24 April 1996 Medan, Sumatra
We joined the queue waiting to board before realising we first had to exchange our ticket for a boarding card at the Tourist Office at the harbour.
After six hours sailing we took a coach to Medan and were met by the usual crowd of touts since most of us were without reservations for rooms. We decided to find a little space for discussion and decided to explore the possibilities on foot, but were pursued by one with good English who agreed to take us to the Irwana, our choice, as requested for 500rupiah and we set off in his car, a rather long route then recognised we were more or less back where we started and on being taken to a GH of his choice we refused to look at the room thinking we were being ripped off. He took us to the Irwana as originally requested and we took a bed in a small two bunk bed room, in a place full of military personnel. When we returned to pay the driver he wanted 5000r not the 500r he had originally asked for, we eventually gave him 4000r. Almost certainly the house to which he originally took us would have been a better choice All the mistrust derived from his intention to take us to 'his' place, followed by his exaggeration of the distance by road.
Whilst paying off the taxi we ran into a young Dutch couple who were looking for accommodation and found none so we offered them the other two beds in our room. Not brilliant for there were mosquitoes and not even a fan, the most uncomfortable night yet I recorded.
Before retiring we got a fine meal in a local restaurant spicy mixed vegetables and tofu. By way of receipt we were handed a menu listing the 20 foods on offer in Malay with ticks against those we had ordered possibly in reward for my attempts to speak Malay, an aid to extend my vocabulary.
25 April 1996 Brastagi
Taxi 8km to the bus station where we got a seat on a crowded bus and started to speak to the lad in the next seat only to find his English was much better than my Malay/Indonesian. Hearing my English Juliater Tarigan came to sit on the other side and rather rudely I thought he took over. First impressions are not final since we are still in contact as I write 19 years later he is married with a family, owns his own house and runs the English School in Kuta Bali teaching adults English to Indonesian and Indonesian to 'western' ex-patriots. However on return to Medan at the very end of our stay in Sumatra on the very same bus route we were delighted to meet up with the first boy then on his way to work with a bank.
Juliater was then a student in Medan learning to be an English teacher. He took us through his books on Physics and Biology and Phonics which we found extremely detailed more interested in highly detailed vocabulary (parts of the mouth for example) rather than scientific principles. He also explained the hierarchy of names as they passed through the generations though I can recall only how complex they seemed.
We got off together in the centre of Brastagi and he walked round with us during our search for accommodation, passing by his suggestion of a hotel complex and finally settling on a beautiful wooden house De Merel where we were offered a big double room with a verandah looking out on the mountains. It was not in the LP
There were I think just 5 rooms in all, plus a separate
building alongside as kitchen and for breakfast.
It was an excellent choice for quality of accommodation, welcome, and company of other backpackers.
Ben had been an accountant with Exxon in Marketing and Computerisation, like me he had very positive memories of work and had also retired like me at 60, but was slightly older at 63. He had just lost his wife in a mountaineering accident, 'at least she died doing something she loved', and joined up with Jan who had taught Home Economics and had daughters of 27 and 29. They had taken the only room with bath for 7500r and had rejected a room in a hotel without bath for 25,000r. A day later we were joined by three recent young graduate backpackers, Tim Natasha and Caryn who had already spent many months in India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, Caryn had already been to Australia where the other two intended to end their journey.
Juliater came round at breakfast time and invited to take all us all to his own village of Lingga. We gladly agreed and spent several happy days together as a group and first had to report to the tourist office and met the headman who appointed a guide to show us round the village. We were offered to choose from a few mementos, Joan opted for the most expensive a small well carved tower with the three gods of the earth, the middle and the sky on top and a receptacle for medicine - which was in this way blessed.
Lingga still had echoes of a traditional way of life now augmented by single family wooden houses. The older large houses were built for 8 related families, the girls had to marry into a different ethnic group of which there were five. At 17 the boys had to leave for a boys only house, they attracted a girl at night with a flute and if receptive she would look out of the window. There was no sex before marriage, Juliater expected to marry at 25.
