Sumatra Part 2 - January 2024

Lake Toba

Let's talk about road transport in Sumatra.  Motorbikes far out number cars as a mode of private transport. But don't ever think that there is a limit to how many people you can fit on said motorbike. As you can see, helmets seem to be voluntary also, at least in practice.

Motorbike and side car are used as tuktuks/taxis

Taking a tuktuk with all our luggage

Motorbikes of some kind are used for all manner of goods transportation too.

Rubbish collection guy

Check out the panniers on this one .......

They are also used by Grab and other online food delivery services .... just like Uber Eats.

Then there are the many and varied types of buses one can take.  Mini van, local bus, tourist bus.  We have taken them all at some stage in our journey, some more comfortable than others, and all of them very affordable.

Grab taxis are also an easy and cost effective way to get around the city.  You book and pay online, so no money is exchanged and you don't have to try and get the driver to understand where you want to go and then try to negotiate a price.  Revolutionary.

Curious amenities on this one ... Kareoke anyone?
Smoking section perhaps!

Back of the bus all to ourselves

Then there are the road rules ... as baffling to us as they were in Nepal.  Again, it seems, give way at all times to anyone bigger than you and if you are on a motorbike you can skip the queue by taking the pavement.  We have also seen motorbikes slip around the train barrier after it has come down as a train approaches.  Deary me!!!

A typical busy city road

LAKE TOBA

After a night back in Medan we took a Grab to a different bus station to Parapat, on the shores of Lake Toba.  This was another all day affair.  As we got nearer the lake we stopped to pick up a heap of school kids.  There was absolutely no room left on the bus.  This guy is one of their teachers.  His English was really good and he sat down and chatted with us and shared his peanut cookies with James.

At Parapat we got a local taxi to the port where we needed to take a ferry to the island, Samosir and the village of Tuktuk.

Nearly ready to go

A ferry going the other way

Nearly there ....

We got dropped off right on the dock at our hotel.

The view from our verandah

From our verandah we watched all manor of water vehicles on the lake.

We were amused at the jetskis that had been modified to be powered by an outboard motor.  Tourists hire them along with the guy who 'drives' the motor. Go figure!

A local fisherman

Banana boat .... tourist pay for a ride getting towed
at breakneck speed until they usually all fall off

We were enchanted by the plethora of traditional Indonesian rooflines.

We enjoyed the odd jaunt around the small village.

Hmm, okay, wasn't expecting that!

Christmas tree still standing

The local batik museum

James, of course, had a wee fish off our jetty.  He bought some prawns off a fisherman passing by and caught some pretty fish.  They eat them here but he put them all back.

We researched a local delicacy, Arsik. It is a version of the above fish that takes 12-24 hrs to marinade in a variety of Indonesian spices which are supposed to include all the taste types of sweet, spicy, sour etc.  It did not dissappoint.  Oh, the depth of flavours!

Then there was this rather exquisite Gado Gado and Spicy Noodle Soup.  Mwaaahhh.

As usual we found a friend that needed some company and we were happy to oblige.

The whole five days we were here we had the manager trying to find out how we could get to our next destination, Sibolga.  It is incredibly difficult to find any type of bus travel information online in Sumatra.  Part of the reason is that we find ourselves incapable of sticking to anything like a tourist trail and like to go off piste to far flung unsung places.  This problem is exacerbated by the language barrier.  It took the staff four days to figure it out and that is without our 'special needs' in terms of communication.  Anyway, we managed to book a tourist bus from Parapat to Sibolga and left the lake on a morning ferry.

More fool us to think it could ever be that easy.  We waited and waited. And waited and waited at the designated meeting spot.  Several locals tried to help us with one guy even inviting us home with him.  Evenutually an hour and a half late! the mini van pulled up to collect us. Phew.  As usual we were the only tourists on the bus.  We soon realised why he was so late.  He had to keep stopping for a fag every half hour.  This did not bode well for a four hour jouney .... that turned into six ..... for reasons other than expected!  Travelling along through a village we heard this almighty whack and saw a pair of legs, up in the air, pass our window.  Our van had knocked a motorcyclist off her bike.  We couldn't believe she seemed unhurt and was walking around quite ably.  Our driver had to negoiate some kind of financial agreement with her, which took some time and then proceeded to drive REALLY carefully for the remainder of the journey with no more cigarette breaks (we were not sorry).  The jury is still out who was at fault.  She may have drifted into our lane as there was no swerving or change of direction on our part directly before it happened.  We are astonished that, with the state of the roads and driving, this is the only accident we have seen since arriving in Asia.