Nicey, Spicey west Sumatra - Emails from Sumatra, August 2011

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Mel

We are staying in an old colonial house, once owned by the Dutch(I presume). We have a lovely double room with bathroom, for just 7 Euros per night. I got a bad impression of Sumatra yesterday, when first person we met was a tout we fell foul to, and I am relieved and glad that such an experience is turning out to be not the usual. As far as I know, the bus ticket he sold us was OK, but we did pay 6 times what we should have for lunch at a very shabby restaurant. I wouldn't have bothered with eating there, if I knew that the prices didn't match the surroundings. Lydia liked the food there, so I suppose it can be considered an over priced treat for her. I gave the tout an ear full of abuse, and the people working at the restaurant the cold shoulder. When they gave me the bill, they said I could pay in Euros if I don't have it in Rupiah. The cheek! The point I was making when I was complaining, is that they have not earned the money, rahter than I don't have the money. I hate touts. Well, I should do as an Australian guy I met advised. Slow right down while I am in Indonesia, because it is when you are in a hurry that you make mistakes. He is right for sure. If I had sat back and checked my options, I would not have fallen prey to the tout. What I hate about this situation, is that having managed to scam me, he will be encouraged to continue touting.

I met an Indonesian guy at the guesthouse this morning, who told me his trip is costing 4000 Euros, because he comes from a village in Indonesia and relations expect a lot from him, since he lives and works in the Netherlands. His Dutch wife and kids are with him here too. He said, when he left Indonesia it took six months to get a passport, because no doccumentation about people at all is made in the village where he comes from. I asked him how he knows his age. He said he guessed. I suppose, that would give him a flexible birthday, at least. :) I wonder how many people from his village go missing, and nobody outside it notice, with no birth or death certificates, to keep track of them.

The big flower
I kept my nose at a safe distance(a few feet) from it, so didn't smell anything. Lydia does confirm though, that it stinks, if you put your head into the cavity with the stamens inside. The guy said we and he are lucky today, because this particular flower is not too far into the jungle. We only had to walk for around 20 minutes. The flower is around 100 CM in diameter.
Now and again on our walk through the jungle, the guy would get a mobile phone call, and run back to pick up more tourists, leaving us to wait in the jungle. That was OK with us, because the views were great, and we got to check out some rice fields that were in the middle of the jungle. I never saw rice growing before. Lydia had a good time playing with what she calls shy plants, while we waited. Shy, because they close up, when you touch them.

Our tropical fruit garden

In the garden around the guesthouse we are staying in, are avacado, star fruit, lichi, bananna, mango, lemon and papaya trees, and some other tropical fruit I don't know the name of. The guesthouse guy noticed our fascination with the trees, and picked us a selection of the fruits for breakfast.

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