Impressions One Year Out

I spoke with my father on the phone the other day. We chatted about life and shared stories. He asked what I've been most surprised by during my journeys, and after thinking about it, this is what I came up with:

1) People Are Friendly.
- No matter where we've been, we've found extraordinarily interesting, courteous, and helpful people. Recently, for example, we met Chandrshakarkrishna (CK) who was working on Danga Bay's wifi network. The next morning, he came by with his wife and son, took us to breakfast, and dropped us off at the terminal to Singapore. It's much harder to find a dishonest person than it is to make a new friend.

2) Pictures Make The World Look Exotic.
- Before leaving on this trip, I pictured the remote and exotic scenery I would encounter. Maybe it's because the transition between countries and cultures is gradual, but looking around, nothing seems out of place to me. Looking through old photos the other day, even recent shots taken in Indonesia look more exotic than I remember them.

3) Bureaucracy Restricts Humanity.
- Many business management books talk about following your 'moral compass' when making decisions. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that "Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles." It is without a doubt that society requires rules to function, but in so many parts of the world, rules are ill-founded and do more harm than good. India has stifling visa requirements and as a result, we have re-routed our journey. Although India's immigration restrictions are designed to prevent terrorism, they only serve to make it more costly and difficult to visit. Policy and rules need to be enabling; they must allow people to rely on their moral compass and principles to make good decisions.


But the one thing I am continually learning above all, is that the world is an interesting place.

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Avoiding the Embrace of Mediocrity

There are certain types of books that I'm drawn to more than others. While I tend to give romance novels a pass, I do enjoy reading non-fiction books on current events, history, or people. I find that I also have a particular interest in stories about professional cycling and its riders. I recently picked up a book which covers the 2005 Tour de France entitled "Chasing Lance" by Martin Dugard. At the bottom of page 123, I found this quote:

"You rolled yourselves into a ball in your genteel security, in routine, raising a modest rampart against the winds and tides and stars. Nobody grasped you by the shoulders while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped has dried and hardened, and naught will you ever awaken the sleeping musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited you in the beginning."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The author uses the quote to describe why he thinks society admires people that have achieved greatness (like Lance Armstrong). Every human being has the potential to be great, but sometimes people find comfort in accepting simple mediocrity. However, by doing so, an individual's potential is limited, and unfortunately it is often self-limiting.

Professional cyclists like Lance Armstrong push themselves to extraordinary limits, both physically and mentally. When they achieve greatness, the effort exerted to do so is clearly visible. Perhaps by watching someone else push their limits, we are inspired to do likewise and break through Saint-Exupery's clay mold of mediocrity.

I've never met Lance Armstrong, but I've been lucky enough to meet a number of other inspirational people recently. From world travelers, to a young Malayasian man that started his own business, to cruisers raising families on sailboats, there are many people out here that have achieved greatness in their own way. What common trait have they all shared? They're bold; and although mediocrity may have been easily attainable, they were all driven to accomplish more.

Saint-Exupery's quote is a bit negative, and his allusion to hardened clay doesn't necessarily inspire hope. But don't forget, clay breaks easily - especially on a boat at sea.

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Traveling the World by Land

Two days ago, I got an e-mail from my mom telling me that a good friend from Poland is in Kuala Lumpur. I sent him an e-mail suggesting that we meet up, and received the following response:

"Hi Adam,

Sounds good! Actually I am in Malacca now, on my way to Singapore and probably Indonesia later. I'll go to Johor Bahru tomorrow morning and will give you a call. Where can I find you?

-Witek"

I gave Witek info on how to find the boat, and sure enough, the next afternoon he was standing on the dock.

Witek has been traveling for the past two months. Like me, he recently finished grad school and set aside some personal time to go see the world. Two months ago, however, he embarked on a very different journey.

Witek left Poland on a flight to Finland, traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, took a train across Siberia, crossed Mongolia, traveled south through China, hopped on a plane from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur, and now he's in Singapore planning his next move (most likely on a plane to Indonesia). He has one more month of travel planned, and he's trying to decide how to fit Borneo, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos into his itinerary.

We sat and swapped stories from our respective journeys, and I think we both felt a little jealous of the other.
He carries nothing but a school-size backpack, travels by train and bus, and stays at hostels and cheap hotels. He said the only difficulty he encounters is finding good internet cafes; transportation has been very good and there are always hostels close to train and bus terminals.

Although the EYE of the World crew is seeing the world by sea, Witek is a prime example of another great way to travel.


