K2K - SUMATRA - The Finale
20/03/17
Today was basically going to be a big descent, with a few
fun things thrown in.
The fun didn’t take long to start. As we were rolling out of
town we came across one of those WTF moments. There were quite a lot of people
stopped on the side of the road, on the left, looking down at something, so we
stopped. It was a horse racing track. The only one we have seen in Indonesia,
so we just weren’t expecting that. Morning training was on, and all the local
punters were out checking the horse’s form. There were several bizarre things
about this, first, all the horses that weren’t being worked, were just grazing
in the middle of the track with the gate open, no problem. Of course, there
were several chickens milling around on the track. But the main one was the
grandstand, it was on the other side of the road. So during a race meet, the
traffic would continue through between the public and the track, fun times hey.
The good thing was that the horses looked in great condition and really well
looked after.
The descent went on for ages, about 30ks, winding down through
the rain forest, mountain streams and waterfalls were often seen, and the
temperature slowly got warmer as we lost altitude. A bit of a flat section
through rice paddies, and all sorts of fruit crops including cacao, Manggis (a
tough skinned variety of mango) Papaya and coffee. A lot of cacao was being
harvested at the moment and lots of it was out on mats on the road drying.
Naturally, we, and the other traffic have to negotiate around this as well.
We had been looking out for the Equator Monument, a gate
built over the road to celebrate the crossing. A gate appeared, these often
occur at district boundaries etc, but maybe this was the one, it looked
special. Going down again, I was pretty sure it wasn’t it, as it had nothing on
it that said “Equator”, I was pretty sure that the Bahasa spelling was the
same. We went through it quickly and then for the next 5ks, our brains were
trying to convince us that we had missed it. That would be bad.
A nice looking “Rumah Makan” (room of food) came up on the
left, so we decided to stop for lunch and reassess. We couldn’t miss an equator
photo. Luckily the guy who ran the restaurant said that the equator was 3ks
further on, Pheww.
So we ate happily, then we pushed on, keen to tick this
milestone off. It turned out to be so much fun. Mary fist pumping as she went
through the gate to the sounds of motorbikes and buses beeping us, with
congratulations. We stopped for some photos and went into the museum next to
it. This was cool, but as with all museums in Indonesia that we have seen, they
all just celebrate one conflict or another.
We had decided that we would video call our son Owen while
we were here, which was great. But the really funny thing, was when one of the Tshirt
sellers appeared behind us and tried to sell Owen a Tshirt. Truly a golden
moment with so much laughter on all sides. We will all remember that one.
Continuing on with a spring in our legs, we rolled easily
into Lubuk Sikaping and found a quiet looking hotel and paid a bit extra for a
room with hot water. This seemed quite nice, so we got changed and headed out
looking for an early dinner. We found a nice little café, which had good coffee
and offered some food options, so we sat there and had quite a good meal.
Later, we just chilled in our room. I flopped onto our bed
to read for a while. I grabbed one of the pillows to lean on, and holy crap,
underneath the pillow was a pile of large maggots, oh no, not again. They were
under the other one as well.
I went out and got the guy in attendance to come in to sort
it out. He proceeded to grab a tissue and started to wipe them on to the floor,
he had no intention of changing the linen. So I just started stripping the bed
and he soon got the idea. I don’t want to blame these guys, the rest of the
place was really clean, obviously something had crawled under there between the
linen being changed and us arriving, which might have been a few days to be
fair. Totally gross though, and it didn’t lead to the best sleep we have had.
21/03/17
Our intention today was to get as close to Panyubungan as
possible, about 110ks with a really big climb late in the day, we didn’t think
we could do that. There were no hotel or homestay options in between however,
so we just had to wing it, allow serendipity to sort it out for us. We could
always camp if we had to.
About 30ks in, it was getting quite hot, so we stopped at a
small shop to get a cold drink. Straight away there was a young guy there who
spoke very good English. He was helping us to find what we were looking for. We
assumed that his family owned the shop. We sat down out the front and while
having our drink and a snack, the young guy introduced himself as Ilyas, he
wasn’t the shop owner, he just saw us riding past and came for an opportunity
to practice his English with us, which is cool. We had a nice chat and he
explained that he lived in the next village. The usual selfies with the shop
girls were had before we left and continued down the road.
We rode into Ilyas’s village, Passaman, and next thing Ilyas
and his neighbour came up to us on their motor bike. Ilyas wanted to show as
the village river where there was a really nice swimming spot. Only locals go
to this swimming hole, so we decided it would be really nice to see this. It was
a really nice couple of k’s up the village road off the main road, through the
village, the rice paddies and then along the riverside. We reached the swimming
hole and there were a few young people there having fun in the river. It was a
really pretty spot, and the water was nice and cool. We didn’t swim, but waded knee
deep in the refreshing clean water. There was a small stone wall that acts like
a mini waterfall where you can hire a tube and float down the river over the
wall into the swimming hole. Looked like a lot of fun. Once we had a nice rest
and cooled our feet off it was back on the bikes to return to the main road. We
thanked Ilyas for showing us this small gem of a spot, said good bye and were
on our way once more.
