what a day

it all began at 5am when i woke up with alarm bells ringing in my ears.
it was 5am on a saturday morning, what the hell was i doing up? well, i had been up earlier than that, finding it hard to sleep and having a nightmare of oversleeping and missing the plane.
yeah, it was my first overseas trip with (company). unfortunately it was only a day trip but what a day and what a trip.
i got my ass down to changi airbase by 615 where the amazing folks at mercy relief met us with hot coffee/tea, treats from polar and nasi lemak. that was a bit much for me at that time in the morning, plus i'd had some toast earlier so i just stuck to the damn sweet coffee. it was after all, before dawn, and i had a long day ahead of me.

we finally boarded the plane - not the c130 as i'd hoped but the nice civilian looking fokker. welcomed aboard by some lovely men in uniform (always like men in uniform) and waited for the vvips to jump onboard and take off to banda aceh. about 2 h 45 min later (and some sugar rolls and milo after) we landed at the airport, all set for the mou signing and groundbreaking ceremony which was all nice and mundane, getting some quotes and taking notes and stuff (except that one of the speeches was in bahasa, but according to the BH guy, was the usual - thanking sg for job well done etc). had some delicious treats - fresh boiled groundnuts and corn, which red cross' chairman sorta made me take and try but i'm glad cos man was it sweet and it was so delicious and truly full of flavour!

hilariously, we took a detour to the bupati's house. he's like the mayor of the district.
Toilet stop!
it was a huge mansion like place, but upkeep not that great. but we were just grateful for the toilet cos the ceremony took place, well in a patch of empty land really.
it was quite amusing.

anyway we hopped back onto the bus/cruiser and they took us around to the coast, that is, the devastation, the part that was swept away.

it was horrifying.

id seen it on tv and the newspapers but to see it in front of me, albeit from the bus, was a shock. it stunned most of us into silence.

i'd spoken to a french diplomat who was in meulaboh before and he described it as 'being on the moon' and i know what he meant. it was literally a disaster area. most of the area, as far as i could see, was wiped out. a few coconut trees dot the landscape and remnants of houses too. but that's it.

as we drove through in silence, i saw the concrete foundations of what were once houses, ""like tombstones marking where the house used to be"'' said the assoc professor sitting next to me. I saw a child's shoe among debris, boats where houses used to be, flattened cars and a floating power generation that had been swept three km inland by the power of the wave. there were little lakes, or what seemed like lakes, everywhere. but these were just the spaces were houses used to be. some houses looked intact, but driving further on, and viewing it at a different angle, i'd realise that it was only the hollow carcass of a house.

and the extent of the damage was truly amazing. we drove through it, seemingly for nearly twenty minutes, and out again and you could see where the wave stopped and all was nice and good. or so it seemed. for driving on into the town centre, some buildings had crumbled in the earthquake.

i felt guilty
at coming to look and see, like it was some sort of tourist attraction

the place awed me, made me sick and left a funny taste in my mouth.