The FERRY

Three days stuck onboard. Nothing but the vast, pirate infested ocean to look at. Cut off from the outside world. The same meal three times a day. Doors that are open only at specific intervalls no one really understands. This could be the ideal setting for a thrilling adventure or maybe more a tale from the highlands of dull. Potentially a bit of both.

I want to tell you about our time travelling through the Malacca strait to the Java Sea. I am sitting here at the best spot of the ship, looking at the shockingly blue ocean, Bon Jovi blasting in my ears and drinking the dreadfull sweet fruit tea i scavengered from breakfast. The last 50 h we spend on the K.M. Kelud were unlike anything I have ever lived through. But let's take it from the beginning.

The last retelling ended in the outskirts of Medan. Us two adventurers rouse an hour before dawn to break our fast and fetch a Grab to the shore. The harbour turned out to be a huge white building, where travellers with potentially the entirety of their belongings lounged in front. After presenting our parchment of proof that we already handed over enough gold to board this ship, we were usherd off to a long queue in order to exchange our parchment of proof for a parchment of entry. Full of delight we realised that the process was done by modern, futuristic mashines. Our delight was crushed not only by early morning fatigue, at least the sun had risen at this point, but by the slow realisation that our initial observation might not have been correct. Of the five modern, futuristic mashines only one worked. And they might not have been as modern as we thought, though they did run on Windows 7 and not on Windows XP and there was still a guy from the harbour there who put in the needed details (can't do it yourself). In the end Artey managed to squeeze through the crowd and successfully carried out the parchment exchange. With our newly won parchments of entry we stepped over the threshold of the harbour and filled with a feeling of importance followed the signs to the second class entrance. After presenting our parchments of entry we got our first glimpse of the mighty ship that would carry us over endless seas. It loomed five stories over us, with a white outside and a large P painted on the top in blue ink. The first quest was to find our sleeping quaters for the next couple of nights. Our cabin is located on the fifth floor with the memorable number 5000. It is a simple place, we share with three other travellers. Still very tired from getting up so early and unsure of the chaos that rained the other parts of the ship we stayed in our cabin until we left the safety of the harbour. Then we set out to explore the ship. My expectation of this quest quickly turned from exploring bag end, a nice home with a few unexpected things around the corners, to exploring Hogwarts, with very random locked doors and signs leading to no where. The boat has at least 8 floors. So far we have not found a way to enter the top one. In our first round of exploration we found the most important place: the hall of food and the times of day we could go there to refill our strength and the karaoke cafe. We have searched for many long hours (more or less) for the library, but it has so far eluded us and we also did not make our way all the way down to the cinema. As the clock chimed half an hour before noon we made our way to the dining hall. There we had our first meal onboard. It was mostly white rice, with a vegetable soup and in total three small pieces of meat (mostly bones). The cook left the desicion on how much flavor the meal should have up to the person eating it, by letting the white rice be the most flavorful aspect of the meal. We got a small package of chilly sauce, which was really not willing to be opened, to add as much flavour as we wanted to. But we also got some water, chocolate waffles and a package of prawn crisps each.

After this delightful meal we went looking for a spot to properly sit and write our records of our past adventures. If you have wondered why our past two chapters where written so elabouratly, we did write them while being stuck on a ship with no connection to the mighty, invisible, all-knowing library of communication. Not having found a better spot we sat down at the tables of the empty karaoke cafe. The owner did not seem very pleased about our presence, but that did not stop us. What I did find a bit concerning was when the owner left and locked us in. He ended up returning, but we were stuck in the karaoke room, a place filled with songs in a language we did not understand, for a while. We departed that ominous place soon after, mainly due to the other people who arrived and started using sticks to transform their breath into that of a dragon and filled the room with their fumes. I am actually quite fond of my lungs and do like to keep them functionable. So we set out to find another spot, a better spot, a spot we could sit and write, a spot where we could see the water. And behold dear reader we did find such a spot. Only one set of stairs below the karaoke cafe was another, a better cafe, a cafe with as Arthur Weasley would put it ecklectisity, a cafe where we sat on the high tables next to the small windows and watched the blue water passing by. This turned out to be one of my favourite spots on the whole ship. I am sitting there right now, writing these words, slurping coffee and watching the cloudformations over the sea.

An important fact for the experience of our fist 30-35 h on this boat is that we were the only foreign people onboard. We stuck out like the hobbits in Gondor. Everywhere we passed heads turned, people stared and tried to talk to us with a low to medium seized vocabulary in the common tongue of North America. One guy was very persistend and only left us after we allowed him to buy us coffee and tea.

The next main event on our adventure on sea was dinner. It turned out to be as different from the last one as two hippogriffs. For the uneducated eye they might seem similar, but there are severe differences to be spoted. First of all the vegetable soup was exchanged for steamed vegetables with chilly, therefore the chilli sauce was absent and the two small pieces of meat were a bit different. There was also a very odd tasting jelly for desert, which had the audacity of calling itself mango pudding.

After dinner we retired into our small cabin, followed the adventures of the Avatar for a bit, before we went outside again in the search for stars. In theory we where in the middle of the ocean, therefore there shouldn't be a lot of light around us and we would be able to see a lot of stars. In practice we stood next to the railing under the dazling light of the neon tubes and looked out into the pitch darkness of the ocean. It was incredible. The darkness was so dense it would could have come from the dark pits of Khazak-dum or just have been a dark wall two meters in front of us. We spend some time guessing where the horizon was and then retired to bed.