We were only about half way down the village road heading
back to the main road, when Ilyas came up behind us and asked us if we would
like to stay the night at his parent’s house in the village. He had spoken with
his mum and said it was all ok, if that is what we would like to do. This was
such a lovely invitation and we thanked him for his kind offer and decided to
take him up on it as long as we weren’t imposing on his parents or family.
Ilyas was very happy that we were able to stay and showed us the way to his
family’s house.
We met his mother, a very kind and generous lady, and his little
sister. His mum was going to cook us all some lunch so Ilyas decided that we
should go for a walk in the village garden before lunch and was happy to show
us around. As we left the house, the local school kids had just finished their
day, and a group of about 20 kids thought it would be a cool idea to come for a
walk with us too. Most of them were still in their school uniforms and had
their school bags on their backs. They were great kids, chatting as best they
could with us, laughing, smiling, making jokes I’m sure, and just having a lot
of fun along the way. We saw the fish ponds, the rice paddies, the vegetable
gardens, the cocoa trees and the rubber trees. The kids couldn’t help but put
their little fingers in the coconut shells that were collecting the rubber.
As
we walked along they all decided that they wanted to extend our walk and take
us the back way to the swimming hole. This was just such a magical moment
walking with these great kids who were all so interested in us and trying so
hard to communicate with us. A couple of the boys climbed trees along the way
and picked us fruit to try, and then we got to a small water hole and a few
decided to have a splash around and a cool down. Two young fellas then
proceeded to climb a couple of coconut trees. Straight up like monkeys they
went, no fear, and one grabbed a couple of coconuts and dropped them down to the
ground. One of the little tackers took off all his clothes when he climbed the
coconut tree, not sure why he had to be naked but maybe it was just a freedom
thing or he didn’t want to rip his uniform.
We all then continued on our way and eventually got to the
river and all the kids just jumped in and swam, bar one young boy who just sat
and watched. Some stripped down to undies while the others swam in their school
trousers, jumping off the stone wall into the pool, swimming around, splashing,
laughing and having so much fun.
We ventured on through the village garden and back to the
village, saying goodbye to our new friends as we went. We got back to the family
house where a lovely lunch had been prepared by Ilyas’s mum and we sat on the
floor and enjoyed her home cooking. As we ate, we looked up and we were being
watched by a large gathering of kids through the windows of the house. All the
kids just watching us eat our lunch. More and more were gathering, and a few had
snuck inside and were sitting around on the floor with us. Time to show them a
little video of Australia, Dave thought. So he got the laptop out and set up a
short video. Before you could even blink the whole room was full of village
kids watching the video. As soon as the video was over they were ushered out
the door and returned to the view from the windows.
5pm arrived pretty quickly and it was time for bathing. I had my bath in the family bathroom. The water comes through a small
pipe into the bathroom straight from the river. A quick bucket bath was had, as
the water was cold but very refreshing. Ilyas’s mum so very kindly handed me a
brand new cake of soup which I was very grateful to be able to use.
Dave was
invited to bathe down at the village baths, next to the mosque and headed off with Ilyas, with a sarong
under one arm and towel under the other. This was quite an experience for him
and he was introduced to the Village Head on the way back afterwards.
While Dave was off
having his bath, Ilyas’s brother wanted to have a ride on my bike, so off we went
next door to the school yard where he rode my bike around the court yard. A
large gathering of children of all ages with mums from the nearby houses all
came out to watch the riding in progress. Ilyas’s brother handled Priscilla
like a pro, and before too long had passengers on the back giving them all a fun
ride. Priscilla at one stage had two kids sitting on the back smiling and
laughing and all having fun.
Before too long it was dark, and dinner time approached
quickly. Ilyas’s mum cooked dinner for us and we sat and enjoyed another lovely
meal. We were introduced to his dad who had come home from a hard day’s work
selling ice blocks on the back of his motor bike in the village and surrounding
villages. Ilyas and his mum make the ice blocks by hand once or twice a week
and they store them in a freezer in the kitchen. Apparently the family can only
run a black and white tv, as they need the power for the freezer and the
pre-made ice. They make cocoa and durian flavoured ice as well as other
flavours when the fruit is in season. The boys insisted to give us their room
for the night, and they slept on the floor in the living room.
