My travels through Asia and beyond

Just came back from a couple of days travel in Berastagi, a two hour trip from Medan, Sumatra.

Berastagi is famous for its two volcanoes Gunung Sibayak and Gunung Sinabung. Transport to Berastagi from Medan is limited to either a very cheap and crowded public bus or an expensive chartered taxi. I asked around at several places for taxi prices and the best deal I got was 300,000 rupiah. Everyone I spoke to about the bus to Berastagi let out a long moan while they shook their heads, so I opted for the taxi.

I have traveled on public buses a couple of times in the past few weeks and I could usually handle the cramped conditions and lack of AC, but I cannot stand someone chain smoking Indonesian clove cigarettes the whole way.

Spending more time drinking beer than exercising the past few months (years), when I a guidebook says an “easy 3 hour trek”, I translate this to four hours of pain and knowing that I won’t be able to climb any stairs for the next few days.

The road up to Sibayak is paved for most of the way, so you could get a bus up most of the way, if you are really feeling lazy. I did manage to see a monkey in the tree tops, so I would say the walk up is worth it. The road then turns to steps, which have been washed away in many places, but it is still fairly easy going.

The trees eventually give away to volcanic rock and after one final ascent you can see the crater of Mount Sibayak. If you climb just a bit more, you will get spectacular views of the town below. While I sat admiring the view, a mist came in over the crater, making it impossible to see the path I had taken up. Fortunately there was another path that took me around the crater and back to track I had taken up the volcano.

Gunung Sinabung is a more challenging climb and from all of the stories I heard should not be taken lightly. Hiring an experienced guide is strongly advisable.

Gundaling Hill has great views of Sinabung especially at sunset. A shop selling “Mexican spicy chicken” had free wifi in the center of town. There are few losmen in the center of town, but are probably noisy places to stay. There are plenty of nicer hotels with good views and gardens outside of the center.

I got a taxi yesterday and the driver said something about a nightclub in Bangkok. I had no idea what he wanted to say and found it pretty odd me being in Indonesia that a taxi driver was talking about a nightclub in Bangkok. Only later did I find out about the tragedy at a nightclub in Bangkok, leaving over 60 people dead and 200 injured.

I had never been to the place, but I have been to plenty of discos, bars and nightclubs all over Asia that are potential deathtraps.

Most bars in Japan are reached by elevators and probably nothing more than a tiny stairwell for an emergency exit. In Tokyo there are so many tall narrow buildings with different bars on every level. I have been in some bars that were packed and if there was a fire or earthquake, it would be impossible to escape.

I celebrated New Years here in Indonesia and while they don’t have the problems with alcohol like in Australia, people were letting off firecrackers all over the city. It was fun, but you can sort of understand why they were banned in Australia.

It was interesting being in Thailand when protesters shutdown the airport, now I am in world’s most populous Islamic country as a conflict has erupted between Palestine and Israel.

My friend showed me a leaflet that was being distributed, basically saying “fuck all Christians”. Demonstrations are being held in Jakarta and for some reason a KFC was attacked. I could understand it if they were attacking it for their fatty food, but how can they link it to problems in the middle east.

Free flights are being offered to Palestine for Indonesian muslims who are willing to go there to fight. The news reported that around 10,000 people were taking up the offer. The news here has been showing distressing scenes of buildings demolished and injured children in hospitals in Palestine. Obviously, nothing of what attacks might have been carried out by Palestinians in Israel.

The whole middle east situation has been going on for a long time with no end in sight, but it worries me when Islamic countries like Indonesia start to see it as a black and white, us against them, Muslim versus Christian/Jew problem.

And Indonesia wonders why tourism is down in the country.

As you may have noticed by now, I really enjoyed my stay in Lake Toba. There is something about the surroundings and the people that I hadn’t experienced before on my travels. One of the more interesting tourist spots on Samosir Island is the “Stone Chair”. Where ever you travel to you can usually be assured that you will be handed a brochure that lists 5-10 must see attractions. More often than not they are temples/waterfalls/islands all beautiful/interesting in their own right, but once you have seen one Buddhist temple…

The “Stone Chair” looked at first to be a bunch of old batak houses, but the place has an interesting story. The guide was the grandson of the king of this particular village on Samosir Island. After showing us the batak houses, one of which he lives with his family, we were taken to the “court”. The court was a circle of stone benches where the king and other other men heard cases against criminals. Crimes included theft, murder and adultery.

If found guilty, the batak calendar was consulted and an execution date set. The prisoner was held in a jail underneath the king’s house.

The batak people were animists who believed in voodoo and witchcraft. This is one of the magic books. You can see the guide’s 3-year old daughter on the left, who burst into tears when we walked away without her.

The execution area was just a few meters from the court. The criminal was bound and placed on a stone table and beaten with clubs.

