Our first stop in Sumatra was Lake Toba on the recommendation of an old work colleague who had been there so we headed straight for the bus station to commence our 5 hour journey. What I realise now is that writing retrospectively doesn't really accurately convey our experiences and feelings as they happened. When we first got to Medan we were excited by its rough and ready feel, revelling in the hustle and bustle after the comparative sterility of Penang.
So to with the buses. At first these rickety buses crammed full of people with not even the faintest hint of ventilation were revelatory and we spent the whole 5 hours taking in the sights and sounds of our new surroundings. After 3 or 4 more, which seemed to get progressively more challenging with each trip we got tired of journeys that consisted of being pushed about whilst other passengers competed to see how many cigarettes they could smoke and drivers attempted progressively more nerve racking manoeuveres to overtake using a highway code consisting of beeping horns and waving arms. See below how happy we look.
On the boat we were approached by a timid local called Anto, whose hostel we ended up staying at. We soon came to find out that the large majority of the younger people on the island are constantly high out of their minds as demonstrated by a string of Anto's mates who came to lie down in the communal area and generally talk nonsense to us. When one friend came in looking utterly baffled and grinning from ear to ear we asked Anto if everything was OK. He turned to us casually as you like and said "don't worry, he has just had too many mushrooms". As well as everyone smoking from morning til night they are also partial to a mushroom of the magical variety and advertise them at every opportunity. Not interested in the Western or Indonesian food? Not to worry, we have every base covered here.
We woke up to our first morning on the island to this great view over the lake and there really was nothing else to do but chill out and take in the island at our leisure.
Day 1 was spent whiling away the hours on a jetty just offshore and reading and boy does that make an exciting read for you lucky people. To try and add some substance to this post I will now show you some examples of traditional Batak houses, starting with the one facing us on the jetty.
We had agreed to not be tempted by the iffy looking mopeds so instead we hired pedal bikes much to the amusement of the locals. I don't think they are used that regularly as everyone from 8 upwards has a moped. Undeterred we set off to see more of the island for the day and suffice to say we had a great time, even the laughable Museum we found along the way didn't dampen our spirits.
All day we were greeted cheerily by the local kids like the ones above who chased us along with their tire and stick. Its no exaggeration to say I was hoarse at the end of it after having to shout hello back to people for hours on end. We felt that we were really settling in and being made to feel welcome which made it all the more upsetting the next day when after telling Anto we were going to move on to stay in a traditional Batak house he hit the roof, started getting really aggressive and telling us that we owed him money for the room which we had paid the night before. After the ensuing argument we were told to move on, which we quite happily did. We were only planning to stay one more day to see the traditional Batak dancing the next evening but we decided to move our departure date to the next morning.
On the plus side that night seemed to be the unofficial day to get drunk on homebrew and sing folk songs. After hearing some amazing singing on our way to a new hostel and failing to capture it I finally recorded some at our new place. The girls who had been singing with this guy got shy and hid away when I got the dictaphone out but its an taste if nothing else.
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