You know a place doesn't get many tourists when the immigration officials all want to have their photo taken with you. Welcome to Indonesia. A land of smiles. Nice people. Friendly people. Helpful people. Finally, thank fuck we had arrived. Given that we want to spend 6 months or so here over the course of 2 trips it was a relief to get off to a good start. Apart from one brief moment when the guard removed Cannelle's tampons and asked 'what's this?'. Erm. Another guard tried to get him to leave it but he persisted. Awkward moment as we try to explain how they are used with no language to help us. They told us how much to pay for a tricycle and it seemed reasonable. Cheap now with hindsight. We stupidly had some money so the tricycle driver took us to an ATM first, though he didn't have any change. He found it eventually when I just waited. One small problem in Indonesia is the no change problem. Still there was no 'special price' or 'my friend' bollocks. Just simple niceness. Oh how I missed it in lots of place in Indonesia. There is nothing to see here but driving out of the port we saw long tailed macaques in the mangrove swamps. Sumatra should be full of wildlife. We got a hotel for 150,000 and this was our first night here. Its a nice town to start with, but you soon realise how uncomfortable the life of a celebrity must be with all these constant requests for photos lol.
We got a bus the next day for 25 ringgit each to Medan. That's $2.5 for a 4 hour journey. This country is cheap. Well at least Sumatra is. From there we got a quick transfer to Berastagi for 10 ringgit even if they asked for 20. We checked into the best guesthouse we have stayed in alongside the ones in Dumaguete and Hue. Its right next to the giant cabbage. They have a lot of info on how to do lots of activities on your own. No pushing. No tours. Just advice. They do tours if you'd like one though. We had a chat with a guy on the bus there using our dictionary and its not hard to speak this language with help. No grammar means a dictionary can provide for a useful conversation and we tend to find speaking a little bahasa indonesian means that you get cheaper prices for public transport. In the evening we walked up the hill in town for a pretty view over the town and a good look at the two volcanos that overlook the town. We got chatting with a local woman who was out for a jog and it seems like the locals here like to practice their English. We had a nice feeling. Like the North of Vietnam and Philippines.
The next day we got porridge for breakfast. Godsend. We took a local bus to Sibayak volcano. They say it takes 2.5 hours to reach the top, but we did it easily in 1.5 hours with little effort. Walking towards the volcano is easy and requires no guide, unless you are really clueless with directions or have no self confidence with hiking. Anyone with an iota of climbing experience will have no problems. You take the bus to the entrance gate and set off along the track. It is straight for around 4km and then there is a path to the left. Ignore that and carry on straight. We double checked if it was the way with some old tourists and their guide. 'Yes, but we have a guide', was the curt and dickish reply. I should have replied 'ah yes, but we don't need one as we are neither retarded nor pointlessly rich'. Bitch. A little further is a road to the right. That's the road to the hot springs if you go later. Just keep going straight and its a damn road so easy to follow. The only tricky bit is when you get a wall of white rock on your left. You will emerge into an open area and almost the end of the road. Just after that white wall on your left you will see some rocks piled up. Climb up them and you will see the steps that lead up to the top of the volcano. Its obvious if you know what you are looking for and you have hiked before. Very easy. We passed some Russian guys from our hostel on the way up and left them for dust. Don't think they liked being beaten by a woman, but Cannelle is now much better and faster than me when climbing. I still have the edge on down and flat, but I'm clearly getting older lol. Apparently lots of people have died up there. Its highly unlikely unless you do something stupid or go way beyond your comfort zone. The volcano is beautiful. Lots of purples and yellows with fumaroles and vents blasting out of the floor. The Russians went up to one of the vents and were throwing rocks on it. Cannelle said she always wondered how people got injured doing stupid things until she watched these two guys. We ate a picnic up there and admired the chiselled rock. Its very picturesque. We found both the trail down to the hot springs and the one into the jungle. You could get confused. Don't take the hotspring trail unless you are certain you have the right one. Even then you might want to think twice. Its the one that curves round to the right over the ridge 90 degrees to the right of the crater when you come up. We found it, but as we weren't 100% we took the easy way back down and walked the long road to the hot springs. Another group took the trail down and said it was slippery and hard work. Our way was easier. Your choice. We passed some crazy people and some geothermal plants until we reached the hot springs for just 4000 rp. What a bonus. We had the place to ourselves and just relaxed there. We walked back on the road till a group of pig tailed macaques persuaded Cannelle to take a bus. We had a little argument over price, which we won and then I got co-opted into chatting with some local kids who wanted to learn English. This was the only negative regarding the hostel. They were making kids pay 300,000 rp a month for conversational classes with English tourists. Only they don't tell the tourists that. They just ask people to help chat with the kids. Cheeky as we are unpaid. Yet they are worse for the kids as they are mostly elementary level so conversational classes are a waste of time and money for them. Scandalous rip off. At least I gave them some websites to help them learn, because they got lucky and had a class with an actual English language teacher.
