Earthquake in Nias Indonesia

The main headline today in many news sites around the world is the earthquake in Nias. It must seem to people living outside of Indonesia that this country never gets a break from bad news with terrorist bombings, the tsunami and now this to add to the ever present threat of volcanic eruptions.

Someone once said that the culture and landscape of Bali look serene but you have to remember we are on a fault zone with volcanoes that can erupt at any minute. That is actually a good metaphor for the social situation here.

The recent disasters have brought places like Aceh and Nias into the public eye whereas they were virtually unmentioned before. I have visited Nias myself in 1993 with a small group of Europeans who I did a 10 day jungle trek with in neighboring Siberut. Nias back then did not get a tremendous amount of tourists and the big draw was Lagundi Bay, the large reef break on the south west coast famous with surfers.

I remember an overnight ferry ride from the port of Sibolga through a storm. At one point I went up to the wheelhouse to see what was going on only to find about 30 locals all crammed in giving the guy who was steering this vessel advice as to direction. To my surprise I saw it was actually a wooden wheel the captain was using to steer and there appeared to be no electrical devices or any kind of navigational / communication equipment. When you read the news and it says Indonesian ferry sinks its really not surprising.

Many of the ferries are actually cargo vessels with the captain selling tickets to passengers for extra cash. The same is true for passenger vessels, tons of cargo get loaded on raising the waterline dangerously. A British tourist once recalled the captain running up and down the boat yelling at the passengers Go to the left, now go to the right, as the overloaded, boat tipped from side to side in the strong waves. It eventually sank.

Getting to Nias takes some work, its an overnight trip on a local boat from Sibolga north of Padang and Bukittinggi, to Telukdalam on the south of the island and is out of the way so that is why is did not have size of some of the locations in Thailand. In 1993 Lagundi Bay was fringed with 1 and 2-storey guest houses, maybe 30-40. Locals would rent these very cheap expecting to make their money on meals and drinks. I remember my friend and I paid the equivalent of 25 cents a day for a small place with twin beds.

For surfers I remember that Lagundi Bay is a right hander, meaning the waves breaks to the surfers right. This makes the break ideal for naturals, people who prefer to place their left foot forward, allowing them to face the wave at it breaks right. The waves shoots along the edge of the reef and I stood many times on the edge of the reef in 18 inches of water watching surfers flying along in a few meters in front of me. At the end of the tube the waves curl round left into Lagundi Bay. The at the top of the page is an old photo I took.

Nias has one of the worst strains of malaria in Indonesia, a fact I found out afterwards. I sat around in the evening wearing only shorts as it was so bloody hot and did not feel there were too many mosquitos. One surfer told me you have to be careful of places like Lombok where the hills drop sharply to the lowlands. He said in places like that the water does not form streams, as in Bali, but runs quickly down and forms ponds at the bottom allowing mosquitoes to develop easily. I cannot say if that is true or not.

I used to go for long walks in Nias and one of the main industries was coconuts. Thick forests of trees were seemingly deserted along the coast, but were marked and the locals knew exactly who owned what tree.

I hope the people I stayed with back then are okay after the tsunami and earthquake. Being on the southern facing side of the island meant they were probably out of the way of the tsunami and their low structures hopefully withstood the shaker.

I have actually been in a large earthquake in another Asian country. In 1995 I was in the Philippines and once again was renting a small bamboo shack close to the beach. Around 4am the whole house starts shaking like a giant has it in his grasp. The rattles get more and more intense and finally I got out of bed and walked outside. I knew immediately it was a quake, but thought the bamboo and grass roof was not too threatening.

We all gathered out between the small shacks listening to radio Manila telling us about the 7.2 quake centered at Baguio in the highlands. Our location was about 20 meters from the waters edge and another 20 meters from a cliff. All the villagers came running down from the cliff top, afraid their houses would be caught in a landslide. I clearly remember thinking to myself, should I be worried about a tsunami, seeing as they go with earthquakes? As dawn rose I saw the tide had gone out a long way and stayed out for a few hours. We heard later a small island, Isla Verde 10kms across the channel did catch a tsunami and about 40 people lost their lives. When the tide came back its carried larger weaves than normal but nothing large enough to spoil the party. I think one funny thing about these situations, natural disasters and ship accidents etc. you feel like nobody is in charge. In Asia I feel like that quite a lot of the time anyway, but in these situations its really locals helping locals that saves people rather than the government doing anything.

Indonesia is a massive country and part of a fascinating region. Do not let all the natural disasters stop you from coming. Here in Bali people were not even aware there of an earthquake.