A Side Trip to Paradise

I'm sure some of you who read this blog regularly have been worried that I have not posted in about 5 days. That's because I went to Paradise, and Internet connections are not a common thing there.

I went to Danau Toba (Lake Toba). It's up in the mountains and is a large volcanic lake. In the middle of the lake is a big island. A small penninsula named Tuk-Tuk juts out from that island. I've been relaxing there for 5 days/4 nights. It's been wonderful. It's a beautiful place with green mountains that come up dramatically from the lake like the mountains in Sweden or Norway. Because of the altitude, it is cool. The lake is calm. The people there are wonderful.

Back 30 years ago, it was a hippie hangout, but today there is only limited tourism. But all the facilities are still there from before. That makes it inexpensive, because there are far more rooms to rent than there are tourists to rent them. Some of my friends will be surprised and pleased to know that I splurged and stayed at the nicest hotel complex in Tuk-Tuk--the Carolina. It is built in the style of the native houses with swooped thatched rooftops, carvings on the fronts of the houses, etc. I had my own separate cottage up the hillside with a view through the gardens and trees looking out over the lake. There were chairs and a table out front, and there was another table and chairs inside so that I could sit either inside or outside and watch the view. There was a big painting on one wall of the local countryside. Other walls had other paintings and local weavings. The cottage and the setting was definitely what people would consider to be an Asian Paradise. Other cottages were above and below mine on the hillside. There was a huge open-air pavilion that served as reception, lounge, and restaurant. There was a beach area for sunning and swimming (although only the Germans were brave enough to test the cold waters).

Tuk-Tuk was a circular-shaped penninsula. It took me one hour to walk around it slowly. It is lined with other hotels (many in native style but none as nice as mine), restaurants, bars, shops, etc. I walked around it every day--sometimes twice by going each direction. On other days, I walked 7-8 km (4-5 miles) south and north on the island to see the villages along the coast.

One of the best things about the area is the friendliness of the people--the Batak people. They are very much like the people in Toraja in Sulawesi where I visited earlier. They are Christians, and they bury their dead near their homes. But they are so friendly. Everyone says hello just to be nice. Even toddlers know to say it and to wave. People ask you to stop and talk and it's because they genuinely want to visit with you. And they sing all the time. It's very common to hear people singing inside their houses or to pass groups of men sitting outside playing instruments and singing. It was just so nice to be in such a beautiful, friendly, and pleasant place.

Each day, I searched for places to eat. It rained many days, so I rested a lot. Mainly, I just found myself feeling totally relaxed. I will not update by days so you can read what I did each day there and on the days before I left for there:

Friday, July 20, 2007--Medan

I could not stand the hotel where I was staying. Thursday night, I had trouble sleeping because the mattress was so bad. I finally found that the only way I could rest without feeling metal springs digging into my body was to sleep across the foot of the bed. Also, there was no outside window to allow light inside. Anyway, by 10:00 a.m., I decided I had to move. I went up the street checking out 2-3 places and settled on one--the most expensive place I've stayed in all of Indonesia, but one that is bright, clean, and confortable.

There was lots of rain during the day, so I am glad that I didn't try to leave for Lake Toba today. I tried to explore the city some, but it is too spread out, the rain is too heavy, and my body is just too tired to do much. I ate noodles with shrimp at a muslim restaurant for a late lunch. In the evening, most places had closed by the time I was ready to eat at 21:00. I went to McDonalds nearby and had a chicken sandwich.

Saturday, July 21, 2007--Medan to Lake Toba

Rain again today, but not as heavy as we had yesterday. I still traveled as planned. I was fortunate to be able to catch a mini-bus in front of the hotel within a minute of going out to wait. It took me to the bus station on the edge of town where I caught a bus to Parapet in the mountains. From there, I had to catch a ferry to get to Tuk-Tuk. In all, it took about 7 hours of traveling to get there.

Tuk-Tuk reminds me of Tioman Island, the Malaysian island I visited on ATW I. It's small, round, and lined with resorts that are built up the hillside as small cottages to give views of the water. The ferry lets everyone off at the dock of the resort where he plans to stay.

My view from my room is wonderful. And the birds and the butterflies are just fantastic. The penninsula actually gets its name from one of the birds that goes "tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk...."

From my walk around the island, I could see that it would be easy to live here rather nicely on $15-20 a day. Most of the resorts are in the $4-7 a night range. (Mine is about $9.50, but it is the best place on the penninsula.) Most of the restaurants offer meals within the range of $3-5 with the latter price including a big beer.

