05 "Life happens while you’re busy making plans."

We are safe and sound in Krui, Sumatra, after almost three days of traveling.

My mom has a sign in her house that says: “Life is what happens while you’re busy making plans.” I think even our little trip here just emphasized that.

Getting from Cape Town to Doha was smooth sailing. We had a little layover, and of course, everything there was expensive, so I wasn’t even allowed to buy orange juice (Vicus couldn’t get past the fact that you can pay 30 Riyal dollars, and I couldn’t blame him). If I were traveling alone, I probably would’ve paid it. I’m one of those people who close my eyes when I travel. Otherwise, you won’t buy anything if you keep converting back to Rand. But Vicus’s logic rang true, and I couldn’t fight it.

When we arrived in Jakarta, however, our smooth sailing story turned into one of the scenes out of Amazing Race, where you see the couple fighting. Our flight landed an hour late, and the queue at immigration was so long and didn’t seem to be moving at all. It looked like we were going to miss our flight to Bandar Lampung. 

Long story short - after running (it felt like) a marathon, we did manage to catch our flight, and while standing in yet another queue to board the plane, Vicus dropped a two Rand coin, and the guy in front of us picked it up and started chatting to us. He’s a photographer and travels worldwide but is originally from S.A. He was also on his way to Krui and staying in the same hotel (Raddison) as us in Bandar Lampung He suggested we join him on the flight to Krui the next morning instead of the six-hour drive by car. It didn’t take much convincing, and our booking was made while we were still waiting to take off from Jakarta.

I recommend the flight to Krui if you have the option. Apparently, it can be unreliable at times, and flights get canceled at the last minute, but what a breeze! We had a beautiful view of the island and a 35-minute flight, and it was all done!

So, the moral of the story: make plans - it’s necessary to be prepared. But if you have a two Rand coin handy, drop it and see who picks it up; you might meet someone really cool who makes your trip even that much nicer…

Thanks, Dylan TerMorshuizen, @Dyln_tzen, you’re a legend!

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