Happy Birthday Dear Old Dad!

Samosir Island, where we were staying in Bagus Bay Homestay - this was our home for a few days. It's a hard life travelling, but someone's got to do it!

A very very big Happy Birthday to you Dad! Gutted I'm not at home but I hope you're having a great day and a wonderful time. I miss you and am sending you very big hugs through the ether.

We're back in Penang, Malaysia after saying a sad and fond farewell to Indonesia, though I don't think it will be too long before I return there - the English language is very important to Indonesia, and I would love to go back one day and teach there, either in Medan or Bukit Lawang.

But, that's a whole other show.......

I left you hanging on the edge of your metaphorical seats at Danau Toba, didn't I? Danau or Lake Toba, is a lake that is 500 feet deep at its deepest point, with an island the size of Singapore at its centre, Samosir, which is where we spent four blissful days. It had originally been our plan to thoroughly explore the islands, but the main town, Tuk Tuk, is so blissfully peaceful and so beautifully idyllic, that we ended up staying there, apart from one long walk down to Ambarita and back, for the whole time. After so much moving and sight-seeing, our break on Samosir offered us all a chance to relax and write, read or unwind. It was sheer bliss.

Looking back at Bagus Bay, where we stayed, with the water lillies just starting to bloom in the foreground in the fish farm.

However, Samosir has been hard hit by the dropping numbers of tourists visiting Sumatra, particularly due to its relative isolation, and after a day or so, we really started to notice the impact. Firstly, there are guest houses, souvenir shops and cafes everywhere in Tuk Tuk. And I mean everywhere, as in one after another, after another, after another. The government made a pledge a few years ago to make Lake Toba one of Sumatra's primary tourist destinations by 2010 and the local economy responded with great anticipation. However, it seems that little funding or co-ordinated support has been delivered since, leaving the local population economically vulnerable.

As with much of Sumatra, people make their living through a combination of tourism and agriculture, exporting palm wine, rubber, coffee, bananas and cocoa amongst other things. However, a chat with a local cafe owner, Anne, informed us that the weather in Samosir has been changing over the last year quite dramatically, and that they had had no rain for well over a month. This is disastrous for local crops and plantations, and when we were walking back from Ambarita, we passed many fields where workers of all ages were desperately turning and turning the dry, dry land.

Lake Toba, with the mountains behind - did I mention that Samosir is also a super-volcano?

We have heard accounts of the changing weather thus far wherever we have been. In Malaysia, many people we spoke to told us that it has been hotter in Malaysia this past year than the locals are used to, and that people are struggling with the heat. You can imagine if the local people are saying that what it feels like to us at times!! These conversations make me think seriously about global warming, and the devastating impact that climate change has and could continue to have on the lives of people all over the world, many of whose very existences are profoundly affected and even threatened in the face of such changes. It is simultaneously ironic and humbling that us westerners receive such a warm welcome in the countries affected by the very changes we are primarily responsible for causing...

The combination of climate change and decreasing tourists to Sumatra following the natural disasters (and perhaps also affected by the troubles in Aceh) of the past years has left a strong air of desperation over Samosir and Toba, and this was more palpable here than anywhere else we have been.

In Amarita, there are a series of stone chairs which are a local tourist attraction. They functioned as a court for the Batak Toba people here, who, when criminals were found guilty, would execute the criminal, torture him, marinate him in garlic and lemon, cook his organs and then feed him to the king! Yes, that's right, feed him to the king, as it was believed that criminals held huge amounts of black magic and their power would be absorbed by eating them. This practice went on until the 1860's, when a German missionary called Ludwig Nommensen was sent to Sumatra and converted the local Batak Toba people to Christianity. Locals moved to his Christian Village of Peace and the practice of Cannibalism was stopped. Our guide used a young local boy to act out an execution with us, complete with fake screams.

A stone Buddha in the Museum of North Sumatra in Medan. I love how the faces of the Buddhas change to reflect the country and region we stay in.

(On a separate note - did anyone else hear about the Aussie schoolboy who almost hanged himself at fake trial carried out as part of a school lesson. The boy was stood on a desk with a noose around his neck and the teacher left the room. The boy slipped off the desk and almost died - that's what I call a Health and Safety nightmare....!!)

After our demonstration, we headed into the local souvenir market, which was a really sad experience. Row after row of stalls selling identical products for tourists and the stall owners begging you to buy something. Unfortunately there is no ATM on Samosir and we weren't carrying much cash, and we ended up buying trinkets or in my case, just giving some money to the local people. We have no more room in our bags to carry anything substantial until we have had a chance to post some things home. It was very sad and we walked back to our guest house with very heavy hearts. Samosir used to see much larger amounts of tourists, who would number in their hundreds and thousands and fill the island, but there were probably less than twenty tourists on the island when we were there and competition for their trade is fierce.

Inside the Mesjid Raya, Medan, a beautiful mosque. Yusuf took us round and explained the intricacies of Islam prayer practice to us, as well as demonstrating the call to prayer with his beautiful voice - he's also a big fan of Craig David!

Yusuf, our tour guide in Medan and one of the loveliest people we've met yet - also a natural photographer who took possession of Kate's camera for the duration of our time with him - he got some of the best shots for us!