22-03-17
We had quite a restful sleep and awoke around 6.30am, packed
up, had a great coffee and were on our bikes just after Ilyas’s older sister
had left for school at 7am. With fond farewells, we rode out of the village
with the feeling of having experienced something very special. The opportunity
to stay in a village home with a family was really amazing.
We stopped a little way up the road to get some water and
snacks for the day. The hilarity started right here. There was a group of
ladies cleaning up the main street which was awesome to see. They looked very
official as well, all in uniforms. It seems this community is really trying
hard to address the rubbish problem. They came up to us and insisted on holding
my bike while I crossed the road to the shop. That was nice of them, but then
the laughs started as they were talking to Mary about our trip and the bikes
etc. Lots of jokes were being made that we didn’t have a clue about. But rule
number one for us, is that if people are laughing, then it is good fun. Selfies
were next, and hysterical laughter when Dave put his arm around one of the
ladies. They wished us well, were very keen to make sure that we stayed safe
and sent us on our way. More great people.
Today was a bit over 70ks, and we knew there was once again
some decent climbing to do. The road was nice though, and as we began our
ascent, the morning was still reasonably cool, and the rain forest was very
green on both sides of us. Nearing the top of the first climb (25ks later) we
crossed the border from West Sumatra, into North Sumatra. The funny thing that
happened here, was that for the rest of the day, everyone stopped saying “Hello
Mister” and changed to “Hello Miss”. What’s that about.
We arrived at Kota Nopan for lunch, and were finally able to
buy some phone credit so that we could get in touch with Rachel, our friendly
host for tonight. We felt awful that we hadn’t been able to keep her informed
of our schedule the last two days, but luckily, arriving today was still cool
with her. Rachel also informed us that on the approach to Panyambungan, that
things were a bit nuts, as the Indonesian President, Mr Joko Widodo was
visiting the area tomorrow, and everyone was in mad clean up and maintenance
mode. Be careful, was the message.
A bit more climbing, ok, a lot more climbing, and then the
very long descent down into Panyambungan began. This was a hoot, until about
10k out we went through a large boarding school community which was the main
focus of the President’s visit. There must have been a big sale on bright lime
green paint, as everything was being painted with it. We attracted a lot of
attention as we ripped through, there were students everywhere. Apparently
around eight thousand attend this school, all boarders. The boys live in tiny
wooden huts built right up to the edge of the road. We don’t know how many to a
hut, but they aren’t much bigger than the average Australian cubby house. The
girls apparently live in dormitory type accommodation. To cope with this to get
your education, will turn out some particularly tough individuals I think. Or
very broken ones.
The other advantage of having the President visit, is that
you can get all the potholes in the road fixed. All at once, by several crews.
But only the section that the President will travel on of course.
We were nearly into town, when we saw a large army truck
stopped in the middle of the road, unloading a full platoon of soldiers onto
the road. These guys were fully kitted out, jungle greens, machine guns and
full packs. A bit scary we thought. Until they saw us coming. This is one of
the most surreal moments in my life I think, as we veered out to the right to
go around them. These tough soldiers, standing there, totally gobsmacked by us,
with their machine guns in hand. I smiled at them and nodded. These guys just
lit up with awesome smiles, and waved and cheered at us as we went past. Soldiers
are human too. What a moment that was.
We found Rachels’s house with a little help from a Becak
driver, and sat down to chat with the local kids while we waited for Rachel to
come home from work. We were so welcomed into Rachel’s home and it didn’t take
us long at all to feel very relaxed. Nina a short term volunteer from Belgium
joined us three for dinner at a local café where good coffee was found.
Days off in Panyambungan
Hot Springs
We spent our day just relaxing and walking around
Panyambungan while Rachel and Nina were at work. We caught up with the girls
for a late lunch with a supply of nice fresh fruit that we had picked up at the
local market. Later in the afternoon Rachel organised a car to take us up into
the mountain to the Hot Springs. Due to the President’s visit to the area
tomorrow the main road was closed to traffic so we were detoured along a back
road. This made for a longer drive which took us up the mountain and through the
middle of the local villages. We passed a GO Thermal Plant in full operation
and arrived at the hot springs just on dusk. As this was a village hot spring
the men used one area and the women a separate area and the women were to wear
clothing or sarongs when bathing. It was such a beautiful place and very quiet
and we happened to be the only ones there due to the Call to Pray being on at
this time. Dave went off to the men’s area with Eddie one of the guys that
works with Rachel and us three girls headed to the girls only area. The hot
water stream flowed naturally over beautiful rounded river rocks. We found a
nice spot to sit and slowly ventured into the hot water. We had to take our
time getting into the water as it was really hot, but once immersed it gave you
an amazing feeling of relaxation and healing. Our poor tired muscles where just
so happy to receive this treatment. Rach brought along an organic facial scrub
powder which gave us girls the opportunity for a self giving mini facial.
