Cannibals, Christians, & CouchSurfing in North Sumatra

Salutations from way out there! Hailing you again from Indonesia, here're your hosts of today's episode of Adventures in Asia: Travis and Sarah! [Applause.]

Today we'd like to take you along with us in a journey of thought and mind, a journey through a wild volcanic landscape of rivers and lakes, soaring through a variety of languages and cultures to bring you to the beautiful Indonesian state of North Sumatra. This journey will require many a bus transfer.
After we left the sulfur-spewing volcanoes of Berastagi, we proceeded to take no less than three crazy crowded smokey buses, veering wildly down the winding mountain roads to our final destination: the serene, gleaming volcanic lake known as Danau Toba. This magnificent monster of a lake is 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, and 505 metres (1,666 ft) at its deepest point (despite some local claims that "no one knows how deep it is"). When you compare this to all the other volcanic lakes in your mental repertoire, you'll undoubtedly find that this volcanic lake is bigger----indeed, it is the biggest in the world!
Some 70,000 years ago this super-massive volcano produced the biggest eruption the Earth has seen in 25 million years, creating the incredible lake we see today. This explosion was so big that it is believed to have caused a volcanic winter with a worldwide decline in temperatures, perhaps the event that killed most humans then alive, creating a "population bottleneck" in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today.
All very interesting to geologists and archeologists, of course, but what's particularly fascinating today is the people living in this beautiful massive volcanic lake. They are known as the Batak and lived a relatively isolated existence in the mountains of North Sumatra, particularly on Lake Toba, for hundreds of years before the Dutch colonials made roads to their land. The story goes that the first Westerners to make contact with the Batak people somehow enraged their hosts and met their untimely demise at spear-tip. Then they were eaten. Yes, as you may have speculated from today's title, the Batak people were notoriously cannibalistic. Criminals, adulterers, spies, and the enemies of the warring Batak would be tried by a counsel of Batak elders in a circle of stone chairs by an ancient Banyan tree and if found guilty, they'd be lacerated with knives, rubbed down with chillies, garlic, and salt, and summarily cooked up. (And you thought the electric chair was harsh!)

Apparently in 1816 some very lucky Dutch missionaries arrived on the surf of a coincidental bountiful harvest, preaching the wonders of their Christian god, and the Batak people took this as a sign and added Christian elements to their extant animist beliefs. This marked the turning of the tide of cannibalism and there were fewer and fewer accounts until 1890 when the Dutch rulers banished the practice entirely (though there is a rumor that a jealous wife killed and ate her cheating husband on the island only a couple of years ago).

In this largely Muslim country, it is interesting to see the different culture of the Christian Batak people. Yet, coming from their traditional animist background, their churches and graveyards all have a unique traditional tribal Batak flair to them. Many of the churches have traditional Batak-style roofs, curved upward like the bow of a ship, as do many of their homes to this day. All of their structures have cool tribal designs with twisting lines (almost like Celtic knots), lizards, and faces. We rented a motorbike and explored Batak tombs and ruins, sailing up and down the roads past goats, buffaloes, and Batak houses galore. The air was ripe with the smell of flowers (between the fumes of burning trash).

We spent the better part of a week on Danau Toba, swimming, reading, playing Jenga, listening to sublimely chaotic traditional Batak music, and having a great time with the hospitable locals. Sarah learned to cook a delicious vegetable dish with a spicy peanut sauce called gado-gado from a wonderful lady named Fiona. I taught her son some basics on their piano. On Sunday there were swarms of school-children from all over North Sumatra trying to practice speaking English with tourists and we spent virtually all day with these rambunctious youths.
When it was time to leave we headed to Bukit Lawang on no fewer than three more buses and en route met a wonderful girl named Sonya who lives there. She rents a room from a family and invited us to CouchSurf with her (see CouchSurfing.org), which was a wonderful time. We stayed with them, went grocery shopping at the local market (everything so fresh!), cooked together, traded turns on my little guitar, and had a grand old time. We went to "The Bat Cave" hoping to help save Gothem City but we couldn't find our esteemed hero in the cave, only some stinky leathery beasts flying all about us.

