The Journey South (Part 3)

Bupati's office in Kepahiang.  Surprised at classical revival

This is the third installment in my narrative of my journey through West Sumatra, South Sumatra, and Bengkulu provinces.  For the past few days I've been dorking around between Curup, Arga Makmur, and the provincial capital of Bengkulu, Bengkulu city.  Since meeting with district officials in Indonesia requires a letter of introduction from the district Political and Cultural Affairs office (KESBANGPOLINMAS), and since that normally takes a couple of days because the responsible officer normally has other things to do than his or her job, I've been trying to get as much work done in the interim, which often requires me to travel from town to town at short notice to take advantage of an interview or observation opportunity.  So I haven't covered much new ground, but I've seen some neat stuff. 

Over the Mountains and Through the Trees...

After a night in Bengkulu I set off for Curup, which is the capital of Rejang Lebong district, where there is a significant amount of encroachment into the park.  I had arranged to interview the head of the whole southern region of the park there, but he texted me that he suddenly got called away to the park headquarters in Sungai Penuh (where I live).  I'd wanted to interview him for a long time because I'd talked with him in the past and he knows his stuff, but the distance to his office in Curup prevented this.  Now here I was heading to Curup and he had to dash off suddenly to HQ.  Oh the irony.  But that's how it goes.  Fortunately one of his subordinates was there, and so I set up an interview with him.  The ride from Bengkulu took me about 2.45 hours, but I passed through two new districts along the way: Bengkulu Tengah and Kepahiang, where I would learn forest encroachment is a huge challenge.  As it turns out, Curup is a pretty large town, and for Sumatra is relatively nice.  I did my interview, compiled my notes, and went to eat dinner.

When I was getting ready for bed at about 10pm I got a text from a forest policeman that I had contacted earlier through a mutual friend for an interview.  He asked me to come over to his house to chat.  When I asked if we could do it in the morning he said he was going to be out in the field, so it was now or never.  A year ago I would've told him that I was too tired, since I've interviewed a number of forest policemen already, but since I've been doing my fieldwork I've developed an ethic that compels me to take advantage of an opportunity to get some work done, no matter whether it's 3 in the afternoon or 3 in the morning.  Here you have to, because obstacles so frequently emerge that frustrate the research process that if something comes up you jump at it.  So I got dressed and went over to his house.  The parking area was dark when I pulled in, and as it turns out there was a 3-foot ditch six inches to the left of where my put my bike, and so when I put my feet down to lower the kick stand there was nothing there and I fell straight down into it, my Honda landing on top of me. 

"Hey are you alright?!?!?" asked my startled friend.

Fortunately this was a mud and shit ditch rather than a rocks and glass ditch, and so after I ran my severe injury detection protocol I answered "yeah I'm alright but I'm less than comfortable down here..."

"You have to be careful....there's a 3 foot ditch there" said my new friend.

"Yeah thanks for the advice.  I guess you've got a story to tell now."  This broke the tension and everyone started laughing.  

A group of folks playing cards nearby came and pulled the bike off me and helped me out of the ditch and we went inside and did the interview, which turned out to be one of the best I've done.  I had a good time with my new friend; he turned out to be a detective who looks at forest crimes from a systemic perspective, and so he was quite interesting.  So I came out of it with a few scratches and some great insight.  My bike had a broken rearview mirror and turn signal, which together cost me $5 to get fixed the following day.

Road Conditions

The route from Bengkulu to Curup takes between 2 and 3.5 hours depending on traffic, weather, and your driving capabilities.  On the way to Curup it took about 2 hours and 45 minutes, but on the way back it was closer to 2 hours.  The road for the most part is decent, but there are some rough patches.  The elevation gain is about 800 meters, and once you get out of town you start to climb up the Bukit Barisan mountains across countless switchbacks.  The views are great and you're surrounded by forest, and if you like mountain driving it's ideal.  I had a good time on the winding road on my bike because I could get around the climbing traffic pretty easily, but if you are in a car it would take significantly longer.  Once you get towards the top near the border between Kepahiang and Bengkulu Tengah districts you can take a break at one of the roadside stalls, have some coffee and enjoy the view of the coast and the cool mountain breeze.  It's a nice drive.

Back to Bengkulu

Note the amputated toes

The next day was Sunday and I didn't have anything to do in Curup, and since I needed to be in Arga Makmur on Monday I decided to head back to Bengkulu, which is closer.  There were a couple of people I could talk to there to justify the 2.5 hour drive.  On the way my friend Yanti texted me and asked if I wanted to tranquilize a tiger, to which I of course answered that I did.  When I rolled into town I went over to the Natural Resources office and the team was getting the tiger ready to be flown to Bogor over on Java.  I helped them get the cages into condition and they were able to move the tiger from the holding cage to the transport cage without having to use the tranquilizer, which is a shame on the one hand because I was looking forward to darting the beast, but on the other hand it's better for the tiger not to be tranquilized.  But I wrote down the recipe for the tranquilizer and am sharing it here in case you ever have to dart an 80-kilogram Sumatran tiger.  You'll be able to see a video of the cage-transfer when I am able to access a high-speed connection to upload it. 

