an entry somewhere else

Another excessive holiday post (unless you’re going to north Sumatra, then you might be interested):

Once again, I found myself with a gap of days in which I wasn’t going to teach, so I arranged to meet up with some colleagues in Medan to head to places as yet explored by me. I met up with a colleague in the Medan airport (domestic terminal half-functioning due to long ago fire) and off we went to the Pinang Baris bus terminal via becak. This was my colleagues first time in Medan, so the grit and grime of Medan easily collected on her as we weaved through traffic to the bus terminal on the north side of town. The bus terminal was empty-ish because most buses and mini-buses leave from a place about 1km from the bus terminal on the same road. After we purchased tickets to Bukit Lawang (60,000), we were whisked to the place where the actual mini-bus was parked, waiting for more passengers to fill it before starting out. This was not a comfortable mini-bus. I’ll leave it at that. It seems tourism has taken a hard hit in this area as touts/guides jump on any mini-bus with foreigners, trying to sell themselves and whatever lodging they are affiliated. We were essentially a captive audience for one kind gentleman. We didn’t know what we were going to do in Bukit Lawang except go make an unscientific comparison of Borneo and Sumatran orangutan. When we didn’t commit to a trek with the guide, he said goodbye as he needed to get out and look for more foreigners on their way to the area.

Bukit Lawang was devastated by a massive flood several years back, killing a fair number of villages and washing away much of what was once there. Hotels are still being renovated and built up. We stayed at Eco-Lodge (70,000/night). Our room was quite nice and included a garden in the bathroom. Why one needs a garden in the bathroom is still something I question. Hmm. The lodge serves some good food and seemed to be composting and recycling when possible.

We engaged a guide for the morning to go with us to the feeding station and then a couple hour trek through the jungle. The only way to get to the park entrance is by riding on a little canoe-style ferry connected to a metal rope so that the river current doesn’t just send you off down the river. Shuttling tourists across the river is a two man job, but one park ranger hadn’t arrived yet and the ranger in attendance was having a tough go getting across the current. We waited. Finally, we made it across and had to wait for the missing ranger. Along with other tourists, we milled about the entrance. We were also alerted that there were some celebrities from Jakarta in our midst. They were filming an episode of “Celebrities on Vacation” or other such nonsense. My colleague and I were significant background artists during their shoot.

All said, we ambled up to the feeding station where a ranger peeled bananas and handed them off to a pregnant orangutan while the other lesser monkeys tried to steal what they good and not get a good slap from the orangutan. Eventually, the bananas ran out and the rangers filled up a plastic cup with milk for the orangutans. The youngest one in attendance tried to go straight for the milk jug but was grabbed by a ranger and made to wait his turn for the cup.

After that, we followed our guide up and down hills, sometimes hanging onto vines as we slid down slippery hills on our way back to the lodge. The guides tried to do what they could to find us some more animals to see, even trying to bait some monkeys with bananas. Alas, we saw some in the trees, but nothing else. After a while, we just decided we wanted to walk and get exercise rather wait around for animal sightings. In the end, we returned to the lodge, showered up, and set off for the bus park to make Medan by nightfall.

The trip up to Danau Toba started from SM Raja in Medan. I booked up four seats for us the previous day with hopes that the fourth to our party wouldn’t have a delayed flight. In the end, she arrived 20 minutes after our departure time. Luckily, this really doesn’t matter in Indonesian ground transport. A five-hour mini-bus trip (80,000) commenced as soon as she could hop out of her taxi. We arrived in Parapet, the ferry departure point for Tuk Tuk on the other side of Danau Toba, the usual place for tourists. Unfortunately, there were no more ferries directly to Tuk Tuk, just to Tomok, another town a few kilometers away. We arranged for a pick-up from our hotel (Carolina Cottages) for 50,000. A spacious mini-bus picked us up complete with the driver’s pre-school kids and neighbors riding ‘shotgun’ and giggling up a storm while hitting the speed bumps.

Upon arriving at the cottages, we found out that only the cheap rooms were available to us. Each had twin beds and cold water. We took the rooms for 20,000/night. The hotel has a nice waterfront with rafts and diving board. There were also canoes for rent. Well, one canoe usually. We didn’t partake in the lake until the next day though. The menu was rather large but, as with any large menu, some things are just a crap shoot. For instance, one person rolled the dice and ordered a ‘vegetable taco’. This turned out to be similar to an empanada and not at all like a Mexican taco. Them’s the breaks. A few of the Indonesian standards didn’t make the grade (the gado-gado was overwhelmed with peanut sauce). However, the garlic toast and the vegetable curry were just fine.

The next day we started out with a late wake-up and some bike riding to Tomok and another village in the opposite direction, searching out for the tourism objects. We made it to Tomok around the time the elementary school was letting out, hearing a chorus of ‘hellos,’ and ‘botak’ (bald—I just got a hair cut. I’m not bald, but that’s how Indonesians describe it.) At least they weren’t yelling ‘bule’. The roads were fairly nice and traffic was light.

Later that night, we caught some Batak dance at a restaurant. It consisted of some teenage girls and a traditional band. After them was the same band singing some songs in Batak and hawking VCDs of one of their performances.

The next day we decided to try our hand at using scooters, but I was the only person who had any experience on motorized two-wheelers. This idea quickly got scratched and we ordered up a car and driver for 350,000. We took a nice easy ride to Simanindo for more Batak dance in a traditional compound of stilt houses. It went rather quick in the hot, midday sun. I’m not sure if all the dances we saw were full length. They all seemed rather short and to the point.

We then went off to see the hot springs—a big nesting of small houses and small hotels on the side of a volcano. As it was midday and the sun was shining, none of us were interested in hitting the heated waters. After that, the driver took us to a collection of houses where traditional weaving takes place, usually. When we arrived, there was an elderly lady chopping up some betel leaf to chew on. A matronly woman came out a little later and started to unpack all the weavings. After some hard bargaining, I and another friend bought a weaving—the one I bought is supposedly for a wedding ceremony. Doh!

The sun was getting on its way down upon our return and rain clouds were getting stopped up on the mountains. Two of my companions went canoeing in a dugout canoe in the choppy waters while I stayed safely on the water raft getting those last rays of sunlight. Dinner was at a small place that baked a good pizza. I attempted to grab some take-out tuak from a place across the street, but they wouldn’t give me any. Thus, I chose to imbibe some arak with my fellow diners. We toasted to all of those who couldn’t join us and turned tail to the hotel before the rain caught us again.

The next morning we tried to pay. Apparently, we misunderstood the receptionist telling us we could pay with credit card. Our cash reserves were running low and we couldn’t cover the entire bill. There is no ATM in Tuk Tuk either. So, the hotel sent a guy with us on the ferry over to Parapet to go to the ATM there with us. After his taking the money, we started on back to gritty Medan in a private car. The night was karaoke until we all passed out from exhaustion.

Bukit Lawang was definitely more accessible than Tanjung Putting, but I would rather go back to Kalimantan to see orangutan. Danau Toba is a place I’ll definitely go back to when I get the chance. A great place to lounge and take it easy…