cyborgs

In the future, the distant future. Robots have, oh no wait. It should be cybernetic beings have evolved and taken over. Hmm maybe that's not right either.

The year is 2011 and I come from a strange and upcoming breed of people. Cyborgs, or close. Constantly connected to the hive and approaching a singular consciousness duing the lifespan of our culture? Maybe. Dependent to a large degree on machines at least. Specially those enabling us and me to connect to the world wide web. I realize how handicapped I am as I try to maintain a gprs connection despite a power outage and almost no telecom coverage. The goal. To upload a picture. The goal isn't that important to me any more. Its just me fixating really. But since I'm at it, I WILL prevail. As power is running out of my phone which I'm using to access the gprs provider simpati telkomsel I'm trying to charge it from my dead computer battery.

Cyborgs are displayed as powerful beings in movies, a bit retarded in ways but still adaptable. However the early cyborg sucks big time. Filled with bugs and childhood diseases he goes through withrawl after only hours of disconnection from the hive. Many a time have I though of back home and rejoicing in the fact that infrastructure and communications are actually working. Maybe I should instead fear the fact that our dependencies make us so weak and unable to function in environments without these?

Maybe it's time for me to go to a deserted island and pull a Robinson out of my arse. I heard that a couple of fellow swedes did just this not long ago. I'd really like to give it a go. But knowing me maybe I'd get too bored and rebuild technology. In fact it'd be a blast going to a desert island and see how much one could create with a minimum amount of tools in one or a couple of months.

For now though I'll rejouce in the fact that I beat the power outage on this island.

Rama, damn at Pulau Weh

I came to Pulau Weh for one reason and one reason only, To dive. Turns our that it's also the only reason one would want to go here for, at least during Ramadan. I find this religious anomaly quite annoying here. Oh fill where is your sense of tolerance and cultural acceptance? Well I have plenty of that. I just believe that they are crazy, and not just for believing in make belief stories and such. As one secludes oneself in thought and resists temptation during the Islamic lent, the goal for me is to prove ones resolve and come closer to whatever idea one have chosen. For me removing all temptation is not the same as showing resolve. In fact it's the opposite. Its proving and showcasing ones weakness in resisting temptation. If one had real resolve life would go on as usual. Except that one would would restrain from the actions preventing one from though of a deity. So the less problem one would have in connecting to the unproven powers the less it would effect normal life.

This would lead to shops and such being open. Food served to those who wants it and no judgement being made. For making judgement on others would definitively restrain one from the self connecting to the object of prayers.

Anyway I's just me wanting to have food, drinks and thing readily available during normal hours. I would't care too much if it wasen't recommended and imposed on people by the local government and the Imams.

If you go during Ramadan, dive. Dive like crazy cause it's the only thing to do. It's also one of the greatest places to dive in the world.

Diving is a tad expensive though and single dives start around 25 EUR but discounts are give for more dives. I tried out Rubiah divers and Lumba lumba divers during my time here and I prefer to dive with Lumba lumb. The diving and guiding skills are good at both places but it's the atmosphere at Lumba lumba I like more. The availability of food, drinks and beer makes it the obvious chose for me.

Getting to Iboih from the Banda Aceh terminal will cost a bit with a taxi but is the only way to get there. The price varies a bit abut it's a bout 150.000 for a car, which is split-able. Some tourists will stay at "sumor tiga" but all the divers stay at Iboih which I recommend.

Prices for food and things are remarkably more expensive than other places in Indonesia and also compared to Malaysia. 35K for a chicken curry is what you will have to pay in the touristy areas and it's not much cheaper in the city of Sabang. What is really expensive are drinks, specially when it comes to drink other than water. If you can, do your shopping in town and stock up.

Suns

It's not the size of the boat it's the motion of the ocean. In photography it's using the right boat at the right time. Sometimes it's big and sometimes it's small. We recently did some sunset and sunrise shots at Indonesia's most western tip, Pulau Weh.

Shooting the sun ins inherently quite hard. Despite it's large size it's so far away from earth that even with what is shout to be a clean shot one might miss. After all there are subspace anomalies, solar winds, orbiting bodies and the bending nature of light to consider. However taking a picture of it as it has in fact already long ago passed the tangent of earths horizon and our actual vision, timing it with a delay that coincides with it's light reaching us is not as hard. It's still a bit of a pickle though.

Sunset at Pulau Weh, Indonesia. Photo: Filip Marzuki

As the sun is quite the light source it naturally put us in a bit of a color and contrast problem shooting it. One way of combat this is using long exposure pictures. This is however a tad difficult with all the light. So bring those filters of yours. Also as it's fairly divided into a light upper part and a dark lower part, using a gradient filter helps too.

There are some differences between sunrises and sunsets. One is the color that one gets. As sunsets generally goes from a natural to a orangey color the sunrises goes from a orangey towards a bluish tint before flooding everything with massive light. Both phenomenons have a short window of time when it comes to getting those wanted shots.

Sunrise at Pulau Weh. Photo: Filip Marzuki

I wind the process of taking these pictures quite entertaining. For me it's more about what happens around and the human and natures interaction at these moments that amuses me more. Observing tourists going to and from the looking point to see or miss the sunset and sometimes even take some pictures of it. Even more interesting are the creatures reveling themselves during these hours. This time around I almost crashed into wild pigs twice and a bore once. The monkeys aren't so bad as they have the intellect to kindly step out of the way and not run in the direction of your bike, sometimes deciding to abruptly cross the rode while frightened. Other creatures one might crash into here on Pulau Weh are cows. Specially the ones that decide that the road is a good place to live and want to make sure you know it will defend it. It's all good and fine as long as you are in a big truck but on a scooter the cow could just as well a brick wall for all practical purposes of serious injury. Goats, birds, snakes, small children, and old ladies should also be added as random obstacles on the road. Naturally the accompanied hazard of various poo should also be included in this flora of animal dangers(and human too).