Blangkejeren and Medan, berastagi - lake toba also

---

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 Mr Jally looked like he could speak English to his friends. Meanwhile my dictionary failed to have words for 'now' or 'to go' and instead told me about a mythical 8 legged bird from Sulawesi.
The hike was good, I was the only one on it so it was more expensive, but Mr Jally took me on a route he actually chopped in the trees and bushes as we moved. I saw a huge black snake after only 15 minutes, lying on our path basking in the sun. Jally reckons it was a cobra but admitted he wasn't sure as it had some unusual markings (i think thats what he said, though it might have been 'run you western gimp') We stood right next to it for 5 minutes as he filmed it with me in the background to show to other whitey potential customers I presume. In hindsight it was an immesely foolish thing to do, as Jally was antagonising it with a stick to make it move, (come on bitch, entertain us.) He seemed to know what he was doing. It was not however a pointer for the next 2 days as I didn't see many more creatures, though I could hear them. I suppose millions of years of evolution has taught them to hide pretty well. I saw an orangutan high up in the trees, but just the one. It was incredible though and it made a lovely sate later on. Long tailed monkeys and macaques where other things that i saw with my eyes and remembered so I could say that I saw them to you now.
After the hike I went back to stay with Jally's family for a night in the little village. The old women who lived there kept correcting me in a slightly annoyed when I was eating with my hands and dropped some rice or used my fork, much to the amusement of everyone else. Other men from the village started turning up in ones and twos to sit in the Jally house smoking, some in traditional costumes. Eventually there was about 25 all sitting round on the floor talking in Gayo Indonesian, and one guy who was running for election for something or other and could speak English explained it was a political meeting with the election approaching the following month. I didn't have a clue what anyone was saying however and despite it being interesting for a while I went to bed early, choosing sleep over self conscious sips of tea, and not knowing where to look.
I was a bit stressed for the hike thanks to my bank canceling my card and I managed to call them from the jungle to ask them to unblock my card. When i got back to blangkejeren it still wouldn't work though, and i only had 100, 000 rupiah left, about 6 quid. I eventually got someone to help me get a mini bus shared taxi all the way back to Medan on the basis I paid when I got there as I knew my card would work there (it was the local machine not recognising my card even though it said Visa, I think it was in shock to get an English card thrust into it's jaws as it spat it out in a bewildered spasm immediately.)This meant I had to miss the other highland towns, as I went on the overnight 13 hour trip through 'roads' with huge drops to the death on either side and cars not giving way on narrow lanes. It was a nice bit of sleep deprivation torture /fear of dying/ jerky bumping for eternity to go with my not having any money for food worries, and I really was having the time of my life.
When we got to Medan the driver kept pointing at cash machines to me and saying 'ATM misterrr' then driving on, I kept saying yes, ya , yes, i want , stop, then he would repeatedly do it over and over, pointing at one and driving past it. Maybe it was lack of sleep but I let him have it, eloquently pointing out that I can't use an atm from the fucking car can I and whats the point of pointing them out and not stopping, at which point I think everyone was glad to stop and let me out of the fucking car.
Medan is pain in the arse whatever way you look at it, but I stayed a few days as I wanted to watch a couple of Liverpool games. The first one, Madrid away was mighty fine. The second one, Middlesborough away, they switched off at the start and put the Chelsea match on. This was in a hotel bar, but I refused to watch that so I paid my bill and stormed out only to find the Liverpool match on in a roadside local tea cafe type thing. They said' hello mista, you like football, and got the seats out for me. I'm pretty sure i was the fist foreigner to go to that bar. They wanted to talk to me the whole game though about the royal family and politics (my arse) so i couldn't watch much of it. the owner even went to the shop to buy me beer as they didn't sell it. .(i was with a local little lady who was showing me around) Unfortunately the match went badly and soon i started to sulk which i think the locals found a tad confusing.
In Medan I bought a guitar for about 30 quid and a good one it is too. It came with a soft case to carry it, although the case is tartan, sadly.
Then i went to Berastagi, a small town flanked by two climbable volcanoes. I climbed the smaller of the two with a Japanese guy i met at the hostel who as of yet hasn't forwarded the photos to me he promised. It was pretty amazing at the top, very surreal. There was smoke coming out of pockets all over the place and an offensive egg smell. The rocks were bright green from the sulphur in places and there was a huge plateau that looked a bit like star wars. There was a great view from the top as we watched on in awe as rainclouds below us soaked the town. Clouds however, move and we got seriously rained on on the way down and it was a bit worrying as the steps were being washed out but we made it. The rain jackets we bought that morning lasted about 2 hours before the arms started falling off so we didn't have much protection. I mean can it really cost anymore money to sew the arms on properly? I don't think i have any of the clothes left that i bought in southeast Asia, they have all fallen apart in their own little way. To those who say it is the same clothes as we get in the west,from the same factories, i say this, bollocks. The only similarity is that they both appear to be made by small children.
The next day I went to Lake Toba. It rained alot there although it was pleasant enough. I was a bit disappointed with it as my expectations were quite high. There's not really anything to do. But it was chilled and relaxing. Not that i needed to relax anymore. There are scores of hotels and guest houses around the road that circles the touristed part, 99% of them completely empty. Complete ghost town in some areas, it obviously used to be a prime holiday destination but it certainly isn't now. I felt sorry for the locals there who had no customers, so I made sure I drank the equivalent amount of twenty customers each night as a rule. Lake Toba was my venue for the Liverpool -Madrid return match, which I got out of bed for at 2.30 am. The lads who worked at the 'homestay' were not the brightest and struggled to get the t.v to pick up the satellite signal as they were all roaring drunk and a video had been watched earlier, a scenario that threw them completely. I spoke to the manager the next day and he said he had already explained to them what to do before he went to bed. As it turned out I missed the first 15 minutes, which were spent shouting in Indonesian and switching things on and off and going 'ooooohhooo??' alot and we watched the whole game without sound.
I enjoyed playing guitar by the lake though and wrote a song called 'the lake is like a sea but smaller and freshwater.' It's like Radiohead meets John Barnes.
The local people, the Bataks, are very friendly. Christian, which seems odd when you get there as the rest of Indonesia is Muslim, aside from Bali. I had bicked my head (shaved it with a razor) before going there and the translation was something like 'bartek' which was shouted at me by many people with a grin as I cycled past along with the old favourite 'hello mistaaaa.' The area was beautiful to walk around, absolutely stunning. My favourite idea was to walk around in the pouring rain with an umbrella and my ipod on, taking in the scenery, just me and the fantastic water buffalo. Sumatra is a very magical place, exemplified by the daily lightning flashes in the sky and random rolls of thunder either which are hardly ever followed by rain. It just happens. Along with the mountains and volcanoes and agriculture culture it's like going back in time, which is apparently universally desirable according to guide books. It wouldn't be if you ended up in the middle of Nazi Germany though would it, hmmm? Unless you can choose where you go, but I don't think you can. Or you might end up with Nicholas Lyndhurst being unfunny in a 1930's pub. That would be far worse.

---