After spending 1.5 million on Batik paintings, Jake from Café Bagoes
said he would drive me to the bus depot in Bukittinggi. Following lunch
(I had fried buffalo jerky and rice…nice!) he dropped me of at 4pm.
Three hours later the bus finally turned up.
I had an isle seat, a
very special isle seat. The thing that kept the reclining seat in a
certain position was broken. Whenever the bus accelerated or went up a
hill the seat would lean backwards. Therefore whenever the bus went
downhill or braked, yep that’s right, the seat went forward! The narrow
roads in west Sumatra are a slave to the terrain. Lots of steep hills
and narrow valleys. After two hours of going forwards and backwards in
the chair the guy behind me “finally realised” that I wasn’t doing it
for his amusement or mine and so stopped forcibly pushing my chair
upright every time it went back. I could have told him it was broken
but this was much more fun! At 5am, ten hours into the journey we
stopped for breakfast (three fags and a yawn!) and it took a few
minutes for my legs to remember how to operate.
Arriving at 10am
in a deserted bus yard in the town of Parapat on the shores of Lake
Toba, a mini van appeared and took me to the ferry 2kms away. Once on
board the ferry the whiteys were me, two German lads and a young
English couple. Jake from Maninjau had already recommended a place to
stay (Samosir Cottages) so I just chatted to the guy from there who was
touting for business. He got the Germans to come along but the English
couple made it quite clear that they weren’t getting involved with
touts and would find there own place to stay thank you very much!
The
place to stay on the (almost) island of Samosir is Tuk Tuk, a small
village completely covering a kidney shaped piece of land protruding
out into the waters of Lake Toba. All the hotels on the shore have
their own jetties so it was 45 minutes till I reached my destination.
After
being shown the nicest room available (100,000 rupiahs or £5.88) we
slowly got down to my price per night, which is 50,000 (that evening I
was starting to wonder if “saving” 90p a night by not having hot water
was worth it!) I dropped the bags on the floor and made my way to the
“shrine of coffee” that was the restaurant.
Back in my room I
made use of the solitary plug socket (the place in Maninjau didn’t have
one) and with my laptop on, music playing I lied down on the bed and
dozed the rest of the day away. Come the evening, came my appetite and
I had a few beers as well.
The next morning I woke up, yawned
whilst looking at my watch and said to myself “7am is far too early to
get out of bed” so I went back to sleep. A couple of hours later it was
9am, now that is a better time for breakfast.
An hour later I
was on a scooter heading up the slope to take off. No, I wasn’t flying
but I wanted to check it out. That and check out places to land as
well. Turns out its sweet, lots of places to land along the length of
the ridge even during the rice growing season. Now all I needed was the
wind to arrive…
As I had the scooter for the entire day I
decided to ride around the island. I made my way upwards along the road
passing the work crew and the last of the freshly laid tarmac! The road
leading to the end of the island was a good lesson in road
construction. After the tarmac came compacted hardcore followed by
compacted soil. This was followed by un-compacted or loose
hardcore…that bit was fun! All the while as I travelled along the
“road” if I looked to my left I would see the blue waters of Lake Toba
and to my right paddy fields, open pasture and woodland. Several
kilometres later I was back on tarmac, well kind of. Imagine a road of
potholes linked together by slivers of tarmac! Eventually I reached the
end of the road and the southernmost point of the island. The high
ridge had given way to flat land.
Continuing on my circular
route I slowly passed people “dressed to the nines”. I was wondering
why this was until I passed a church and remembered it was a Sunday
morning. It also explains why I was able to have fried pig for
breakfast. Now, you can say what you like about the Christian faith but
at least they let you have bacon with your fried eggs!
As I
turned right and headed up the west coast, the road became more tarmac
than pothole. Passing through small villages with traditional style
houses (although nearly all of them had an extension built onto the
back), lazy dogs and suicidal chickens. The softly sloping landscape
was in complete contrast to the east coast and the dominating high
ridge.
