Minggu, 14 Februari 2010

Getting Sick in Berau

Getting sick outside my home (i.e. Jakarta) and far from my family is my worst nightmare. I have experienced it once during my research in Makassar. Luckily, it happened in Makassar, a capital of a province which is easily accessed. After two nights of fever attacks, I just went to the airport in the next morning alone and flew to Jakarta. History said, I was suffered from Malaria.

Afraid that such thing might happen again, I always try hard to keep myself healthy. Eating healthy food and doing sport are part of my daily life. But apparently I have done it too hard. Too much sports and lack of rest have brought me to sickness!On a one Saturday afternoon, suddenly I got a high fever. Although it’s very annoying but I know, nothing much I can do than drinking a lot of water. No sickness can be defined in a day, I have to wait until three days to get any blood test.

I was afraid of getting my Malaria back. But as I said before, nothing I can do until the third day. On Sunday morning, my fever has gone; but I wasn’t happy as Malaria only attacks in the evening.

Surprisingly, I had no fever on Sunday evening! My body temperature was normal the whole night. I thought I just gotten exhausted.

But on Monday morning, I felt my whole body aching! Since I didn’t have fever, I forced myself to go to work. I thought the ache came from my over training on sport. But my pale face couldn’t fool my coworkers. They recommended me to go to a doctor.

The doctor gave me antibiotic and anti-fever. He suggested me to take a blood test on Wednesday if my condition remains the same. The medicines were pretty strong; whenever I was under their influence, I felt OK. But once the influence finished, I became wilt again. During this time, I went to work for half day. After taken lunch I went home to rest.

On Wednesday, I decided to have a blood test. The result said that my thrombocytes level was low; one of signs of dengue fever. I went to a doctor again and she made another test which confirmed that it was dengue fever. She said that I can have a rest at home or in the hospital. My sickness level was still low, drinking a lot of water and consuming guava juice were enough to cure the sickness.

This was a dilemma for me. If I stayed at home, I had to serve myself. I had to prepare my own meal and cleaned the dishes, just like a normal day. It meant I wouldn’t have total rest as I needed it. However, the only hospital available in Berau was not covered on the insurance from my working place. I had to go to Balikpapan to get hospitalized. This was quite a journey but I would have total rest as I needed it.

After discussed it with my father and sister, I decided to go to Balikpapan. On Thursday, I was ready to go. However I needed a paper from the doctor that said that I was able to fly. Upon this, the doctor neglected the request. Instead, she asked me to take another blood test to check on my thrombocytes level.

So I did. And the result said that my thrombocytes level was increasing. The doctor told me that I’d better stay at home because I have passed my critical point; and I was entering recovery phase. I didn’t need to be hospitalized especially if it needed quite a journey to be there. So my travel was cancelled. I was just stayed at home until weekend.

Friends and Family
Starting from the first day I got fever, I informed my coworkers and family about it. Their reaction was very supportive. My family kept checking me by phone. While my coworkers, they made sure that my needs were fulfilled. They took me to doctors, laboratory, and brought lunch for me, etc.

I was so lucky surrounded with very attentive coworkers. It swept my nightmares away in being sick far from home. In addition, my family kept monitoring my condition. Even my brother from Saudi Arabia called me after hearing the news; he was worried that I had to be hospitalized. But the biggest surprise came from Lusi, ‘my family’ during my time in Bremen. She called me due to her feeling on me. She felt surprised to find that I was sick; which explained why she needed to call me suddenly. What a telepathy!

Although I could get enough attention and care when I was sick, but surely, I don’t want to get sick again. No matter close or far from home, being sick is always a nightmare!

Visiting People in Jail

This is my first time in going to a prison. Surprisingly it happened in Berau.

Again, it happened accidentally. I didn’t plan to go there, I even didn’t know the person whom I visit.

It started when me and my coworkers went out for lunch. One of my coworkers dropped the news, about one villager whom they knew was involved in a fight.

My coworker planned to visit the villager and she had arranged all the documents needed to visit a person in jail. She asked us to drop her at the prison.

But when we dropped her at the prison, the prison guards offer us to come along although we didn’t have any documents needed. So there we were, 11 people came and visited the villager without paper.

We had to leave our cellphone at the entrance and we got stamped on our hand. The meeting point for visitors and prisoners are a hall with concrete seats. It was just like a waiting room in a hospital or something similar. Far from my imagination; or maybe I watched too much movies…
Too bad, taking picture is prohibited.

Island of Maratua and of Derawan

Maratua and Derawan are the two out of three most famous islands in the Derawan archipelago. Together with Kakaban Island, the three are the tourist destination.

Actually I went to these two accidentally. I didn’t have any working agenda there at that time. I went there to accompany my coworkers who dove in Maratua and took an air compressor in Derawan. Of course I didn’t waste my time just for watching others went diving, I went diving also :)

Maratua
This is the furthest island of the Derawan archipelago. It takes around five hours speedboat ride from Tanjung Redeb to the northeast.

The island is a home for a few international diving resorts. A few villages are also found here. Various fish is the selling point of the diving trips here.


