Day
161 - 13th May
We
left Bukit Lawang on the morning tourist bus to the town of Parapat
on the shore of Lake Toba. It wasn't so much a bus as an
air-conditioned people carrier, which was great. We had to go via
Medan to drop someone off so the whole journey took 8 hours with a
couple of stops. Danau (lake) Toba is the largest lake in Southeast
Asia, at 1707sq km and is ringed by tree-covered mountains and
volcanoes. The lake itself fills a massive crater formed during a
huge volcanic eruption, which also created the island of Samosir, in
the middle of the lake. The area around Danau Toba, including
Samosir, is home to the Batak people, a warlike tribe, discovered by
the west in 1783, and who continued to engage in ritualistic
cannibalism until 1816. The Bataks were converted to Christianity by
missionaries, and the 6million Bataks who live in the area today and
a very friendly, music-loving people, 95% Christian but their faith
still contains many elements of their pre-Christian animist beliefs.
I had researched the area 3 years ago, when we came to Indonesia for
our honeymoon and am very excited to finally be here.
From
Parapat we took the ferry to Samosir, which is about the size of
Singapore and used to be a big traveller destination in the 90s.
Now, like in the rest of Sumatra, tourist numbers are very low and
barely any of the 50 guesthouses in the small town of Tuk-Tuk ever
receive many guests. On the ferry we met up with Kyle and Lisa, the
American couple from Bukit Lawang, and their friend Ben. Having made
no plans and been beset by countless hopeful Indonesians trying to
convince us to stay at their guesthouse, we decided to join up with
them and went to the first one they'd been recommended. We caught
the last ferry of the day, at 6pm, and were treated to a spectacular
sunset as we crossed the lake. The boat took about 40 minutes to
reach Tuk-Tuk and then very helpfully wound its way round the
coastline, stopping at each hotel to let people off at their chosen
destination. We had picked Reggae guesthouse, a very simple
collection of budget rooms at bargain prices (again we paid £4 but
this time with hot water!) We had the place virtually to ourselves
and the best thing was the rooms were right on the lake shore, with
fantastic swimming just outside our rooms. There was even a diving
board and some tyre swings to add to the fun. Once we had chosen our
rooms we got changed and had a wonderfully refreshing evening swim in
the still-warm waters of the lake in the dark, watching beautiful
flashes of lightening over the volcanoes in the distance. Once we'd
dried off we all had dinner together, then went to a bar to watch the
last game of the Premiership with some locals, all of whom turned out
to be City fans!
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| Danau Toba |
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| Parapat Harbour |
Day
162 - 14th May
After
a great night's sleep, we had a lovely lazy morning with delicious
banana pancakes for breakfast. We spent lots of time sitting by the
lake reading our books and enjoying the tranquillity of the island.
Jon and I went for a walk around Tuk-Tuk, which mostly consist of
hotels, cafes, souvenir shops and other amenities to serve the hoards
of tourists who used to visit. We also stopped in at some carving
workshops, where local Batak men were making beautiful wooden items,
mostly for tourists but some still for the locals. The carvings were
very intricate and beautiful and ranged from small figurines and wall
plaques to musical instruments and staffs over 6 feet tall. We fell
in love with these staffs, which we learnt are used as magic sticks
to bring luck and for praying with. The only questions now is, can
we possible find room for a 6 foot tall staff in our backpacks, or
even in a London flat? We went for lunch with Lisa, Kyle and Ben,
and were also joined by Susu and Quentin, and Austrian-French couple
currently living in Beijing Lunch took over an hour and a half to
arrive (slow even by Indonesian standards), which essentially put
paid to everyone's afternoon plans. Instead we all went back to our
guesthouse for a fun couple of hours of swimming, diving and ever
more elaborate jumps onto the tyre swings. We met an English guy
called Jonathan, who was also staying at Reggae and he joined us for
the rest of the day. In the evening Jon and I took off for a while
to an internet cafe to try and get some Olympic tickets, but the
website had blocked access to anyone outside the UK so we weren't
able to get through. We also failed to book a flight on an
Indonesian website and eventually gave up and went back to join the
others. We drowned our sorrows with some beers and went out for a
very tasty dinner with Ben and Jonathan. Ben had the fantastic idea
of having gin and tonics by the lake and, amazingly, we were able to
get all the requisite ingredients, so we rounded off the evening
sipping G&Ts on the balcony, chatting with our new friends.
