“Meeting the Boy”: solo trip to Thailand and Indonesia
October, 2018
Normally these posts are written in the third person, but this one presents a personal experience I (Scott) recently had.
After a lovely summer in Vancouver, Kathy flew back to Oro Valley, AZ (our home in the American southwest), leaving me to finish out the tourism season in Vancouver, then head on a “once in a lifetime” trip. We’ve had a number of “once in a lifetime” trips, but this one was unique, in that I got to meet (in person) the foster child I “adopted” back in the late 1990s.
Hasrianto ChenKo Blessley
Hasrianto (“Anto”) turned 30 back in September 2018. I had contributed to his welfare and his family’s, from around the time he was 6 until 14, at which time the support organization announced that they were moving on – whether Anto had “aged out”, or their work was done, or they were abandoning his little island – we’re not sure. In any case, Foster Parents Plan (now “Plan International“) sent me a letter (Internet? What Internet?) simply stating they were done with “little” Anto (then 14) and “Would you like to sponsor another child?”. “No”, actually. He’s a man now, got a university degree, and has an administrative job in his home town. Selayar is not exactly “around the corner”.
Anyway, that was that. Or was it? Some ten years later, I get a notice on Google+ (messaging system). The request was from a familiar name (“Hasrianto… who is that?”), my surname is pretty uncommon so I’m not difficult to locate online. It’s Anto! Over a decade since the sponsorship, he’s reached out and found me.
At first, the online relationship was simple. Like two pen pals were just getting to know each other. But over the years Anto and I came to know each other much better than could have been with written letters twice a year. Where Scott lives, what his life’s like. Anto’s challenges and aspirations. At some point the concept of meeting “IRL” (“in real life”) came up. I was about 58 at the time so one of the “excuses” to visit was my 60th birthday. But circumstances weren’t right at that time (I forget why) so the target changed to his birthday (30).
My original travel plan was ambitious, like I used to do when traveling on business. Bangkok. Chiang Mai. Laos. But the costs (and more importantly the unavailability of flights) make me pare the trip down significantly. Kathy (who was instrumental in getting my flights) and I tried variants like a vacation in Taipei, Singapore, skipping Chiang Mai (both Bangkok and Chiang Mai are “old haunts”). I ended up with just Bangkok, Bali and Sulawesi — Selayar Island is just south of South Sulawesi. I wasn’t actually that interested in visiting Bali – Kathy and I had been there several times. But it has a first class airport, and its strategically located between Thailand and Sulawesi.
So, after more than a year of planning and negotiation over dates and places, on October 4th, in the wee hours of the morning, I boarded an EVA Air flight from Vancouver to Taipei, connecting to Bangkok.
Bangkok
I love Bangkok. Its big, it’s crazy, it’s foreign – yet it’s familiar. When I was working for Ascend Communications as Telecom Consultant, I would fly to Singapore (generally) about 8 times a year, and in general, if I spanned a weekend there, I’d fly to Bangkok. The city is a lot cheaper than Singapore and far less sterile; my company was perfectly fine paying for my airfare and hotel, if the net cost was lower than staying. So I reckon I’ve been to Bangkok about fifty times. Fifty one, now.
I wanted to get a bit “outside my comfort zone”, so while I did visit a lot of the places I’d frequented, I switched to a hotel in a different part of town (Chinatown), and signed up for a fabulous food tour and a bike tour. Bicycling through Bangkok seems like a suicide mission, but I’d found a company in the suburbs that offered a “backroads” tour. It was great fun. The days I was there featured the very popular “Vegetarian Festival”, so being in Chinatown (where it was staged) was quite timely.
The week came and went quickly. Vancouver and Bangkok are about 14 time zones apart, so it took a couple of days to get over the jetlag. Then on to Bali.
Tulamben
Tulamben is at the north point of Bali and a bit east of center. About a 2 1/2 hour drive from the airport (and capital city of) Denpasar. There’s not much “there there”. It’s the site of a Word War II era shipwreck, the USS Liberty I stayed at “Tulamben Dive Resort” which was lovely, and recommended, but unless you’re “eating and breathing” SCUBA, you’ll find yourself pretty bored there. I ate almost every meal at their cafe’ – very little else within walking distance. Nothing else to do (you could get massage). So I adjusted my stay by one day and moved to Semanyak.
Seminyak
Semanayak is the “upscale” Bali destination – or at least it promised to be. I found it overridden with Australians (I have nothing against Australians, but their youngsters perhaps aren’t the best behaved. I couldn’t wait to leave, although I did find some nice meals and beach area).
Makassar
Why would anybody go to Makassar, Indonesia? It’s a port city – shipping center – but doesn’t have a lot of intrinsic charm. However, it is how you transit Sulawesi, which is the series of islands near Anto. Because a lot of flights in and out of Makassar are just once a day, I (or Anto and I) ended up transiting it several times. It wasn’t unpleasant but I wouldn’t rush to visit it again.
Tana Toraja
My true intent in flying to eastern Indonesia was to meet Anto and his family. But let’s face it, the 17,500 mile trip (that’s one way) needed to have some other attraction to make it “rationalize-able”. While Indonesia has hundreds of unique cultures, the Toraja people are one of the more interesting (or perhaps more accessible). So Anto and I made an elaborate plan for me to fly into Makassar (and for him to take a ferry from his island), and we would begin a land tour of Tana Toraja. Which we did!
Selayar
Selayar also offers little for visitors except lovely beaches and scuba diving. There is a world class national marine park – Taka Bonerate but the lodging on it is primitive, and the cost and logistics for liveaboard dive operators made it out of the question. The reason for me to visit Selayar was to see Anto’s island, meet his family, have a look around (the island is all of 80 km north to south, about 20 east to west) before heading home (another 17,000 miles)
Sanur
As with Selayar, you can’t just fly anywhere from Makassar. If you’re headed for a major city from Makassar, you’re going to have to transit. So for the 2nd time on the trip, I flew into Denpasar airport, but this time stayed in a smaller town that Kathy and I visited during our first trip to Bali — Sanur. Despite having “grown up”, it still has a “small town feel”. I got to check out the Tajung Sari hotel, where Kathy and I once stayed. It’s still lovely.
Vancouver
I’d been “on the road” for a month. In general it was a brilliant trip, and for Anto a number of “firsts”. He met his Foster Dad, he got to see a completely different part of Indonesia, had his first and second airplane flight. But I was ready to go home. After a couple of days in Sanur, I flew to Taipei and onward to Vancouver, returning on November 4, 2018.