I decided to try to give myself a deep heat treatment for my ear, since I only got 3 of the prescribed 6 treatments before leaving Bogor. There was a hall lightbulb that stuck outwards from the wall. It was a fluorescent bulb, so it didn't get as hot as an incondescent bulb. I could stand on one of my lounge chairs and my ear would be even with the bulb. So I stood there for 15 minutes with my ear next to the bulb.

Sunday, July 22, 2007--Lake Toba

I slept almost 12 hours during the night. It is just so restful here. Unfortunately, I had to get up to go to the toilet about 5 times, though. I had eaten a pizza last night for dinner, and I guess it was salty. That's the only reason I could think for needing to use the toilet so many times.

I walked far off the penninsula onto Samosir Island to the south. I went through a big village and continued further. Everyone was friendly. Often, they wanted to know where I was going. They are never used to people walking so far away from where they know they are staying as I do. But that allowed me to see how the people actually live and to interact with some of the ones who don't normally talk much to the tourists.

I got caught in the rain on my way back to Tuk-Tuk. One woman actually TOLD me it was raining. She just couldn't believe that someone would keep walking with it raining. But I opened my umbrella and just kept going. I probably walked in the rain for an hour before I was back at my room.

I had a wonderful dinner experience tonight. I had seen a lady cooking fish and chicken over a grill the night before and had told her I would return to have dinner there. Well, she had reservations from 22 other persons and had planned a special evening. I don't know how many courses we had. I remember starting with soup. Then there was a green bean dish with something cruncy. There was a noodle dish. There was a plate with 6 sticks of satay (barbecued chicken on sticks with a peanut sauce). Then there came a plate with two kinds of fish--both the same except that one was cooked fresh, whereas the other one had been dried before being cooked. That was served with fried rice, more of the green bean dish, shrimp crackers, etc. Finally, there was a plate of fresh papaya and pineapple. After we had all eaten, the band set up and played local instruments and sang local songs. The woman who runs the restaurant danced local dances and involved a young boy and some of the women at times. The music and the dancing reminded me of what is found around the Pacific in other places such as the Philippines, Hawaii, etc. By the time I left, I had been there for about 4 hours. It was an expensive evening. I paid for the meal (about $11.17) and I bought a CD of the music (another $11.17). I know that isn't REALLY expensive, but compared to my usual meals of $.56 to $3.35, it was.

My ear seems a little better. In case it is due to the deep heat treatment I gave myself, I repeated the process three more times today at various times.

Monday, July 23, 2007--Lake Toba

It rained all night. Everything is very damp including the bedding.

I repeated the deep heat treatment in the morning, but I decided it wasn't working. I was taking my last doses of medicine that the doctor in Bogor had given me, so I became worried. After walking around the penninsula a couple of times, I went into the local hospital. I told the local female doctor the history of it all. She said she could give me an antibiotic injection, so I asked her to do so. She also used a machine to irrigate my ear saying that I had a wax buildup inside probably due to using my ear plugs every night while traveling. She gave me more antibiotic pills and told me to take them for 3 more days to supplement the injection. She also gave me a liquid antibiotic to put in my ear at bedtime to make sure that I didn't get an infection from any of the abbrasions caused by the tube she used in cleaning my ear.

I went to a nearby muslim restaurant and ate eggplant and rice for lunch. Then I went to the room and finished reading The Cutting Room by Louise Welch. It was an interesting mystery. I gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 4.

In the evening, I went to another pizza restaurant. it wasn't as good as the one where I ate two nights ago, though.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007--Lake Toba

We had a storm with strong winds during the night. It was still a bit cloudy in the morning. I thought maybe the storm had pushed the rain away from us. But the sun came out and I went walking northward on Samosir Island. I walked so long that my nose burned and is red!

I ate fried chicken that had been soaked in coconut juice before frying. I had it with rice and some vegetables. It was good. And there is much more meat on the bones in Sumatra than there has been elsewhere in Indonesia.

Rain began falling in mid-afternoon again. I just stayed inside reading and waiting for 18:00 when I had booked one of the hotel workers to come to my room and give me a massage. After that, I went to the dining room of the hotel and ate a Spanish omelette for dinner along with a banana shake.

CNN was on the big-screen TV in the lounge, so I watched the news for the first time in over a week. It doesn't seem that I have missed much!