The big houses were always entered from the front up 3 step ladder touching the longer left side on the way up to pay respect to the sky god or the right hand side on going down to pay respects to the earth god, the house representing the middle. The house was divided into four equal sectors, each had a fire and hearth in the centre using the a common smoke exit, with elaborate structures above for drying wood and smoking food.
Finally we visited what once was the specially decorative king's
house, but such village king's ceased to exist after the independence of
Indonesia from the Dutch, 51 years earlier, to be replaced by a
democratically elected 'headman'. The King's wife always gave birth outside in full view of the villagers so there should be no doubt of parentage, our guide posed as a wife giving birth.
As we left we couldn't fail to notice the the cigarettes left alight on Betel leaves in the fork of sticks stuck in the ground as a peace offerings to the god of the volcano, some were still burning, we weren't the first to pay our respects this day.
To descent we first climbed to a Col and then walked down man made steps which slowly deteriorated due to frequent flooding so that although the concrete risers were still in position the horizontal steps had disappeared to leave hollows. The technique was thus to step with precision from riser to riser, something which Ben and I did with ease but would be beyond my dexterity now but was difficult for Jan and particularly Joan following her 'Kuala Lumpur'.
We eventually reached a 10MW geothermal power plant and found a small cafe to regroup, further still we got to hot spring baths and took the minibus back to town most unpleasant as the exhaust pipe was broken thus releasing exhaust fumes into the cab, made even worse as we picked up passengers and sunk lower extra weight, many piled heavy loads of farm produce onto the roof rack. The surrounding country side was as fertile as that in Britain but besides cabbages etc they grew coffee.
That evening we ate Indonesian food at Il Torong. Each person was served with a bowl of rice and left to choose from 17 different dishes, chicken pieces, anchovy with chilli, spicy beef redang, jackfruit, french beans with chilly, spinach, prawns, gold fish, dried fish etc. You were charged according to what was eaten meat or fish was sold by the piece but vegetable was sold per plate partly or fully used. We finished paying 57,000r of which 22,500r was for beer, not bad at £4 each.
Jan's best friend in the Netherlands was Indonesian so she was particularly keen to make friends with the young waitress. She said she was leaving in July to marry who she had met briefly just twice. We were very concerned for her, and would have been more so today with all the exposure of people trafficking, but thought Jan would be a good contact. The Dutch had to leave Indonesia when Sukarno took power and those who had worked with the Dutch were also deported.
27 April FIRST INDONESIAN WEDDING
Juliater met us in the morning good as gold to say we were off to a wedding, he was going to take us as his friends but could not extend that to the other three backpackers. We first went to the local in Brastagi market to buy a Kain Panjang (long cloth) with Batik decoration as a wedding present, presentation would be to wrap it around the couple's shoulders thus symbolically binding them together, though in real life it is used for carrying babies.
The hall Jambur Sempakata was open to the sides for coolness and the seating was divided and marked into eight relationships, we sat with the Kalimbabu or 'uncles' family on the bridegroom's side, then there was Anak Beru or the 'aunts' and the Sembuyak or 'direct family' of bride and groom. Five Clans were involved Tarigan (Juliater's, Ginting, Sembiring, Peranjin-Augin and Karo-Karuth.
The concrete floor was covered in bamboo mats, everyone was sitting and talking bual berbual. The women were all in highly coloured clothes and head dresses, we were encouraged to take pictures as we wandered freely around and soon ran out of film so Juliater went to Kabanjahe to buy more.
The Bride and Groom were sat on their settee displaying their finery and jewelry as though on their throne
They had in fact been married in church the day before, but had been together for a while, the logic being don't marry until you can afford it. The Groom was around 35 years old and a school teacher, many of his pupils were guests.
On arrival we had been greeted by we were by two lines of people forming the welcoming party
When we finally sat down in our appointed section we were each given a 100R coin, like every other guest, which is still stuck into my notebook.
