Wednesday night out with Shasa

Yesterday I went to ITC after work to meet up with Johanna and do some real power souvenir shopping. ITC is definitely cheaper than all the touristic places!

Afterwards shortly to Starbucks and talk. Johanna is soon leaving Jakarta, so it was one of the last opportunities.

But I was in a rush to get home and get dressed, because I was going out with Shasa and one of her friends on a Wednesday yesterday evening.

I went to Kemang Raya, Papillon Building, Rooftop, where Shasa was waiting for me.

Wednesday is the typical day, where Indonesians go out! And now I have also tried it!

We had some really nice cocktails and a great evening! And I got the most beautiful Batik clutch from Shasa (Thanks so much!)!

My pictures from Indonesia are getting famous!

If you from now on visit The Royal Danish Embassy in Jakarta’s homepage (www.ambjakarta.um.dk), the pictures that will pop up, are pictures that I have taken on my trips around Indonesia!

"Rugbrødsmadder" at Tanja's and "The Prinsesse And The Frog"

Yesterday after work I went to get Maj-Britt some stuff at Ranch Market.

Afterwards I was very happy to find some ear candles (the ones I tried in K.L.) at Mal Ambasador and then I went back to Casaluna.

I brought Maj-Britt her stuff, shortly visited my room and took the next taxi home to Tanja.
(Such a nice hotel apartment and such a nice view!!!!!) And I got all her small shampoos, tooth brushes e.g. that they get every day - smart for my Bali trip!

Tanja had prepared ”rugbrød, franskbrød, frikadeller, skinke, spegepølse, majonæse, remoulade, ristede løg, sild, æg, tomater, agurk, løg og rød peber”! SOOOOOOOOO delicious! And just what I needed! ;)

Afterwards we went to Plaza Semanggi to walk around and to go to the cinema and watch “The Prinsesse And The Frog” – a very sweet and totally unimportant Disney cartoon!

What a great evening!

Batak food with Henry

Yesterday I was at the embassy – all by myself (just like today)... Boring day! Maj-Britt is sick and Andreas is on holiday...

But after work I went home shortly and then I went out to have dinner at a Batak restaurant, “Toba Dream”, with Henry and one of his friends.

We had grilled pork – served with a sauce that showed to be blood sauce. And I eat it before I knew... Hmmm...

Except from this sauce the food was ok and the atmosphere was great! We talked and talked and talked!

And then the restaurant closed and we had to go home.

Great evening!

Today I’ll visit Tanja and we will eat “rugbrød” and go to Semanggi and watch “The Prinsesse And The Frog” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780521/). Girls evening!

KUALA LUMPUR

Thursday on my way home from work – before the packing for my K.L. trip – I passed by ITC, Carrefour and my new favourite ice cream shop in Mal Ambasador! ;) Nice!

And the evening went with packing.

I brought my backpack to the embassy on Friday to be able to leave for the airport right after work and a small trip to Oakwood.

Even though it had been raining and it was Friday, the trip to the airport went fast without any trouble, which meant that I arrived at the airport way to early and had lots and lots of time to wander around, look at stuff, have “dinner” and buy myself a book – Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_(novel) ). THE BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! I am totally hooked! I’m thinking about that book all the time. And I feel almost bad about it. Am I really still such a teenager?! And even though I have been in K.L. during the weekend and seen a lot of stuff, I have soon passed the first 400 pages in my book...

The flight went nice and in K.L. Benny (a friend of Heidi and now also one of my friends) picked me up at the airport and took me to the hostel, he had booked for me, in his car – telling me scary stories about hunted roads and black magic and small baby zombies during that trip. So I was happy to see that my room had windows covered with bars!

My hostel during the weekend was Green Hut (www.thegreenhut.com) in Bukit Bintang, K.L. The room was small and not very exciting, but on the other hand very cheap!




After checking in and bringing my stuff to my room, Benny and I went to have some typical Malaysian food in a street restaurant! Really good! And without Benny I had most likely not dared to eat there. But it was a big success.