The local guides at our guest house were very friendly. There is a real gender division here, whereas all the women work as serving or cleaning staff, the men act as tourist guides and labourers and you can't walk more than ten yards without men calling out to you and offering to take you somewhere, sometimes with less pure motives than sight-seeing......! Again, as we are a small group of women travelling alone, we are very noticable very quickly and it wasn't long before all the local men knew our names. For some reason, they all remembered mine more easily than Kate and Ang, and so often we would hear "Sarah! Sarah!" as we were walking anywhere.

As a result, we took to spending a lot of time at a Hotel Cafe just down the road from us, called Hotel Toba, which was beautiful, the food was cheap, there was free wifi and the local guides are, I think, discouraged from hanging out there, so we never had any hassle. They also had their own bakery and I can honestly say I have never enjoyed brown bread with cheese more in my life.....!

Outside the Mesjid Raya, Medan, as the sun sets, a very beautiful place to be.

After Toba, we caught a public bus back to Medan and back to our old haunt, the Angel. You should have seen our friend Mohammed's face, who you may remember we met on our one night stay in Medan on our way to Bukit Lawang, when we walked in.

"Sarah! Kate! You came back!!" He exclaimed, then stared at Angie, trying to remember her name.

"Don't tell me! No, don't!" He demanded, frowning, before breaking into a broad grin and singing "Angie! Angie!" a la Rolling Stones.

It was lovely to see Mohammed again, and we spent all three of our nights in Medan in his company, ending each night up on the roof, swapping stories, singing and laughing into the early hours of each morning. He also sorted our ferry trip back to Malaysia for us, which freed up our time to spend a few days looking around Medan.

Crocodiles at the sanctuary in Medan. Seriously, these dudes are scary. They are so still and they stare and stare and stare, but when they move, they move fast.......

We took in some shopping - I've bought some great Sumatran coffee from a local market - a mosque, a meal in Little India (the largest Indian quarter in Sumatra), the Museum of North Sumtra, a crocodile sanctuary and a visit to the biggest mosque in Medan, the Majid Reya, which was beautiful. Our tour was courtesy of a local guide we met at the Angel, called Yusuf, who was awesome, camp, hilarious and so much fun. He took the greatest delight in showing us around, never expected money for it, and made our enjoyment his highest priority. As in Berastagi, you don't get any hassle if you're travelling with even one man, and having a local man with us meant that we avoided a lot of the extra charges tourists are subject to. We got used to travelling round Medan on a combination of local buses and motorcycle rickshaws, which are an awesome experience and really cool you down.

Mohammed, our favourite dude in Medan. He has the cheekiest smile, a really mischievous sense of humour and great English skills - he also does a hilarious impression of Australians! Definitely the Don.

Medan is a bustling city and travellers too often pass through it staying only for a day. We were so glad that we took the time to stay longer, as the place has a generous and passionate soul beneath its sometimes grubby and bustling exterior. I fell in love with Medan, and would love to go back, maybe next year, for longer. Mohammed often takes people from Medan to Jakarta, where he lived for almost two years. Yusuf also took us to his village one evening to meet some of his friends and to see the offtrack parts of Medan, where, only a stone's throw from the city centre, you're back on the outskirts of the jungle, and simple bamboo or wooden houses. The children playing in the streets and alleys there were delighted to see us and once again, the streets echoed with cries of "Hallo Meester! Hallo Meees! How are you?" as we passed. Many people stopped to talk to us in halting English and to shake our hands, grinning broadly.

I have a strong desire to learn Indonesian, too. At Lake Toba, we met a young German couple with a little boy, both of whom are university professors in Siantar, another large city. They are living in Siantar for the next two years and teach in Indonesia, which they learnt in an intensive course over three months.

"The language is very simple," they told us, "There is little grammar to learn, just lots and lots of words!"

I was sorry to leave Indonesia, it's a beautiful, beautiful country with amazing people and I hope to use the time before my next visit, however far in the future that may be, learning much more about the country and its culture. On leaving, we caught the ferry back to Penang, where I was lucky enough to see a dolphin leap out of the water alongside the boat. Kate and I spent a lot of time up on deck where you could smoke and stare at the seemingly endless ocean. I never knew the real meaning of flotsam and jetsam (actually, I still don't - why are there two words for it?) until I saw how much casual detritus ends up floating on the surface of the sea. I swear at one point I saw something that looked like a portaloo floating alongside....

The Monkey in Medan, with a flower in her hair. Yusuf put the flower there so I could be a Batak Karo girl for a while and then he caught this picture of me while I was talking to the little boy who was the son of the stall owner. We were sipping the sweet juice that is pressed in large mangles at roadside stalls and served straight into a cup of ice, it tastes a little like really sweet milk and is delicious.

So I'm writing to you now from Penang, Malaysia, and it was nice to come back here and take the slow walk from the ferry to our guesthouse. This time we did manage to get a room in Stardust, although we had all rather forgotten how hot it is here! We are moving onto the Cameron Highlands tomorrow, and we're not sure about internet connections there so don't worry if it's a while til you hear from me.

Please keep posting all your fabulous comments, and I love getting all your emails - they all bring a touch of home that is so lovely to receive. Love to all, Peace Out! x



Finally, I'm so pleased to be able to post this, Yusuf teaching us how to blow bubbles from a tapioca plant - enjoy!!