During the actual ceremony important family stood on three sides Direct family, Uncle's family and Aunt's family of the seated couple. Several spoke seriously in turn using a microphone, one broke down in tears on talking of a recent death. Then they split into two groups male and female and began dancing bending knees and lifting arms in rhythm with the bride and groom at the head. Guests danced up to the bride and gave her money, I danced up and on Juliater's advice stuck a 1000r note between her fingers. Then the Bride and Groom sat back to back facing outwards on the ceremonial chair and received presents including our Kain Panjang.
Finally we all sat down and were served with food which of course we ate with our rather unaccustomed clumsy hands.
We met Ida an more academic relation of Juliater's who was studying English at Medan University. In fact her spoken English was not a patch on Juliater's.
Having eaten guests rapidly disappeared leaving the washing up to the Anak Beru 'Aunts' of course. Two bus rides took us to the impressive vertical drop of the water fall Si Piso Piso which fell into Lake Toba thus providing our first glimpse of the lake. We bused back together to Kabanjahe and were Juliater wanted us to see a friend's banana stall, finally we parted he taking a bus to Lingga and we to Brastagi.
Juliater told us about family he had been brought up by a single mum who had been left by his father who married a second wife, polygamy previously rife but now forbidden because a large part of his people had converted to be Christian Protestants. His mother earned enough in 1996 by labour in the fields to pay 1500R/month for his schooling after the age of 14, primary education was provided free by the state from Age 7 to 13. No wonder he thought the world of his mum and rarely mentioned his dad.
Government run universities like Medan cost 40,000r/month. Average salary was around 150,000r/month maybe 400,000r for a well paid job in Medan.
When Ferdinand's (I think he was in charge of De Merel) dad first owned orange trees. He financed his own education in Tourism and Catering by working in a restaurant. Juliater feels obliged to work his 3 month summer vacation in the fields.
Married couples have small families because of the stigma of having bigger ones. Both Juliater and Ferdinand come from families of four children. If a husband dies then his brother takes over the wife and family in a short ceremony, if a wife dies her sister takes her role.
Sunday 28 April
A rest day for catching up with diary and talking to Ferdinand about Karo people and Tim , Natasha and Caryn about their travel experiences.
We are really enjoying Brastagi, the friendliness of Ferdinand, Didi and De Merel and the companionship of the other backpackers. At only 1400m it is cool for near equator, T-shirt weather, with more cloud than blue sky, rain every day, everywhere is green and fertile. Like a good day in Wales.
Ferdinand took a lot of trouble to teach me Indonesian, asking questions, providing instructions and answers. Showing a Karo book with its own picture script. Always joking, challenging me to walk up and down the steps to the kitchen with a tray on my head to keep it dry, or to walk up and down the verandah with a large water bottle on my head, impossible at first but culminating in 5 traverses with a little dancing. He cooked us a fine vegetarian dinner.
Monday 30 April
Rained at first then clear, the opposite of the norm. Went on a local bus to Kabanjahe down winding country lanes, through little villages a la Pembokeshire except that the headgear and animals were different.
I was able to converse with the women on the bus using my new found ability with the language, such conversations were always good humoured and full of laughter. Walked around the lake shore of Loh Kawar. The women working in the fields were always friendly, cultivating beans bancis, potatoes kengang and cabbage. We had to walk back from the lake because tghe conductor had warned us the bus didn't always make the detour, passed water buffaloes, or a flock of goats, feeding in the hedgerows. By the time we got back to De Merel it was raining heavily but we went into town to eat with the young Brits.
We joined the queue waiting to board before realising we first had to exchange our ticket for a boarding card at the Tourist Office at the harbour.
 |
| Queue for ferry to Medan |
Whilst paying off the taxi we ran into a young Dutch couple who were looking for accommodation and found none so we offered them the other two beds in our room. Not brilliant for there were mosquitoes and not even a fan, the most uncomfortable night yet I recorded.