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| Having fun in the lake |
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| Waiting for lunch with Ben, Kyle and Lisa |
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| Samosir Island |
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| Samosir |
Day
163 - 15th May
This
morning Lisa, Kyle and Jonathan left Samosir, and were replaced by
another friendly English couple, Ali and Andy. Unfortunately I woke
up with a cold (yes, only I could get a cold in the tropics!) so we
decided to have another relaxing day. We hired a scooter in the
village and drove up to the tip of the island, where there was a very
picturesque port, with more stunning views across the lake to hazy
mountains. As we drove we passed rice paddies, palm trees, small
settlements and local people out ploughing the fields or drying their
rice grains in the sun. We also passed many traditional buildings
and small villages with their distinctive Batak houses arranged
around a small square, in which women were weaving palm leaves or
preparing food, while children played. The Batak style of
architecture is very unique, consisting of long wooden houses on
stilts, covered by a huge curving roof with a sweeping curved peak at
the front. Traditionally the houses were made with no nails and the
roofs were covered with reeds, but now most roofs are made of tin.
This doesn't detract at all from their beauty, and the vista of
rusting roofs lends the whole place a charming, slightly dilapidated
Indonesian air. We stopped off to see some ancient stone carvings of
figures, presumably old Batak Gods, although there was no information
to accompany them. We also went to see some 300-year-old carved
stone chairs, that were used as a sort of council and court in
pre-colonial times. We drove back towards Tuk-Tuk and a little
further south to see the King's tomb, which wasn't signposted and
easily missed, and didn't seem that impressive anyway. We went back
to Reggae, dropped off the bike and then I had a sleep to try and
convince my cold to stay away. In the afternoon we did some more
swimming and Ben and I tried to help Jon perfect his diving
technique. We went out with Ben, Ali and Andy for dinner and met up
with Susu, Quentin and one of their friends so it was a nice jolly
evening to end our stay on Samosir. We topped it off with another
round on G&Ts by the lakeside before packing our bags ready to
leave tomorrow.
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| Batak houses |
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| Off on our scooter |
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| Stone carvings |
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| The view from the top of the island |
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| Rice paddies |
Day
164 - 16th May
We
were up early for the 8:30 ferry back to Parapat and bade a sad
farewell to beautiful Lake Toba. We had pre-booked our car to Medan
and night bus on to Banda Aceh, in the far north of Sumatra, from a
tour office in Parapat before we went to Samosir so we hoped
everything would run smoothly. Of course, this is Indonesia and you
have to allow for the extraordinary amount of faff and convoluted
plans they seem to manage to fit into even the most simple journey.
We arrived at the tour office at 9:30 as instructed, to be told we'd
been booked on the 8:00 night bus, not the 6:00, which would leave
things tight in Banda Aceh for picking up the morning ferry to Pulau
Weh. The man in the office managed to change our booking for the
7:00 bus, which was better, but we were then told we'd have to wait
there til 12:00 before getting our car to Medan. If we'd known that
we'd have had a more relaxing morning in Tuk-Tuk rather than rushing
for the first ferry. We sat around in the office until 12:30, when
Ricky appeared and told us we were to get into a minivan and go to
his company's restaurant, where the car would pick us up. At the
restaurant it seemed there was still time for us to have some lunch,
which we did, and the driver eventually arrived a little before 1:00.
The he had to have his lunch, so we didn't end up leaving Parapat
until gone 1:30. The journey to Medan usually takes 4 hours, which
would still have been ok, but today is a public holiday and the
traffic in Medan was like nothing I've ever seen before. It took us
several hours to get through the city to the bus area, having first
had to drop some people off at the airport, and we didn't get there
until 7:30, half an hour after our bus was due to leave. It was
raining heavily when we arrived and the driver stopped, got our bags
out and pointed to an office, which turned out to have nothing
whatsoever to do with our bus! Luckily some local people were able
to point us in the right direction and we eventually found the right
office. Fortunately our seats on the 8:00 bus were still booked in
our names (I wonder if we were ever booked on the 7:00 at all) so we
waited at the bus station for a while. At 8:30 a small minibus
appeared and we were shepherded on, hoping to God that this wasn't
our 12-hour night bus. We drove through the city a bit more and
finally found ourselves in a depot where we were ushered onto a large
bus bound for Banda Aceh. We had been promised a tourist class bus
by Ricky, with air-con and toilet, and while this bus had those
things it was all definitely in an Indonesian style. The seats were
terribly uncomfortable, but at least we had seats, unlike the poor
souls who found themselves sitting on plastic stools in the aisle for
12 hours! The toilet was at the back of the bus, in the smoking
room, but there were so many people sleeping in front of the door it
was impossible to use. At least we were finally on our way. The
bus did have blankets and a pillow and there was even a film, albeit
one we'd seen before. At about 5am the bus stopped by the side of
the road, initially we assumed it was a toilet stop but it turned out
to be for morning prayers at a roadside mosque, along with about 7
other buses. We both managed to grab a few hours sleep over the
course of the night, thanks to the miracle of ear-plugs and
inflatable pillows, so it definitely could have been worse.
