Two weeks ago, I had a cold. It lasted about a week but by the weekend, it was better. Last week, I had a stomach virus. I missed one day of work and didn't eat much of anything for four days, but by Saturday, I was feeling all right. It's no fun being sick, but at least the illness have the courtesy to leave me in peace for the weekends because that is when the real fun happens.
Last weekend, I left Jakarta on a bus in the middle of the night on Friday, which was technically Saturday. We met at 3 am but didn't leave until about 4 am. We drove to a tiny village about two hours from the city where we were extras in a commercial shoot.
They started filming at about 7 am, on the bank of a river where they had set up this elaborate picnic scene. Across the river were endless rice paddies with mountains as a backdrop. My part in the first scene was to stand in the river, with water up to my knees, and pretend to catch fish (with my hands). There were eight of us trying to catch fish while the rest of the foreigners were lounging around on the river bank, enjoying the picnic. They had the fish in little cages with open tops, so we could easily pretend that we had some crazy hand-eye coordination skills.
For about two hours, I followed the director's instructions, moving around, being excited about catching fish. Then, we had to play in the water for another hour while the crew moved on to filming scenes on the riverbank and we were just background. By 10 am, my part was done. So, we moved back up into the village, which was really just a couple of houses and another elaborate set that the crew had constructed. They pulled another group to go off and do something else and I was free to nap.
Unfortunately, lying in the hot sun on a bamboo porch is not ideal for sleeping. After about an hour, I gave up and went for a walk. At some point, they fed us. Then, after lunch, they took more people off to film another scene. While the camera crew were gone, the building crew got to work turning our little makeshift huts into a serious party scene.
Because of the language barrier, it's sometimes hard to understand what is happening around me. I had an agent--or at least the person who had recruited me to be in the commercial--but she was off sleeping somewhere so I couldn't ask her when we'd be done. But as the crew was working on putting up lights and lanterns, it became clear that the scene was meant to be filmed in the dark. So, I settled in for the long haul, contenting myself with chatting up strangers and going for walks. It was pretty cool being there, seeing the village and seeing how a commercial is made. I was tired, but managing.
Finally, at about 5:30 pm, the sun started to descend and they gathered us all together for further instructions. The scene was a barbeque that the village was throwing for the tourists. We were about five minutes away from beginning when the rain started. You can tell when the rain will be heavy because the first drops are extra large and they fall with a loud plop. The first drops fell and everybody made a beeline for the covered patios. There we sat for about an hour and half, miserable, tired, and wondering if we'd get to go home. We heard that if the rain hadn't stopped by 8 pm, we would get to go home. So naturally, at about 7:45 pm, it stopped. It took them about an hour to reset everything and then we spent another six hours filming various scenes at the barbeque.
The rain had been heavy, but I still couldn't believe it when I walked to the river bank. The bridge that you see in the first picture above had washed away completely and the place where I had stood only a few hours earlier, up to my knees, was now completely raging. There were a few families stuck on both sides of the river, wondering (I guess) how there were going to get back to their houses.
I've rarely been as tired as I was on the drive home. The road was so bumpy, it was impossible to sleep but my muscles were done supporting me. So, I sort of slumped over and waited for it to be over. As tired as I was, I'm glad I did it. It was great to see what life is like outside of the cities and I met some cool new people too!
I have to say, though, that I much prefer what I did this weekend, which was take a boat back out to Pulau Seribu for another two days of sand, swimming, and snorkeling. During our first weekend, we were content to let the boat take us from place to place, but this time we just wanted to find a beach and relax for a while and then go to just one snorkeling spot. It turned out that there was really nice coral right off of the beach, so we just swam out and got our snorkeling fix without ever going anywhere else.
We had dinner again at the floating restaurant and we spent Sunday morning on the same island where we met all the kids last time. They were there again, but our jet skiing friends were not. No worries though. This time, we hired a boat that stayed with us until we wanted to leave so we made it back in plenty of time to catch the boat back to Jakarta. Pramuka Island is fast becoming a comfortable and familiar place for me. I can't wait to go again!
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