Well, THAT was pretty relaxing...
Ahhh, (leaning back on the chair and cracking my knuckles), there really is some good relaxing to be had in the top of Sumatra, let me tell you...
Oh, the smelly streets of Jakarta seem so far away now, let me try and remember...
So, still feeling pretty crook (and self medicated on local over-the-counter antibiotics) we managed to get lucky and find a cheap flight out of Jakarta on the morning of the 28th, and decided to save ourselves 55 hours on the bus and took it immediately. Gleefully rubbing our palms together, we made our way out to the airport, bags in tow, and then quickly discovered why the ticket was so cheap;
You know when you see pictures of planes that go down in Russia or somewhere on the African continent? Well - imagine you found about three of those, and then welded the salvageable parts of it together; that was our plane, the mighty Boeing 727-200. At least it's not quite 40 years old yet.
It was a pretty dusty, grimy old bird, and it was no surprise to me that when I glanced up into the cockpit I couldn't see any LCD screens, or beautiful matrices of lights - rather a magnetic compass and what I'm sure was a canary in a small cage... Anyway,
Skybridges! Pah! I laugh at your skybridges - if walking out across the tarmac was good enough for Charles Lindberg, it'll be good enough for me thanks. We chose to board in style, a short walk onto the runway, before climbing up into the ramp the comes down out of the back of the plane, and taking our seats overlooking a wing with no engines. Sketchy landing aside, Jules and I were pretty happy to make it to our destination, and I thought it might be fun to take a little video as we walked out of the back of the plane, just to remember the whole 'ramp' saga. Fortunately then, rather than before I boarded the plane, I noticed a large panel (ooo, about 600mm square perhaps) on the engine, which for the duration of our flight was affixed with nothing but duct tape. Bring back the golden age of land travel...
So, we were now in Medan, up the top of Sumatra, and after a short ride in a wheelchair welded to the side of a Vespa (no, really) we made it to Hotel Zakia where we gratefully took a little room before heading out to Lake Toba the next day.
Righty, everything is still a blur of (lack of) movement - and we find ourselves now on Sunday the 29th, where after a 4 hour ride in a minivan (pumping VERY HARD bad 90's trance) we were accosted by various people offering to either accommodate us, sell us mangoes, or possibly change our tyres. We were at the shore of Lake Toba, headed for Samosir Island - an island in a lake on an island in the sea. Tina was our pick of the bunch, and she took us to Liberta Homestay.
Then it got pretty relaxing. Lemme see, one hot shower (the holy grail of our last month), our own Batak styled house with a bed in the loft, and a barbequed fish later, I was starting to feel pretty chipper. This place we fell apon has been the best place I think I've EVER stayed in, and we were superbly well looked after by the legendary Mr. Moon - the proprietor. I really wish I could post photos from here, cos I can't say enough good things about the place and the man. For the first time we were free of people constantly trying to sell us things (except the local specialty), well fed, and steaming after showers.
Just a little place mind you - no big ideas here, and there were few other folk staying there over the six days we were there. We did meet a splendid English couple (from Slough - home of The Office!) called Clive and Sheila, and we spent plenty of time doing nothing with them, interrupted only by the arrival of our 'trails' for the trip - Jo and Jim, who arrived on Wednesday afternoon and were loads of fun to do more nothing with.
There's little point in summarising the six days on Lake Toba with much more than a stretch and a groan - it turned out to be the perfect spot to spend a few days cleaning up and unwinding before leaving Indonesia tomorrow, when we'll get a ferry across to Malaysia.
Sumatra is steamy, with loads of rubber trees (drippy), children who smoke (but only when they're not riding motorcycles) and water buffalo (they look like they're made of concrete), but it was the Batak Houses (not my picture, but this is what one of them looks like) that took the cake, and got me over my 'starting-the-brand-new-sketchbook' phobia and the dusty old brain thinking severely about Architecture again.
And now my 30 days are up and it's time to move on to another country. We're back in crusty old Medan, fed, watered and waiting. We catch a ferry over to Malaysia tomorrow, and we'll be taking a train up from there, eventually meeting Aaron and Jodi in Ton Sai, Krabi, Thailand-alicious!
Cheers heaps for all the comments lately folks, mucho gusto. Kate, I really don't know where we'll be, but somewhere around, um, the region of, Cambodia, like maybe?
Your man in the jungles of Sumatra*
Arch :)
*I've really always wanted to say that.
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