11th March 2018
Starli Hotel, Bukittinggi, West Sumatra
A very pleasant 26c
Imagine walking into your local Tesco when, overnight, you
have grown to 8 ft tall. Oh, and you now
have a green complexion and are wearing a Zebra outfit. That’s how we have felt most of the time we
have been in Sumatra. As well as the shouts
of “hello mister” and “where are you from?” there is a look, a gawp, that’s at
first, quite entertaining, but after a while becomes rather tedious. When you have heard the same statement or
request 150 times in one day, and that isn’t an exaggeration there are a lot of
people in Sumatra, it’s as much as I could do not to shout expletives back at
the unsuspecting locals. Even more
annoyingly, sometimes they get the words totally wrong so we hear “who are
you”, “why are you going” or “why is your name?”. To add insult to injury, they’re not even listening
to the answer, they are just saying the only words they know. They are driving a motorbike at 30 mph, or a
car, or a truck and they have pulled up right alongside you, very close, wound
down the window and with their 30th cigarette of the day balanced
between their nicotine-stained talons they gawp, or say something in Bahasa
that the other 14 people in the vehicle all find hilarious. By the way, I’m talking about men, not ALL
men, but a lot. I made a decision fairly
early on in our stay that I wouldn’t respond to men over the age of 13, unless
they had engaged in a proper manner and were genuinely interested in a
conversation. In any case, most of the
time it’s Dave they really want to talk to, so it was easy to ignore them. Rant over!
 |
| Don't look so odd do we? |
Then there are the women, who are funny, engaging,
hard-working, often a little shy at first but give them a smile and they are
there with me, on the bike. They shout
and wave encouragement, “hello”, “kopi”, “panas” (hot) a thumbs up or a nod,
they know I’m no spring chicken and so we identify as females. Their chances of leaving the village they
were born in is virtually non-existent, unless their parents have money, in
which case they could go to High School, then onto University. Otherwise, when they are of an age they will
get married and have children. The same
goes for the men. The children too are a
delight. Whenever we responded to their
“bye bye” or “hi” we would hear squeals of delight, as if there was some kind
of competition going on as to who could get the ‘Orangs’ to respond. The good outweighs the bad in my opinion.
 |
| Schoolgirls who chased us down to 'interview' us |
 |
| On the way to school |
We have experienced some pretty horrendous pollution on some
of the roads. I doubt there is anything
called an emissions test here in Sumatra.
The pollution coupled with the potholes/landslides, or, sagging where an
earthquake has caused the road to drop a metre or so, all conspire to make some
of the riding here quite treacherous. Oh
and let’s not forget the eleventy billion sleeping policeman in every village
in the country. Thirty six centigrade,
plus humidity of almost 100% and you don’t stay dry for long on a bicycle
resulting in all kinds of personal problems;
itching, athletes foot, chafing and general tiredness.
 |
| The result of an earthquake, still not fixed |
 |
| That tree is perched to come down |
On the other hand some of the roads have been an absolute
delight. The 434 kms from Lake Toba to
Bukittinggi went through some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve had the
pleasure to cycle in South East Asia. We
wound our way up and over 3390 metres of pristine jungle and rice paddies,
through villages specialising in bells or cloth woven on old wooden hand looms,
or Durian fruit. Blacksmiths making machetes
and other tools of varying sizes, or fish farms. One large village was dedicated to the
education of young Musliim boys from outlying villages; Imams of the
future.
 |
| Durian detritus |
 |
| Cocoa, cinnamon and other fruits drying in the sun |
In and around Lake Toba live the Batak people, mostly
Christian, hence the plethora of churches, sometimes every 500 metres. As we have
came further south into West Sumatra (crossing the equator on the way) we left
the churches behind and are now firmly in mosque territory (Minangkabau tribe). Here in Bukittinggi we have 3 mosques within
1 km so the call to prayer appears to be a rather competitive event. In any case, I have heard some of the most
wonderfully haunting calls to prayer, and generally beautiful singing in the
churches, since being in Sumatra. Except
for the young man in one hotel who insisted on trying to outrange some of his
pop idols, the singing has been outstanding.
