Moped and Mudslides - Indonesia #imapiece trip day two

Hello!  Just for this week Craft Blog UK is turning into a little travel / mummy blog - but don't be afraid, I'll try and add in the occasional social media reference or tip so you don't think I'm lost forever ;)

We've been doing a lot of hanging around airports

There's been plenty of time for stitching jigsaw pieces too!

Day Two of the trip

It's around 11pm and I'm in Takengon, a very busy looking town in Northern Sumatra (will have photos for tomorrow!)  This is our base over the next few days whilst we visit the projects that save the Children are working on, surrounding the issue of malnutrition and the long term economic issues of 'stunting' in particular.  

So far apart from the excellent company of Jamie, Lauren, Sarah and Annabel, the highlights have been, driving through a mudslide, eating Rambutang hairy eye-ball fruit fresh picked from the trees and chatting with Mustafah, the driver who picked us up from Banda Aceh airport.

This road was epic! There were people on mopeds travelling up and down it - they have no fear!

It was a 7 hour drive, so it's good to get on and he steered us safely through quite an exciting steep road which was effectively a river, with a steep drop to one side as we climbed up through mountains to reach the Beneh Meriah district.  Mustafah also taught me a little bit of Indonesian - although I have forgotten most of it already - why is it so difficult to remember 3 syllables in a row once you are past 30!

The drive was really interesting - Bandah Aceh is a building site having been the epicentre of the devasting tsunami back in 2004 (100,000 people lost their lives in Aceh) There is so much going on in terms of building work, nearly every other building remains an empty shell.

Babies on motor bikes - get used to it!

Indonesia is a moped loving country.  There's an initial feeling of alarm watching babies and children of around 2 years old at most clinging on to their parents backs whilst they navigate busy traffic as you're overtaking them! So far I really like the feel of Sumatra as a country and if only I could ship out my little family I'd like to stay for longer than just a few days to properly explore the amazing scenery - maybe see some orangutans!  The amount of people and children busily playing, chatting, working and selling things on the road side is quite amazing - this is one of the most populous countries on the planet.



Here's a little late night video of my feelings from Day two of our trip - I'll be back tomorrow with more details about the projects and how Save the Children are helping to combat stunting / malnutrition in this area.

Delicious noodles, Jamie, Mustafah and a lovely chap from Save the Children we picked up en route

We've also been promised a meal at the local chinese and apparently they serve rice wine - so you'll have to excuse if I sound overly excitable in tomorrows post! :)

Token Social Media Tip for Crafty explorers!

Top social media tip today is - if you are out and about (at a craft fair for example or a show) and planning to report to your networks on the hoof do more research than I did! It's can be expensive and prohibitive if not.  If your connection doesn't work, take lots of snaps for uploading when you!