Stunning Sumatra Cont'd

A little warning: I have just finished writing this post and have returned to the top to caution you. The following post is a little long; I may have just started writing whatever came to me and it may sound like blabbing. But I'm too tired to go through and edit it or cut things out, so I leave you with this note: Read at your own risk!
After 15 long hours over hilly terrain referred to as roads by Sumatrans, our bus arrived in Parapat on the shores of Lake Toba. My newfound companions -Knut and Stephan- and I hopped on a ferry and crossed to Samosir, an island (almost) in the middle of Lake Toba. This lake is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history. To give you an idea of how big this crater-lake is: Samosir island is about the size of Singapore.
We got off the ferry, found a real nice place to stay for super-cheap, spent a few hours walking around and crashed; as you may guess, the sleep that one gets on an overnight bus of this sort is not the most sound.
The next day (Wed) we rented motorbikes as we wanted to see more of the island. There is a nice road that goes around the perimeter, but we wanted to see more of the hilly interior. We were warned that the interior roads were not very good, but we thought, "Hey, Ve are Germanz and Canadianz, eh!" Well, we ended up on roads that were so God-Awful that even two crazy German doctors and one total nutcase Romanian-Canadian could not handle. Yes, we turned back. But not completely. We got off the road that led to, if not broken bones, then certainly broken motorbikes, and we got onto roads where the likelyhood of breaking anything was a more reasonable 50%.
As we continued riding, we got onto a fantastic grassy path through the jungle. The path opened up into a little clearing, and there was an Indonesian dude there, armed with some serious steel, and a pack of dogs. He stopped us, and though he could speak no English, made it clear that we were not to continue. Thanks to Stephan for this shot:


We decided to continue anyway, but as Knut and I rode away, Stephan was stopped and was not allowed to pass. So valliantly, Knut and I went back for him and all three of us went back the way we had come. As we were going back out, we met a truck full of very mean/angry looking Indonesians. When they had passed, it took a 30second discussion to agree that we probably would not have liked what we would have found at the end of that road and that we should probably get the hell outta there pronto before these guys meet up with that guard and...who knows?
Talking to a local in town later that evening confirmed our theory that there was some kind of field/grow-op up there. He told us that it was most likely weed or shrooms; two drugs that were shockingly common (and out in the open, too) in this part of Sumatra -this in a country with severe penalties for possession/trafficking.
We got onto some other roads and got lost quite quickly. We were quite happy to move from incredibly rocky terrain to dirt...until it began to rain. It was a little bit scary at first, as our bikes regularly slid out from under us, but as we got more and more used to the feel of mud under our tires, we began to appreciate the experience for what it really was: Motocross baby! Thanks again to Stephan for these:




I know what you're gonna say Ma, but they don't know about helmets in this part of Sumatra!
I know that doesn't make it smart to do it, but I was also with two doctors who carry medical kits with them; They coulda patched me up, had I split my head open!
Also...
Ok. I know I'm not gonna win this one.
I acknowledge defeat.
I acknowledge that yes, I am an idiot.
Not only because it was a stupid thing to do,
But more so because we both know that I'd do it again.

Although we did have a lot of fun biking around the interior, we were definitely scared and on-edge the entire way down. When we got back onto the main road, we let out big cheers, breathed huge sighs of releif, and gave each other big hi-fives. We were not too proud to admit that it had been a good, but very scary experience.
I think God was looking out for us that day. As soon as we got onto the main road, the rain came down. The roads that we had been riding earlier, I am certain, became rivers.
We got home soaking wet and exhausted. Even the cold-water showers in our hotel seemed nice.
We had dinner and chatted with a local of Samosir, a member of the Batak peoples. Although his english wasn't great, we had some very interesting discussion -partly in English, partly in Malay/Indonesian, and partly through hand gestures. One interesting piece of their culture is their religion: he describes himself as animistic-Christian. To me this is very different from anything I know, as in my experience Christianity does not leave room for that type of belief.
He also told us that in his lifetime, his name gets changed 5 times. We didn't quite understand it fully, but here's what we did get:
At birth they are called one name (I think all the boys are called one name and all girls another). Then when they get baptized -this happens every December for Children born that year- they take on a Christian name; our friend had been known as Richard. When they get married, their name changes (we did not fully understand this part) to somehow include "waiting for a child". Then when you have your first child, your name becomse "Papachild's name". Our friend became known as PapaLika after the baptism of his first daughter, Lika. He will change his name in a similar fashion after the birth of his first grandchild.

After dinner, Knut went to sleep, while Stephan and I stayed up till well past my bedtime discussing the basics: politics, religion, love, and war.

The next morning we said bye to Samosir and Lake Toba and hopped on a Ferry back to the mainland. We were headed to a little town called Berastagi to climb a volcano: Gunung Sinabung.
Earlier, when the guys had asked if it was cool that they join me in my trek (before I had gotten to know them), they could sense my hesitation (I had told them about my painfully slow descent of g. Merapi). In response, they had said:
Knut: don't worry, we won't slow you down
Stephan: If anything, you'll slow us down
Knut: First Sinabung, then Everest
Stephan: You want to climb Everest? Again?! What is it with you and Everest?
I remember thinking that these were a couple of solid dudes; probably good fun to hang with. I couldn't have been more right.

