Apr. 15, 1978 - Indonesia

Up at sunrise for a wash in the lake.  We weren’t alone and it was quite a toothbrushing, lathering group.  Breakfast of a banana pancake and then a hike along the lake.  Many people were staying in traditional Batak houses consisting of a large room covered with a distinctive roof and standing on poles.

 

Lake Toba traditional houses

The front “triangle” is elaborately carved and painted in black, white and brown.  Those houses were nice but due to the small windows don’t have the view our room has.

In the afternoon we napped and read and drank pineapple coolers at the Carolina Hotel.   They have electricity and a blender, unlike our hotel, and for 30 cents will put a big hunk of pineapple in the blender and pulverize it into thick juice – mmmm. 

In the evening we went to a pig roast.  Some people who came on the bus with us bought a pig (we all chipped in) and then roasted it.  We stuffed ourselves – about 15 of us – and there was enough left over for the hotel owner’s family and friends.  The pig was stuffed with pineapples, bananas, potatoes and onions and roasted on a spit over a charcoal fire.

Apr. 14, 1978 - Indonesia

Took a 12:30 ferry to the island of Samosir in the middle of Lake Toba.  The island is 300 square miles in the center of a caldera.  The sides of the crater are sheer and the island is mountainous in the center – truly beautiful.  The closest village is Tuk Tuk and we found a small “losman” or pension.  For $1.25 we got a room with 2 beds, a desk and a beautiful view of the lake and the crater walls across it.  The shower and bath were the lake and the toilet was an outhouse – but it was idyllic.  What a great place!  Food was well made and cheap.  It was like camping and the Batak people are terribly friendly.  The woman who ran our guest house, Poppy, took an instant liking to Ira and his black beard and couldn’t keep her hands off him.  She was quite a character but in her own words, “all talk, no action.” 

Lake Toba with Ira and Rifka

That night we went to another cultural show at the Carolina Hotel.  More of same except with a talk explaining Batak traditions.  There was a blind mandolin player who gave quite a show – an old man who played solos holding his instrument behind his back to play it while grinning an enormous grin.

Apr. 13, 1978 - Indonesia

Up early the next morning, thanks to Bryan’s new beeper alarm watch he bought in Singapore, to catch our flight to Medan in Sumatra.  In the waiting room we ran into Rifka and Ira Tuch, the Canadian couple we liked at Taman Nagara.  They had been held up in Kuala Lampur and were in transit on our flight to Medan.  We caught up on each other’s activities and the ½ hour flight went quickly despite the fact that we got no breakfast.  In Medan we went straight to the bus station to catch a bus to Parapet on Lake Toba.  Our taxi driver assured us that the mini buses were better and faster so we took his advice and paid our 1000 rupea each ($2.75) and got on the bus.  For ½ hour it was crowded but tight and all right.  Then they told us to get out and combined our bus with some other tourists.  We squeezed in and went off.  Then after about an hour we stopped again and were told to get on another bus.  No one questioned it and our mini drove off.

 Here I am trying to keep an eye on our luggage to be sure it was loaded on our packed bus.

We waited and waited and finally amazing numbers of people were squeezed on.  The bus had no window glass and was really just benches across where they stuffed 6 people.  Foreigners were so much bigger than the Indonesians that 6 foreigners is at least one too many.  We fought and yelled and finally drove off, stopping to take on a large load of wood – and more people!  The "conductor" rode on a ladder outside.  Poor him – it started to rain hard.  We pulled down the canvas over the windows but still got soaked.  The only thing that made me happy was to know that he was wetter.  The avarice is amazing; he would endure  that just to sell another seat.

We finally arrived in beautiful Parapet and it was worth the discomfort.  We discovered that our first mini bus had sold us out and the normal bus ride should be 750 ($1.80) straight through.  We were taken.

Fortunately for our frayed nerves and tired bottoms we found a beautiful lakeside hotel. They only had a family room available which we shared with Ira and Rifka.  The lake is clear and a swim was welcome.  The bathroom didn’t have a shower, but the sluice tub had cool water and buckets to ladle it over you – very nice.

We had an enormous Chinese dinner in Parapet that night and then went to see a cultural show at the Parapet Hotel for free.  They sang traditional Batak songs which had a distinct Spanish flavor and danced a slow step traditional Batak dance where the hand movements are stylized and sedate.  Afterward the audience was invited to join in and Rifka and I did.  I was amazed how much I enjoyed it: I miss my dance group in Addis Ababa.  I didn’t want to stop.  The lead singer took an instant liking for Rifka and presented her with flowers and asked her to stay.

Apr. 12, 1978 - Malaysia

We decided to go around the island to Batu Ferringhi (Foreigner’s Mile) where the good beaches are.  After a stately breakfast overlooking the ocean, we caught the bus.  We got off at the Casuarina Hotel where the Wescotts stay and checked out the beach.  The hotel is lovely but the water was very polluted.  Rather than swim we decided to hire rubber air mats from the hotel and float on the water.  We floated and sunned for a while and then caught another bus for a small town further up the road.  It started to rain so after a quick look around we took the bus back to Georgetown.

We got off at the bus depot and, although we were hot and tired, decided to see the sunset from Penang Hill, 3000 feet above the town by cable car.  It was a longer trip than we expected since the climb was steep and it took almost ½ hour to reach the top.  We had to change cars and track half way up because the strain of the climb would be too much for one cable.

The sunset was behind the clouds on the top but the air was cool and there was a lovely tea house and garden up there.   By the time we returned to the E&O we were ready to fall into bed.  But first we had an elegant  dinner in the hotel dining room.  I had chicken breast “Princess” and Bryan had sweet and sour shrimp.

