Acheh I: Medan
Tuesday, June 19th 2005
"This is it," I said to myself as soon as the plane touched down Polonia Medan at 9.30am. "Can't believe I'm in Medan," I whispered. Everything looked the same to my eyes, as in I was still in KL. Medan Airport is much smaller and simpler than what I thought it would be. "Macam ni lah airport ni masa K.Ros datang sini 10 tahun dulu, tak berubah langsung," said K. Ros, one of the 33 members of this mission. She is the chairperson of Amal M'sia's wife, whom soon asked us to call her Ummi, which I thought sounds more respectable on her.
We were greeted by Pak Jasmiko and Pak Suffian, members of Parti Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) and Komunite Kemanusiaan Indonesia (KKI) in which Amal M'sia liased with in going in and out of Acheh since the Tsunami striked. To be exact, they were the ones that were going to drive us from Medan to Meulaboh with few other pak supir, translated as drivers. Pak Miko was a funny and easy-going man, he came wearing a fisherman's hat and a t-shirt, with Amal M'sia's black cargo vest on top of it embroided the name Azmi on the left chest. On the other hand, Pak Suffian who was older than him looked more reserved, but he has the calmest and fatherly look ever.
A moment of chaos happened when we had 15 bags and boxes unreturned, alhamdulillah I saw mine as soon as I walked out from the kamar kecil (read: toilet). Some of the victims were Tiqah, Jazree, Shu'ib, Imran and amir of the trip himself, Dr Hatta. Tiqah was beyond comfort, worrying about survival without her clothes and stuff, Jaz looked more calm while Dr Hatta had a great time teasing the victims about having to wear kain batik and kain pelikat all the times if they still have their luggages unreturned. Not long after that we were told that the missing luggages will be returned by AirAsia at 8.30pm along with the night flight to Medan. Relieved. "Kamu baru hilang beg sekejap, akan dapat balik pun beg tu malam ni, dah nak menangis. Bayangkan mangsa Tsunami tu hilang pakaian, harta, semua, tak dapat balik sampai bila-bila," Dr Hatta tried very hard to pick on us. Albeit, he was very right indeed.
Pak Pian bercerita
On our way to KKI's office (KKI is pronounced in Indo as ka-ka-e), I appreciated Medan from the back seat of the red van the ladies travelled in. One word; packed. With people, vehicles and buildings. Medan drivers drove recklessly on the road, they honked in every second to every car passing by. As reckless as they are, I was told that they're so skillful in driving that the rate of road-traffic accident is not high in Medan, at least not as high as in KL. There were huge mansions right in the middle of the town, scraping the small wooden houses nearby from our sights. You should see the parabola (read: satellite dish) on every house, they're as big as the one in Pusat Penyiaran Asia. OK I'm exaggerating.
Medan from inside the car, this slot is not sponsored by IndoCafe.
There were the earlier group of students resting at the office when we reached there. They just got back from Meulaboh the day before, and were going to return to KL the day after. I heard some stories about Meulaboh and its people from them, just before the group called it for lunch. First nasi padang experience, not too bad. Still unsure why it is called nasi padang, my wild guess would be the many varieties of side dishes they served. We had about 9 plates. And we touched a little from each plate, only to know later that the norm would be to touch only what you'll eat. The ones untouched would not be charged in the bill. And it got worst when Farah asked for the bill from the waitress, and she made a confused face. And later we found out that we were charged as a group. Phew. Hidup Amal Msia!! Hehe..
Rumah Makan Bahari, please call for reservations. Hehe.
Lunch was followed by rapat umum (read: meeting), had a brief ta'aruf of each group member, and the flow of the journey were laid out. The plan was to leave right after the missing luggages were claimed that night, we had to leave at night in order to be at the perbatasan during daylight to avoid problems entering Wilayah Acheh with GAM and such. I almost forgot to introduce the members of this particular mission. Most of them came from Amal Malaysia, including an engineer and a cook, with Amal's main mission of putting the foundation for the building of a mosque in Kg Suak Timah and panti anak yatim in Kg Cot Darat, both in Meulaboh. The other group would be, us, the medical team consist of 8 medical students from PPIM's Student Chapter UK, Ireland and Egypt, along with 3 other doctors from Amal.