Our trip from Parapat to Berastagi was not overly simple. We had to change buses three times and fend off cabbies and other touts trying to rip us off at every turn. But that turned out to be not nearly the greatest of our concerns. One leg of the trip was from P.Siantar to K.Jahe. And this was easily the most scared I was during any two hours of the entire trip. I scrawled this in my journal, while on the bus:
"...The driver is a complete idiot. He is easily the craziest that I have ever seen. He is driving at breakneck speed on roads littered with 'potholes,' some over a foot deep and 5-6 feet in diameter, passing other buses around blind corners where there isn't enough room, and our two right tires go off the road, which wouldn't be so bad because the road is not much better than the offroad except that in some places the shoulders are really muddy and sloped downwards begging us to roll over, all the while playing his music -through a system with an amp and subs that are likely worth more than the bus- at such a ridiculously loud volume that I'm certain he must have bet a friend that he could deafen a busload of people in the time it takes to get from P.Siantar to K.Jahe"
Immensely relieved when we got off that bus, we agreed that during those two hours there must have been some crazy natural disasters on the planet as we are certain that all the gods were too busy watching over us to worry about the rest of the world.
In one of the towns where we stopped for a bus changeover, we were hounded by so many people offering to take us (of course at ridiculous rates), that Stephan decided he had to get outta there and take a break. So we walked through the town, getting away from it all. We stopped in a cafe, had some food and a coffee, and wandered a little more. As we were walking, a bunch of people at a little cafe waved, said hi, and called us over. These were definitely not people looking to get our money so we went over to say hi and get some info about where to find the proper (local) bus and rates. They told us that a bus will come by there in about 20 to 30 min and that we'll be able to catch it. They also invited us to sit down and have a coffee -which we did. It was then we noticed that they were all playing Catur (this is the Batak word for Chess). Now Stephan, unbeknownst to me at the time is a very skilled player. He asked to borrow a board and we began to play. This drew quite a crowd -all of who recognized Stephan's skill within minutes. We had a great time with everyone crowding around giving me advice and nodding knowingly (while I looked on obliviously) at all of Stephan's moves. Thanks to Knut for taking this one:

Safe and sound in B.Stagi, we found a place to stay and some info on our volcano, Sinabug.
Our climb of Sinabung began early the next morning. Our climb was, for the most part, uneventful. We did get lost in the jungle before even reaching the volcano. And Stephan did give us a bit of a scare with a fall that landed him on his shoulder. Luckily he was ok, but the cool thing that did come out of that was that the guys showed me how to relocate someone's shoulder. When we had started the climb, the skies were clear minus a Saturn-like ring of clouds around Sinabung.

By the time we reached the summit, a large cloud had descended upon the mountain, and our view was the white that you see in the background of this shot (thanks Knut!):

We descended, and in true Sumatra style, the rain poured down. But we got down, had a quick bowl of hot soup and a coffee and hopped on an opelet back to B.Stagi, very satisfied with our accomplishments for the day. It had been a nice, demanding trek; we had moved quickly, but surely; and I could not have been in better company. Chalk up volcano number two! This one was interesting becuase you could get nice and close to some of the vents in the side of the mountain that were spewing steam. And some were hot enought that you couldn't get too close!
The opelet ride back to B.Stagi was a lot of fun. An Indonesian woman was trying to hook up Stephan with one of her two daughters (who were both on the bus). Either way, she asked him to sing a song (he's a good vocalist and guitarist), and before we knew it the entire bus was singing. We sang a bunch of pop tunes and then the lady asked if he knew any Christian songs. He knew some basics, but one that everyone knew was Joyful Joyful. Almost the entire bus sang it: Knut and Stephan in German; I did it in Romanian; some of the others on the bus in Indonesian, and a few in English. It was a great bit of fun.
The next day I relaxed with the guys, they taught me a few guitar chords and some songs to play, we played some Catur, and in the late afternoon, I said by to the guys and hopped on a 2hr bus to Medan, to catch my evening flight back to KL.
One final anecdote: On the bus, I sit next to a local guy and we start chatting. Jusup (Joseph) was his name. We really got to talking: I found out quite a bit about him and him about me. As we got to the outskirts of Medan, he told me he was gonna get off the bus, take a becak (trishaw) to his place and then go out and pick up his wife from work; the airport was not far out of his way, so why don't I go with him. That's exactly what I did. Went to his place, had a drink, he showed me around, then we got into his car and he dropped me off at the airport! What a great guy! What a perfect end to a fantastic week!

This week in Sumatra, I realized that while the mountains, volcanoes and the jungles had attracted me, in the end what has left the biggest impact has been the people that I met: both the locals and Westerners.
The westerners: mainly Knut and Stephan. It was a real pleasure to hang out with you guys for a few days and to have you over at my place in KL (more on this later). All the best as you continue your journey!
The locals: It is difficult for me to believe that one can come to a place like this, get out of the flashy/touristy areas, meet some of the local people -really meet the people- and not fall in love with them. What an absolutely fantastic people!