We drove around and Benny took me to SohoKL (http://www.sohokl.com/) in Mont’Kiara, where we had a cup of coffee, before he drove me back (by incidence on the way back, I saw a guy on the street, who I knew from Jakarta – Juan – and three of his friends). I spent some time at the computers in the hostel – being annoyed by a drunk Arabian guy and I went to sleep around 4.00 in the morning (again after reading in my new book...).

Saturday morning I went to have a one hour foot massage in one of the many massage clinics around K.L.! K.L. has a massage clinic on every corner, like Copenhagen has 7-11’s! And actually they even have many more foot massage places than we have 7-11’s!!!

It was amazing! I can recommend that place to anyone who ever goes to K.L.! It is called KLValley and it is placed on Plaza Danau 2!

I went back to the hostel to sit outside and write some post cards until Benny would arrive. In the mean time I met another friend from Jakarta. Apparently he stayed at the same hostel – again: What a coincidence!

Benny came and picked me up and we went to the Petronas Towers / KLCC / Kuala Lumpur City Center.

“KLCC Petronas Towers are with their 452 meters the world's tallest twin towers. On the 41st floor a bridge connects the two towers, and here there is a very beautiful view of Kuala Lumpur.

The Petronas Towers are housing the beautiful Petronas Philharmony, home of Malaysia's National Philharmonic. Of exhibitions to be seen are Petronas Gallery, which exhibits Malaysian and foreign art and Petrosains Interactive Science Discovery Center, which examines the route of oil from the underground to processed products.”

When we arrived there were no more tickets to get up into the towers. Instead we walked around the towers in a park (where Benny proved his skills as a total paparazzi...) and were inside the towers in KLCC (a shoppingcenter), where we also had our lunch at a Malaysian restaurant.

After KLCC we drove to the Batu Caves Saturday afternoon.

“The large Batu limestone caves north of Kuala Lumpur are a natural wonder.
Already on the arrival to the caves they are impressive with the wide, 272 steps high staircase, which almost disappears into the mountain.

The actual caves consist of three main caves and a small part. Among the open holes is the 180-meter Cathedral Cave, where many meters long stalactites are hanging from the ceiling. The visit here is unforgettable.

The cave system was discovered in the late 1800s by Amercian William Hornaday.

The many monkeys in the area bring extra colour to the visit.

The impressive Batu Caves are a sacred place for the Hindus of Malaysia, and in the beginning of the year they have the great religious Thaipusam festival here.”

After the Batu Caves we went to a mountain near by. Here they had a few restaurants and people come up here to eat and to watch the skyline of Kuala Lumpur – which is definitely worth a look! It was very beautiful!

After this Benny drove me back to my street again and I had another massage. This time one hour wasn’t enough. Instead I had a half hours shoulders and back massage, a one hours foot massage and a one hours ear candle and head and arm massage treatment. Ear candles are amazing! It was my first time trying it. And I actually didn’t know for what purpose they did it until he afterwards opened up the rest of the candle and showed me...

This one is a very critical article about it. But it worked for me and it was indeed very nice!
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_candling)

I went back to the hostel, read my book and slept.

Sunday morning there was no water in the hostel – no flushing the toilet, no shower, no washing hands... That ends up being quite disgusting with so many people on so little space...

But luckily I had a bit of water left in a bottle.

It had been hard to get up anyway because all my muscles either hurt or were too relaxed from the massage the night before...

Benny came to pick me up and we drove to his church, where I saw the service. It was so much different than in Denmark – even though it is exactly the same religion. People were dancing, singing and mumbling things with closed eyes as their prayer. It was like some of the movies we see on TV. I had just never believed that it would actually be just like that! But it is!

Benny was holding a speech in the Youth Church. Again there were jokes and a loose atmosphere with singing and music.

There had been around five attacks on churches in K.L. that weekend and cars with Christian symbols had been smashed. Benny had already told me a bit about it Friday evening when I arrived. But I didn’t think that it was as bad as I realized during the service.

And here I was: Sitting in a church in K.L., while churches in K.L. were being attacked...

About the attacks: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/11/church-attacks-malaysia-deepen-racial-tension.html

But Benny’s speech was quite impressive! I got introduced to everyone! And the church was a totally new experience for me. So a very good start of the day!