Before retiring we got a fine meal in a local restaurant spicy mixed vegetables and tofu. By way of receipt we were handed a menu listing the 20 foods on offer in Malay with ticks against those we had ordered possibly in reward for my attempts to speak Malay, an aid to extend my vocabulary.
25 April 1996 Brastagi
Taxi 8km to the bus station where we got a seat on a crowded bus and started to speak to the lad in the next seat only to find his English was much better than my Malay/Indonesian. Hearing my English Juliater Tarigan came to sit on the other side and rather rudely I thought he took over. First impressions are not final since we are still in contact as I write 19 years later he is married with a family, owns his own house and runs the English School in Kuta Bali teaching adults English to Indonesian and Indonesian to 'western' ex-patriots. However on return to Medan at the very end of our stay in Sumatra on the very same bus route we were delighted to meet up with the first boy then on his way to work with a bank.
 |
| Juliater in his first job as teacher in a school near Lingga his home town |
We got off together in the centre of Brastagi and he walked round with us during our search for accommodation, passing by his suggestion of a hotel complex and finally settling on a beautiful wooden house De Merel where we were offered a big double room with a verandah looking out on the mountains. It was not in the LP
 |
| De Merel, Brastagi |
It was an excellent choice for quality of accommodation, welcome, and company of other backpackers.
 |
| Dutch couple Jan and Ben with Joan and two great young hosts |
Juliater came round at breakfast time and invited to take all us all to his own village of Lingga. We gladly agreed and spent several happy days together as a group and first had to report to the tourist office and met the headman who appointed a guide to show us round the village. We were offered to choose from a few mementos, Joan opted for the most expensive a small well carved tower with the three gods of the earth, the middle and the sky on top and a receptacle for medicine - which was in this way blessed.
Lingga still had echoes of a traditional way of life now augmented by single family wooden houses. The older large houses were built for 8 related families, the girls had to marry into a different ethnic group of which there were five. At 17 the boys had to leave for a boys only house, they attracted a girl at night with a flute and if receptive she would look out of the window. There was no sex before marriage, Juliater expected to marry at 25.
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| The Village of Lingga near Brastagi |
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| The Decorated Kings House, Lingga |
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| How to give birth in full view (NB the higher left hand pole of step ladder)
I gave Juliater 4,000r with which he was delighted and said he would take us to a wedding.
26 April
After an early breakfast Didi, the assistant at De Merel led Ben, Jan and us out on a climb of the local volcano Gunung Sibayak. It was a pleasant track paved with stone passed noisy gysers billowing steam, leading finally to concrete steps at the summit.
I couldn't resist the temptation to go down into the sulphurous wet crater.
|
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| Didi and I in the crater of Gunung Sabayak, Brastagi |
To descent we first climbed to a Col and then walked down man made steps which slowly deteriorated due to frequent flooding so that although the concrete risers were still in position the horizontal steps had disappeared to leave hollows. The technique was thus to step with precision from riser to riser, something which Ben and I did with ease but would be beyond my dexterity now but was difficult for Jan and particularly Joan following her 'Kuala Lumpur'.
We eventually reached a 10MW geothermal power plant and found a small cafe to regroup, further still we got to hot spring baths and took the minibus back to town most unpleasant as the exhaust pipe was broken thus releasing exhaust fumes into the cab, made even worse as we picked up passengers and sunk lower extra weight, many piled heavy loads of farm produce onto the roof rack. The surrounding country side was as fertile as that in Britain but besides cabbages etc they grew coffee.
 |
| Joan, Jan, Juliater and Ben and a minibus |
Jan's best friend in the Netherlands was Indonesian so she was particularly keen to make friends with the young waitress. She said she was leaving in July to marry who she had met briefly just twice. We were very concerned for her, and would have been more so today with all the exposure of people trafficking, but thought Jan would be a good contact. The Dutch had to leave Indonesia when Sukarno took power and those who had worked with the Dutch were also deported.
