KangGURU Travels to Siantan in 2003

KGRE travels throughout Indonesia delivering Teacher Workshops to English language teachers, visiting schools and radio stations, addressing local language club members and meeting KGRE listeners and readers. On this trip Kevin travels to Siantan Island in the Natuna group of islands near Kalimantan. He also spends time in Jakarta.

Siantan Island - Kab.  Natuna
July 2003

Last year I visited Ranai in the Natuna Islands. This group a far reaching Indonesian islands is a group of islands closer to Brunei than Indonesia. Flying time from Tanjung Pinang was over two hours. In July 2003 PEMDA Natuna invited me to present Teacher Workshops in Ranai. Pak Muchtar, a keen KGRE-ite did most of the organizing for that trip. Well, once again this year Pak Muchtar has been organizing me again. This time I visited Terempa on the island of Siantan. It is also a part of the Natuna group of islands. The flight to Makat took just under three hours from Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport in Jakarta. It was the first time I had been to that airport so the departure was certainly something new for me. The departure time was also new to me as I had to leave the hotel by 4am in order to check in for the flight by 5pm. Pak Muchtar was waiting for there and he took care of everything even the 49 kilos of luggage I had with me. The vast majority of that additional weight was the KGRE materials for the teachers on Siantan.

The flight was terrific. The plane chartered by Connoco Phillips, an oil company with production fields in the Natuna Islands. A special thanks to them for the flight – it was much appreciated. It was a Fokker 50 and it was great. The plane arrived at 8.45am and after checking in with Pak Akmal, Community Development Officer,  at Conoco Phillips, collecting my luggage and a quick cold drink we headed for the harbor.

The next stage of the journey was to be aboard a boat heading for Siantan.  Which boat do you think was ours? The big one or the small one?

The boat ride took 45 minutes through one meter swells. My good friends Deli and Ron Porta from Melbourne know that I am not too good in ‘rough’ weather in a boat and I thought of them while I was bouncing around on the high seas. I used to go fishing with them quite often off the coast of Coffs Harbor in northern New South Wales. I usually felt quite seasick after the first hour. They stopped taking me out fishing because I was always throwing up and looking miserable. Seasickness is a truly horrible experience – for me anyway.

Terempa Siantan

The final ‘event’ of the day was the rather noisy arrival of a huge yellow Pelni ship from Ranai on route to Tanjung Pinang. It berthed only about 200 meters from my hotel room. Besides the noises of the huge engines rumbling as it pulled into dock there was also the sound of its whistles blowing. These loud whistles blew on departure as well some two hours after it had arrived.

Day Two on Siantan was off to an early start with breakfast at the Hotel Sianantur. The hotel is set upon stilts so underneath the rooms is the ocean and I must day the water is some of the clearest I have ever seen. In fact the waters around the islands I saw yesterday are the crystal clear water we often see on postcards. My first activity for the day was the Teacher Workshop. Twenty local teachers attended and we worked our way through a series of KGRE listening activities together.

In the afternoon I visited students gathered together at SMP 2 for a ‘chit chat’ of our own. Students were quiet although by the end of the hour quite a few of them began to participate more. We had fun with a Music Competition as a language activity. Students listened to just 15 seconds of a song and they had to recognize the singer. That’s all. Some were Western artists and some were Indonesian artists. KGCC in Siantan 2005

Artists included Nora Jones, Glenn, Jamrud, Kris Dayanti and Anang, Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue and Yuni Shara. After the meeting I visited the studio of Berlian FM. As I said earlier I think it is wonderful that such a station, even though it is small, is operating in Terempa and that SMP 2 and PEMDA support it so well.

During the hour before sunset I had some free time so I wandered around the town. A group of young people were practicing their marching band in front of the Camat office and they had attracted quite a crowd of onlookers including me. On the pier I befriended some local students and they were happy to wander around with me. It was pretty windy and the fellows told me that July is the windy season in the area. They also chatted about the town, the surrounding hills and life in general. At dinner later that evening I ate with Ibu Camat, Suziah Herman Purnama, and the group of us included Rusdi, Syawal and Head Of DINAS Perempa, Pak Heriyanto. We ate a a restaurant which overhung the water on the waterfront. One of the special dishes we had a was Ikan Asam Pedas - delicious! PEMDA paid for al of my hotel costs and for all meals while I was on the island – than you for those great es jeruk drinks and nasi goring.

Early next morning I headed for Matak again and the offices of Conoco Phillips. The boat ride was much calmer than a few days earlier and it was beautiful scenery that we saw on the way. At Conoco Phillips we checked in my baggage and then waited for the plane to depart. That wait actually turned out to be quite a long time. I met with Arifin Sjukur, the Matak Base Superintendent for Conoco Phillips. We chatted briefly about language training, Bali and my job at KGRE. The plane finally left Matak at 3pm and I arrived in Jakarta at 6pm or thereabouts anyway. Traffic was very bad and I finally got into my hotel room at 7.30pm. After a few phone calls to Ogi in Bali and to Geoff Crewes, CEO of IALF Jakarta, I had a shower and went to bed.

 After an hour with Iwan I headed for the Australian Embassy in Jakarta for meetings with several AusAID people discussing future materials for KGRE. After lunch I met with Matthew, an ex—AVI volunteer who is not working for RADIO 68. We talked about satellite radio and possible cooperation between KGRE and Radio 68 in the future.

I left Jakarta at 5.30pm and was safely back in my house in Bali by 9pm local time. Yet another interesting KGRE trip under the belt.

If you would like to know more about these planned events then contact KGRE by e-mail.

Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia

Latest KGRE News
Home | Radio | Travel | Joeys | Connection Clubs | Interviews
Magazine | Stories | Idioms Inggris | Oz Indo Connection | KGRE Shop
Forum | Quickies | In the Classroom | Aussie Alumni | KGRE in Indonesia
AusAID | Competitions | Language Tips | Different Pond Different Fish | Contact Us