Before too long we felt born again and sweating with the heat of the water and
had to remove ourselves before we cooked. We caught up with the boys in the
warung near the entrance and all had a coffee and sat back admiring the clear
starlight sky.
Meeting the Village Head
On our return from the hot springs it was time to meet the
Village Head. We arrived at his house but he was at a meeting but his wife Ibu
was very welcoming and invited us into their home and we had a lovely chat with
Rachel as interpreter. Ibu soon realised it was late and we hadn’t eaten dinner
so she offered to take us to one of her favourite warungs for a meal. Dave
hopped on the back of Rachel’s bike and me on the back of Ibu’s bike and off we
went out to dinner.
We rode through the
back streets and came to a simple looking Warung, that had quite a few people
inside, despite the late hour. Ibu helped us order, Mary had a special, very
rich dish with all sorts of vegies, noodles and spices. Myself and Rachel had a
local Sop, (soup) which was rich with noodles, chicken and lots of vegies, it
was delicious. We followed up with endless quantities of fried banana, Bakwan
and coffee for me.
The embarrassing part was that Ibu insisted on paying for
dinner, which was lovely, but so unexpected. The exciting part was that Ibu had
learned from Rachel that I love Rendang, the traditional slow cooked and very
spicy dish, that usually has beef as it’s primary ingredient. Ibu invited us to
her house the next morning and she would show us how to cook it, the authentic
way. So excited.
Ibu took us a different way home, it turns out that she had
found out where her husband was and she was taking us to another Warung to meet
him. I apologise, as at this point, I can’t remember the village Head’s name,
other than Rachel called him Papa, a respectful and affectionate name for
someone of importance, or an elder. Papa was a lovely guy and was enthralled by
our story, which he wanted to know every detail. And was cursing himself for
not knowing much English. Luckily we had Rachel to interpret for us. More
coffee was had, just by the boys. They came back to Rachel’s afterwards to see
our bikes, by this time it was midnight. What a great evening.
Cooking Rendang with Ibu
I (David) got up really excited today. I really wanted to do
this “cooking class” with Ibu. Rachel had given Ibu enough money the night
before to get the required ingredients. She got up at five am to go to the
market to get everything. What a dynamo this lady is, up till midnight the
night before and bright as a button when we arrived about 8:30.
We started preparing the basics. Chopping shallots, garlic,
etc. Ibu had bought individual pastes for the spices, but also bought an
example of the raw ingredient so that she could identify what it was for us.
Clever thinking that.
The ingredient list included:
About 1kg beef rump cut
About 1\2kg beef heart
Red shallots, 250grammes
Turmeric paste
Rolled turmeric leaf
Ginger Paste
Garlic paste
Galangal Paste
Lemongrass paste
Kafir lime leaves
Red Chilli paste
Blackened coconut paste (this was coconut kernel, fried over
medium heat until it turns dark brown, then crushed to make a paste when the
oil comes out of it) don’t know the name.
Palm sugar
Baby potatoes
The method
Chop Shallots finely and fry in wok over high heat with
plenty of oil until crisp
Add all aromatics to the wok, and fry off
Chop beef and heart into reasonably large chunks, wash, then
add to the wok without about 1\2 a litre of water.
After a few minutes reduce heat by pulling a few logs out of
the fire, cover and simmer, for about 30 mins but stirring off the bottom
regularly.
Add fresh coconut milk, in this case was probably 1 litre.
Cook until beef is very tender, add more coconut milk if
required but remember it must render down into a paste with the beef chunks in
it.
Add baby potatoes when nearly done, serve when cooked.
Serve with white rice, fresh cucumber and tomato, we
balanced the strong dish afterwards with a big serving of freshly cut papaya.
Chilli is a personal taste and I like mine hot.
Mary is vegetarian and can’t eat chilli, so we made one with
everything but the chilli, but substituted the beef with baby potatoes, skin on.
This was so good and packed with flavour that it could almost convert me. This
could be made with any sturdy root vegetable I think.
I can’t underestimate the extra flavour profile from the
wood smoke. It definitely added a lot to the dish, even though very few cook this
way now.
The most important part of this was that Ibu, her friend and
lovely young niece had such a wonderful time cooking with us, we had such a
great time. We had very little common language except the language of cooking
and food.
We then all sat down on a rug under the big mango tree in
Ibu’s yard and had the most wonderful lazy lunch. A fantastic day again.
