Sunday, 24Dec06

Highlights: Irfan visit, train to Cepu

My friend Irfan Siddiq (my first Indonesian friend, whom I met 2 years ago at the Naval Postgrad School in Monterey, CA) just finished some training in Bogor, and dropped by my house to say hello with his younger brother, before heading home to Banda Aceh.
It’s always good seeing old friends, and great when we can keep in touch after all this time. Small world that this is,,, Lhoknga turns out to be his hometown,, and Tanwir (my driver from my previous Aceh trips) turns out to be his cousin. What are the chances?

I caught the 6pm Gumarang train from Jakarta to Cepu (an 11 hour ride),,, which got me there by 5am Christmas morning. There are many ways to spend Christmas Eve. Being the duty officer responsible for guarding a Marine helicopter squadron, being mid-way through a 6 ½ month deployment (twice), stuck on a boat (USS Peleliu) off the coast of Pakistan & in port at UAE, being in a Las Vegas hotel room, scurrying through the finishing touches of a paper I had to e-mail to my Command & Staff teacher before January 1st. This year I proudly add “trekking though the Java countryside on an all-night train” to my list of pre-Christmas feats. (= it’s a first, but I can’t complain. There are worse places to be.