After church we went to a Chinese area – though not Chinatown. There were also no tourists in this area, only me. Already on a distance I could smell the lovely smell. And the smell came from the restaurant where we were going to eat Chinese food! It was the best soup I’ve had so far! Even better than Rawon.

We drove around the city and Benny showed me a huge mosque, Little India and more or less all the important buildings in K.L.!

Our destination was the Central Market, where they sell handicraft. To me it seemed as if they only sold Indonesian handicraft. But again that is the huge dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia. They have exactly the same cultural stuff and they argue about where it originally comes from!

I bought a Chinese umbrella (I think it is Chinese...).

And I met a Danish couple travelling through Malaysia.

We drove on to Chinatown, had something nice to drink and walked around to look. I nearly had two men on my side all the time – people that wanted to sell me some fake dvd’s. But actually the fake dvd’s in Jakarta are much cheaper than in K.L.!

And then it was time for going back to the airport. Benny took me there and we had dinner at McDonalds, before we said goodbye and I went to the gate.

The flight was nice. I had a space at the window again. I really prefer sitting at the window!

In Jakarta I was trying to get past the taxi drivers with their “Miss! Miss! Miss! Taxi? Taxi? Miss!” as usual. But there was a guy in a blue Bluebird shirt who asked if I wanted a Bluebird. Here I turned around and thought that I could skip the standing in line and waiting, and I followed him to his car, which showed to be a private car... I looked at him – disappointed – and told him that I knew how a Bluebird looked and that this was not a Bluebird. But he gave me a fair price and I didn’t have to stand in line, so I took the car. Anyway he looked small enough that I would be able to defend myself, if he would kidnap me or try to rob/rape me!

He spoke quite good English and it showed that he was from Samosir, where I had just been during Christmas. He was also Christian. We had a nice talk during the whole trip where he told me about some astonishing theories about why the earthquakes happen where they happen. And I must say that I don’t really believe these theories...

And when we where half way home, he said: “Miss?”. “Yes?”, I replied. “I’m sorry that I said it was a Bluebird, Miss.” He sounded so regretting that he had tried to pull money out of me with the nice talk we had had all the way. I ensured him that it was ok and it made him loosen up again.

I got home safely and with the best taxi ride through Jakarta so far!

I unpacked my stuff and went to sleep!

That was the trip to K.L.!

Rain in Jakarta on the 7th of January

Yesterday it was raining heavily in Jakarta. And it was just a single cloud. Over Pulau Seribu we could see that there was light.

Rain, thunder and lightening is amazing in Jakarta. Also here extreme weather is much more extreme than in Denmark!

The pictures are taking from the embassy.

Since North Sumatra

The start into the new year on Friday the 1st of January started with sleeping very long. I was even without a New Year celebration gotten to bed quite late - after I had unpacked my bags at night and been on the Internet.

Towards lunchtime I went to Plaza Indonesia, where I had sushi as my new years dish. Afterwards I wanted to go to Starbucks. The internet at Starbucks seemed not optimal, so I could not post all the pictures on Facebook – which was my intention with going there.

So I went down and shopped food e.g. and wandered around a bit.

But soon after I went back to Casaluna, where I uploaded some pictures the rest of the day and relax.

Saturday the 2nd of January was Maj-Britt's birthday.

However, I started the day by being picked up by Henry. I had packed two big bags the night before with things that I would like to send home from the post office on Saturday. Henry and I went to the post office and he helped me to send things. It turned out however that I had more experience in sending stuff than he.

But we experienced corruption. The costumer asked Henry to give him money. He had tried with me once but figured that it didn’t work. But now where I brought an Indonesian, it did work.

Sometimes I think that the reason why this country is so corrupt is simply because people do not say no. Actually most people don’t want to give governmentally employed people any money. But when they ask for the money they do not say no. They just give it to them.

After the post office we drove around, talking until we found a street where there was supposed to be a Rawon restaurant – but this restaurant had closed down. So instead we had Chinese food.

We went on to a street where Henry had heard that you could buy the typical Indonesian cookie boxes, Kaleng Krupuk, that you see at every small food stall. I bought nine small ones, three big ones and one in between – a mixture of all colours!