Apr. 11, 1978 - Malaysia

Rushed from the train and caught the ferry for Penang, a 10 minute trip across the harbor.  We decided we needed a treat so we went to the E&O – a real step into the colonial past.  We couldn’t quite bring ourselves to take a 1st class room so we settled for 2nd best (and cheaper) which still included the swimming pool.  We checked out the tourist office and changed money and took a bicycle trishaw to the MAS airline office where we booked a flight to Sumatra for Thursday.  Our trishaw man was friendly and talkative and promised to give us “best rate” if we would let him give us a trishaw tour of Georgetown.  We said ok later and he peddled us back to the E&O.

The pool was great and refreshed us.  After a shower we met “our” trishaw and he took us on a delightful 3 hour tour, including the monkey gardens (botanical gardens) and an elaborate Chinese clan house.

Here I am in said trishaw in front of the Khoo Clan House in Penang.

The high point was a drive through the lighted stalls and stores at dusk in Chinatown.  At one point we said we wanted satay, the grilled chicken pieces on a skewer that you dip in spicy peanut sauce.  He took us to some outdoor stalls and waited while we ordered a plate.

The waiter brought a heaping fresh platter of skewered meat and we groaned and dug in.  That was a lot of meat.  Then as we were almost finished I noticed the man at the next table counting skewers. Woops, you only pay for what you eat and we weren’t expected to finish!  Our total count was embarrassing – at 8 cents a stick we paid a lot.  They must think we foreigners are gluttons and we didn’t even order rice.

Apr. 10, 1978 - Malaysia

Woke up to birds singing and fog covered hills outside our window – not much view but fresh cool air.  After breakfast we strolled around Frasier’s Hill golf course, checked out the ugly Merlin Hotel and went back to our pleasant manor, grateful it fit so well into the surroundings. By then the sun had come out and an incredible bouquet of large butterflies surrounded us.  It was possible to buy those same butterflies mounted on framed boards but we weren’t tempted.

Caught the 1 o’clock “down” bus which took us twisting and turning down the other side of the hill to a small town.  On the way down several women got on and they were dressed similarly in big straw hats and protective coverings on their arms and hands and scarves on their heads.  They carried a tool like a pole with a cone at the end, maybe 4 feet long and a broad shallow wood bowl, maybe 3 feet across.

They were quite cheerful and had been working all day.  One had some ducks.  I wish I’d been able to find out what they were picking/planting.

Our goal today is to catch the night train for Penang from Tanjong Malim.  We caught another bus to TM and arrived in time for a heavy tropical shower.  We almost got into the shelter of the train station in time and found out that the express for Butterworth would not be through until 12 midnight.  It was now 4:30 – what to do?  Nothing.  We strolled about a bit until it got dark and had a Chinese/Malay dinner in a small restaurant near the bus station.  At dark we went back to the train station.  It was very small with a few benches under an open sided shelter.  The neighborhood kids discovered a game called “stare at the waiting tourists” but soon tired of it (not soon enough, however.)  The light was too dim to read so we just sat.  We talked to two people at length.  One was a young man hoping to qualify for a government allotment of land to start a rubber grove.  He was well versed in the crops of Malaysia and explained in good but heavily accented English about the 3 different type of rubber tree root rot.  He was also amazingly well informed on Ethiopian politics.  The station master, and Indian-Malay, was also well informed on that subject. 

At 11:15 the 3rd class train went through but we decided to gamble and wait for the 2nd class train to see if we could get a sleeper.  Of course, that train was late and at 1am we staggered aboard to find all the sleeping berths full.  So we sat up until we arrived at Butterworth at 6am the next morning.  The joys of travel.

Apr. 9, 1978 - Malaysia

Tried to get an early start out of Taman Nagara Park but by the time everyone was breakfasted, packed and bills paid it was 10am.  The boat took 3 hours downstream and we only had to get out and walk once.  It went quickly because we had friends to talk to – the same group that came into camp with us.  Since there were 10 of us we had a long wait for rides once we reached "civilization."  A few people walked into town and we managed to get two taxis for the ½ hour bumpy ride to town.  The taxi left us at the taxi stand and we said good bye to the others.  We got a bite for lunch and then took a taxi to another town on a bigger road heading for Penang Island in the north. 

When we arrived at the train we found it was not all that big so immediately jumped on a bus for Raub, which looked bigger on the map.  The bus went through twisting mountain roads lined with thick vegetation.  It was very hot.

Raub was much bigger and even had cold cokes.  After one of those we inquired about buses to a town with a train station about 2 hours off.  We were informed by an extremely helpful and talkative taxi driver that no more taxis were leaving today (it was 4:30) and no more buses, but he would be glad to take us to Frasier’s Hill in his taxi where we would pass a much cooler night and enjoy the view from 5000 feet.  That sounded reasonable so we paid his high rate and decided to enjoy the trip.  We climbed and twisted for ½ hour until we came to the gate for the last 1000 feet.  The road, known as The Gap,  is so narrow that it is one way and changes direction each hour.  At seven we started climbing, past rushing waterfalls and the biggest tree ferns I’ve ever seen.  We arrived just as it was dark and went to an old lodge built in 1926 as a rest home for the Malay survivors of World War I.  It is now a hotel run by a Chinese family.

Our room was enormous with French windows overlooking a garden.  We had a Chinese meal big enough for 4 people (we still don’t know how to order Chinese food) and went to bed after a relaxing bath.