Xfactor has a lot to answer for.
 |
| One of many churches, Lake Toba |
 |
| Looking down on Lake Toba after the climb |
Accommodation and food have been a rather hit and miss
affair. Outside of the tourist areas the
standards of accommodation have been disappointing. I find these days my tolerance for
‘grottiness’ is quite low. I don’t care
how basic somewhere is as long as it’s clean, so I don’t consider myself fussy. Often, in small towns or villages, we have a
limited choice, if there is a choice at all, and that can be a bit
depressing. The road and scenery in between
the places we stay might be beautiful but the towns and accommodation
themselves are not; It’s not always possible to find a camping spot either
there’s no flat ground, or there are just too many people around. I occasionally find myself asking the
question ‘why are we doing this?’. But
then we hit the road again and it’s all clear, till the next grotty hotel.
 |
| A particularly horrible bathroom |
 |
| At least it was clean! |
As far as food goes, I don’t consider myself a picky eater,
but I have definitely become one in the past month. We have both been ill, not food poisoning
just a low level feeling of nausea that simply puts you off your food, which is
a problem when you have to cycle. My go-to
meals have been nasi or mie goring (fried rice or noodles), or, to simply have
noodle soup that we do ourselves. Now
we’re in Bukittinggi we’re pigging out on fruit, Mangosteen, Melon, Watermelon,
Pineapple and Rambutan – my teeth are jangling with the sugar already! We’ve found a lovely little café that does
fab guacamole and potato wedges, oh, and very cold beer. We will be going back there again tonight. I’m hoping ‘normal service’ in the appetite stakes
will resume soon.
 |
| Mangosteen |
Lake Toba – such a beautiful place, so relaxed, great
climate it’s possible to spend a couple of weeks there, bird-watching, walking
and generally sightseeing. Accommodation
is plentiful, there’s something for everyone’s budget and the quality is
high. The only busy months are June,
July and August, the rest of the time there are very few people around. Most of the tourists at the weekends are
Medanese, looking for a bit of coolness out of the city.
 |
| Tuk Tuk, Samosir |
Bukit Lawang – we didn’t trek here but it’s still a lovely
place to visit and we saw a Thomas Leaf Monkey by the river. We met others who had gone to Ketambe to trek
and had really enjoyed the experience, but it’s a hell of a place to get to.
 |
| Thomas Leaf Monkey |
Despite everything I’ve said previously, the people have
been amazing. Tourism has slumped in
Indonesia (Sumatra particularly) over the past 15 years (I’m still trying to
find out why, the Bali bombing and the general economic climate perhaps, also
Indonesia’s neighbours are possibly perceived as better value) and so I do
understand the novelty value of seeing tourists, particularly older tourists on
bicycles, but it’s difficult to shake off my knee-jerk reaction.
We’ve met some inspiring teachers who are so keen their
students learn English (because they recognise the importance to raise
themselves out of village life) they stop tourists on the side of the road and
beseech them to tell them how they can make teaching their 8 year olds English
more interesting and to make them see the importance of such a life skill. Another, who brings his students once a month,
on an 8 hour round trip, to find tourists so that his students can practice
their English, having only done theory in the classroom. Such dedication.
 |
| A teacher trying to find ways of inspiring his young students |
 |
| Seventeen year olds practicing their English |
Sumatra is not for the feint-hearted, it’s certainly not a
destination for new tourers. We didn’t cover
much of Sumatra as we wanted to spend time in the places we visited, however,
the places we went to we loved. Sumatra
is HUGE and unlike a lot of SEA the going is difficult overland so people tend
to fly everywhere, a bit like South America in that respect. The overland routes are difficult because
most of the roads are through mountainous jungle. If the route is busy (Medan to Lake Toba) the
pollution is terrible plus, the roads can be narrow and therefore dangerous for
cyclists. I fell off on the road to
Berastagi, straight into the middle of the road, luckily the traffic stopped to
allow me to get up but they used their klaxon horns to good effect while I was
doing it. I’ve heard people say they
think Asia is ‘boring’ and ‘samey’, and to a certain extent I understand those
comments having spent the last 4 months cycling here. But Sumatra changes that perception
completely. We’ve heard from others that
the north (Aceh) is interesting culturally and if you are looking for great
surf the west coast is supposed to be superb.
 |
| On the road to Bukittinggi |
 |
| Indonesia needs lots of rice |
In the spirit of trying to keep it ‘real’ I’ve tried to be
as honest as possible. I’m not a
man-hater, honestly, but these are my observations based on my own personal
experiences. Would I recommend Sumatra? Yes, in a heart beat. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as
they say.
Laters
