Wednesday I head to Thailand to attend the last annual meeting for the American red Cross’ Tsunami Relief Program.