One day Sonya took us tubing down the river! Jetting through the rapids, spinning wildly in the rocky river, was an unforgettable experience. As was seeing orangutans at the third of four orangutan rehabilitation centers in the world we've been to, which I actually do forget because I was sleeping when Sarah went there at 8AM  (I wanted to sleep in 'cause we moved to a hotel----family came to visit our hosts----and a band started playing at 12:45AM, resulting in a frantic search for an alternate domicile----late night).

When we got to Medan, capital city of North Sumatra and the third largest city in Indonesia (population 2 million----a big ol' city), we again got to experience the wonders of CouchSurfing. Our host, Tonny, picked us up from the bus station, took us out to lunch, took us shopping for fabrics to send to crafty friends at home, arranged for us to speak to a group of teenage students at an orphanage, and invited a group of his wonderful friends to join us for dinner near City Hall, a fancy little colonial Dutch building.
The next day he took us to a huge Taiwanese Buddhist temple (getting pumped for our jump into a sedentary life in Taiwan come January), which had an amazing all-vegetarian restaurant attached. Unfortunately we were feeling a bit off after eating at a restaurant in a huge 5-story super-air-conditioned mega-mall (after having no problems all month eating at all these hole-in-the-wall leave-the-food-out-all-day local places where they might not even have a sink where they could wash their hands) so we didn't eat too much that night when Tonny arranged an awesome potluck [slash] karaoke party with his friends and the CouchSurfing community in Medan (I was awarded candy for 3rd place at Karaoke----still got it!). What a spectacular experience in a city that has been referred to by some (including the Lonely Planet Guide) as a major contender for the worst place on Earth.


Well folks, that's all for our program today but feel free to stop by next week for another exciting installment of adventures in Asia!

(Fun fact: "Orangutan" comes from the Indonesian words "orang" & "hutan:" people [of the] forest!)

Volcanoes Bluster Buster

Wow, we have been out for a long time haven't we? Just received some exciting news, my parents are going to come visit in December to Thailand! Looking forward to that for sure. So anyway, lots of people here seem to think Americans say "oh my God" a lot, and you know what? It's true. We do. Funny how traveling puts your own culture in perspective huh?

Last week we launched our assault on Mt. Sibayak, a volcano in Sumatra (still here) near a town called Berastagi (or Brastagi). This town, high in the mountains with spring-like temperatures year round (cold for us) was once a Dutch resort town.  The first day we tried we were doomed from the start, taking our very first wrong turn that we possibly could, despite having an excellent map. Not knowing this at the time, we walked for 3 hours, and upon seeing no sign of the entrance to the path up the mountain, we hailed a flamboyantly painted bus and asked if they were going to Mt. Sibayak. They waved us on, and we relaxed into the cramped seats. Forty minutes later we were still driving, and we asked a man sitting in front of us. Apparently we had been going in the wrong direction the whole time so we got off and caught a ride back to Berstagi, defeated. 

The next day we began again by catching a bus to the right path up the mountain. Although we were walking on a road, the scenery was gorgeous and there was almost no traffic. We hiked up, up and up, through the jungle. After 3 hours of hiking the road disappeared and became a shady jungle pathway. The foliage had grown over the path and formed almost a tunnel. We stopped for our packed lunch of rice, fried potato, and green bean curry. Energized, we continued onwards. We climbed upwards still, and the landscape became scrubbier. Soon it was hardly anything but rocks stained red and yellow. We heard a great whooshing sound and as we drew near, we could see huge vents spewing out clouds of gas and smoke. The smell of sulphur filled the air, and it sounded like a jet taking off. 