Sitting from left: Yusuf (Newcastle), Imran (Cambridge), Jazree (Dublin), Shuib (Ain Shams)
Standing from left: Shu (Dublin), Atiqah (Manchester), Zy (Manchester), Farah (Manchester)
As we were departing in the evening, they decided we should get going as soon as the luggages were claimed. In the meantime until evening? Free times! We were adviced not to sleep during the free period to avoid bright eyes during the journey later in the evening. It was estimated to be approximately an 18 hours journey, with bumpy roads and hard corners. So basically you want to be very tired before the journey in order to be fast asleep throughout the journey, at least the earlier half or so. "Pergilah tengok bandar Medan, belok ke arah kanan hujung jalan ni kemudian terus aja. Kawasan sini pun ada kedai-kedai, tapi pastikan kamu balik sebelum 6.30 petang," said Pak Hamid during the briefing. He was partially wrong, bandar Medan was impossible to be reached on foot, and we hesitated to get there by kereta sapu, afraid to get lost and afraid to be cheated. So we ended up walking in the hot afternoon sun on the streets. I bought a mineral water from one toko (read: shop) for only 1,200rupiah, which was less than 60 cent in M'sia. Super cheap! Farah, Zy and Tiqah had a wonderful time buying biskut panda and carbonated drinks, murah le katakan. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. At that time the exchange rate was approx. RM1 = 2,500rupiah. I exchanged almost half a grant at the airport, do the calculation yourself, and don't forget the fact that I was nearly a millionaire at that moment. Hahaha..
After that we headed back to the office to rest, and the ladies' ta'aruf began. Ustazah Rahmah lives in Penang, she got married with a guy from Acheh who was her classmate when she studied in Banda Acheh many years ago. And she speaks bahasa Acheh fluently, that's a credit! Ummi lives in Kuala Terengganu, for few times she kept telling me how I looked like her first daughter named Izzati. She's in Jordan doing Masters in Islamic Studies along with her husband (at least I have someone who looks like me, married, speaks Arabic, and doing a very good field of studies which I'm incapable of). Makcik Taksiyah is a retired nurse from Perak, and K. Kusyi who's a jounalist and also later found out to be the editor of wanitakini.net. The rest were Tiqah, Zy and Farah from University of Manchester, all one year junior than me, and the most latter is my junior from high-school. Though everyone was so different personality-wise, I think this was the fastest group I ever felt comfortable with. We chatted till evening and laughed our lungs out tried to figure out how to clean ourselves without towels and fresh clothes for the long journey. At that time, the van we put our bags in was away for other business, and we intelligently left our bags in there.
We started moving to Meulaboh at about 10pm after dealing with every problem, had our dinner at the same restaurant for lunch and headed out in 2 vans, a Toyota Kijang (equivalent to Toyota Unser in M'sia), and a small lorry with all boxes and luggages in there. I was praying hardly for the safe journey..
Before leaving for Meulaboh
"This is it," I said to myself as soon as the plane touched down Polonia Medan at 9.30am. "Can't believe I'm in Medan," I whispered. Everything looked the same to my eyes, as in I was still in KL. Medan Airport is much smaller and simpler than what I thought it would be. "Macam ni lah airport ni masa K.Ros datang sini 10 tahun dulu, tak berubah langsung," said K. Ros, one of the 33 members of this mission. She is the chairperson of Amal M'sia's wife, whom soon asked us to call her Ummi, which I thought sounds more respectable on her.
We were greeted by Pak Jasmiko and Pak Suffian, members of Parti Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) and Komunite Kemanusiaan Indonesia (KKI) in which Amal M'sia liased with in going in and out of Acheh since the Tsunami striked. To be exact, they were the ones that were going to drive us from Medan to Meulaboh with few other pak supir, translated as drivers. Pak Miko was a funny and easy-going man, he came wearing a fisherman's hat and a t-shirt, with Amal M'sia's black cargo vest on top of it embroided the name Azmi on the left chest. On the other hand, Pak Suffian who was older than him looked more reserved, but he has the calmest and fatherly look ever.
A moment of chaos happened when we had 15 bags and boxes unreturned, alhamdulillah I saw mine as soon as I walked out from the kamar kecil (read: toilet). Some of the victims were Tiqah, Jazree, Shu'ib, Imran and amir of the trip himself, Dr Hatta. Tiqah was beyond comfort, worrying about survival without her clothes and stuff, Jaz looked more calm while Dr Hatta had a great time teasing the victims about having to wear kain batik and kain pelikat all the times if they still have their luggages unreturned. Not long after that we were told that the missing luggages will be returned by AirAsia at 8.30pm along with the night flight to Medan. Relieved. "Kamu baru hilang beg sekejap, akan dapat balik pun beg tu malam ni, dah nak menangis. Bayangkan mangsa Tsunami tu hilang pakaian, harta, semua, tak dapat balik sampai bila-bila," Dr Hatta tried very hard to pick on us. Albeit, he was very right indeed.