Henry drove me back home. And at 17.00 I met up with Maj-Britt to go to Plaza Indonesia and celebrate her birthday.

We went to a massage/fish spa place in Grand Indonesia, where we got a hand/feet/shoulders massage. Afterwards we had sushi at Sushi Tei – it took one hour before we could get a table, it took maybe half an hour to eat, and it definitely took more than one hour to get the bill...

Our desert was yoghurt ice at a great ice cream shop, where you can mix your own yoghurt ice and put on it your own choice of toppings. Afterwards they weigh the ice cream and you pay per 10 g.

We went to the movies and watched “Sherlock Holmes” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988045/). It was actually a really good movie – and not at all as expected.

Hereafter home to bed again.

Sunday I went to Starbucks. And I was sitting there for quite some hours – uploading pictures on Facebook e.g., eating at Ranch Market and the like. Around 16.30 Johanna came and we went to ITC – shopping, trying on my Batik dress and back to Starbucks to have a last drink. And that was all I did that day. The evening was again just watching movies back at home and uploading more pictures on Facebook.

Monday was my first day at work after my holiday. After work I went to ITC again. I had to pick up my Batik dress this time and it fitted well! After work home, uploading pictures again again and relaxing.

Tuesday Maj-Britt came with me to ITC after work. This time I had to pick up some necklaces. I also had a frozen yoghurt at a newly opened shop in Mall Ambassador. Besides the good frozen yoghurt in Grand Indonesia, this is the best and cheapest one I have had so far.

Yesterday (which was also the amazing day with Matador Mix at the embassy) we went to Grand Indonesia / Plaza Indonesia after being at the embassy. We were supposed to meet with Johanna and Tanja here around 18.00. But since we had enough time before, we walked a bit around. Maj-Britt got herself a coffee at Starbucks and I decided to try a coffee at Kopi Luwak.




When do you pay 82.500Rp. for a cup of coffee? And where do you have five girls standing around your cup, sharing the work with making a perfect cup of coffee? Where does your small package of coffee come in a nice little bag with a small brochure about the coffee? And where do they ask you to smell the aroma, before they make the coffee?

The answer is Kopi Luwak:

("THE MOST EXPENSIVE COFFEE IN THE WORLD"

"The Luwak (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) denizen of the coffee (kopi) plantations of Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, eats only the ripest coffee cherries.

Unable to digest the coffee beans, the Luwak graciously deposits them on the jungle floor where they are eagerly collected by the locals.

The stomach acids and enzymatic action involved in this unique fermentation process produces the beans for the world's rarest coffee beverage."

http://www.kopiluwak.org/)

It was definitely an experience. And the coffee was ok... A bit warm, tasting like coffee and like a lot of places in Indonesia, they didn’t filter the coffee away – it was in the bottom of the cup. But now at least I have tried it!

We walked further around and looked at shops until Tanja called us that she had already arrived, so we went back to our classic meeting point, Starbucks.

Also Johanna arrived soon after. Together we went to Johanna’s favourite Thai restaurant, eat and went to the cinema to watch “Whip It” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172233/). Also a really good movie and I’m looking forward to see my skates again, when I get back home.

Today I’m back at the embassy. And there are no other plans than this.

But tomorrow I will be going to K.L.! And I’m quite excited about that!

Medan

Back in Medan I took a becak with a very nice driver (like many others during these days he didn’t speak a work English, but we managed anyway) to a shopping mall. Here I was walking around, having some cold to drink and an ice cream and looking for wet tissues, a t-shirt and some other stuff that would make me feel more clean again. I did definitely not feel clean after the bus trip!

At around 17.00 Yeti came to pick me up at the shopping mall and we drove to Medan’s palace to look around here.

Apparently Medan only has two attractions: The palace and an old house.

After the palace we went to the oldest house in Medan – a Chinese house. And a big one - fourty rooms they said. (We had a guide around the house.)

Here it was really clearly that Indonesia had been under Dutch colonialism. A lot of the pictures and books e.g. in the the different rooms had either Dutch people on them, were written in Dutch or had a small note in Dutch. But otherwise - very Chinese...

