Sumatra Pt. 1

Ok, folks its time for the run down on Sumatra!!! Oh, where to start, well we flew into Padang, where we randomly saw a friend from Bali. His name is Opi, and he taught me how to surf. Opi also introduced to us to some of his family who were SOOOO sweet and nice and it was an awesome experience. Well the next day we saw him and he gave a personal tour of Padang and the outlaying areas. We went on a very hot and cramped van ride to a waterfall outside of the city. I am not kidding when I say that there were 20 adults and 3 children in one of the opelets (public transport). Imagine a VW vanagon with 3 rows of bench seating, and filled to the brim with people. The waterfall was great and there was a group of locals who showed us to the top, it was very fun. After the trek to the waterfall we spent a couple of hours swimming in one of the pools to cool ourselves off. After another hot, but less cramped ride back to town we ate some delicious food and headed off to "Padang Festival". This was a small festival with vendors and different performances on different stages. Being the rock stars that we are, or should I say, being the rock star that Jessie is, she got invited on stage to introduce herself and do a little dance with one of the performers. Don't worry I got photographic evidence to prove it!

After Padang we left for Danu (Lake) Maninjau. We took a slightly less cramped public bus to Bukitingi and then caught a "chicken bus" to Lake M. On the way there you come down 44 hair pin turns, where macaques lined the roads, and motorcycles passed daringly around blind corners. However, Lake M. was great because it was not at all like Padang. We stayed at an incredibly nice homestay called Arlen, where we made some fantastic new friends and relaxed. The staff at Arlen were so great and really made us feel like family for the few days we were there. In Lake M. we also rented a scooter and rode all around the lake, which was formed by a crater many, many years ago. We ate lots of great food and enjoyed a few Bintangs (Indonesias best beer!) read books and swam, it was the ideal place to wash off the craziness of Padang. While in Lake M. we made two really awesome friends, Peter and Rose and we decided to take the trip to Danu Toba together.

Oh, the trip to Lake Toba will forever be in my memory as one of the worst rides ever. The trip was doomed from the start when only a half hour in, on of the bags that was poorly secured to the roof of the vehicle flew off and hit another car going the opposite direction. This truly was an omen of how the trip was going to be. After a lot of discussion we all decided to stick with the mini van and continue to Lake Toba. All of the gear, except Jessie's bag and mine went inside the vehicle, while I made sure that our stuff was not going to go flying off in the middle of night while we were asleep. Well, little did we know, there was going to absolutely no sleeping on this trip. The roads in Sumatra vary from really nice smooth two lane roads, to super bumpy gravel roads in the middle of the jungle. Not too mention that we had 3 people in the back and the middle seats of the mini van, so our legs were perpetually cramped. Mini vans in Indonesia are meant to fit Indonesians who are for the most part not as tall as Westerners, so we all cozyied up with one another and toughed it out. And this is not an exaggeration, there were parts of the road that had been destroyed by a landslide a few years ago, and they still have not been repaired. Some of the roads in the jungle are one lane, one and a half at best, but vehicles come from both directions. We had a couple of late night close calls, and no one was able to sleep. Finally around dawn the next day, as our driver was falling asleep at the wheel, the roads got better and running on a fumes we arrived in Parapat to head off to Samosir Island, aka Lake Toba.

Lake Toba was our reward for the horrendous 15 hour ride. We took a slow ferry to a very cheap guesthouse and again relaxed for 4 days. Samosir Island, which is surrounded by Lake Toba is the largest island on an island in the world. The lake was created by, and I am paraphrasing here, "the largest volcanic explosion in history". Whether this is true or not I am not sure, but its a little tidbit that I read on the back of a menu at a restaurant. With that said, Lake Toba was by far my most favorite place in Sumatra. The accomodation was very, very cheap and there were so many cafes and restaurants that you could eat 3 meals a day a different places for a week or more!! Often our food cost as much as our room, which was only like 50,000 rupiah (about 5$ US). Our room had a fantastic view of the lake and we were only 50 feet from the water. We spent afternoons reading on the balcony, swimming when we finally got too hot and drinking ice cold Bintangs before dinner. We also went on a fantastic bike ride, and would have ventured further but our bike seats were extremely uncomfortable (probably due to our nice cushy bike seats back in B'ham). We stopped at some stone ruins and replied "halo" to nearly every child that said "halo mister!". After a few fantastic and unforgettable days on Lake Toba, we finally decided to move on to Bukit Luwang....

Jessie will update you on this part of our adventure....

A few funny observations about Sumatra:
1. The buses seem to comprise of father son teams. The father drives while the son hollers at people on the street telling them where the bus goes. The son also collects money from people on the bus and calls out the father when they need to stop and let some one off. The also make sure that the buses are completely full and by full I mean absolutely no room left for people to even stand.
2. The music. Now this one gets two sub-catagories:
a. Karoke is huge on the buses. They play music videos with the lyrics on the screen like
they do at Karoke nights. This is the point in the trip where I put on the head phones and
listen to the ipod.
b. Teenage singers. This consists of 1-3 young adolescent boys coming on to your bus and
and singing songs for the people sitting down. I have no idea what they were singing, but
people like it enough and give usually give them some rupiah. They get on the bus for a few
kilometers and then get off, or they come on when the bus stops somewhere to pick up
more passengers. Again, I usually put on the head phones.
3. Indonesians drive like madmen! They are constantly beeping at other drivers, bikers and
pedestrians. Drivers are on the horn as much as the gas.