The next day we took local buses to see Sipiso-Piso waterfall. The first bus cost 3000 and the second one to the turnoff to the waterfall cost 4000. Just 7000 rp in total. We had been told more, but I think our attempts at Bahasa helped us. The first bus saw us chatting with a farmer, the second with a local old guy who spoke no English. Great country. At the turn off we walked to the waterfall and got distracted by a sign that seemed to suggest the waterfall was off to the left. This resulted in a steep climb to a beautiful view over the lake but not the waterfall. Shit. Oh well at least the view is nice. The real route is to just walk straight down the road and you will arrive at the waterfall. Its so much more impressive than the photos and I think its a must see. Really stunning and its only enhanced by the viewpoint where one way is the waterfall and the opposite direction is a panorama over the lake. Impressive. There were so many school kids there and they all wanted to chat or take photos. We eventually scrambled down to the bottom of the waterfall which is worth it to walk through the chiselled valley, though I cut my knee on a rock. On the way up we stopped for some food and a policeman came and sat with us to chat for 20 minutes. Even the police are nice here. This was a good start to Indonesia. He told us how a German girl had been raped by an ojek driver on the way to the lake, but it was the only incident he could remember in 20 years. They caught the guy and imprisoned him, but it was a odd conversation topic. On the way back we decided to stop at Dokan for some traditional houses. We got some nice fruit for free on the road and then decided to walk there. Some kids asked for money. Unusual here. That should have been the first warning sign. When we got there we had to sign a donation book, where people had given ridiculous sums. Shit. We gave 20,000 as that was the best we could do. Then we went in. What an awful, hellhole of a voyeuristic place. Noone smiled, all the kids ran up to you begging for money and everyone wanted money, crowding around you. It was the most awkward, awful experience on our whole trip. We felt so uncomfortable taking photos of the admittedly beautiful architecture. We just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Hideous. We later asked people how that happened in such a nice country. They said old Dutch tourists had been visiting and handing out lots of money and presents to everyone, so they just associate us with money. Shit. Why do some tourists not realise the harm they do. If that persists then noone will go there. Avoid that place at all costs unless people crowding you and begging for money appeal.
In the morning I was too sick to leave. We had met a couple of German girls who wanted to go to Ketambe as well, but one of them was also sick so we decided to postpone for a day. This hostel is an excellent place to meet people. Finally a place that reminded me of Latin American hostels. In fact the travellers and travelling style in Sumatra is more reminiscent of Latin America. Apparently its not true of Java but we will see soon enough. Spurs and Arsenal both won so the race was still on for 4th place. We got chatting with three English people who had been travelling together for a long time even if they had totally contrasting personalities and didn't seem to click. I think a lot of travellers just stick with any old bunch of people not to be alone. Must be a lot of people who sacrifice an ideal itinerary for company. I would always go where you want and make friends on the way. One day was enough to recover.
In the morning we met a Dutch girl and a Canadian and I offered the Dutch girl help for the IELTS exam. Then we set off with Manu and Mimi (the Germans) to Ketambe. Mimi was sick and could barely move but she wanted to head off. We had to take separate buses because one was almost full. We took the bus to Kutacane and then jumped on a local bus to Ketambe. On that bus we got chatting with some locals again, including an English teacher and chatted all the way to Ketambe. Nice ride. Onwards to Gunung Leuser and the orangutans.
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