Classroom Exercise:
Take a world map and trace out Witek's route. How does it compare to the EYE of the World route?



PS: We sent the above photo to both of our mothers.

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Creature Tourism

Want to go see orangutans in the wild? You won't have to sail around the world to do it (although you will have to travel halfway around the world). We've met many tourists from all over that have taken a grand trek to interact with the great apes of Southeast Asia. Here's how:

1) Get Here. Get to Kumai, Borneo. We sailed here, but there is an airport in a nearby town with regular flights to Jakarta (which has regular flights to anywhere else in the world).

2) Hire a Guide. Once in Kumai, arrange a boat tour with one of many operators. We've heard that some contract with travel agents abroad, so that it's possible to pre-book, but certainly not necessary (we booked a whole day speedboat trip at 4:00 PM the prior day). The guides are important. Aside from introducing you to the wild orangutans, they also have a much more important job: orangutan wrestler. Sometimes orangutans get aggressive, and without cages or barriers, there's little stopping one from attacking you. We witnessed several guides get physically involved when orangutans got grabby. Thankfully our guide explained how to prevent an orangutan from having interest in you (don't carry any food, bags, or have anything in your pockets). If an orangutan did grab you, submit (just as we did with Siswi as she reached out to hold our hands).

3) Decide What to See. There are many options for visiting the Tanjung Puting Reserve. We took a one day speed boat trip which included 1.5 hour trip to one camp to see a 9:00 AM feeding, then another 20 minute ride up to Camp Leakey. We were provided lunch and snacks, two boats and drivers, and an English speaking Guide. Another option is to take a slow river boat and spend from 2-6 days in the jungle. Each day you would visit camps, hike, and interact with orangutans. Each night you sleep onboard the houseboat, as a full crew cooks you meals and takes care of you.

4) Hang Out! It was wild (literally) to be within swinging distance of an orangutan. Each has a distinctly unique character, and watching them interact with humans and each other is something you can never get in a zoo.

If you're young and are more than just passively interested in orangutans, think about studying them professionally as a scientist. With hard work and good grades, there are ways to get your schooling and research paid for!

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Crossing Notes: Bali to Borneo

Before every crossing, we ritualistically clean, pack, wait for a weather window, settle into our watch schedule, and sail. Our most recent crossing was no different. We delayed our departure by a day to wait for favorable conditions (a healthy 5 day window with high pressure and 5-10 kt winds out of the southeast) and left before sunrise on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, soon after we lost sight of the island of Bali, we found ourselves on 'Lake Indonesia.' Our forecasted winds were nowhere to be found. Hundreds of miles from land in all directions, and there wasn't a wave, swell, or even ripple to be seen. The Java Sea was a sheet of glass, and we crossed almost all of it with our engine running.

One afternoon, we took a swim break. We stopped the engine, came to a stop, and jumped in (with someone on the boat at all times). It was very refreshing.

After another day of no wind, we decided to swim again. As Alan, Halley, Amanda, and I jumped in the water, Matt stayed on the boat. He went down below, but little did the rest of the crew know that he went to use the head (our toilet).

We have a pump that flushes the head holding tank into the water outside the boat (called the macerator). Hearing it turn on while in the water next to the boat is rather unpleasant.

As those in the water were all screaming 'Matt no!!' someone noticed two sea snakes swimming nearby, which made the mad dash for the ladder even madder. On top of that, the first person out saw a shark while there were still people in the water.

The shark turned out to be a remora and although sea snakes are poisonous, their mouths are tiny and they're just curious, so it was ok. Matt now knows not to macerate when people are swimming, and he was quick to point out that he did, in fact, save our lives.

With less than 100 miles to go in a crossing, we usually get antsy and excited to step on shore the next day. On this crossing, with 100 miles to go, little did we know that we wouldn't touch dry land for another three days.

Our windless 'Lake Indonesia' suddenly turned into the land of lightning squalls. Each afternoon, we would watch the tops of puffy cumulus clouds soar upwards and form the definitive anvil tops of cumulo-nimbus clouds. The bottoms of these clouds became dark, bands of rain developed, wind began to blow, and by nightfall, the lightning would begin. Sometimes the tops of the clouds would glow bright orange; other times impressive bolts would streak down to the water.

But all of them were silent; without any thunder.

We carefully watched each cloud and successfully (yet anxiously) plotted courses of avoidance. The lightning would continue until 1:00 AM, and then pick up again at 4:00 AM until sunrise.

On our final afternoon, the wind filled in with coming squalls, but being within 40 miles of our anchorage, we pressed on and thankfully were able to navigate the river at night and set our anchor at a reasonable hour.