We were all invited to the mountains, to stay the night at
Ricky’s mothers home. Ricky works with Rachel, and his mother is the official
Queen of the district. This was going to be a very special stay. Rachel had
stayed in the village a few times before but never at Ricky’s mothers home, so
it was an exciting adventure for her too. We caught a small bus and were in for
quite a ride. The bus trip took just over 3 hours up through the beautiful
mountains. The roads in many places were bad and some stretches non-existent
due to bad erosion and bad landslides. The bus was full, the music was loud,
the ride bumpy, but the view was amazing. The bus stopped a few times along the way;
to let a passenger off, or to let a lady off so she could go buy something and
then she returned, to chat with someone and to pick up a new passenger, each
time just pulling the bus up to a stop in the middle of the road. That’s
normal!!! Ricky followed behind the bus on his motorbike but when we reached a
bad section of road that he knew would take us time to drive through, he stopped
for a coffee but he caught up quickly once he had had a break. It was a pretty crazy
bus ride but a lot of fun.
We reached the village, climbed off the bus and proceeded to
walk up a small road to Ricky’s mums house. We reached the home and were fondly
greeted by Ibu, Ricky’s lovely mother. The house was set in a beautiful garden
that was being cared for by a gardener and all the cutting of the grass was
done by hand shears. The house was 80 years old, had a Dutch design influence
and was very beautiful. It would be an amazing treat to be able to renovate
this gem and bring it back to it's former glory. There were a lot of glass
windows and large French doors bringing in a lot of natural light. The kitchen
and food prep area was large and at the other end of the house. There were 4
large bedrooms all with views from large windows out into the surrounding
gardens. There was a large sitting room at the front of the house, still with the original
furniture, and going down a couple of steps took you into a large dining area. The
front porch seemed to become the place to hang out as this was a nice cool spot
to sit and watch the village people walking to their work in the forest further
up the mountain.
Ibu cooked us all a very beautiful lunch. After this we rested
for an hour and then Ricky took us off for a walk to the river. The walk was
beautiful, we walked passed Ricky’s fish he was growing in a large pond, his
rice paddy, and newly planted coffee plantation. We followed a path that the
village people use daily to get to their work and saw monkeys in the trees.
Then we had to walk over a swing bridge, I was fine until I hit the middle and
then it really started swaying. Oh dear there really wasn’t anything to hang
onto, so I tried to suck it up and be brave. A little more pathway led us to a
road which we followed and then Ricky took us down to the river to his
favorite swimming spot. It was amazing, the river was flowing and was lovely
and cool. The water was so clear and clean, and on the sides of the banks grew
beautiful lush green rain forest. The river rocks were pronounced along parts of the
river bank and made for a gorgeous scene. We waded into the water towards the
deep pool in the middle of the river, and swam and immersed ourselves in the
beauty of this ancient river. It is forbidden to fish in this section of the
river, against traditional law. The fish are protected so they can
breed and provide food for generations to come. This law is upheld by all the
village people. We saw small schools of fish, and as we sat on the rocks to rest, tiny fish would come up and nibble our toes.
Ricky brought out a bag of old photos that belonged to his
mother. It was so interesting to see photos of the house in its earlier years.
But what was more fascinating were the photos of the women in probably the 70’s
who were dressed in mini skirts, had long flowing hair and high heels.
Indonesia at the peak of fashion. Wow, things have certainly gone backwards. The
men were dressed in flares and tight shirts, these guys were rocking it. Now
the women in this area are covered up with long dresses and the hijab. From
what we understand the hijab is now their fashion.
After lunch we had another rest and then it was time to
leave and catch the bus back to Panyambungan. We walked down to the main road
in the village and sat in a warung and waited for the next bus. It arrived
about half an hour later and we all climbed on board taking up the last of the
seats. A little further down the road, a couple more passengers were picked up
so now we had to squish up and make room for these two extra bodies. Yep this
is going to be a fun squishy ride back. Again the music was blaring, the road
was bumpy, a few more landslides to dodge and before we
knew it, a couple of
passengers got off and we had a little more room to breathe for the rest of the
trip. Bikes are definitely better than buses.
27/03/17
It was time to move on. We had spent more time than we had
planned staying with the wonderful Rachel. Not that this was a problem, we hope
that Rachel enjoyed hosting us as much as we enjoyed staying. She certainly had
showed us a good time, and we learnt so much about Sumatra and the work she and
her colleagues are doing to help improve the environment in Sumatra.
Despite being over 70ks again today, we knew that there was
not much climbing to do, and the day started out quite cruisy. It was very hot
and humid however. Panyambungan is renowned as a hot place, and we had had a
massive thunderstorm over night that had sent the humidity sky high as well.
We needed a coffee, so stopped at a small warung with a
bunch of guys having their all day coffee there as well. We had a really good
coffee and biscuits while the guys checked out our bikes and quizzed us through
the language barrier.
