Blogs from Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia - page 39

The latest edition of Lonely Planet Indonesia proclaims that "tourism in Lake Toba is almost dead." I think there's something like an 18-month delay between finishing off the editorial work and the book being printed and arriving at bookstores. During that time, someone pulled the plug on Toba's life support line and it is today a ghost town. This was evident even in July, peak travel season for Indonesia. I didn't think I would mind that too much, but the effect is saddening: locals hanging out in their empty shops talking to neighbors all day, no business, abandoned hotels, derelict lots overgrown with weeds. Worst of all, not one single person said "Horas!" to us in the 4 days we spent there -and Lonely Planet claims this hearty welcome by the warm locals as one of ... read more

Nach zwei erfolglosen Versuchen hatte ich am dritten Morgen dann tatsaechlich Erfolg und es gab eine Faehre nach Sumatra. Sumatra - sechstgroesste Insel der Welt und der westliche Teil von Indonesien. 1.700km lang und bei Strassen die eine Durchschnittsgeschwindigkeit von 30km/h erlauben also theoretisch in 57 Stunden zu durchqueren...knapp zweieinhalb Tage. Aber das ist wohl eher theoretisch. Meine Faehre landete im Hafen von Medan und nach einer zweistuendigen Busfahrt waren wir dann auch tatsaechlich IN Medan. Da Medan aber nicht viel mehr beherbergt ausser Gummifabriken (die fuerchterlich stinken) und viel Verkehr habe ich gleich die Weiterreise in Richtung Sueden in Angriff genommen. "Ich" heisst in diesem Fall eigentlich viel mehr "wir", denn auf der Busfahrt habe ich Maxine kennengelernt, eine 40-jaehrige Britin, die gerade durch Asien rast. Sie hat in den 3 Tagen zuvor den Weg ... read more

... "Uh, No. That would be Cuba," came our reply! We have survived 7 of the most miserable days known to Team Canada (or to mankind in general)! After Singapore, our plan was to take a ferry to Sumatra (an island of Indonesia), and spend a few weeks up north checking out beaches and Banda Aceh (the area most affected by the tsunami), and do a few jungle treks to see orang utans. Plans did not go quite as we had hoped! The ferry from Singapore to the island of Batam was all peaches, and the ferry from Batam to mainland Sumatra (Dumai) was a little less peachy, but doable. From Dumai to Pekanbaru (about 200Km inland), not peachy, or doable or anything even remotely okay with us! The 200Km ride should have taken about 2 ... read more

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

Thursday June 26, 2008 - Leticia and i got on the bus to Bukit Lawang with a local who asked us a few questions but not too many. Could this be our guide that the Lonely Planet said would be waiting for us? It was indeed. After three and a half hours of being stuck like sardines in this bus and sleeping (everytime I'm in a moving vehicle now I get sleepy, like a baby) we were there and he was asking us where we were going to stay, etc. He was a guide and he had two people signed up for a trek the next day. So he got us settled in a room for $3 that we agreed to split and then gave us the sale, along with his pal who would be the ... read more