Land O' Lakes

Land O' Lakes - a company from Minnesota that makes some damn good butter, and an appropriate name for Sumatra as well.

Janelle and I left Bukit Lawang this morning on the bus and headed on down south. Our destination was a place called Danau Toba ('Danau' means 'lake' in Indonesian) and our journey there was not all that excrutiating...well, not all of it anyway. We had to travel back down those same bad roads from BL to Medan, but they didn't seem quite as bumpy this time around. And then, of course, we had to pass through that awful urban hellhole of Medan (someone needs to do that city a favour and drop the bomb!) and then just kept on going south. I had to pee like a mother at this point and seriously it was so bad it felt like my back teeth were floating. Mere seconds before passing out/peeing my pants the driver FINALLY stopped for a toilet break and I made a mad dash. Ahhhhh...relief... Back on the bus after that and the roads from then on were actually quiet smooth. (Never understimate the pleasure-inducing powers of smooth ashphalt!)

We arrived in Lake Toba in late afternoon and our bus let out a collective 'wow' upon first seeing the lake. Lake Toba is the largest lake in Southeast Asia (when Cambodia's Tonle Sap isn't flooded) and has a very unique location - it's inside an ancient volcanic crater. About 100,000 years ago the grand-daddy of all volcanoes blew it's top in Sumatra and then collapsed in on itself, its huge crater filling up with water over the years. About 75,000 years ago the volcano re-erupted, forming an island in the middle of the lake about the size of Singapore. The volcano in the last few dozen millennia has been dead and quiet and today the area is calm, tranquil, and completely stunning. Upon arriving at the lake you have to descend on a narrow highway clinging to the crater walls to reach the town of Parapat. The massive lake spreads out like a glistening arm of the sea, wrapping around the island, and walled in by the crater's enormous rim. We took the ferry across to the touristy town of Tuk Tuk, centred on the island's shores. What a beautiful place!

We stayed at this great little resort called Bagus Bay that was right on the water, and spent the next few days relaxing and exploring the island. We rented bikes and went for a ride along the shore, did some hiking, and caught up a lot on sleeping and eating. We were the only guests at the hotel for most of our stay, and with the water and greenery it actually felt like we were back in Canada. What an amazing place! It was just so beautiful, every time we turned another corner, we couldn't help commenting to each other about how inspiring the landscapes were. Gorgeous! This place should be crawling with tourists, but like the most of Indonesia right now, it's nearly completely empty.

Indonesia, in particular Sumatra, has taken quite a beating in the last few years, and consequently there are almost no tourists here at all. Us Westerners only hear about Indonesia in the news when something bad happens, and between the various rounds of bombings in Bali and Jakarta, fires and plane crashes this summer, and of course last year's earthquakes and tsunami, it's no wonder that many people have no inclination to visit this country. However, they are sadly misinformed. Yes, Indonesia has suffered more than its fair share of calamaties in recent times, but it still remains a truly beautiful, unspoilt tropical paradise. The scenery is some of the most jaw-dropping that I've seen anywhere on my trip and there's tons of activities and sights to do and see. And, like the rest of Southeast Asia, it's all available for a fraction of the price for things we pay for at home.

And it really is perfectly safe. The odds of being here when a bombing/earthquake/plane crash strikes is tiny when you compare it to the risks of being run over by a car while crossing the street in Bangkok, or our own hometowns for that matter. Terrorists are NOT blowing up everything here all the time, the military rebels are not taking tourists hostage or throwing bombs at buses, crime in the cities is no worse (or less) than any Western city, and unless you're visiting the hard-hit Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra, you'll see no evidence at all of the tsunami. This country is an incredible place, and desperately needs the tourism to help it's faltering economy get back on track.

After Lake Toba Janelle and I had the marathon of all bus rides. Ugh...I cringe just remembering it! It was a 17-hour overnight ride down to Bukittinggi, and was not a comfortable ride at all. I can handle the bumpiness of the roads and the constant whiplash-inducing hair-pin turns. I can handle the gross men sitting behind me smoking like chimneys, even though it's a non-smoking bus. I can even handle the annoying Indonesian music blasted over the speakers for almost the whole night. But what I could not handle was the fact that the driver had the aircon on full-blast for the entire ride, keeping us frozen as if he were transporting beef steaks, not human passengers. It was SO COLD that everyone on the bus had to be all bundled up. People honestly were wearing winter jackets, scarves, and touques and hiding under blankets! Janelle and I unfortunately left all our winter ski gear back in Canada (silly us for not bringing it with us on our trip through THE TROPICS!) and froze all night. I barely slept a wink for all my shivering and couldn't wait to get off that ride. Funny thing is, most bus rides in Southeast Asia are like this and I'm always left wondering what it is with them and the arctic air conditioning.

Close to the end of our bus ride we passed over The Equator (a white line painted across the highway that I sadly missed) and Janelle and I entered the Southern Hemisphere for the first time in our lives. We rolled into Bukittinggi around 8:30 and checked into a hotel. We tried to have a nap that morning to catch up with our lost sleep but it was difficult with the mosque blaring it's call to prayer just up the road. Later on we went for food and it took a bit of searching to find a place to eat as so many restaurants are closed right now for Ramadhan (an annual Muslim ritual where everyone abstains from food and drink during daylight to show their faith, and this lasts for a full month.)

We had planned to do some touring in the Bukittinggi area, which is famous for its plethora of volcanoes, valleys, and forests, but with the lack of tourists there didn't seem to be many tours going on, and the ones that were running were just too expensive for our tastes. So, after just a day there Nellie and I decided to jump to our next Sumatran destination - Danau Maninjau.

Lake Maninjau, like it's cousin Mr. Toba to the north, is a beautiful lake inside a volcanic crater. However, it's much smaller than Toba and so it gives the visitor a much stronger impression that you're actually inside an old volcano. The walls are completely sheer for the most part, and because of geological activity inside the crater, the lake is actually heated by steam from the earth below! The waters are near bathwater temperature, with zero shock factor when you jump into them. So cool! We spent four nights at a nice, quiet little bungalow next to a small beach on the lake relaxing and swimming. Once again it seemed like we were the only tourists in the area, as it was days before we saw any other foreigners. Unfortunately, I was feeling quite sick for most of our days there so I spent a lot of time just lying on my bed wishing my headache/stomach ache would go away.

After our last night we took a private taxi to the airport in neighbouring Padang. The ride there was really nice as it was a beautiful sunny day (we had had quite a lot of rain on our last two days in Maninjau) and the scenery didn't disappoint us, as usual. For a bit we drove along the Indian Ocean and we even had ENGLISH MUSIC (gasp!) played for us by the driver. At the airport we caught our dirt cheap AirAsia flight (twenty bucks for an hour and a half flight) and said our goodbyes to the lovely Sumatra.

We landed in the mega city and Indonesian capital of Jakarta on the island of Java and took a taxi straight to the the train station to book our onward tickets. Then we checked into a fairly nice hotel (decided to splurge a little after being out of civilization for such a long time) and had dinner before going to bed. We won't be on Java for all that long but I'm looking forward to checking out the sites this island has to offer.