This is the view
from our current hotel room…
And this:
Lake Toba! Somehow we never needed to go into Medan so I
can’t say whether or not it is the worst place I have ever been to. There is a new airport, huge and gleaming,
and it is 42 kilometres from the city.
So we just clambered into some transport, after a bit of wheeling and
dealing with about fourteen people who were very keen to get a cut of the juicy
newcomers, and after nearly five hours – here we were, in Parapat, which is
the main town on Lake Toba.
Tearing ourselves
away from our cosy nest at the Hotel Clover was a bit of a wrench but…we are
brave and strong!! This is what I looked
like on the train…
Oh no… SO not a
good look. And so very uncomfortable; I
couldn’t breathe properly and I hated it.
I could never ever wear a burqa!
But I have a cough snuffly cold and nobody – absolutely nobody – coughs
snorts or sneezes on public transport in Singapore. Everyone with a cold either stays away or
wears a mask, to protect les autres.
We didn’t have
long at Singapore airport, but we did have enough time to gaze in wonder a this
magical installation. These gleaming
baubles hung on thin wire, and floated magically up and down in waving,
mesmeric patterns to gentle, soothing music.
If we had seen it as part of an art festival we would have considered it
to be the very highlight, and here it was, just doing its thing in the vastness
of Changi Aiport, with no fuss or fanfare.
We shared a
six-seater car with Simon (Australian via UK)
and Yo Len (Malaysian Chinese, working in Singapore.) They are both web masters/designers and were
meeting up for a bit of R & R on Lake Toba.
Simon had many very entertaining stories;* I coughed away gamely and
tried to keep up my end of the conversation.
We had been told
that the road was very nasty tortuous, narrow, dangerous. I couldn’t really see; Pete was in the front
seat and he said it was indeed very narrow, with lots of potholes and
unexplained lumps and bumps. But our
driver, Johnson, steered us all the way with nothing but a few gasp-inducing
near misses to keep us awake.
The first three
quarters of the trip were through dead flat country, with a few dusty towns,
and many MANY miles of oil palms, and rubber trees. Eventually we started to climb through
absolutely beautiful jungle, with monkeys at the side of the road. And then down into the crater of what must be
an ancient volcano and suddenly…a vast expanse of water. I am embarrassed to say I was mightily
surprised, and Simon ALMOST said, Oh
look, the sea! Maybe we have
forgotten we were going to a place called LAKE Toba, where one might reasonably
expect…ummm…water.
Simon and Yo Len
went off to catch a ferry across to the island in the middle of the lake –
another hour of journey. Pete and I were
not keen to do any such thing… It was seven pm and it was time to STOP. Johnson left us at this hotel on the lakeside,
called Danautoba International Cottages.
We are so
definitely back in Indonesia… Our room is beautiful – spacious, with a
comfortable bed and a circular balcony overlooking the lake. It is just gorgeous and we can’t possibly
complain. But…the door to the balcony
doesn’t shut, not at all - the latch is broken.
We have just left it thus; nobody has broken in and murdered us in our
sleep so…all is well. The shower only
works from the hot tap - the cold one is just there for show. Fortunately there isn’t any hot water so it
doesn’t really matter…
The worst aspect
of the room is…mosquitoes! The air is
thick with annoying buzz. There are some
resident geckoes, gamely hunting at high speed across the walls and ceiling,
but they can’t leap and catch the ones in mid-air. After much negotiation we managed to get two
mosquito coils, which seemed to calm the situation. The funny thing about these mossies – they
didn’t seem in the least interested in biting us. They just want to hover around our heads, get
into our ears, obscure he view of our reading matter. After a while I decided to stop trying to
smack and slap them into oblivion, and treated them like you would a rather
annoying pet.
 |
| A very vocal Lake Toba cat |
Oh and another
complaint, as I seem to be in the mood – there is a burglar alarm which just
does NOT stop! Well it stops and then
very enthusiastically – it starts again.
The other reason
we know we are in Indonesia – we are surrounded by radiant smiles! People seem just thrilled to bits to see us…
* Just one of
Simon’s travel tales… We were talking about the Russian tourists in
Thailand. They are renowned for wearing
very skimpy bathers, often made of nothing g more than a bit of string with one
or two, possibly three, small modesty patches.
Even the older or larger women wear these; they seem very proud to show
every inch of bottom and tummy… Simon said that when he was in India there were
two Russian girls in the same hostel.
They went to the beach every day wearing bikinis which would look immodest
in Brazil, much to the delight of the local men, who would line up on the beach
front to gawp and to take pictures. The
highlight of the beach session was when the girls rolled out mats and did –
yoga! And yes, the Downward Dog was an
absolute winner with the crowd…
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