Northern Sumatra II: Pulau Weh, Danau Toba, and Medan

After plenty of walking around in Banda Aceh it was time to head to Pulau Weh (pulau=island). All in all, I wasn’t particularly impressed with Weh. For me, there were too many Euro-hippy-tourists (I hadn’t seen that many dreadlocks since I lived in Portland!), and not enough activities to keep me entertained. The main reason for the dearth of ‘Aaron-activities’ was that I don’t dive. Diving is the main pull for tourists, but surprisingly the snorkeling was just ok. A big detractor from snorkeling was all of the tiny stinging jellyfish; at times there were so many jellyfish that you couldn’t even see! Jimmy, Ricky and Dani had a pretty horrible jellyfish/mosquito adventure during a swim/hike. Another reason that I wasn’t a big fan of the island was that the prices were higher than elsewhere in Indonesia; this is the 2nd time I’ve seen this in dive sites.
For the most part it was Kerry, V and I hanging out because the other ETAs were divers. We managed to find some things to do including hiking to a waterfall (and then going for a swim and waterfall-shower) and to the northwest-most point in Indonesia (not much to see there). The rest of time was just hanging out on a tropical island and eating food. Speaking of those two things…the food on the island was an interesting Indonesian interpretation of Western food delivered in a VERY ‘island-time’ manner; I kid you not, at one dinner it took 3 and a half HOURS for Dani to get chopped fruit! That was particularly bad, but it was indicative of the time it took.
One other interesting aspect of the area we stayed was that there wasn’t really a road. Cars could drive to the beginning of the ‘town’, but after that you passed through a gateway and from there on out it was all by foot up and down the hilly brick walkway.
We spent about 3 days on Weh and then headed out early in the morning through Medan to Lake Toba and onto the Samsoir Island. All told we traveled for about 18 hours using, a minibus, a ferry, a SUV taxi, a plane, a taxi, a bus, a chartered boat and plenty of walking! In retrospect though, it was well worth it. We eventually spent the night in a surprisingly nice place for ~$5/night/room with hot water! And one of the nicest things about Toba is that you actually want hot water! When I woke up the next morning and saw where we were I was blown away; it actually reminded me a bit of Oregon.
Lake Toba is the largest lake in all of SE Asia and is the crater of a volcano, because of that there are forested walls rising up from the water. In combination with the cool temperatures there was also a fair amount of clouds and rain (see why it reminded me of Oregon?!). We were actually staying on a huge island (Samsoir) in Toba that itself has a lake and some stunning hills/cliffs.
The time on Toba went by pretty quickly even though we didn’t really do much. We did enjoy some pretty good food though including pizza, but also some traditional foods; it seems like the local spices there are different from elsewhere in Indo, particularly anise seed and some sort of menthol-y nut thing.
One day we rented some bikes and saw some sites which were the highlight for me. During that time we also went to a museum and checked out a traditional dance. At the museum it seemed to me that a lot of the houses, colors/patterns, and even the dances were pretty similar to Toraja. I didn’t take part in the dance, though the rest of ETAs did. I always feel a little awkward at ‘traditional’ things like that anyways, and taking part just makes it worse to me.
While we may not have actually done a lot, I felt like I could have easily spent 2 weeks at Toba, just looking around, relaxing, trying out all the different restaurants and hotels (the area we stayed is absolutely packed with nothing but tourist spots). Unfortunately for me though, everyone else had to head back Saturday morning so I went with them.
We eventually got into Medan that evening. From there V, Dani and I, each with a big backpack hopped on one sidecar-style becak (motorcycle taxi); we were quite a sight to behold I’m sure. The next day was Kerry’s birthday so we headed out for some ‘night activities’! Apparently the highlight was seeing a famous Indonesian singer called Geisha. I say apparently because I have never heard of her, but the other ETAs said she is pretty famous.
I ended up staying a few days in Medan as well because there wasn’t any class back at the pesantren and I was able to change my ticket for free. With that time I was able to see Medan (similar to Makassar, but cleaner, a little nicer, and many fewer ‘Hello Mister’s), John’s school there, a bunch of crocodiles, an over-the-top Christian temple that tried to incorporate too much, and even eat horse for the first time!
Considering I wasn’t even going to get to Sumatra, I really enjoyed my time there, and the 2 weeks went by really fast.
Now I’m getting ready to head to Jakarta for the national English competition; that will definitely warrant a post. Until then…