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Published: July 29th 2013
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Horas ! The chaos in the baggage claim area of Medan airport gave us a taste of things to come in Sumatra. We exited to a barrage of locals, taxi drivers and tour operators offering to 'help'; and for once we were really glad to have arranged for a driver to meet us to take us directly down south towards Danau Toba. We were escorted through the crowds and spent the next hour and a half in grid locked traffic on the outskirts of Medan. Eventually we reached countryside but were still caught in a stream of traffic of cars, lorries, motorcycles and becaks all the way down to the shores of Danau Toba. Our driver seemed to enjoy weaving in and out of the motorbikes and overtaking on sharp bends, blasting away at his horn and flashing his lights; he told us merrily that all drivers use and respect this crazy signalling system ! Nevertheless we were glad to reach the harbour at Parapet just as it was getting dark. After our first (of many) banana pancakes in Sumatra we boarded the ferry to Tuk Tuk peninsula on Pulau Samosir.
We were surprised to find a bit of
a peaceful time warp on Pulau Samosir Island where we were able to relax for a few days. Our homestay stood right next door to the village jetty where locals swam and washed their motorbikes amongst the boats; the home stay had its own jetty to the lake and Eve and I can claim to have swum (albeit briefly) in the freezing waters of the largest volcanic lake in the world. Despite Lake Toba being apparently a popular hang out for back-packers, it certainly did not feel that way. We saw very few other foreigners during our stay and away from the guesthouses and warungs fringing the lake, village life revolved around the daily chores of doing laundry in the lake, harvesting and drying rice whilst children as young as 3 played in the road, the traffic was so quiet. The Batak people of Lake Toba are mainly protestant christians with a mix of animist traditions and beliefs, and it was strange to see churches with crosses amongst the traditional Batak houses with their thatched roofs decorated with buffalo horns, whilst in amongst the rice paddies stood enormous tombs like miniature Batak houses themselves, placed there in order to shelter
the dead.
From Danau Toba we travelled by car back up to Medan through Berastagi, a (relatively) cold, damp and unexciting town. From there we travelled North for three more tortuous hours in a clapped-out jeep to Bukit Lawang, on the borders of Gunung Leuser National Park. The town itself is little more than a line of guesthouses lining the Bohorok River, accessible only by a narrow path used by pedestrians, motorcycles as well as tube porters (read on!). These were typical back packers' lodgings, with no hot water, rock hard beds and menus dominated by banana pancakes and nasi goreng, but there was a friendly relaxed atmosphere here and we enjoyed meeting other travellers, including families with young children from the Netherlands and Germany.
On our second day in Bukit Lawang we took a trek through Gunung Leuser National Park, this trek turned out to be a gruelling 6 hours struggle up and down mountainside, literally, as in places we had to climb on hands and feet and slide down on our bottoms. We were once again astounded how Eve took it all in her stride with a smile on her face, but then again she did
have a few piggy back rides from our guide. We were rewarded with great views of primates, orang-utans, Thomas Leaf Monkeys and gibbons. The orang-utans here are mostly semi-wild, being originally orphans at the nearby orang-utan centre. They were clearly not wary of people and it was who made sure we kept our distance, to avoid being targeted with branches. Our trek ended with a downward climb with a rope, to the riverside, where we had a 30 minute ride in huge inflated inner tubes ride back to our lodge. Of course this was the highlight of the day for Eve, and the first of many tube rides that we ended up doing during our stay, unfortunately for Rob who had to carry these huge tubes up the river path each time !
On the following day we took a trip 2 hours further north to the remote town of Tanghakan. Here in the midst of the encroaching oil palm plantations the forest has been recently declared protected, apparently thanks to the protestations of locals and former loggers, who manage a small scale elephant sanctuary with former working elephants. Nothing can compare to the two day experience that we
had enjoyed with an elephant and his mahout in the Shangri Lao Camp in Laos, but nevertheless Eve was delighted to have another chance to scrub an elephant's back in the river and to have a ride through the forest. The forest itself was stunning and we would have loved to have stayed and explored for longer.
Pulau Weh, Aceh province Soon after our arrival in Banda Aceh province we realised just how seriously Ramadhan is adhered to in this province. Driving from the airport we saw policeman patrolling the streets to ensure that no food was being eaten or sold, and most shops and restaurants were boarded up. Even drinking in public is forbidden during this time and we were hungry and parched by the time we got off the car ferry, 3 hours later, at the harbour town of Sabang, on Pulau Weh.
We spent our first 3 days on the island at Freddies guesthouse, just outside Sabang. For only £30 we had a simple but spacious bamboo bungalow perched high on a cliff overlooking the beach, with huge balcony, hammock and huge breakfast (and not just pancakes for a change) thrown in. The beach
here here was great for sandcastles and sunsets but a little too rough and rocky for swimming. For the remaining 3 days we moved to the bay of Gapang to be closer to reefs for snorkelling and diving. The Lumba Lumba dive centre stood right on the beach, at the edge of a tiny, somewhat deserted settlement of a few warungs and many more goats. Only after 7 pm did signs of life appear when the curtains were lifted and food could be ordered. Still, it was blissfully peaceful and the diving here was the best that I have enjoyed for a long time. The coral here appeared undamaged by the tsunami which hit this side of the island; a blue line painted high up near the roof of the two-storey diving centre shows the height that the wave reached as it came ashore on that day. Whilst both snorkelling and diving we saw an an incredible variety of marine life, from octopus, sea horses and even a group of 10 blacked tipped reef sharks.
West Sumatra - Minangkabau country Once again we found ourselves trapped in Medan City, due to our flight to Padang being cancelled without
notice by Swirijaya Air. We had to stay overnight in the city and the next morning only just managed to reach check-in 20mins prior to departure, due to grid locked traffic - we were so glad to be leaving this city!
From Padang we drove north east towards the village of Harau, nestled in a serene valley of rice paddies, between 100m cliffs and waterfalls. the scenery was simply breathtaking in this area. Our homestay at the far end of the valley comprised only 4 thatched bungalows with no electricity, in front of a tall limestone cliff and waterfall, with views over the rice paddies. It was truly idyllic and we would loved to have stayed for longer than just one night. The next morning we walked though around the local village and through the rice paddies where women were collecting and threshing rice. We soon became the centre of attention as we offered to help the ladies in the fields to beat the stalks to remove the kernels and to drive the threshing machine by hand; they seemed delighted to have our company and we were amazed by their energy and enthusiasm despite surviving on no food or
water all day! They roared with laughter as Rob pushed the wheelbarrow carrying a sack of grains back to the village with Eve sitting on top!
Our visit to Sumatra ended at the shores of Danau Maninjau, a volcanic crater lake that is smaller than Danau Toba but nevertheless the same size as Jersey. Yet more stunning scenery to take in and a final relaxing swim before our flight back to mainland Java and the next phase of our journey !
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Emily
non-member comment
hello to Eve
Looks like you are having a good time.your hair is as long as mine. Yesterday Night 4 o clock in the morning I lost on of my woobly teeth and the tooth fairy visited me! and left a pound coin she said that she knows some of my friends tooth fairies she might know your tooth fairy too.I will ask her when my other wobbly tooth comes out.I am going to France this Saturday love from Emily