"Lets go closer!" Travis said. Of course we couldn't resist. The rocks next to the vent were stained bright yellow, like a bright, fluorescent, make-the-eighties jealous shade. We didn't get too close, the stench was overpowering. We decided to climb to the summit for the view. We carefully walked up the last crest, over slippery, sulphur stained rocks. The landscape here was strange and moon like. Baby earth being created! A huge vent belched below us as we heaved our way up the last few thigh-burning steps. We stood on top of the volcano and looked around at the marvelous view. We could see for miles and miles and miles! We could see Berstagi, several small villages, and so many jungle and farm clad hills. A moment later the wind shifted, blowing all the sulfurous smoke right in our faces. We hid behind a rock, and there we found the most massive and gnarly looking beetle I've ever seen. His jaws looked like they could open a walnut.  Strange, since there was no other life (not even plants) for about 500 meters in any direction. We speculated that maybe he ate sulfur. 

Presently, I heard a deep rumbling sound. It may have been thunder, as the sky was beginning to cloud, but in my mind it was the volcano. The wind gusted coldly and sharply on my face, and the vents raged below. All at once I was struck with a deep fear. "What the hell am I doing here?" I thought "A little old country girl from Queen Annes County, Maryland, doing on top of an active volcano in Sumatra?" An urge to get down, to get away from the top of this angry mountain coursed through me. I scuttled down as carefully as I could, large and small rocks slipping and tumbling down under my feet unnervingly. We reached the lower vents, then the jungle path again. I breathed a sigh of relief and stopped to take a celebratory photo of some wild orchids I had seen.

The walk back down was a joyful 2 hours, Travis and I a bit high on the adrenaline rush of our adventure. A troop of Thomas's Leaf Monkeys leaped adroitly through the trees as the sun was setting on our way back. Our legs hurt, but our minds were happy.

Sumatra Simmers

After leaving Pulau Weh, we headed South to the interior of Sumatra. We hopped on the bus from Banda Aceh to Takengon and as soon as I did I saw something terrifying: a baby. This horrible little demon proceeded to cry every 20 minutes of our windy, bone-rattling bus ride through some of the most beautiful mountain scenery I have ever seen. Ten hours later we pull into the station in Takengon, a quaint town in the Gayo Highlands. The town is set on the shores of a beautiful lake, formed by volcanoes eons ago. The air is cool from the altitude, and pine trees rule here. We found a becak (a motorbike with a sidecar) to take us around the lake the next day.

At 9:00 AM we met Indra (our driver) for our scenic drive around the lake. The day was cool and cloudy, and we wore our sweaters. Funny huh, so close to the equator and we were chilly. Surrounding the lake on all sides are steep peaks, giving the impression that we were in a vast bowl. The color of  the water, the chill of the air and the scent of the pines reminded me of Loch Raven, just for an instant. The becak rattled and fumed on the bumpy roads. We stopped by the lake to take some photos and a horde of teenagers descended upon us. They all wanted to take our photo. In some places in Asia being white is like being Justin Beiber I think. We had individual shots with them then combinations of friends. Ah the golden age of cameraphones.

We stopped at a waterfall surrounded by coffee plants and bushes with tiny chili peppers growing on them. A perfect dichotomy of Indonesian preferences: amazingly spicy food and strong local coffee (at any time of day or night). The waterfall was nice, the air there felt so fresh and clean, quite a world away from the hustle and smoke of the Indonesian cities. It seems like everyone in Indo smokes the kretek cigarettes. Amazingly some people here actually think that smoking is good for your health (no joke). We left the waterfall feeling refreshed and were ambushed by a different,even larger group of high schoolers, all requiring photos. It was so fun, we felt like celebrities again.

Next we went to lunch, at a restaurant on stilts right over the lake. Indra proceeded to order the most expensive thing on the menu, as we had agreed to pay for his lunch as part of his fee. Suckers. During lunch he asked us why we were vegetarians and we managed to explain the ecological principals using pictures. Success in communications! After lunch we went to these caves that had cool stalactites in them. I hit my head on one. But I'm OK the happy bat doctor fixed me all right up! WHEEE!!! That night we had dinner with a local named Faisal, the only person in town who could speak English fluently.

