Tuesday 8th April
The streets and
gardens here are full of cats and dogs.
The dogs are your basic island variety, but they are a joy to behold
because they are so plump, glossy and contented. They just hang around, in small groups, or
happily asleep under a chair all alone.
Nobody shouts at them, throws sticks at them, or treats them with
anything other than kindness and respect.
SO different from the terrifying, mangy, vicious Northern Territory
dogs!! Or the thin, quivering creatures
which hardly resemble dogs at all, in the Louisiades and the Solomons.
Tom, at our
favourite Maruba breakfast café, has a lovely fat dog who wanders in and out of
the café, downstairs to the living area, and outside to his kennel, proudly
emblazoned with his name:
Or maybe…her name…Brown
is very pleasantly plump, and possibly about to give birth to a whole lot of
calm, charming doglets.
I don’t want to be
too Pollyanna about this island…It does seem like paradise, so calm, so pretty,
but there are dark undertones… For
example, I gather that the darling dogs might have an easy, idyllic life,
but…every Sunday the jungle-juice drinking gambling men* have a dog or two on
their BBQ…Or…so they tell me!!!
We have very much enjoyed
our dinners at Jenny’s Restaurant. Such wonderful
food, and always good company and the presence of Jenny and Rinto, a very
charismatic couple.
Yes we swam in the
lake
 |
| Marguerite in the lake |
and maybe we will
do so again today – our last day on Samosir.
It was warm and lovely and very good for our wellbeing. I am very glad to report my yucky snotty coughy cold has all but disappeared, which is good news for me AND for Pete - he doesn't have to listen to me cough, splutter, complain...)
 |
| Pete in the lake |
Our little oasis
of peace and harmony, Hariara, is no longer ours alone. There are other people! Singing, jumping in and out of the lake,
smoking, talking to each other! Invasion! Time for us to go…
 |
| Pete and friend Adelina, who lunged into his arms when we went to ask about ferries to Parapet |
They are all very
nice, of course! Especially our new friend
Steffi, from Karlsruhe, near Heidelberg.
She is here for two days and then is off for a jungle trek in northern
Sumatra, to see orangutans, maybe, in the wild.
And to avoid the giant leeches which abound there, apparently…
 |
| Steffi and Pete at Jenny's Restaurant |
* There are men
sitting in little cafés all around this area, playing some sort of card game,
or modified dominoes – I haven’t got close enough to look, nor have I taken a
photo. They are always very happy to
shout greetings at us – particularly at Pete, they are Mens Men – but I don’t
feel comfortable intruding. Jungle juice is what they call their
fermented arak wine – horrendously potent, maybe 10% alcohol, and NOT
recommended for the unwary traveller.
The other night we were walking back to our little room, along the dark
street, and we could hear a heavenly choir.
Maybe a church group, practising?
But no…as we came closer, it was a café crammed with jungle juice boys,
singing most harmoniously…
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