The north of the island has the best road, it is also twisty…
When
I got back to the hotel I was chatting away to one of the staff about
flying. For some reason the take off site I saw didn’t look like the
one on the internet. Turns out there are two take off sites…Doh!
Monday
Two coffees and four fags! Now that’s a breakfast for the legally dependant drug addict!
For
the third day the weather was no good for flying, you do need some wind
to take off. Instead I decided that I would once again hire a scooter
and go up to take off, this time the one on top of the ridge! Once on
the ridge I was trying to find the right road, you would think that
with only two roads to choose from and the fact that I was on one of
them it would be easy. Turns out the dirt track I had gone passed was
the “road”! Going along the track the dirt soon gave way to misplaced
cobbles and mud. Juggling speed, sideways movement and puddles of
unknown depth I came to a fork in the road, I went left (in hindsight
going right may of taken me to the take off site…Doh!). Passing through
woodland the road condition unbelievably deteriorated! Several
kilometres later the wonder of tarmac appeared around a corner and I
was able to stop the bike and get off without getting my feet stuck in
the mud. The once clean bike wasn’t anymore, the exhaust was covered in
mud and the frame hinted at the colour it was.
In the middle of the island is a small lake. I saw three of them…???
Somewhere
in the middle of the island on a once tarmac covered road I stopped and
watched a raptor circling in an impossibly small thermal only metres
wide. By the time I had taken my camera out it had plummeted to the
ground hidden by the long grass before taking off again with a small
mammal in its claws.
A couple of hours later I had traversed the
interior of the island and had made it to the other side. Crossing over
the bridge I left the island behind and travelled a few miles to the
hot springs…why?
Back on the island I opened up the throttle and
sped along the road I had already travelled the day before. This time I
knew what was around the corners! Coming around the northern shore I
noticed that not only was the wind blowing a gale it was also coming
from the north. NO, NO, NO!!! I want a medium strength consistent wind
coming from the east, is that too much to ask for!
Tuesday
Woke up and accepted the fact that there wasn’t a breath in the sky…
Wednesday
Ditto!
Thursday
Throughout the night it rained whilst lightening streaked across the dark sky. As I drifted off to sleep I dreamt of taking off
I
awoke to clear blue skies and once again no wind. After a long and lazy
break of fast the wind picked up, perfect conditions for flying but
only if the wind would stop blowing from the north and move around by
90 degrees and come from the east…it never did!
Following
yesterday’s lounge act I thought that once again I would do
“something”. So once again I was back on a scooter (75000 rupiahs with
a full tank of gas) and headed north to the other side of the island. I
went over the bridge and headed south leaving the island of Samosir
behind. Riding along the headland the road turned inland. Five or six
kilometres later I had a choice. Carry on with the main road and the
dirt or turn right and go uphill on tarmac. Tough choice….not!
The
smaller side road wound its way uphill passing through a few small
villages until I came to a stop. The road was blocked by a small
landslide and a JCB that was removing it. After a 15 minute wait
chatting with the locals the build up of traffic was finally allowed to
pass. Over the rise I saw an even smaller road leading off upwards,
sweet!
This road was narrow and under used. It was also a very
long time ago that it had been tarmaced. Around several corners the
bike was screaming in 1st gear as I bounced off rocks and rubble, the
back tyre jumping around as I weaved a course that was the least
damaging to the bike and me! (My ribs no longer hurt but I am still
getting painful muscle spasms in between the ribs on occasion. A lesser
man would be in hospital to recover but I try to be brave and not go on
and on about it)The road became narrower and narrower as the plants on
either side encroached. The views, however, were wide and majestic.
An
hour later I was back in the valley, riding along paddy fields and
through hamlets and villages with the usual shouts of “hello mister” as
I passed by.
Friday
I brought a bus ticket to somewhere else and I’m leaving Tuk Tuk in the morning. Hopefully I will be able to sit on the roof!