The next place we went was Ketembe. Luckily the babies on this ride were quiet, but the man next to us smoked incessantly the whole ride. Yuck! Another 10 hours later and we were in Ketembe, and checked into a cozy bungalow. We spent 2 days there recovering from the flu which came and went quite unexpectedly. Soon we were ready for our 2 day trek into Gunung Leuser State Park. The Lonely Planet guide says "Be prepared for extreme terrain, hordes of leeches, and swarms of biting insects." A bit dramatic, but we did encounter all of these things; the jungle was so beautiful it was worth it.

The trail was muddy and steep in places, and the trail was small and almost hidden sometimes by jungle plants in a thousand shades of green. The forest was pristine old growth, never been cut. Our first day we struck a leisurely course for the campground. Our guide, Sowardie, was a pure champion. He carried all of our food, tent, and cooking ware through the jungle the whole time. From time to time we would catch a glimpse of a big hornbill soaring through the jungle, his honking calls trailing behind him.

At some point we came to a great tree. I have never seen a tree like this in my life. It was huge,and the roots grew down in two sections, so that it resembled legs. Hanging down from dozens of feet above was a vine that Sowardie grabbed onto and swung out over the hill (it was all hills in that jungle) to our amazement. "Tarzan tree!" he said,upon his return. "Want to try?" Travis was like hell no, but (maybe stupidly) I said yes. I gripped the vine, swung out, and felt my hands slip. "Oh God, this is the end" I thought as I plummeted 15 feet or so onto the side of the hill. Quickly scanning my body I realized that no damage was done, to my amazement. Not even a scratch. I had landed on a patch of soft peat. If I had fallen off even a second later I would have landed on some rather hard,large twisting tree roots sticking up out of the ground. Travis and Sowardie, terrified, rushed down to me. They thought I was crying but I was actually convulsing with laughter. The worst/best part is, there is a video of this event. YOU'LL NEVER SEE IT!!!! After my ordeal, Travis decided to try it too. Now it is a running joke that he is the worst one, that even though I fell that he went anyway after he saw me fall.

At the campsite Sowardie fixed us a well-needed lunch of mie goreng (noodles!). We had a rest and then went animal-looking. We didn't find any but it was fun just seeing such cool jungle. We ate dinner and went to bed early in preparation for hiking again the next day. After a cold night (no blankets!) we emerged into the bright sunshine of the next day to find our campsite invaded by Italians! Actually a nice couple and their guides had arrived and we all ate breakfast (banana pancakes!) and swam in the cold river together. Then we hiked for an hour through even more muddy, hilly jungle and arrived at the hot springs! The springs were right under a river and when mixed with the cold water the scalding geothermal vent gave us a warm, soothing, and sulfurous-smelling bath. We froliced and played under the waterfall and climbed on the rocks nearby up to warmer and warmer springs. The day flew by and soon it was time to leave our "stinky paradise" as Travis called it.

It grew dark under the canopy and began to rain. A light drizzle at first, cooling us and creating a very rainforestey ambiance, turning the leafy foliage a shiny palette of a thousand shades of green.  The drizzle gradually increased to a warm downpour. Donning our frumpy plastic ponchos, we quickened our pace. At one point Travis saw some trees shaking. A few moments later Sowardie called us excitedly ahead. We looked up to where he was pointing and saw a big male orangutan striding through the trees! We only saw him for a few moments but it was so amazing to see this endangered animal in the wild. We were lucky to spot this one, as our hike was almost over. Thrilled with our sighting, we finished our hike by hitch hiking back to town. Hey, it's still hiking right?

Well, Sumatra has been very, very good to us so far. It might be the best place, but then again, I always think that the country that I'm in is the best place =) Can't wait to see more of Indonesia!

Paradise, thy name is Pulau Weh

Eureka! we've done it! We've, within only the penumbra of doubt, discovered the best place on Earth. That's right: paradise, the perfect place, as described in all the far-reaching fantastical literature of religions and mythologies throughout the ages. Verily, this is a land where existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It seems that lo after these eight months of nomadic wandering we've stumbled upon the perfect community: the pristine tropical island of Pulau Weh, in the Aceh State of Sumatra, Indonesia.