Tranquilizer for 80 kilogram Sumatran Tiger

Ketamine 4.8 milliliters @ 100mg/ml concentration

Xylazine .16 milliliters @ 100mg/ml concentration.

To wake the tiger give him/her .034 milliliters of Atipamezole at concentration 5mg/ml.  Should the tiger go into convulsions, give it between .8 and 1.6 milliliters of diazapam (good stuff) at 5mg/ml concentration.  If you find you need to stimulate the tiger's breathing, give it 2.13-4.25 ml of Doxapram at 20mg/ml.  For parasites give it 1.7ml of Ivermectin at .02ml/kg and as an antibiotic use 21.25 ml of Dexamethasone at 4mg/ml. 

After the transfer was complete I walked out of the compound and noticed the confiscated sunbear they have there was going apeshit because of the tiger's roaring.  I told my friend the vet that the BKSDA could probably make some pretty good money if they pitted the two animals against one another in some sort of pay-per-view internet event, but she didn't care too much for the idea. 

I didn't have anything else planned for the day, so I went over to the Bung Karno house I mentioned in the previous post.  You can see Bung Karno's bicycle and book collection there.  Someone there said he was conversant in five languages, but there isn't much in the way of interpretive materials available.  In addition to being a hero of Indonesian independence, Bung Karno was also a hero of polygamy.  While in exile in Bengkulu he married his second wife.  I asked a bunch of people at the site how many wives in total Bung Karno had, but no one knew.  I was surprised that not even the ojek and taxi drivers knew, because normally they are experts at stuff like that.  Then I rode down to check out the ocean and found myself upon a beautiful beach that rivals anything you'll find in Hawai'i, Bali, Phuket, or any other international destination.  Pantai Panjang ("Long Beach") has smooth, fine white sand and the water is clean.  I road my bike out on to the sand and cruised for several kilometers in the direction of town, riding in and out of the tide.  It was the most fun I've had in a long time.  Though you can't swim in the water you could surf, and although it was windy on a calm day it would be really nice. 

The Waiting Game

Bengkulu's Pantai Panjang beach

After this second night in Bengkulu I got on the road back to Arga Makmur, an hour to an hour and a half away.  Once I got to town I parked by backpack at the park outpost, changed clothes, and headed to the KESBANGPOLINMAS where I was expecting (but not really) to pick up a letter of permission to visit the planning office and the district headman.  They hadn't written the letter yet, so they invited me to sit and wait "for a little bit".  Tunggu sebintar is my least favorite expression in Indonesian because it refers to a space of time that varies between 3 minutes and eternity.  The guy responsible for signing the letter wasn't in yet, so I sat in the lobby and chatted with the young men of the office that don't have any actual work to do (1).  They asked me all sorts of questions I've been asked millions of times.  "Can you eat rice?"  "How much money do you make?"  Eventually they subtly work the conversation around to subjects a boudoir, since as young men growing up in an extremely sexually repressed environment they are curious to know as much as they can know about America, which they know to be the land of free sex, an endless orgy where you can have your way with anyone at anytime.  They like the idea, but don't want to make it too obvious.  At the same time I was experiencing a familiar increasing annoyance at watching my day tick-tick-ticking away. 

Only smiling on the outside...

After an hour and a half of this my letter was waiting, and so I went over to the planning office, did an interview with one of the actual professionals there, and picked up a copy of the regional spatial plan.  Then I went over to the district headman's office with my letter of introduction, but the staff told me he was "at a party" and didn't know when he'd be back.  They asked me if I'd settle for the vice-headman, and I said "I suppose", and so they directed me to his office.  But he wasn't there either.  His secretary called him and they told me to go to his house at 2pm to interview him.  At 2pm I went there but surpise surprise he wasn't.  The policemen charged with guarding the place told me "tunggu sebintar", and so we set about the important business of talking about chicks and soccer.  At 3pm the vice-headman's entourage showed up, and his handler came over to ask my business.  I showed my letter and explained my business, and so he went to consult with his boss.  He came back to tell me that the vice headman had to "go to a party" and that I should come to the office at 8am the following day.  That's pretty much how it goes here when you are trying to get information from people.  "But Keith, why didn't you arrange the meetings in advance?" you ask.  "Wow that's a really good idea!  I should've thought of that!" I respond sarcastically through the ether.  But be warned, if you ask me that question to my face I will kick you in your private parts.

Anyway, the next leg of the trip will take me into Lebong and Rejang Lebong districts, where I hope to visit a village and meet some more officials.  I'll write about it in the next post.   

Notes

(1) In most government offices in Indonesia a significant portion of the office staff's primary responsibilities are to smoke cigarettes and watch TV.  Sometimes they take a nap.