Kicking on, we came to a small village. There were a lot of
people around and we thought that there must be a market on. There was a lot of
mud over the road that we had to ride through. As we came out the other side
and over a bridge, we could see that the river was flooding, and that a house
on the left had been flooded, with debris piled up against the front door,
where the water had rushed through. It also looked like another house, formerly
perched on the river bank had collapsed in to the river. It was only later that
afternoon that we found out that three people, including two children had been
swept away to their deaths and another person was missing. Despite not knowing
this, there was a nagging feeling that I shouldn’t take photos here, and once
again, it turns out that trusting my gut was the right thing to do.
As we carried on, we could see the power of the swollen
river, it looked like flowing mud, the result of landslides and wash outs due to
forest clearing. The land can no longer hold the water and
release it slowly as it rains. Which illegal logger was ultimately responsible for these
children’s death? Maybe a member of their own village.
We came to a backed up line of traffic, and rode past it to
the front where we could see that the road was flooded for about three hundred
metres. We sat and watched for a while and observed that a few motorbikes were
making it through, it would be about knee deep to us. The road underneath
looked like it was still intact. We thought we couldn’t ride through, but we
should be able to walk the bikes through ok. The river was parallel to the
road, and the current was coming toward us, not from the side, so we waded in.
The first two hundred metres were fine, yes we had wet
boots, but they would dry out. Then, a line of trucks decided that they were
coming through from the opposite direction. It turns out that the problem with
this was the bow waves that the trucks created, that threatened to swamp us.
The fat bikes started to float and move sideways in the current. A couple of
guys at the other end could see that we might have trouble and waded in to
help. By this time the trucks had passed us, so I was handling it, but motioned
for them to help Mary, who was close behind me.
We pushed our bikes out the other side and noticed the
police had been filming us all the way across having a good laugh and thumbs up
that we had made it. Up on you tube again?
Riding on, we thought we would stop away from the crowd and
wring our socks out. Wet boots for the rest of the day.
Luckily, the hotel at Padang Sidempuan was really nice, as a
solid hot shower and a cold beer was very welcome after this day. Adventure
certainly seems to have its way of finding us.
28-03-17
A shorter day ahead, 34ks, but all of it was up, a long way
up. The whole day was a climb, no respite.
This area of North Sumatra is the traditional home of the
Batak people. We were finding them very animated in their greetings toward us,
louder, and a lot of fun, often shouting their traditional greeting of “Horas”
to us. Many people on motorbikes stopped to talk with us today, which gave us
the excuse for a break.
The traditional architecture is also a little different,
compared to that of the Minang of West Sumatra. The traditional buildings,
still have the vaulted gables, but not to the same dramatic extent as the
Minankabau. They also have sloping walls that slant outwards until they meet
the roofs, which are thatched with a fibrous moss, collected from certain palm
trees. After a while, the roofs grow their own roof top gardens and look very
cool.
Tonight we stayed at a cool hotel that was entirely these
traditional structures in a very nice setting, looking over the valley, with
the village of Sipirok down inside.
The other thing that we were finding was that Sumatra was
costing us a bit more than our budget. This was mainly due to accommodation.
Food is probably cheaper here than Bali and Java, but a roof over our heads was
definitely more, especially if you didn’t want maggots in your bed. I am sure
also, that we are getting a bit jaded at this point, and a bit over crappy
hotels. So we have been deciding to pay more to find a bit more comfort, not
always successfully.
The Torsibohi hotel was very cool, but once again, very run
down inside and dirty bathrooms, despite the high price.
29-03-17
The sound of monkeys calling out in the mist shrouded forest
behind us was a very cool way to start the day.
A basic breakfast was served and we hit the road, a longer
day today, about 80ks, with a climb as big as yesterday’s at the end.
Mary was suffering for the first time from Traveller’s
belly. It wasn’t bad, but she was struggling to eat, which makes it hard to
keep your energy levels up for climbing. She was doing really well though. I
was also beginning to feel the symptoms, but was trying hard to ignore it, I
don’t get sick remember.
We punished ourselves a bit today. The impending sickness,
making us just want to get to the other end today. Some funny things still
happened though.
A local guy on a motorbike came up along side us as we rode and
chatted for quite a while, we were about half way up the long climb. He spoke
great English, and really wanted to practice with us. He went ahead for a
while, then I stopped where he was waiting, to wait for Mary, she was
struggling on a steeper section. While waiting I attracted quite a crowd,
including a rather loud Lady who was standing rather uncomfortably close. She
decided she wanted to feel my legs, to see how hard they were. This in itself
was not that unusual, it had happened to me quite a few times in Indonesia, it
didn’t bother me much, as it was always innocent interest until now. Her hand
left squeezing my thigh muscle, to a place rather more embarrassing, much to
the raucous laughter of everyone else present. Umm, I don’t think so, I said, as I respectfully removed her hand.
Mary then appeared on the slope below us, to which a nice
young guy said to me, quite amazed, “Sir, is your wife Indonesian”? Me, looking
back at Mary,“Umm, no, she just has a great tan”. Much more raucous laughter.