First a little back story on Indonesia: This is a singular nation that defies all odds and expectations. Now this nation is composed of over 238 million people, the 4th largest in the world (after China, India, and the great U.S.of A.), speaking over 700 different regional languages spread out over more than 17,000 islands. It is very diverse. We flew from Malaysia into the city of Banda Aceh, the furthest northwest city in Sumatra, the furthest northwest island of Indonesia. Aceh State has the highest proportion of Muslims in the decidedly Muslim country and is the only state in Indonesia to adopt Sharia Law, basing their laws on Muslim teaching: no alcohol, no pork, and 100 lashings (or worse) for adultery (including pre-marital relations----good thing we're married!).

Much of Indonesia is seismically active and Aceh has received a lot of attention in the Western media for the 2004 Boxing Day (Dec. 26) tsunami. Approximately 170,000 Indonesians were killed or went missing in the disaster and approximately 500,000 were left homeless; the destruction is unfathomable, with waves up to 100 feet high! While in Banda Aceh we witnessed several huge boats that were thrown as far as 4km inland; one boat landed squarely on top of a house! But the restoration efforts over the last 7 years has been incredible and you would never know that most of the regions infrastructure had been washed away.

After dropping our passports off for "a week" at Imagrasi for visa extensions, we headed from Banda Aceh to the beautiful tropical island of Pulau Weh. After a series of curving roads, past ramshackle houses and conniving monkeys, we arrived at Iboih Beach. The beach itself wasn't too much to look at: a small rocky stretch of sand covered in broken coral, but even when we first got there the people were incredibly helpful and open. After securing a beautiful bungalow with an epic view of the water, we moseyed on down to the local dive shop and signed up for a PADI Open Water Scuba diving course.

Then we met Salim A. Salam and our lives were forever changed. He taught us how to fly and convene with the myriad magical maritime mirages as their brilliant colors and patterns surrounded us against the backdrop of the deep blue. Whereas most people learn to dive in the bland confines of a swimming poop, learning to clear your mask, recover your regulator, adjust your buoyancy, etc., we were soaring through a spinning kaleidoscope of tropical fish.

Here's my first entry from my Dive Logbook: "Woah! What an incredible first dive! Salim showed us so many animals: sting rays, lionfish, pipefish, cuddlefish, clownfish, garden eels, oriental sweetlips, butterfly fish, mantis prawn, and so any more! It was so exciting to fly weightlessly through this shimmering technicolor wonderland." The lionfish have crazy striped swaying angelic wings that are venomous; cuddlefish look like crazy cow alien spaceships; curious clownfish playing in their anenomies peak up at us; pipefish are so long and thin (like a pipe, hey!); the aptly named garden eels look like blades of grass blowing in the great golden plains, sticking only their heads out of the sand; oriental sweetlips are unreal black and white striped swishy fishies with yellow fins; and the mantis prawn is a super-colorful shrimp that can deliver a punch with its tiny front legs strong enough to break a snail shell (or a diving mask!). And this was only our very first introduction to scuba diving!

We had a bit of a scare on our third dive though: "The dive itself was awesome! We saw so many colorful schools of fish! But te current was so strong it swept us away from our departure point and we had to wait for an hour and a half for our boat driver to find us." Salim said in the 10 years he's been diving, he's only lost the boat once before----how unlucky for us! But it was a great lesson in staying calm in the face of the abyssal open blue waters and no salvation in sight. There was a fishing boat nearby but they were impervious to our calls for help, probably thinking it was just something divers did for fun.

