....previously, our time in Lake Toba...... We’d past
through Sidikalang briefly on the
way to Toba, and thought it looked
like it warranted a second look. So, on leaving Tuk Tuk and the lake, we bussed it to Sidikalang, found a flea pit hotel (not much else on offer), and
spent a fantastic afternoon- firstly at the incredible and vibrant Saturday
market, and then a stroll through the friendly outskirts of town.
Goldfish seller, market, Sidikalang
Chopped up gold fish for sale, Sidikalang
Sidikalang market
Mosque dome store, Sidikalang
Next
stop- Berastagi. We had ummed and
ahhed about whether to visit this KaroHighland town (we have to admit, it was
very tempting to stay in Lake Toba a
bit longer!), but we set aside a few nights to explore a couple of surrounding traditional
villages, shop in the markets with the astonishing array of perfect local
produce, laze in the nearby hot springs, and finally, climb our first volcano
(and maybe the last!)- Gunung Sibayak (2094
metres). Unfortunately, we didn’t feel much of a connection with the town, and
it was the first place in Sumatra
where we were asked for money/bon bons/pens- no doubt a remainder of stupid
tour groups handing presents out willy nilly. We grabbed the last two seats on
an extremely squishy bus heading for Medan,
and the one and a half hour trip turned into a hot and uncomfortable five due
to a road accident.
Funeral (Christian) at Dokan village
Dokan village, near Berastagi
Dokan village, near Berastagi
Dokan village, near Berastagi
The steaming Gunung Sibayak, Berastagi
Yes, we climbed a volcano in Crocs!
Gunung Sibayak, steam vents
Yay! We made it!
We've yet
to meet anyone who has liked Medan, but
to us, all the stories about pollution/crowds/traffic/noise are greatly
exaggerated. We enjoyed three days here, visiting some cultural sights (the
imposing Mesjid Raya, the slightly disappointing Maimoon Palace (only one room
open), and the art deco section of town), and some not so cultural sights (malls
and cinema). The young people wanting to
practice their English in Medan were
out in force. Always very polite and sweet, they approached us in the street
several times a day to ask questions. It ranged from a five minute
conversation, to going to cafes and chatting for an hour or two. We always make
time for these students- it obviously means a lot to them, and we enjoy hearing
their views about various issues too. It is one of the advantages, for us, in
have a lot of spare time!
Extra padding anyone?
The sights are a bit thin on the ground in Medan!
Cool art deco buildings in Medan
English practice, Medan
Bukit Lawang, probably the second most
touristy place in Sumatra after Lake Toba, was a lovely surprise. For a
village that exists primarily to accommodate, feed and water tourists, it is
pleasant- even charming in spots. The setting for the guesthouse strip is very
picturesque, with bungalows in gardens on one side and thick jungle on the
other side of the river, and the people working and living in the area are still welcoming and
happy for a casual chat, mostly without pressure. There are a lot of guides around hoping for trekking business, but we
made it clear straight away we weren’t interested, and they were OK with that.
People come here to see the orang-utans (an Indonesian word which means
“jungle person”), and one of the main things we wanted to see in Sumatra. They are severely endangered
in Sumatra, with only around 6,000
left in the wild here, and only in the Gunung
Leuser National Park, which stretches over much of North Sumatra and southern Aceh.
Bukit Lawang is one of the cheapest and easiest places to see wild and
semi-wild orang-utans in the world. Apart from trekking into the extremely
humid, wet and muddy jungle (not our thing!), there is a feeding platform set
up, a half hour slog into the jungle, where certain “semi-wild” orang-utans
come for auxiliary feeding after being introduced into the wild. We were so
lucky on the morning we went, to see three moms with babies, and a huge male
who hung around after feeding to observe us all observing him with a bemused
expression! We did wonder where our AU $2.50 plus AU$5.50 for a camera fee was
going when we saw the state of the canoe to take us to the national park side
of the river. Very dodgy! We spent the rest of our time in Bukit Lawang, enjoying the gushing river view from our verandah, being
woken early in the morning by the sweet Thomas’ leaf monkeys followed by the
aggressive macaques, visiting the “bat cave”, and strolling along the riverside and
canal.