We are all relieved to be in Kumai. However, our most recent crossing is a bold reminder of the old saying: "Calm seas do not make a skilled sailor."

In a few days we'll have to leave again. There's a weather window a week away that should be free of lightning squalls; however, another old saying comes to mind: "A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are for."

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Quit Monkeying Around!

On our trip to the Monkey Forest in Ubud, a Monkey stole my water bottle.

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An Estimate of the Ojek Driver Wage Rate in Maumere

Like many of our other 'Basket of Goods' fans, I'm always curious about how much things cost around the world. Indonesia has so far been the cheapest country in our travels. Fruit, taxis, and haircuts are all very inexpensive. It's easy to observe these prices, but it is a little tougher to infer wages in an informal market. This is my back-of-the-envelope calculation of the wage rate for a motorbike taxi driver. The information was collected from direct observation, transactions, and discussions with local Indonesians. A number of assumptions are made based on observations and best educated guesses.

Background:

The primary method for getting around Maumere is either by overcrowded mini-bus called a 'Bemoh,' or on the back of motorbike taxi called an 'Ojek.' Anyone with a motorbike can be an Ojek driver (there isn't any specific designation), and all bikes travel at the same relative speed (frighteningly fast).

Revenue:

We routinely traveled the 25 minute ride between downtown Maumere and the Sao Resort where our boat was anchored for 10,000 IDR. Some rides were longer (about 40 minutes to the museum, or 60 minutes to our friend Nofi's home), yet we paid the same rate of 10,000 IDR for each of those rides. Throughout Indonesia, we have often paid higher prices than the locals (on account of being obvious tourists). Our 'Tourist markup' has ranged from 33 to 200%. 10,000 IDR for a 25 minute ride is thus an upper-bound.

On one morning ride into town, I counted empty ojeks out of a 10 bike sample every two minutes. I considered those carrying people, rice, baked goods, water bottles, or other cargo as 'occupied.' On this particular ride, I found an average of 4.2 Ojeks out of ten to be 'available.' Given this assumption of 42% of the driver's time spent looking for rides, a driver could fit approximately 11 rides into an 8 hour workday. Since many ojeks do not roam, but rather park and wait in central locations (such as the market), there are likely more empty bikes in the town at any one time than roaming the streets. Thus this estimate is similarly an upper-bound.

Using this information, the upper-bound estimate of a driver's expected daily revenue is 110,000 IDR.

Costs:

The following information was collected from discussions with staff at the Sao Resort, a taxi driver, and two different ojek drivers. The bikes used as ojek's are simple 50cc gasoline powered motorbikes. A bike might last 10 years and a new Honda or Yamaha costs around 50,000,000 IDR. A driver might put four liters of gasoline in the bike to cover a full day's worth of driving, and the maintenance costs of a bike are low (I am assuming 15% of the bike's value over its lifetime).

Using a ten-year time horizon with no salvage value, a 15% lifetime maintenance cost, and a 5% discount rate, the present value daily cost of owning a motorbike is 20,401 IDR. The cost of a day's worth of driving (four liters of gasoline at 4,500 IDR/liter) is 18,000 IDR.

It is unclear whether these costs represent a lower or upper bound. A different discount rate (due to fewer alternative investment options, uncertainty in the stability of the rupiah, or a high probability of accidents), lower maintenance costs, a higher salvage value, or alternative and cheaper brands of new bikes can skew this estimate in either direction. However, all of the assumptions made are based upon the best information available at the time.

The expected daily cost of operating an ojek is thus 38,401 IDR.

Results:

Using the above estimates for the revenue and cost over an 8 hour workday, an ojek driver's expected daily take-home income is 71,599 IDR. This equates to 8,950 IDR per hour. Using 8,817 IDR as the 1 USD equivalent, the expected value estimate for the hourly wage of an ojek driver is 1.02 USD per hour.

In comparison with the other informal low-skill jobs visible in Maumere (fisherman, market vendor, restaurant operator, bemoh driver), ojek drivers seemed to be on average wealthier and better dressed. Most had cellular phones and fashionable helmets. Becoming an ojek driver requires a significant up-front investment. Shop-owners, taxi drivers, bank employees, and government officials, in turn were clearly wealthier than ojek drivers. Within the context of the full labor marker, the ojek driver wage rate appears to be higher than most informal low-skill jobs, however certainly lower than the formal skilled labor market.

Please keep in mind that this is a back-of-the-envelope calculation in its truest form (I even did some of the math on the back of an envelope).

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