The motorbike guy invited us for a coffee at a good place a
bit further up the road. We gratefully accepted, and it was very good, helping
us get to the top of the hill and the end of our day. We crashed into our hotel
room and tried to sleep this bad belly off.
30-03-17
Not feeling well the night before, we had decided to make a
route alteration to try and make the next two days a bit easier. We had
originally planned to approach Lake Toba from the West side. This meant another
big climb today that we just couldn’t face. So we decided to go to the East
side and catch the ferry across to Samosir island from Parapat. This would pick
up a day that we could spend getting better off the bike at a cool place called
Tabo Cottages at Tuk Tuk, on Samosir.
This was a good decision, we still had to climb for a while,
but then it was down all the way to Belige on the Southern shore of Lake Toba.
An uneventful day, but nice scenery along the way.
31-03-17
We rolled out of Belige with badly rumbling stomachs still,
not from being hungry. So this day turned into another time trial, make it to
the end before things got worse. It was very flat for the first 30ks and we
made that in good time. The hills were much more interesting though, and the
climbing not that hard. We were back in the rainforest again, inside the huge
Toba crater, and rainforest always makes us feel better. But we didn’t stop to
take it in today, just get to Parapet, onto the ferry and across to Tuk Tuk, so
we can recuperate.
Luckily the 60ks were done by lunchtime and we only had to
wait half an hour for the ferry, with our legs crossed. Not funny.
The crossing was nice, and short, about twenty minutes and
we were dropped off right at our accommodation, Tabo Cottages.
We were very impressed with this place, made once again, in
the traditional Batak style, and we were met off the ferry, and shown to our
lovely room that overlooks the manicured garden and the lake. This was going to
be a nice place to recuperate for a few days, before our final push into Medan.
Our stay was uneventful just relaxing and gave us time to
heal from this tummy bug we both had been suffering. We gave ourselves an extra
day of rest than we had originally planned to ensure we were good to go on the
bikes once more.
4-3-17
We had just started loading the bikes and gear on the
morning ferry to Parapat, when luckily, one of the hotel staff was a bit
bemused that we were going on the waterfall cruise. Oh crap. Our ferry was one
bay over, at the next hotel along the coast, and we were supposed to go there
to board. No-one had told us this however.
Luckily the guy who noticed we were on the wrong boat called
out to the deck hand on the other, and they agreed to come over and get us.
It’s only 7:45, and shit’s already getting weird. Lol.
Arriving at Parapat, we unloaded everything to the dock, got
our gear on the bikes, and gently cruised through the dockside markets and
began our ascent, up and out of the Toba crater. Here we saw some sweet little
monkeys with lots of babies, then this huge alpha male spotted us, cleared away
his girls and took after us up the hill. It must have been a hilarious sight
seeing this monkey going crazy and chasing two fat bikers up the hill. Luckily
Larry and Priscilla had pedal power and were able to escape this crazy animal. After
catching our breath we realised that his was still going to be a decent climb,
about 10ks, but the grade was consistent between three and five percent, so we
spun up well on our fresh legs, ignoring our rumbling bellies.
Once out of the crater, it was all down. Yep, down. 35ks of
down. Did I mention that it was all down? You know, Descending? It was cool,
but the traffic was being a bit more aggressive, especially the Angkot (mini
bus) drivers.
Anyway, we made it to Pematangsiantar without further
incident and enjoyed a chilled afternoon.
5/04/17
Nearing the end of our Indonesia leg of K2K, we can’t help
but begin to reflect on the last three months and all that has happened. But
doing this while riding is stupid, and will get you killed. Because, as we get
closer to Medan, the traffic is getting much more aggressive, back to Java
style.
Stay focused. Sometimes this is the problem when you only
have a cruisy 50ks to do with no climbing. Todays ride was mostly through
plantation land, rubber, palm oil, rubber, palm oil. Nothing much really
happened until after we had got to our hotel in Tebing Tinggi and went for a
walk. Even that wasn’t anything special, just another mid size, grey, Indonesian
city. Then a guy came up to us. Just another tout we thought, he wanted to know
our favorite song, no idea. Anyway, he decided he would sing his favorite
song. And after a few words, he wanted payment, holding out his hand. We
politely said no, and kept walking. Well, this guy wasn’t going to let up, he
followed us for ages and wouldn’t be told to get lost. We only just managed to
shake him off as we got back to the hotel. Very creepy experience indeed.
We really enjoyed our afternoon, getting some photo editing
done and drinking some coffee. We were staying in a room that was in the middle
of the hotel, no window. It was quite freaky, totally dark. But it was quiet.
6/04/17
A quick breakfast of toast, egg and coffee, saw us on our
way bright and early again.