Before Yeti took me to the airport we drove to a street that she wanted to show me. A street full of small shops selling Bika Ambon (http://menumakanan.com/content/view/22/1/). And since Bika Ambon is a typical present to bring from Indonesia, I had to bring it to Jakarta.

And compared to other cakes in Indonesia, this was actually a really good one.

Officially my flight was leaving at 20.05 on new years eve. It didn’t. It was three hours delayed. It was supposed to have taken around two hours, which had meant that I would have been able to be back in Jakarta for new year. I wasn’t.

So after Yeti had brought me to the airport and I had checked in, I went to the lounge, spent time on the internet and checked my mail.

The lounge closed at 21.00. From here I went to the gate and stayed here the next two hours.

Back in Jakarta I got home, took a shower, unpacked my things and went to bed.

Bukit Lawang

In the morning of the 30th I got up at 6.00, packed my stuff, checked out and took angkot number 64 to Pinang Baris, from where I got a small taxi to Bukit Lawang. The taxi seemed weird and I seemed to be the only passenger, which worried me a bit. But when we finally came closer to Bukit Lawang, there were more people joining on the taxi! And I no longer felt as if I would be kidnapped!

The closer we got to Bukit Lawang there were more palm tree plantations and rubber plantations around. We drove through a few small cities, but otherwise there were mostly trees: Palms and Rubber.

When I arrived in Bukit Lawang I couldn't get around the guides standing at the bus station to be the first ones to "welcome" the tourists... I took a becak into the city, but Mudhi from the Indonesian Guide Association (the guide nearly pulling me out of the bus at the station) followed me all the way. And soon I realised that I wouldn't get rid of him. So I made sure that I at least got all the good information out of him.

He took me to a cheaper hotel than the one that I had gotten recommendations on before I left Medan. But in fact the one he took me to was really cheaper and it was located in a much nicer place: Eco Lodge Bukit Lawang Cottage.

When he later gave me his business card it showed that this was also where he had his address as a tour guide...

He tried to pull as much money out of me as possible. There was always something more that he could show me. And since I was only one person, I should usually pay the price of three people, but he would do the tour with me for a price of two people. I told him that I would do the tour with him, but only I he made the tour with me for a price of one person and I got what I wanted in the end.

They have price lists and all the tour guides from the Indonesian Guide Association have to stick to these prices. But than they have a lot of additinal criterias, which makes it easy for them to pull money out of peoples pockets.

We left from Eco Lodge right away for a three hours trek in the jungle.

I was a bit sceptical, cause we saw an orang utan after only five minutes in the jungle... Weird...

Mudhi had brought some carrots and he called the orang utan and it came down to us.

I had heard and read that you should never feed the orang utans, but Mudhi said that is was normal to do with this one.

And it was an amazing experience. But later that day I found out that all the guides do this. And they do it with different orang utans. Another Danish couple had also had Mudhi as a guide for a three days trek and here he had fed an orang utan mother with her baby.




The trek was hard. The jungle is in a very hilly area and it goes up and down all the time.

We saw another orang utan with her baby, but here Mudhi told me to stay on a distance and be careful.

Otherwise the trek was characterized by sweating, sweating and sweating! I saw three kinds of monkeys: orang utans, white gibbons and leave monkeys. Later that day I also saw some Thomas Leaf Monkeys. So all in all four species of monkeys that day!

On our way back to the hotel we went through a rubber plantation again. On the picture above you see some dried rubber, ready to be sold.

Back at the hotel I had a short shower and then I went out to discover the city, which took me the rest of the day.

I found a nice little restaurant/souvenirs shop, where I bought some post cards and had my second pisang goreng on this trip.

I talked to another Danish tourist.

I crossed some challenging bridges.

I had a really nice day!

Bukit Lawang is not fancy at all. No big shops. Nothing. You can't really feel that it is a tourist city. And mostly the tourists also just step by Bukit Lawang on their way into the jungle or to see the feeding centre.

But still there is a nice atmosphere in the city and it is very relaxing.

On the way back to the hotel I had a nice juice and a fruit cocktail (including avocado) at a restaurant down to the water. And back at Eco Lodge I had my real dinner together with and Australian couple and the husbands father.