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| The boat to Parapat |
Day
165 - 17th May
We
arrived in Banda Aceh at 7:30, feeling sleepy and a little sore from
the uncomfortable chairs. We were beset by becak drivers as soon as
we stepped off the bus and took one to the ferry port. Along the
way we passed the Mesjid Raya, the beautiful main mosque, and the
Tsunami museum. Banda Aceh was the worst hit area when the Boxing
Day tsunami struck in 2006, much of the town was destroyed and over
170,000 Indonesians were killed, most of them in Aceh. Since then
most of the town has been rebuilt, some say better than before, and
the disaster served to bring about peace to an area previously
troubled by civil war. It is a very devoutly Muslim region, and
Sharia Law in in force here, although apparently most people allow
tourists to do pretty much as they please as long as they are
respectful to local customs and traditions. We're hoping to have
more time to explore Banda Aceh when we return from Pulau Weh, if the
flights work out in our favour. There are two boats to Pulau Weh,
the remote tropical island we're heading to, which lies off the north
coast of Aceh, a fast ferry and a slow ferry. The difference in
price is quite large and most people we've met have taken the slow
boat and raved about it, so we decided that's what we'd try and do.
We had been given many conflicting reports of the ferry times to
Sabang, the main town on Pulau Weh, and the ferry port itself was
confusing and didn't seem to clear matters up. Eventually we managed
to work out that the next slow boat wasn't until 2pm (it was 8:30am
at this point) and I was feeling quite rotten with my cold so really
didn't feel like sitting in the waiting room until then. Luckily the
fast boat was leaving at 9:00, so we put aside our traveller
credentials and took that, hoping the be able to get to bed soon.
The boat ride only took 45 minutes, and once on Pulau Weh we got a
car to Iboih, one of the two tourist areas on the island. Our
travelling luck ran out and the car broke down by the side of the
road, about 10 minutes out of the port. Eventually we were picked up
by another car to finish the 40 minute drive. Iboih is a small
settlement situated on a short stretch of beach, mainly consisting of
a few cafes and small shops with some wooden houses scattered around.
Some stone steps lead away from the beach to a path through the
woods to the visitor accommodation – collections of wooden huts on
stilts nestled into the trees and along side the water's edge. We
had been recommended a place called Yulia's, which just happened to
be the last place along the road and we arrived hot and sweaty, but
the recommendation turned out to be a good one. Yulia's has a large
collection of huts, some right on the water, all at very reasonable
prices, and has the nicest looking restaurant and terrace area we've
seen. We took a hut high up on stilts, with a somewhat rickety
ladder to climb, but with a double bed, fan and a balcony with views
out to the sea through the trees. Feeling exhausted and glad to
finally be here, I took some paracetamol and slept for a while, while
Jon read his book on the terrace and went for a refreshing swim in
the amazingly clear turquoise water. Pulau Weh is a little slice of
paradise, with a rocky shore that provides some of the best
snorkelling and diving in the Indian Ocean, the clearest, warmest
water I have ever seen and plenty of shady woodland to hide from the
immense heat of the sun (well we are practically on the equator).
I'm really looking forward to spending a few days relaxing here on
this beautiful unspoilt island.
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| Yulia's cottages |
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| Beautiful Pulau Weh |
Day
166-168 - 18th-20th May
We
spent three wonderful days on Pulau Weh doing pretty much nothing but
enjoying our tropical island paradise. We slept well in our wooden
hut, with the aid of a fan to keep the night-time temperatures
somewhat bearable, and usually woke relatively early to a beautiful
sunny morning. I managed some time each morning reading my book in
the hammock on our balcony looking out over the sea as the sun warmed
up the air and turned the water a deep turquoise. Yulia's served
great food and we enjoyed fruit pancakes and banana porridge for
breakfast, sipping tea and chatting to other guests. Once the sun
was up it was incredibly hot so we were grateful for the shade of the
terrace restaurant and the gentle breeze that always seems to blow
here and helps to keep the temperature bearable. Our days mostly
followed the same pattern of lounging on our balcony or in the
restaurant, reading or eating and drinking, followed by a dip in the
sea or some time snorkelling. The water here is the clearest, bluest
and warmest I have ever been in and it feels wonderful to swim in.
Yulia's hired snorkels for £1 a day so we were able to head into the
water whenever we wanted to peer underwater at the amazing array of
brightly coloured fish just swimming around the rocks close to the
hotel. The variety of colourful coral and tropical fish was
incredible as they flashed past us in vivid shades of blue, green,
purple and yellow, and we also saw amazing sea slugs and a bright
green and purple shrimp, as well as huge blue and red starfish.