6.3.

The next morning started very early. My plans to just sleep long and pretend to be a vegetable for three days where crossed by the inhumane orc who decided only to have breakfast at 6:30 am. But german blood runs in our veins, so we were, just like the last two meals, the first people to enter the dining hall. Or maybe we are just overexcited hobbits who's biggest fear is to miss a meal. The breakfast was very different from the past two meals, as it had absolutly no veggies, just rice, two small pieces of meat, one small piece of fish and a bag of chilly sauce. Reasonable we just went to bed again after eating for a small nap. Our grandpa used to say that you shoud either walk 1000 steps after eating or rest. Walking 1000 steps on a boat with a lot of locked doors and people sitting everywhere is too much of a challenge to take on at 7 in the morning, especially with Artey. Have you met her that early without a propper breakfast? Pray you don't. So we rested.

That day our boat would leave the Malacca strait, without running into pirates and stop at two ports: Tanjung Balai and Batam. That Tanjung Balai is not the same place where we first stepped on the island of Sumatra, but the cursed other place we nearly accidentally ended up, because the ferry from Singapore goes there. People in Indonesia are apperently so fond of their citynames they use it multiple time, for different cities. Our cabinmates left us in Tanjung Balai and new ones boarded. During the first stop we stayed in our cabin, wanting to make sure no one claimed our beds. In between the two stops we ate lunch. A delicous meal. I will spare you the details, as it might have been the exact same as the previous day. Afterwards we settled in our trusted cafe to continue reporting our travels, listening to music and drawing. One woman informed us that we would probably stay in Batam for 4 hours. Of that time we spend only a bit inside and then went outside to look at the busy port and the new travellers embarking from above. We ended up staying outside a lot longer than expected, as two new backpackers entered the ferry and we met them outside and exchanged tales until the ship set sail once more. At this point we wanted to return inside to continue writing. This proved more of a challenge as we expected. After spending over 35 h on this boat we run into a fare share of locked doors. Especially the ones leading outside only open in strange patternes, but we always found some way back inside. Until then. A bit confused we started wandering past all doors over three decks. The number of confused wanderes was slowly growing, until we accepted our fate. We were locked out. Two young German boys, who also boarded the ship in Batam followed us around, which was slightly annoying, as one was convinced he was locked out forever and must now perish at sea. Or something along the lines. In reality the Pelni crew wanted to check the tickets again. Please don't ask me why or what they would do an hour into the open sea, if they had found someone without a valid parchment of entry. Once everyone showed their parchment of entry we were allowed back inside once more. We were lock out for more than 2 h and luckily it was raining otherwise us two hobbits would have definitly turned into lobsters. At this point it was already time for dinner, so we returned to the dining hall for a meal of white rice and as a big surprise no three chungs of meat but a fishtail. It tasted like Eowins stew. I did not finish my fishtail.

We spend the evening much like the last one. Following the adventures of the last airbender and trying to spot some stars in the dark night.

7.3

Our last day on the ferry. At this point we knew how to get to all the important places, which doors where the most likely to open and befriended some of the cockroaches. We rose with the sun, broke our fast and retired again to our cabin for a nap. Most of the day passed much like the ones before. We spend the hours before and after lunch in our favourite spot: the cafe, watching the ocean pass. In the afternoon our quiet retreat was disturbed by the two small boys and a friend of theirs, who insited we joined them for a game of "Mensch ärgere dich nicht". Artey performed marvelously and triumphed over the the rest. We upgraded our dinner with a stroke of intelligence, that proves that we are true Ravenclaws: We saved our packages of chilli sauces from breakfast, being fine with eating non spicy rice during sunrise and happily poured it over our dinner. It also happened that the veggies were cooked in coconutmilk and therefore a real taste sensation in comparison to the other meals!

After nightfall we ventured outside once more and watched the watersnakes fight their battle against our ship. We saw at least four, with skins in the shade of fire. With the night aging land could finally be seen again. Our destination: Jakarta. A place many travellers had warned us about. A place with a reputation so horrible one "should avoid it at all cost". That cursed city turned into the symbol of arrival. The end of a long jouney.

With the light of the cities electron powered fireflies illuminating the sky, we lead our animal companions out of the caging walls of our cabin to finally leave the ship. Easier said than done. We ended up waiting in the hallway for 2 h with a lot of other travellers for the doors to open. The pelni seeers wrote on our parchment of proof, that we would arrive in the cursed city at 9 in the evening. Apperently the inner eye of the pelni seeers need glasses, for we arrived at 11:30 pm. Once off the ship we where filled with a new sense of freedom and a strong sense of tiredness. But we still needed to get to our inn for the night. We specifically booked one, that was close to the ferry port, but was still 3 km way. So we fruitlessly tried to order a grab. 1 h later and several frustrating conversations later, all drivers were asking for horrendous fees due to "traffic". Dear people no one drives around at 1 in the morning. When we are slightly tired and frustrated we have the tendency to do something stupid. That evening we decided to walk to our inn. As I have said before it was only 3 km and most of it took us over the lovely container terminal of Jakarta to the big astonishment of the few individuals we encountered. In the end we made it to our slightly shabby Inn and immediately went to bed, for we had to get up early the next morning in order to leave the cursed city of Jakarta for the next part of our quest...