They were all biologists and used to travelling in Indonesia.

And the most frightening thing was that they had their room next to mine. And they had found a huge bird spider in their room the same day. Apparently they got attracted by light, which made them come into the hotel rooms. And there were plenty of small wholes and cracks to come in through.

They also told about dangerous snakes and malaria mosquitos e.g.!

SO, when Catharina went to bed that night. She took her sleeping back from her backpack, pulled it all the way over her head, had no light on doing this and took the mosquito net around her.

I got very hot and I nearly didn't sleep. But no spider, no snake, no mosquito came to me that night!

Next morning I had an early breakfast (I got up quite early, since I hadn't been sleeping anyway...) and then went to the feeding spot.

There is a Orang Utan Reservation Centre in Bukit Lawang. From here it is possible to go on trips into the junge, to the feeding spot, with some guides and a ranger.

There were a mother and her baby and two elder babies and then another male, so five orang utans.

All together I think that I've seen 10 orang utans during these two days.

At the feeding spot they get milk and bananas.

We were around 25 people and we were there for around 45 minutes. Then we went back to Bukit Lawang. There were a whole Danish family, some Germans e.g.! A lot of northern European tourists!

Back at Eco Lodge I had my early lunch, packed my stuff and checked out.

I wanted to walk to the bus station, where there was supposed to be a market that day also. But I wasn't allowed to. I had gotten by all the becak drivers and ojek drivers, but on the "big" road a motorbike stopped and the man kept saying that he really wanted to drive me and talk to me, to practise his English. And in the end I said ok and got on the bike.

The market was nice, local and not to big.

Below there are some pictures of the market: A man selling fish (Lele and goldfish), the market for rubber and Duku (a very delicious fruit).

The bus was leaving soon after. And here I was, on the way back to Medan, in the public bus: Pembangunan Semesta.

Again we drove through palm oil plantations, rubber plantations and small villages. And I even managed to sleep a bit on this very dirty and hot bus.

Lake Toba

On the 28th of December I went to the airport very early. I was there around 5.00 and I was first flying around 7.00.

The flight went well and I arrived in Medan. From the airport I went to a small shop to buy some juice. Here they advised me, on which side of the shop the becak were cheapest. I took a becak to Tobali Taxi, one of the two companies that Yeti (Anjelita's friend in Medan) had recommended me - since the other one apparently wasn't driving that day.

Tobali Taxi was driving and I got a seat in the front. We made two stops on the way. One stop to buy Oleh Oleh (small snacks that Indonesians bring as souvenirs) and another stop to eat lunch.

The whole trip took five hours. And after two hours in Sumatra I had my first car accident.

Drivers in Sumatra drive really bad. Worse than anything I have ever experienced. Our driver tried to pull past another car and he hit right into a car coming in the other lane. The side mirror crashed and since the window was open, all the glass flew in on us.

I was lucky, cause the guy next to me leaned forwards, which meant that he got hit buy all the glass and I didn't. He even got it into his eyes. Somehow I think that he tried to protect me. He was so nice during the whole trip, even though we couldn't really talk, since he didn't speak English.

Arrived in Prapat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapat) at Lake Toba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba) I was immidiately shown to a ferry, which would take me to Samosir Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samosir).

The right one below.




On the ferry I met Shasa, a girl from Jakarta. She had been in Medan with her work for some days, and when her colleagues were going back to Jakarta, she was heading for Lake Toba on her own.

We decided to explore the island together, until I had to go back to Medan.

After arriving on the island, we were walking around to find a nice and affordable hotel. In the end we settled with Caroline Hotel, which was also the one, we both had heard recommendations of, before going there. And they only had this one room available - just perfect!

Caroline Hotel had a nice spot for swimming. And the first thing we did: Taking a swim in the lake, while it was raining down on us. Beautiful and nice! And the temperature was great! Just like Denmark!




After the swim we changed and went right to dinner. I was very hungry and it had gotten dark.

The restaurant was open and we could look out over the lake and watch the lights on the other side of the water.

Food was good. I had some curry and ris and before that pisang goreng... Again!