The criminal then had his body slashed with a small knife. Lemon, garlic and chilli were then rubbed into the cuts. The guide acted out the scenes pretty well, and even though his English wasn’t great, he described the execution in excruciating detail.

The criminal then faced the chopping block as kindly demonstrated.

Just when I thought the story couldn’t get any worse, the guide continued telling us how the heart was cut out of the body, which the king then proceeded to eat. The blood was drained from the body which the king also drunk. The body was cut up and fed to the whole village. Only the head and bones were dumped in Lake Toba and people weren’t allowed to fish or visit the lake for seven days.

The last execution was held in 1816, when German missionaries converted the batak people to Christianity. I think the transformation is pretty amazing. As Christians the people are very devout, but the people still seem to hold many of their old beliefs. I heard stories about a man who lives underwater in Lake Toba for months at a time, only surfacing to consult with the Indonesian President and a two-legged lion who roams the jungles.

Here is the king’s tomb where our guide also has a place reserved.

Googling for more information on Lake Toba, I came across this very interesting article.

On Batak women:

“They are not pretty like the Javanese or Acehnese girls. But they are the best women in the world. The best hearts,” he says, pounding on his chest.

“They take care of everything. They plant the rice, they cook the food, wash the clothes, never complain and take care of their men,” he says with a wink.

“They are all loyal,” he adds, “we men here don’t do much. We play chess all day, guitar and drink at night. Sure, we build the houses and other things like that, but they love us the same.”

And on tourism:

“We could make Toba and Tuk-tuk into a tourist place like Bali,” he said, “but why? We have all we need here. No one is rich, but no one is poor. The tourist who do visit us are like you and you are like us. We are all Batak!”

Arrived back in Medan yesterday from Lake Toba. It was sad to leave as it is such a beautiful and relaxing place. It was market day in Parapat which is on the mainland, so many of the locals were catching the ferry from the island to the market. It seemed like I had talked to them all at least once.

Most of the guesthouses are in Tuk-tuk and the ferry stops by each guesthouses to pick you up. I med a couple of German guys who have spent every winter for the last five or six years at Lake Toba. They negotiated basic rooms for 20,000 rupiah (US$1.7) a night for two months. I was paying the princely sum of 75,000 (US$6.65), for a big, beautiful clean room with hot water. It was close to Christmas, which is why I had to pay the inflated rate.

Food and beer is also cheap. What more could you want? There aren’t any raging bars, which is probably a good thing. The locals are all super friendly and other travelers get together in the hotel restaurants at night for a beer and a chat. There is traditional batak music and dance nights at a few places, which are also a lot of fun.

It’s my third day here I Lake Toba and I would have to say it is has been one of the nicest places I have been in Asia. I heard that it was a more popular place for backpackers in the 1990s, but most of those backpackers are now heading to the full moon party’s of Thailand. Probably a shame for the tourist industry here, but it only makes Lake Toba a more pleasant place to stay.

Lots of cheap restaurants and nice hotels. Most of the hotels are right on the lake. The lake sits in a dormant volcano and in the center of the lake is Samosir Island. Most of the hotels are located in the town called Tuk-Tuk.

Around the island you have waterfalls, jungles, traditional batak houses and rice paddies. The mountains above the lake are often shrouded in mist.

The weather during the day is warm, but not hot. Hot enough at least to swim in the lake. The nights are cool enough not to need air-conditioning. Last night at my hotel they had traditional batak dancing and singing. The batak people were once cannibals until German missionaries converted them to Christianity, which means no mosques waking you up through the night. They also celebrate Christmas, so there are plenty of Christmas tress and decorations.

The people are super-friendly and even though all of the hotels are restaurants are quiet, you don’t have people out the front trying to get you to come in. The batak people also have lots of interesting stories and myths about nature and the world, somewhat similar to the Australian aboriginal dreamtime.

I think many people come here planning just to stay a day or two and that can easily turn into a week or month…

Traditional Batak house.

View from my hotel room.

I went to Bukit Lawang today which is only 86 kilometers from Medan but took over three hours, battling the Medan traffic and being cramped in the back of a mini-van that had seen better days. The road was full of pot holes and had been washed away in several places. I really didn’t do my homework on this excursion.

I read that feeding time was at 3pm and thought I had plenty of time, but we arrived past 3pm. I was then approached by a guide, who said he would take us to see orangutans on a jungle trek as the feeding time had finished. I had no idea about the place, so I had no choice. I also really didn’t come prepared for jungle treking, just wearing sandles. I thought I was going to some kind of center for oragutans in a building or something.

We took peanuts and bananas and set off into the jungle. It is rainy season now, so it was slippery and muddy. The guide kept making money noises and I was wondering where these monkies were going to jump out from. I heard they can be aggressive going for your bags, trying to get food.

We did come across a 300 year old tree was pretty amazing, but no orangutans. They have accommodation at Bukit Lawang and I would advise anyone going to stay at least one night. You just can’t do it in a day, unless you left early. As we made our way back to the bus station, it started to pour.