Leaky boat on dodgy river crossing, Bukit Lawang
He's gorgeous!
What a poser
A tube procession
School holidays, Bukit Lawang
Bat cave, Bukit Lawang
Bat cave, Bukit Lawang
Guesthouse, Bukit Lawang
Bukit Lawang riverside
Since Bukit Lawang is only a few hours from Medan (unless you come on the painfully
stop/start bus we took), the Medanese flock here on the weekends, so to avoid a
peaceful place becoming noisy, we left, and spent the weekend in Medan (already noisy to start with!),
before our flight back to Penang,
Malaysia. We truly had a wonderful two months in Sumatra, with this trip confirming Indonesian as being the friendliest nation we have visited (and there is some serious competition there!!) We were sad to leave, but we know we will be back in the country in September..... and can't wait!!
Wood carver, Bukit Lawang
Just a last general note about
this and that
Transport
Throughout
Sumatra, the faithful old L300 style
minibuses were a reliable, inexpensive and usually comfortable ride. As previously
stated, we loved that they would pick us up from our hotel, and drop us off to
the door at the other end- even if it meant asking around to find the location
of our chosen guesthouse when the driver didn’t know. The becak (motorized rickshaws) were equally great- we used them often
due to their extremely cheap price. Labi
labi or opelet (minibuses) were
also a handy and economical way of traveling longer distances.
Old, but good L300 bus
Tight squeeze, becak
Accommodation
We stayed
at a mixture of hotels, guesthouse and bungalows in Sumatra. We found
accommodation to be very cheap- usually we paid about 60,000 to 70,000 rupiah
(AU$6 or AU$7) per night, generally without breakfast, and sometimes with a shared
bathroom. (We compared this to Sulawesi last year, where we were
typically paying 100,000 rupiah (AU$11), with breakfast for the same type of
room.) In touristy areas such as Pulau Weh, Lake Toba, Berastagi and Bukit Lawang, the standard of the rooms was reasonably high, and
elsewhere was basic, but usually clean.
Room Takengon
Lake Toba room
Room Banda Aceh
Bukit Lawang room
Smallest bathroom ever
Food
We admit
to not being big fans of Indonesian warung
(street stalls) food, but on this trip to Sumatra the food started to grow on
us (not literally). We looked forward to the nasi campur meals of rice with one of many choices of veggies,
chicken/fish dishes and curries from the rumah
makan (small restaurants). Gado gado (steamed vegetables, rice and
peanut sauce)and satay
chicken, goat and beef were also nice now and again, but the Indonesian nasi goreng (fried rice) and mie goreng (fried noodles, usually the
2-minute variety) still left us bored. We also got into tempe- a fermented soy bean cake, which is chopped up, fried and
delicious, although I still can’t quite believe Richard enjoyed it! The
Sumatran coffee lived up to its good reputation, and we even tried kopi luwak for the first time- coffee
beans are eaten by a civet cat, shat out, cleaned and ground up. Bandrek tea became a favourite of Sal’s-
peppery and gingery, and great for the cold nights in the highlands! Of course,
in the touristy areas, there was a lot more “western” food on offer, and we
made the most of the banana pancakes, cheese on toast and avocado shakes when
they were available.
Typical breakfast in tourist place
Typical breakfast elsewhere
All Australians will agree this is WRONG!!!
Typical warung stall
Language
Unlike Sulawesi, there is often someone around
in Sumatra who speaks a bit of
English -even in slightly more of the beaten track places. Of course, in
touristy areas, many people do, and we rarely practised our limited Indonesian
language skills. As a result, we became lazy and forgot much of what we had
previously learnt.
One final interesting
observation.....Over our 15 years of travelling in Asia, and a few
other places, we have noticed two games that are universally played by
children. One is the old “Running Along Pushing A Tyre With A Stick” game,
and the other we call “The Shoe Game”. It consists of any number of kids
setting up a small target of some sort, taking off one of their thongs
(that’s flip flops to you Europeans and Americans!), and trying to aim and
hit the target from a designated distance. Whoever is closest, wins. It’s
amazing how widespread this game is.