Pak Pian bercerita
On our way to KKI's office (KKI is pronounced in Indo as ka-ka-e), I appreciated Medan from the back seat of the red van the ladies travelled in. One word; packed. With people, vehicles and buildings. Medan drivers drove recklessly on the road, they honked in every second to every car passing by. As reckless as they are, I was told that they're so skillful in driving that the rate of road-traffic accident is not high in Medan, at least not as high as in KL. There were huge mansions right in the middle of the town, scraping the small wooden houses nearby from our sights. You should see the parabola (read: satellite dish) on every house, they're as big as the one in Pusat Penyiaran Asia. OK I'm exaggerating.
Medan from inside the car, this slot is not sponsored by IndoCafe.
There were the earlier group of students resting at the office when we reached there. They just got back from Meulaboh the day before, and were going to return to KL the day after. I heard some stories about Meulaboh and its people from them, just before the group called it for lunch. First nasi padang experience, not too bad. Still unsure why it is called nasi padang, my wild guess would be the many varieties of side dishes they served. We had about 9 plates. And we touched a little from each plate, only to know later that the norm would be to touch only what you'll eat. The ones untouched would not be charged in the bill. And it got worst when Farah asked for the bill from the waitress, and she made a confused face. And later we found out that we were charged as a group. Phew. Hidup Amal Msia!! Hehe..
Rumah Makan Bahari, please call for reservations. Hehe.
Lunch was followed by rapat umum (read: meeting), had a brief ta'aruf of each group member, and the flow of the journey were laid out. The plan was to leave right after the missing luggages were claimed that night, we had to leave at night in order to be at the perbatasan during daylight to avoid problems entering Wilayah Acheh with GAM and such. I almost forgot to introduce the members of this particular mission. Most of them came from Amal Malaysia, including an engineer and a cook, with Amal's main mission of putting the foundation for the building of a mosque in Kg Suak Timah and panti anak yatim in Kg Cot Darat, both in Meulaboh. The other group would be, us, the medical team consist of 8 medical students from PPIM's Student Chapter UK, Ireland and Egypt, along with 3 other doctors from Amal.
Sitting from left: Yusuf (Newcastle), Imran (Cambridge), Jazree (Dublin), Shuib (Ain Shams)
Standing from left: Shu (Dublin), Atiqah (Manchester), Zy (Manchester), Farah (Manchester)
As we were departing in the evening, they decided we should get going as soon as the luggages were claimed. In the meantime until evening? Free times! We were adviced not to sleep during the free period to avoid bright eyes during the journey later in the evening. It was estimated to be approximately an 18 hours journey, with bumpy roads and hard corners. So basically you want to be very tired before the journey in order to be fast asleep throughout the journey, at least the earlier half or so. "Pergilah tengok bandar Medan, belok ke arah kanan hujung jalan ni kemudian terus aja. Kawasan sini pun ada kedai-kedai, tapi pastikan kamu balik sebelum 6.30 petang," said Pak Hamid during the briefing. He was partially wrong, bandar Medan was impossible to be reached on foot, and we hesitated to get there by kereta sapu, afraid to get lost and afraid to be cheated. So we ended up walking in the hot afternoon sun on the streets. I bought a mineral water from one toko (read: shop) for only 1,200rupiah, which was less than 60 cent in M'sia. Super cheap! Farah, Zy and Tiqah had a wonderful time buying biskut panda and carbonated drinks, murah le katakan. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. At that time the exchange rate was approx. RM1 = 2,500rupiah. I exchanged almost half a grant at the airport, do the calculation yourself, and don't forget the fact that I was nearly a millionaire at that moment. Hahaha..
After that we headed back to the office to rest, and the ladies' ta'aruf began. Ustazah Rahmah lives in Penang, she got married with a guy from Acheh who was her classmate when she studied in Banda Acheh many years ago. And she speaks bahasa Acheh fluently, that's a credit! Ummi lives in Kuala Terengganu, for few times she kept telling me how I looked like her first daughter named Izzati. She's in Jordan doing Masters in Islamic Studies along with her husband (at least I have someone who looks like me, married, speaks Arabic, and doing a very good field of studies which I'm incapable of). Makcik Taksiyah is a retired nurse from Perak, and K. Kusyi who's a jounalist and also later found out to be the editor of wanitakini.net. The rest were Tiqah, Zy and Farah from University of Manchester, all one year junior than me, and the most latter is my junior from high-school. Though everyone was so different personality-wise, I think this was the fastest group I ever felt comfortable with. We chatted till evening and laughed our lungs out tried to figure out how to clean ourselves without towels and fresh clothes for the long journey. At that time, the van we put our bags in was away for other business, and we intelligently left our bags in there.
We started moving to Meulaboh at about 10pm after dealing with every problem, had our dinner at the same restaurant for lunch and headed out in 2 vans, a Toyota Kijang (equivalent to Toyota Unser in M'sia), and a small lorry with all boxes and luggages in there. I was praying hardly for the safe journey..
Before leaving for Meulaboh
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