It was getting close to 5pm and even though, everyone had said the last bus was at 5, there weren’t any locals going to Medan at that time. I ended up sharing the cost of a minivan with a French guy who had just stayed in Bukit Lawang for the past 5 days. He had some great stories and he said Bukit Lawang is one of the best spots for seeing orangutans in the wild.

Unfortunately, I listened to a local who said it was an easy day trip. I should have either took my stuff to stay there or joined an organized tour.

I am off to Lake Toba tomorrow, a place which I have heard so many good things about.

I am staying near a huge mosque in Medan. Indonesia is predominantly an Islamic country with around 88 per cent of the country Muslim, which is around 200 million people, making it the populous Muslim nation in the world. Yesterday I went to a cafe located right next to the mosque for a beer. A couple of young guys were eager to practice their English. They said they had been waiting 2 months to find a foreigner who was willing to chat with them. They belong to the batak ethnic group and are Catholics.

Just as we were talking, prayer time at the mosque started and prayers are broadcast over huge speakers at full volume, making it impossible to talk. “When we pray we pray silently in our hearts”, one of the guys said. It was pretty weird drinking a beer, right near a mosque, talking or shouting to two Indonesian, batak Catholics.

I admit I know very little about Islam, but you get to experience it first hand when you come to Indonesia. Next prayer time was around 4 a.m. It had already taken me a while to get to sleep and it was impossible to even think about sleeping as prayers were broadcast again at full distorted volume. When there were brief silences in prayer, you could hear the noise from more distant mosques.

I tried to find the reason for using the loud speakers. One of the reasons is to remind people to pray. The other reason I read is that they are hoping that God will hear their prayers. Hmmm.

I caught the ferry this morning from Penang, Malaysia across Malaka Strait to Medan, Indonesia. The water was incredibly smooth and the boat trip was pretty relaxing. I was half expecting to be sick on the trip and didn’t eat anything this morning for breakfast.

Lining up at immigration at the port was a hassle and getting a visa. I had read up on it before hand and had US$25 cash ready to get my 30 day pass. It is amazing how some clueless people. The seven day visa is US$10, so you had people asking, “I only want to stay 8 days”. “Where is an ATM?” “Your exchange rates are bad”, etc.

We then had to take buses to Medan which is a 26KM journey. The fare quoted was about $2, which seemed reasonable enough to me, but other foreigners kept arguing and arguing. No-one wants to get ripped off, but when the amounts are 20-50 cents, it is hardly worth it.

Had a quick walk around and the place reminded me of Cambodia, with 10 tens the number of people. After cruising through Thailand and Malaysia the past few months, it is a bit of a culture shock, but then again, it is a bit exciting and something completely different.

Lots to see and do in Sumatra and planning to spend at least a day or two in Medan acclimatizing to Indonesia.

I love traveling. I am sure most people are happy with spending one or two weeks a year at a holiday resort. For me now, it would hardly be worth the effort. The problem for me is that with each day passing you know you are one day closer to the end of your holiday. I suppose I even wonder myself why I want to spend months on end staying in cheap hotels, traveling for hours on crowded buses and trains – living out of my suitcase.

I am now reading “After Dark” by Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite authors and he tells a story, that really explains why I love traveling so much.

“Three brothers went out fishing and got caught in a storm. They drifted for a long time until they washed up on the shore of an uninhabited island. It was a beautiful island with coconuts growing there and tons of fruit on the trees, and a big, high mountain in the middle. The night they got there, a god appeared in their dreams and said, ‘A little farther down the shore, you will find three big, round boulders. I want each of you to push his boulder as far as he like. The place you stop pushing your boulder is where you will live. The higher you go, more the world you will be able to see from your home. It’s entirely up to you how far you want to push your boulder.”

“So the three brothers found three boulders on the shore just as the god had said they would. And they started pushing them along as the gold told them to. Now these were huge, heavy boulders, so rolling them was hard, and pushing them up an incline took an enormous effort. The youngest brother quit first. He said, ‘Brothers, this place is good enough for me. It’s close to the shore, and I can catch fish. It has everything I need to go on living. I don’t mind if I can’t see that much of the world from here.’ His two elder brothers pressed on, but when they were midway up the mountain, the second brother quit. He said, ‘Brother, this place is good enough for me. There is plenty of fruit here. It has everything I need to go on living. I don’t mind if I can’t see that much of the world from here’. The eldest brother continued walking up the mountain. The trail grew increasingly narrow and steep, but he did not want to quit. He had great powers of perseverance, and he wanted to see as much of the world as he possibly could, so he kept rolling the boulder to the very peak of the high mountain. There he stopped and surveyed the world. Now he could see more of the world than anyone. This was the place he would live – where no grass grew, where no birds flew. For water, he could only lick the ice and frost. For food, he could only gnaw on moss. But he had no regrets, because how could look out over the whole world.”