We had an Asian looking girl, Alicia, and a white guy, Erik, sitting next to us. The girl was working on her laptop. And the guy showed to be Swedish. Both very nice people.

And Erik took a walk around Tuk Tuk, a peninsula on Samosir, together with Shasa and me.

Afterwards I went right to bed. I was very tired after a long long day.




Next morning Shasa and I got up very early to rent a motorbike and go around Samosir to see the most important touristic stuff and go souvenir shopping.

A motorbike is not really a motorbike. It is more like a scooter, but it can run as fast as a motorbike. You need a driver licence to drive such one, but none of us had one and no one checks it.




I bought a Batak calendar (the ones hanging down in front of us on the picture below), an Ulos (a typical textile of the Batak people) and a magic stick (The story is that a brother and sister were in love. Since they couldn't marry, they went to the forest to live together. One day the wife wanted her husband to get her some fruits. The husband climbed the tree, but the tree didn't let go of him. The wife climbed up to get him down, but the tree also captured her. Some people of the village tried to get them down, but also they got stuck. The king of the village decided to cut down the tree and it became a magic stick. The magic stick can remove black power and make it rain and similar things.).




The first stop after the souvenirs shopping was Ambarita: Stone Chairs where the King held conferences and beheaded criminals.

We had a local guide showing us around, and here is what we learned:

During ancient times the Toba Batak people of Ambarita practised a form of carnibalism (as late as 1900). What remains today is a small village and the cluster of stone chairs where the village elders held council.

Whenever an enemy was captured, the elders would invite the rulers of neighbouring villages to a conference, to determine the fate of the victim. The victim is held in behind bars under one of the houses.

If it is determined that the victim deserved death, he is taken to a dining table where he is clobbered to death. There is a boulder where the victim is beheaded. After that, he is chopped up, and his organs and blood is served to the tribal council!




After Ambarita we drove through the beautiful nature, took a lot of pictures and went to Tomok:
Traditional houses and si gale-gale.

The Toba Batak people of northern Sumatra create sophisticated puppets (si gale-gale) controlled by a complex system of internal strings and levers that allow them to move in a lifelike manner. Si gale-gale formerly played a crucial role in some funerary ceremonies. When an individual died, his or her soul became an ancestral spirit. For his or her spirit to enjoy the same prominence after death that the person had when living, the deceased's children had to perform the proper funerary rites. If a person died childless, a si gale-gale was created as a substitute to perform the necessary funerary rituals. When in use, the puppets were mounted on the front end of a long, flat box through which the strings passed, allowing the puppeteer, who sat behind the box, to control the puppet from some distance, giving the illusion that the figure was self-animated. Deftly manipulated by the puppeteer, the si gale-gale was able to perform all the required dances and ritual protocols for its deceased parent.

After the Si gale-gale we went to a place with the the tomb of the Sidabutar Kings.

The tomb of King Sidabutar and the other tombs in Tomok are made of natural stones, intact without connections.
Their bodies are not buried, but stored in the tombs.

The tombs are all covered with a textile with the colors red, white and black. Red = the world today, white = heaven and black = the underworld.
On some of the big tombs there was a face. This face should symbolize the face of the dead person.

We had to have an ulos over our shoulder to enter the "graveyard".

In the "backyard" of the "graveyard" there was a huge magic stick.




We went back to Caroline Hotel and had breakfast.

After breakfast I left for Prapat again, to take back Tobali Taxi to Medan.

I met a European couple in Prapat and we went to Tobali Taxi together. Here they tried to rip us of, but I even got the price further down than what the usual price was according to some of the locals we had talked to... ;)

Again we made a stop at the lunch place.

We were back in Medan at 17.00 and Yeti was picking me up at the office of Tobali Taxi.

Together with Yeti I drove around to have a look at some different hotels (four), before I decided for Gajahmada Hotel.

Then we went out to have dinner at a nice street with only restaurants. And you could sit outside!

Before bringing me back to the hotel, Yeti drove me around the city to show me, what Medan looks like. I think that I got a quite good impression. And there are difinitely NO high buildings in Medan. But the airport is also inside the city - maybe bad with high buildings...

Back at the hotel I was on the internet, took a shower and fell asleep immidiately!