Tebing Tinggi really is
a very drab place, think grey, and then add a little more grey, you get the
idea.
This was going to be a 60km time trial. It turned out to be
one continuous game of chicken. Overtaking cars, trucks and buses, coming
straight towards us. Mostly there was a reasonable gravel shoulder to drop
onto, but often the drop was quite large, I think Mary improved her drop off
skills quite dramatically today.
The place we were heading to was quite weird. We were a bit
ahead of time, so didn’t want to end up in Medan any earlier than we needed to.
So we were dividing up the remaining distance into quite comfortable distances.
This actually meant that tonight, we would stay in a hotel quite near the
airport, which is well out of the city. We thought about bringing our flight
forward, but it wasn’t worth the effort. Our bikes still needed to be
thoroughly washed and boxed up for the flight home. And that couldn’t be done
out here. So here we are, staying in this weird airport transit hotel, Thong’s
Inn. It’s actually very nice, great rooms etc, it’s just that, we don’t really
understand why it is here, in this very weird location, that on the face of it,
would only work for crazy bikepackers who are looking to waste a day before
heading in to the city. Hmmm?
7/4/17
We took our time getting going this morning as there was no
rush today, just a cruisy 25km ride into the big city of Medan. We
followed Maps Me that took us all through the back blocks on our way to the
city.
We could not have gone through any more markets this morning
if we tried, I’m sure we rode through every single one. Crazy places to have to
ride your bike through with so many people, motorbikes, cars and trucks coming
from both directions on a very narrow road, which meant lots of stops and
waiting for traffic to clear. Traffic jams always seem to happen when you’re
right outside a chicken butcher or smelly fish stall. Eeek, the smell can be so
overpowering at times. We were happy though to be out of the crazy traffic and
able to tinker along through the quieter village roads.
As we were riding along we could hear really loud music,
drums and symbols attracting attention, especially the attention from children.
As we approached we saw a poor little monkey sitting on a toy bicycle and the
guy winding something up. Then all of a sudden this poor little monkey went
scooting on the bike so fast down the side of the road. It was really horrible
and I just yelled out NO!! I’m sure everyone heard my reaction to this sight of
animal abuse and felt my anger. Again we found ourselves powerless to make change.
We were staying at a small hotel in the city, which was very
clean and tidy but still in the process of being built. Our room was on the 4
th
floor (even though our room number was 503) and there was no lift, so climbing
flights of stairs and hauling our luggage up was all part of our exercise for
the day. So here we are in Medan, we made it, and have had an amazing
adventure. We went down stairs to the half built resto, ordered coffee and
celebrated our completion of our Indonesian Adventure. Our celebration wasn’t quite
the same as when we celebrated our completion of our Broome leg where we
celebrated with a breakfast feast at Matso’s, followed by Dave drinking a
couple of good Matso’s brews. Big breakfast feast followed by good cold beers
will be had when we return home on Tuesday, next week.
So here we are, stuck in a city where I am trying really hard
to find some good points, some heart, or some sort of attraction. Sadly, it’s
all dark and dingy here, smelly, stinky, no fresh air and a really dirty, busy
and really crazy city. We are still carrying sickness so that is not helping
matters either. We did however find a laundry to wash our clothes, a bike shop
to get two cardboard boxes to pack our bikes into, and managed to find some
sort of fresh food to make us feel a little better. So now the bikes are boxed
up and our bags are packed and all ready to catch a taxi to the airport tomorrow
at midday. Indonesia, you've been a blast, Thank You.
We’ll do an entire Indonesia wrap up in the next blog post.
As we continued on, the heat of the day started to rev up
and once back out on the main road it started to melt us both. We found a tree
and sat under it for a little rest and to get the body temperature down. It was
amazing how much cooler it was under the tree with its own little natural air
conditioner happening. With this little reprieve we pedalled on and got to our
stay at De Palma Hotel, Kuala Selangor. This was a lovely hotel with bungalows
set in a park like setting with lots of trees all around. The trees were full
of very cheeky monkeys. As we went for a little walk around the area the monkeys
were everywhere. There were monkeys playing in bushes, climbing up and down
trees, swinging from branches, jumping and climbing all over people’s houses.
Our walk followed the river and here there was jungle on both sides of the
road. A lot of rubbish had been dumped on the edge of the jungle and the
monkeys here were getting into it all. One little monkey was sitting up on a
branch of a tree cleaning out a can of corn. He looked pretty happy with
himself with what he had scored. 
The road improved after this, which made the last twenty k’s
reasonably easy, but getting hot once again. The only real thing of note was
when we passed a nursery that specialised in massive Bansai plants made out of Bougainvillea.
These were up to three metres high with twisted gnarly trunks, often several
varieties in the same plant, very cool.