Further in towards the village and the jetties the coral had been
quite badly damaged but as we swam away from the settlements towards
the ocean the reefs were more intact and we were able to see huge
formations in dazzling colours, full of fish and spiky sea anemones.
One day we swam across from Yulia's to Rubiah Island, a small
palm-fringed island 100m off the coast. The swim was easy and the
water remained clear and blue even in the middle of the channel.
Once on the island we walked over to a small beach on the other side,
where there were vast fields of coral close to the beach, again
teeming with life, although we felt that the snorkelling around our
little patch of coast at the cottages was just as good as anything
else we found here. Pulau Weh certainly had the best snorkelling
I've ever done and we really enjoyed being able to dip into this
incredible underwater world whenever the sun got too hot. One day we
walked down to the little village and small white sand beach, where
we were able to find a few cafes and an internet connection, so Pulau
Weh is not as totally cut-off as it seems. Evenings were spent in a
similar fashion, relaxing with tea and wandering to one of the simple
restaurants along the road to the village for a tasty fish curry or
nasi goreng. We had an amazing time here and it was the perfect way
to spend our last few days of travelling, with a chance to truly
unwind before beginning the long gruelling journey back to London.
As with the rest of Sumatra, we struggle to understand why there
aren't more tourists – the island is as beautiful as anything Bali
or even the Caribbean could muster up, and a fraction of the price –
but for now we're not complaining, as it meant we got to have a
little slice of paradise almost to ourselves.
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| Monitor lizard |
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| Crab near the cottages |
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| Iboih Beach |
Day
169 - 21st May
Today
we sadly had to leave the incredible beauty and calm of Pulau Weh to
begin our journey home. We were up early for a 6:30 car to the ferry
back to Banda Aceh. We had become used to the relaxed way of life on
Weh, where, although the population is devoutly Muslim, they seem
more than happy to let the tourists do what they want. As soon as we
set foot back on the mainland, however, I felt many disapproving eyes
on my bare shoulders and thighs in my vest and shorts, and so swiftly
covered up using my trusty sarong. Our flight to Kuala Lumpur was
quick and painless, although having flown with Air Asia we landed in
the Low Cost Centre terminal instead of the luxury of the main
airport. Our next flight wasn't until 6:00 the next morning, a wait
of more than 17 hours, and we decided that we simply couldn't spend
that long in McDonalds, so we booked ourselves into an airport hotel
for the night to try and get a bit of sleep before the next leg of
the journey.
Day
170 - 22nd May
We
were up early for our 6am flight to Singapore, which again was swift
and comfortable. Our flight out to Heathrow wasn't until 11:00
tonight so we decided to spend the day in Singapore. We caught the
metro into Chinatown, which was bustling and full of character, with
narrow streets and tall colonial buildings. We spent some time
shopping in the market and picked up a few souvenirs before heading
off to a couple of temples. First stop was the Sri Mariamman Hindu
temple, the oldest in Singapore and full of colourful carvings. Next
up was the huge Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, opened in 2008, and full
of gold Buddha statues with a tranquil roof garden on the 5th floor, which was a real oasis in the heart of Chinatown. Once we'd
had our fill of Chinese culture we spent a good few hours wandering
around the centre of Singapore. We walked along the river, where we
stopped for a beer to escape the intense heat and sweltering
humidity. The centre of the city, along the river, is crammed full
of old merchants' cottages, nestled in amongst shining glass
skyscrapers, which creates a really vibrant feel, at once modern and
western and yet distinctly Asian. We walked down to Marina Bay, with
it's famous Merlion statue (half lion, half fish squirting water into
the harbour) and yet more skyscrapers, including one fantastic hotel
with a cruise ship set atop three tall glass towers. Our last stop
was Raffles Hotel, where sadly we couldn’t afford the Singapore
Slings in the courtyard bar – not that they'd have been impressed
with our super-casual attire! Feeling pretty exhausted by all that
walking, but loving Singapore's East meets West vibe, we headed back
to the airport. By now we've been to lots of airports but Singapore
has to be the best in the world. It's more theme park than departure
lounge, with a roof-top swimming pool, free calf massage chairs,
indoor and outdoor themed gardens and even a helter skelter. We
easily whiled away three hours just exploring the departure lounges
of the three terminals before boarding our final flight. Jon was
excited by the fact that we were flying on an A380, and it was
absolutely massive and felt very luxurious, even for economy. We had
mixed emotions as we took off at the end of what has been the most
incredible journey, on the one hand we were very sad that it's all
over, after so much planning, but also we're now looking forward to
seeing everyone when we get home tomorrow. Goodnight and wish us a
comfortable flight!
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| Sri Mariamman Temple |
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| Chinatown |
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| Marlion Park |
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| Raffles |
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| Singapore CBD |