We also went snorkeling many times (as diving is pretty expensive) and rented an underwater camera one day! We saw a little white-tipped reef shark in the clear shallow barracuda-infested waters whilst diving with a sunshiny hippie-dippie New Yorker named Rene who now teaches yoga classes (good to get loose again!) on Pulau Weh and her sweet poofy-haired boyfriend, Indra, originally from Jakarta, Java, Indonesia. Another time we were swimming with another American world-traveling couple, Donny and Brooke, and saw a crazy little undulating octopus that would shift its shape and color to match the coral it was sitting on. A little damsel-fish was coming up to it like, "Hey, what's up? You want to play with---AHHH" then the octopus would strike out at it with one leg, "GO AWAY!" Unperturbed, the damsel-fish said, "Hey, wait! I just wanted to talk! There's no need for all this viole---AHHH!" as the octopus lashed out again, "I SAID, GO AWAY!" Well this last time the little damsel-fish took the hint, "Hey man! You're crazy! I didn't really want to talk to you anyway!" swimming away.

The waters of Pulau Weh held so many amazing wonders. For our last two dives for our class Salim took us to an underwater ship-wreck-----fish flying all around the gnarly rusted coral-covered boat-----and an underwater volcano, which was actually a series of geothermal vents that made awesome relaxing warm bubbles on the bottom that smelled so strongly of sulfur that we could somehow smell it whilst breathing from our scuba tanks underwater. After these 5 amazing dives we were addicted and decided to stay on Pulau Weh for an extra 2 weeks and do another 7 dives. Very good decision.

The diving was great but I think the best part of Pulau Weh was the people. There was such a great community! When we got to Pulau Weh, we quickly discovered the gem that is Uden's restaurant. Uden is such an amazing person, with a permanent smile and great taste in world electronic music-----Buddha Bar and Thievery Corporation playing while we ate his delicious (spicy!) vegetable curries. Uden's cousin Ewan is the man. His most distinguishing feature is his full-faced blooming smile, welling up like a newborn blue whale taking its first breath from beneath his swarthy mustache. I'll never forget what Ewan told me: "You can cut your hair; you can cut your beard; but never cut your heart." Despite Ewan's calm and agreeable demeanor, a lot of drama seemed to surround him (hey, paradise ain't perfect).

On Iboih Beach they rent snorkels, fins, and life-vests and used to have a fixed price: 15,000 rupiah each (less than $2). But people in town started lowering their prices to get more business, against the rules, which made others lower their prices and was causing deflation. So our friend Ewan posted signs all over town that you could rent them from him for only 5,000 rupiah-----way under price. Then he closed his shop. People were coming to all the rental places in town and pointing out that his price was lower and asking them to match it, so people were making no money. They agreed to call a meeting and Ewan insisted that he just lowered his price to get more business, though everyone knew it was just a sly way of pointing out how fighting amongst themselves and lowering prices was hurting everyone. So they all re-agreed to the fixed price and it lead to a grand reformation. Huzzah!

Our next contestant for craziest guy we met through Uden's restaurant is: Mus! (pronounced "Moose," so Sarah gave a moose sticker to both Mus and his 3-year-old son, who wanted to be just like Dad.) Mus, in his ever-joking nonchalant demeanor, told us how he valiantly climbed a 50 foot coconut tree to pick the pile of coconuts on the restaurant floor-----no big deal, of course. Oh yeah, and he tried to tell us that it's better to smoke unfiltered clove cigarettes if you're sick because they'll make you cough up all the bad stuff. Everyone in Indonesia smokes like a freight train. They must get their obsession with smoke from the countless smoking volcanoes across their nation, which probably also inspire them to have daily fires with leaves and rubbish, including plastic-----oh the smell of burning plastic in the morning shall always remind me of Sumatra.

While we were there we revived their lost tradition of having super-awesome-fun-fire-filled BEACH PARTIES! The alcohol was expensive (so drinking was limited) but the company present were so great that no one minded. Good music too. Everyone was dancing and throwing their limbs aruond to hip-hop, funk, and dubstep around the fire-----even Bogey, the little black dog, was jumpin' up and getting rowdy! When the night got late we busted out our acoustic guitars and traded turns serenading the crowd, all sitting together in a circle. We were truly sad to leave Pulau Weh, maybe the best place ever. But we stayed for nearly 3 weeks, nearly 3 times longer than anywhere else on our whole trip. Alas, there's so much more of Indonesia to see so, like a bird that flew, we sailed across the blue.