Blogs from Berastagi, Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia
February 3rd 2012
Following a four hour bone shaking journey from Bukit Lawang I arrived in Berastagi, a pretty miserable town in northern Sumatra nestled between two large active volcanoes. I was on a tight time scale as I needed to meet a mate in Jakarta a few days later and so without much planning I set off, taking a public bus to the bottom of the volcano Gunung Sibayak. The buses in Sumatra are impressive, often nothing more than a knackered old minivan, they’re custom painted in psychedelic patterns and have musical horns which are constantly blaring. When the two facing benches inside get filled passengers will jump on the roof, holding on for dear life. My plan was foiled pretty quickly. I had intended on paying the volcano entry fee and grabbing a map showing the paths. ... read more
We didn't fall into a burning ring of fire
Published: January 13th 2011Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Berastagi
January 13th 2011
When i was 8 there was the school trip to ontario place at the end of the semester... pretty lame in retrospect. What i will never forget is viewing my first IMAX movie in the Cinesphere, The Pacific Ring of Fire. Mountainous volcanoes spewing lava all around tropical islands and filmed from a helicopter; it blew my young sense away and made me want to see these vast wild landscapes. Now we're here and its not quite as titillating as i thought it would be when i was a child but we did climb our first active volcano yesterday and it was beautiful and surreal. A relatively smaller mountain at 2095m above sea level, gunung (mountain) Sibayak was once taller but long ago blew its peak off and is now a wide Caldera with several peaks ... read more
July 5th 2010
The day started by being amazed at Indonesian maths, two 3,000Rh bottles of water came to 8,000rh. (If you're reading Sandra, the answer should be 6,000) but the woman did at least smile as she did it, and as the amount over the odds I paid was about 14 pence at I can't even by a rag like the sun for that amount, I let it go. Leaving Bukit Lawang we got on a bus that wa designed for 11 passengers, at one point there were 20 human passengers and a small bird. I was sat on the edge of the seat with Rhian asleep on top of me and two bags to hold onto. The bar of the seat ended up in a most uncomfortable position and by the end of the three hours I ... read more
Berastagi The time we nearly died...twice.
Published: March 5th 2010Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Berastagi
March 3rd 2010
So with an undeniably queasy stomach we decided that Toba had held us captive for too long and it was about time to try our hand at a spot of volcano climbing in Berastagi. So we headed off on the boat to the main road out of Toba where we tried to negotiate a reasonable ride to Berastagi. We ended up getting a taxi for about 4 pounds for a three hour journey, which in hindsight really was too good to be true. The man set off at about 70 mph along these pot-holed roads, he thought that the highway code was an endorsement to drive alongside other vehicles on the wrong side of the road and waiting until blind bends to overtake was pure hilarity to him (and I thought I was a bad driver!?) ... read more
March 3rd 2010
Stoppi Berastagissa tulivuoren juurella kuumilla lahteilla kylpemassa ja kinkkiravintolassa lounaalla.... read more
May 6th 2009
Onwards to Berastagi seeking some peaks.. We lugged our bags back downstream to the main part of the village ready to leave the amazing Bukit Lawang and yet again stopping for a photo with the locals! We had to take a "opolot" (motorbike and side cart) to the local bus station where we then opted for a public minibus to Medan. The minibus was hot, cramped and literally falling apart on the bumpy pot holed road. In true Indonesia “Chicken bus” style it was drastically overloaded as we picked up various aged locals from 5 to 105 years old!! At one point we had 17 people cramped into the rusty 11 seater minibus! Still it was a fun experience and we soon arrived in Medan’s Pinang Baris bus terminal where we changed for a large public ... read more
Blangkejeren and Medan, berastagi - lake toba also
Published: April 28th 2009Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Berastagi
April 28th 2009
After Takengon I went to Blangkejeren, another tiny village of Sumatra's highlands and a beautiful one at that. Nobody really spoke English but I asked a phone credit store where I can get a guide and they rang one for me as they could speak a little. They rang the only one in the village, 'Mr Jally,' who was a rugged master of the jungle but whose English speking technique involved guessing whether he should reply 'yes' or 'no' to whatever I said. What time do we leave Mr Jally? Ummm, yerrrs. ( I point at watch) what time..we.. go? Oh! hahaha... Nooo. You ..mau perrighi sekeraaang? Er hang on (get out dictionary) er perrighi..? Oh..no...hahaha (awquard laughter) sip drink. All conversations took on a similar form until I gave up, nodded and smiled politely and ... read more
Climbing an active volcano (Berastagi, Sumatra, Indonesia)
Published: April 22nd 2009Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Berastagi
April 23rd 2009
(Day 384 on the road) Indonesia is not only big - it is absolutely huge! Stretching over some 5000 kilometres, it comprises of more than 17.500 islands. I completely underestimated the size of it and the time it would take to do this beautiful country any justice. I have been here a few weeks now and have seen only a tiny bit of northern Sumatra. In the face of the huge distances that I need to cover to get from A to B, I have decided to scrap my no-flying rule for a while. Flying is really cheap here as well, which is great for my budget: For instance on the last longer stretch I covered the one hour flight was only seven Euros more expensive (20 Euros in total as opposed to 13 Euros for ... read more
August 20th 2008
The first thing I noticed upon entering the gates of Mt. Sibuyak Park on Sunday July 20th was a hunting party playing with their rifles, and their 3 dogs running doing laps around the pickup truck in anticipation of the hunt. I turned to our guide and asked, "what are these people doing?" He looked a little uncomfortable and answered a bit hesitantly, "uh...they are going hunting." I stopped. "Hunting here in this park?" "Yes, this is not a national park, so it's not protected." "But," I stammered, "but...we're going hiking in here right now, and surely there are other tourists in the park. Do you think that's safe?" "Yes, it is safe." "How is it safe? They're going to be shooting in here and we'll be walking around?" "They will go shooting in another section, ... read more
July 1st 2008
I decided to make the trip to Berastagi on my own since Wendy was recuperating still at Lake Toba. I arrived late afternoon and went to the market to look around. Just as dusk was falling I snapped a picture of a monument with the market in the foreground and when the flash went off I heard a crowd of women call out. This old lady right by me seemed to be annoyed and wanted money so I showed her that she wasn't even in the picture and she smiled and waved me away. I hired a guide today and we had a full day-2 hours hiking up to the top partly just on a road. We saw 2 little monkeys in the trees which my guide said was really luck since he'd only seen 2 ... read more