As we left Aceh
province, and entered North Sumatra,
the churches took over the mosques in number, headscarves disappeared, and charming, old, wooden cottages lined the road.
The journey was long to Samosir Island
(the island in the middle of the huge Lake
Toba), and on arriving in the rain and dark, we learnt the mini buses were
no longer running. So close, yet so far! So we stayed in Pangururan for the night (the eastern side of Samosir Island), and legged it the next day to the backpacker haunt
of Tuk Tuk.
We knew this had been a popular place for travelers to rest up on long journeys for years, but we had no idea how many hotels/guesthouse/restaurants/shops
there are here. If they ever all fill up, it must be a crazy place. Luckily we
were here during off season, and it was very quiet and relaxed. Despite all the
facilities, it is somehow a still low-key village, with the only downside the
desperation of the locals to sell travelers services- one restaurant owner telling us “I have to be friendly to the foreigners,
because there are so many restaurants for them to choose from”. Interesting
attitude. After one atmospheric, but potentially uncomfortable night in a
traditional Batak house, we found the wonderfully tranquil Liberta Guesthouse, and scored
the best room with views over the lake for around AU$6 a night.
Our first house, Tuk Tuk
Our first house, Tuk Tuk
Our Liberta hut, Tuk Tuk
View from Liberta hut, Tuk Tuk
Friendly Indonesian tourists
Love the camera!
Local boys guarding their buffalo
75,000 years ago Mount Toba erupted in a colossal explosion that was apparently the
biggest event in the history of mankind. One of the results was Danau (Lake) Toba- the world’s largest
and deepest crater lake. Tuk Tuk is
a large peninsula on the massive Singapore-sized
Samosir Island in the middle of the
lake.
Dramatic sky, Tuk Tuk
View of Danau Toba with Tuk Tuk in background
Local cutie
Steps, Tuk Tuk
A rare double rainbow around the sun
North
Sumatra is inhabited by the tuak
(palm wine) drinking, pork-loving Batak people, and LakeToba is their
heartland, with a very large population. There are gory stories of the Bataks
being cannibals in the past, when enemies were rubbed down with garlic, before
their flesh was eaten raw and their blood drunk. Obviously, this practice
finished when they converted to Christianity 150 years ago. Although churches
are ever-present in the North Sumatra
area, and every Sunday, everyone dresses up to go to the service, the Bataks
still practice their traditional faith and beliefs, including black magic. I
love the story, that after Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic powers tried to convert
the strongly proud Bataks, they finally accepted Christianity, because it meant
they would be able to eat pork, and because the Christians brought lots of big,
fat pigs with them!
Sunday church-goers
Tomb mixing Christian and traditional elements
Stone carving, Ambarita
Ambarita
Ancient tomb site, Tomok
Egyptian influence? King's tomb, Tomok
Stone carvings, Tomok
Old tomb site, Ambarita
Love those pigs!
We alternated between hanging out in the guesthouse garden taking in the sun and the glorious lake view, eating copious amounts of great food (the avocado and chocolate shakes quickly became a firm favorite),and exploring different areas on the island by foot and motorbike- the south road being by far the most scenically stunning. We found the various ancient ruins scattered around the island interesting- many of them related to the king's tombs, meeting places and sites of grisly executions and cannibalism. The village architecture of North Sumatra has strong influence from other parts of Asia- we were particularly surprised at the similarity to the traditional buildings in Sulawesi.
Traditional village, Pulau Samosir
Easy rider
Beautiful scenery around Pulau Samosir
Rice fields, Pulau Samosir
Beautiful scenery around Pulau Samosir
Colorful shawls at market
Curious, Parapat
The time came for us to tear ourselves away from our comfortable abode at Liberta Guesthouse in Tuk Tuk, Lake Toba, and get back on the road. We will be back!
