It isn't easy

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Traveling in Sumatra is far from a stress free experience. To start with requires getting a ticket. None of the ticket offices speak any English, so I have to find some English speaker who will get me a time, and no doubt add his margin for doing so.
The Buses seldom arrive on time, and in one case I was waiting for 2 and a half hours before the bus finally arrived. All this time, there was no one to ask if the bus was actually coming. It requires quite a bit of faith that everything will work out, and knowledge that if it doesn't, I will still manage.
I haven't taken a single bus trip in Sumatra with another tourist, just a sign of how deserted it is!
The overnight buses aren't too bad. I manage to get to sleep, and have been having dreams which have been rather interesting thanks to the Dioxicycline I have been taking for Malaria. So the bus will go through a ditch in the road (there are many) then beep at a passing car, I'll half wake up, register what has just happened, then go back to sleep, and incorporate it into the dream I've been having.
And then, the next morning I will wake up, to have arrived in a totally new place (haven't gotten taken to the wrong city yet) and have to find out where everything is, all over again!

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