Around the jetty in Payung-Payung Village, it is a feeding ground for sea turtles. One can snorkel around with the turtles as long as not bothering them. And for backpackers like myself, Payung-Payung Village has homestays managed by the community. So no worries, you can swim around with sea turtles on a limited budget.
Derawan
This is the icon of the archipelago. It is famous as the sea turtle haven. One can see sea turtles swimming around near piers in the island every afternoon.

The island has various homestays, from non AC rooms to constant-supply-of-AC rooms although the normal electricity is limited, are available.

Snorkeling and diving with turtles are the selling point in here. Normally, tourists go to Tanjung Batu by rented car or taxi from Tanjung Redeb. In Tanjung Batu, speedboats are available. However, the boats are taxi, not ferry! So it’s better trying to share with others.

Biduk-Biduk Subdistrict

This Subdistrict is located in the southern coast of Berau. It takes around four hours speedboat ride from Tanjung Redeb.

There are some interesting places to visit here i.e. the beautiful Sulaiman Bay (Indonesian: Teluk Sulaiman), the magnificent karst hill of Si Gending, and the crystal clear lagoon of Labuan Cermin. But this time, only Labuan Cermin will be described here.

Labuan Cermin
Labuan means ‘harbor’ or ‘haven’; while cermin means mirror. So this place is a mirror haven. It called ‘mirror’ due to the very clear water where one can see his or her reflection on it.

Geologically, this place is a lagoon with two inlets from ground water and the sea. The inlet from the sea is bigger than the ground water. The water in the lagoon consists of two layers; the bottom layer which is the sea water and the upper layer which is the fresh water.

What makes it special, one can see marine fish and seaweeds from the surface without any goggle. This is why it’s called ‘mirror’. And since the upper layer of the water mass is fresh water, the fish remain at the bottom. Very unique!

Normally, an estuary, which has two inlets from fresh water and sea water, would have mixed water depends on the tides. If the tide is high, the water is dominantly salty; while if the tide is low, the water is dominantly fresh. Since the inlet of fresh water is quite low in here, and the place is a lagoon so, the composition of the layers remains steady all the time!

In addition, the place is secluded and calm. It’s a perfect place to rejuvenate by swimming along the lagoon. One will feel younger after swimming here :)

Beauty Treatment

One of the most important facilities that I should have is salon! Yes, as a girl I need to remain treated. And Indonesia is the place for reasonable-price beauty treatment. I had suffered enough in Germany where beauty treatment is unbelievably expensive. So no excuse, I have to allocate my money for beauty treatment while I am in Indonesia.

However, the quality of treatment is, of course, different in each area. For example in Jakarta, one can find various beauty treatments in various services and prices. A hairdo like blow dry is very normal to have in Jakarta.

In Bali, spa and massage treatments are the most offered. Hair styling is rarely to find; and one has to be careful in selecting the place for having hairdo. Not every place can serve nice hairdo as offered.

My nightmare came when I was in Makassar. I went to a decent salon to have a creambath. Normally, it would end up in getting a blow dry to make the hair looks nicer. But the service was so bad and the hairdresser even tugged my hair!!! In the end I decided to finish my session before I had more suffer on my hair!!!

So… based on all of my experiences… I was so curious when I came to Berau: what kind of Salons that it has? As I expected it before, the salons here are house-based. They are houses or part of the houses which transformed into salon. They are not buildings which made to become salons.

Of all the salons in Tanjung Redeb, there is one salon that very famous. Well at least its banners are everywhere around the city. The salon is called ‘Olla Manado Salon’. Its marketing strategy apparently very effective, people will refer to them whenever I asked about good salon in Berau. However, nobody that I know has tried it!

I haven’t tried the salon, but by looking at the appearance, I don’t feel interested to try. It looks slum to me :( Fortunately, my coworker showed me another salon called ‘Inne Salon’. Surprisingly, this salon is not a house-based. It is a custom made building; so it’s perfect! It looks perfect from the outside.

Inside, it’s as perfect as it looks outside. It’s clean. All the servers are ladies, no transvestite! It seems that they all living in the back part of the building.

I tried having creambath and foot massage. The massage is good, it covers many body parts and took some times; and the price is reasonable. However, I still uncertain about the hairdo. When I asked to get a blow dry after the creambath, I was served by a lady who used to work there! She doesn’t work there anymore, she just visited the salon at that time! Although she gave me a nice blow dry, but I didn’t know the quality of other servers then. What a gamble… But I’ll keep coming back to have my beauty treatments in Inne Salon.

Hospital

There is one and only hospital in Berau; a public hospital owned by the District Government. In Indonesia it is called RSUD (Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah).

Although I got insurance from my work, however the RSUD was not a partner for the insurance company. The closest partners are in Samarinda and Balikpapan. So if I got sick, I had to fly to be hospitalized! What a journey…

Waste Management

One of the curiosity that I have, when I first came to my place in Berau, was the garbage dumpster. There was no garbage dumpster at the house!

I couldn’t understand at all. How come a house doesn’t have a dumpster? Where all the garbage goes? Are they burnt? Or do I have to throw it somewhere just like in Germany? But where????

And here comes another surprise… I have been told that I have to put all the garbage in a plastic bag. And then the plastic bag has to be hanged on the fence at night. A garbage cleaner will come during night time to collect it, so there will be no more garbage in the morning!

Weird!