Golden Unicorns (long trips in ridesharing) come and go. Some people get one in a two year period. Others like me, have managed to get four, plus one platinum one. Yes that California trip. If you do a search for California in my blog, you’ll find that ride. This golden unicorn happened about a month ago and it was to SeattleTacoma international airport from Bellingham. Anyway I picked up two Indonesian blokes, their first stop before the long trip south, was to the Xfinity store to drop off a modem.
One jumped out to handle the modem situation. Xfinity had a one customer in store policy. Yep COVID-19. Staff wore masks and gloves. Portable hand sanitizer washing stations stood out the shop front like sentries, waiting to kill the first germ that waltzed passed. I spoke to the other passenger about their flight. “When is your flight?” I asked. “Tomorrow” he replied. “You staying somewhere over night?” I asked. “Yeah, a hotel” he responded. I didn’t know the pandemic statistics for Indonesia at the time, but I knew the USA was becoming more and more dramatic every day. People wanted to get the heck out of the country.
When the other passenger returned, I discussed with my passengers about how Indonesia was full of rich archaeologiscal sites. They heard some things about their history, but wasn’t informed about Homo floresiensis. I told them my honours supervisor was in charge of the archaeological excavation Professor Mike Morwood. I couldn’t help but think about the universe telling me something about my archaeological career. The knowledge I gave to them made them more enthusiastic about their history and what their country has. It reignited so many memories of my career. I told them that a local Indonesian archaeologist, Thomas Sutikna was the bloke who found the diminutive skull 20 metres down in the cave of Liang Bua. Proffessor Mike introduced me to him in 2006 and said “He is the one that found the skull, not me. He’s famous”. Over the years since the discovery, more individuals were located and with even their own micro stone tool kit. The discovery was on purpose, yet accidental at the same time. It was Homo erectus that was the reason for the excavation. Instead of finding more evidence of Homo erectus a new species was uncovered.
We then discussed their wildlife, including the infamous, yet menacing komodo dragon. The saliva they produce is full of bacteria and can kill an animal from one bite alone. The wound of the victim can become infected and the animal dies a slow death. Then the animal is ripped apart. Australia has it’s own giant monitor lizard, the goanna. It isn’t as large as the komodo dragon, but it is closely related. In Western Australia, the traditional owners hunted one right in front of me in the middle of an archaeological survey. They chased it into a rock shelter and used smoke to draw it out. Next they bashed it on the head with a rock and killed it. It was then cooked up and served to us that evening. I remember one of the blokes telling me. “Don’t eat the fat, it’ll give you the shits”. Duely noted. Personally I prefer eating kangaroo.
The sheer size of a komodo dragon is due to isolation events in the tropics. Generally warm blooded mammals shrink in an isolated warm climate. Elephants, rhinos, and pigs get smaller. Whereas reptiles and insects get larger over time. My passengers didn’t have a choice, but to listen to me unraveling my knowledge of archaeology and the environment of their own country. They were able to tell me some facts I didn’t know about Indonesia though. More so, their family values and culture. Eating habits was a good conversational topic, including not using your left hand when eating. It’s traditionally used for certain bathroom habits. I won’t get into the gory details on that.
My conversation lasted 2 hours with these two gents. The drive down was relatively short compared to normal. More people were staying at home now, which meant less traffic on the roads. Covid-19 must be helping the environment too, I thought. Less carbon emissions to worry about. On the way back I stopped into the city of Lynnwood and bought some Cadbury choccy and vegemite from World Market. Love that shop.
Anyway that was one ride south with Lyft and I scored a days pay from it.