27 April FIRST INDONESIAN WEDDING
Juliater met us in the morning good as gold to say we were off to a wedding, he was going to take us as his friends but could not extend that to the other three backpackers. We first went to the local in Brastagi market to buy a Kain Panjang (long cloth) with Batik decoration as a wedding present, presentation would be to wrap it around the couple's shoulders thus symbolically binding them together, though in real life it is used for carrying babies.
 |
| Juliater and Brian buying Wedding Present a Kain Panjang |
The concrete floor was covered in bamboo mats, everyone was sitting and talking bual berbual. The women were all in highly coloured clothes and head dresses, we were encouraged to take pictures as we wandered freely around and soon ran out of film so Juliater went to Kabanjahe to buy more.
 |
| Guests at Wedding near Brastagi |
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| GROOM AND BRIDE |
On arrival we had been greeted by we were by two lines of people forming the welcoming party
 |
| The Greeting Party presumably direct relations of bride and groom |
During the actual ceremony important family stood on three sides Direct family, Uncle's family and Aunt's family of the seated couple. Several spoke seriously in turn using a microphone, one broke down in tears on talking of a recent death. Then they split into two groups male and female and began dancing bending knees and lifting arms in rhythm with the bride and groom at the head. Guests danced up to the bride and gave her money, I danced up and on Juliater's advice stuck a 1000r note between her fingers. Then the Bride and Groom sat back to back facing outwards on the ceremonial chair and received presents including our Kain Panjang.
Finally we all sat down and were served with food which of course we ate with our rather unaccustomed clumsy hands.
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| PROPER EATING INDONESIAN STYLE |
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| JULIATER, JOAN AND IDA |
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| Banana Wholesale Stall at Kabanjahe Market |
Government run universities like Medan cost 40,000r/month. Average salary was around 150,000r/month maybe 400,000r for a well paid job in Medan.
When Ferdinand's (I think he was in charge of De Merel) dad first owned orange trees. He financed his own education in Tourism and Catering by working in a restaurant. Juliater feels obliged to work his 3 month summer vacation in the fields.
Married couples have small families because of the stigma of having bigger ones. Both Juliater and Ferdinand come from families of four children. If a husband dies then his brother takes over the wife and family in a short ceremony, if a wife dies her sister takes her role.
Sunday 28 April
A rest day for catching up with diary and talking to Ferdinand about Karo people and Tim , Natasha and Caryn about their travel experiences.
We are really enjoying Brastagi, the friendliness of Ferdinand, Didi and De Merel and the companionship of the other backpackers. At only 1400m it is cool for near equator, T-shirt weather, with more cloud than blue sky, rain every day, everywhere is green and fertile. Like a good day in Wales.
Ferdinand took a lot of trouble to teach me Indonesian, asking questions, providing instructions and answers. Showing a Karo book with its own picture script. Always joking, challenging me to walk up and down the steps to the kitchen with a tray on my head to keep it dry, or to walk up and down the verandah with a large water bottle on my head, impossible at first but culminating in 5 traverses with a little dancing. He cooked us a fine vegetarian dinner.
Monday 30 April
Rained at first then clear, the opposite of the norm. Went on a local bus to Kabanjahe down winding country lanes, through little villages a la Pembokeshire except that the headgear and animals were different.
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| Country Lane near Kababjahe |
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| KANBANJAHE MARKET note the Weigh Scale |
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| RICE SELLER at KANBANJAHE MARKET |
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| CLOTHES SELLER at KANBANJAHE MARKET |
I was able to converse with the women on the bus using my new found ability with the language, such conversations were always good humoured and full of laughter. Walked around the lake shore of Loh Kawar. The women working in the fields were always friendly, cultivating beans bancis, potatoes kengang and cabbage. We had to walk back from the lake because tghe conductor had warned us the bus didn't always make the detour, passed water buffaloes, or a flock of goats, feeding in the hedgerows. By the time we got back to De Merel it was raining heavily but we went into town to eat with the young Brits.
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