Eddyfication

July 26 

Spend most of the day at Changi Airport wailing for my one hour flight from Singapore to Sumatra. That  isn’t too awful by the time I’d visited the butterfly garden, swum in the rooftop pool, done a free tour of Singapore, had a massage, eaten sushi, done some shopping, sorted all my photos and kept up with all my emails in the free WiFi areas. Did I do all those things? No, but I could have and I did some of them...it’s actually peaceful - so much better than LHR. 

July 27

Joined my group. Nor much to report on that front except that there is a sixty something Aussie guy who spent most of his first night out clubbing, so God knows what he got up to! 

The tour leader is an Indonesian called Eddy. He’s not very steady and certainly is never ready. And he’s not really a leader either. There are four staff on the bus. Eddy, a driver, a backup driver, who holds the microphone cable for Eddy (in case he does try and say something that we don’t understand), and a boy to keep the bus clean (though I haven’t seen him do anything yet). He stands up the whole way. 

Who wants to be a millionaire?  Move to Indonesia-it’s back to the land of silly money again. Eddy lent me some cash as the ATM wouldn’t work and I now owe him a million rupiah. We went to see a small and pretty boring mosque and a more interesting, but very small sultan’s palace, with one room that was open, in Medan. Then we set off in awful traffic to see the orang utans. At this point one of the party announced that she had left her luggage in her hotel room as she thought we were staying in the same hotel again.  So we had to go back and get it amidst ever increasing traffic. Well at last the bar is set pretty high for any acts of doziness that I might commit in future.

The orang utans came and performed for us and one of them was actually wild, which was much more fulfilling. Then we found a bar on the riverside that served up a whole variety of different cocktails. That was also fulfilling.

This is more the Asia that I know. Endless little booths, contents spilling out onto dirty pavements that have open sewer manholes all down the middle; roads jam-packed with a fascinating melange of strange vehicles, people and animals. We’ve already been pestered by half of Indonesia wanting tips for helping us up steps when we didn’t need help and so on. And the thunderstorm has pursued me.

July 28

More familiar Asia. Still hot, but not absolutely roasting. Palm clad volcanoes, paddy fields and masses of exotic fruit, both growing and being sold from the stalls. Eddy has made us eat rambutans and mangosteens today. Both delicious but lethal to clothes.

The journey takes forever, partly because the traffic is so awful and partly because the road is so awful. Miles of palm oil plantations and the accompanying mills. One article in a conservation centre says that the production and burning of this bio-oil actually consumes three times as much carbon dioxide as diesel. This is because they clear the old established forest to plant the palm oil!





We stop for a swim in some hot springs. Then to Berasatgi or Brastagi, depending on which sign you believe. It’s a thousand meters up and a little chilly for Indonesia. We scramble into Karo Batak houses with thatched trapezium shaped roofs veering awkwardly into the sky and then join a village celebration.
As one does. Lots of swaying dancers, elaborate costumes and wonderfully contrived hats. A dressed-to-the-nines couple sitting on thrones and piles of presents. A while afterwards when we are discussing the nuptials one of the group suddenly says, ‘O was that a wedding?’. We are obviously a bunch of intellectuals. We were spared the wedding feast. Two local delicacies are fried fruit bat and the partially digested grass from the stomach of a cow.

Back at our hotel I find that my expensive six week supply of shampoo has leaked all over my doomed sponge bag. I wash my hair with what I can scoop out. This wash is going to have to last a long time.

Dinner is a medley of Indonesian  fare in a little local cafe. Most of the group opt out and go to the Chinese down the road, on the grounds that the food is too spicy.

July 29

Through more of market garden Indonesia to Samosir, a volcanic island in the centre of gigantic crater Lake Toba. On the way we visit a Batak king’s house. This one has a long room for all the wives and their children and a small boxy room for him. He gets the guard to summon the lucky wife and the guard then takes up position in a horizontal cubicle underneath. If the sultan has taken some potion the guard might get to summon another wife later on. There is always some entertainment being played out on the roadside. The Karo peoples who inhabit these areas are mostly Christian, so  the children are in school on Friday. There are plenty of churches, but they play safe by incorporating various animalistic deities into the ornate church steeples.

A suckling pig banquet tonight. Not so long ago in these parts it could have been long pig.

July 30

A boat trip round the pretty island and a swim in the lake. We are accompanied by four musicians who don’t let up for the whole day, except to try and plug their CD. I am up the back of the boat where I can’t hear too much of what sounds like cats’ wailing. More Batak houses, but this time complete with meeting place to try offenders and stone block to decapitate those who have transgressed. After they were executed (the head was thrown into the sea), they were eaten. The last reported punishment of this type was in 1819. A ‘cultural show’ is laid on for us, with dancing round a buffalo - I try and behave myself in case they reintroduce the old laws. Marilyn, a scatty, retired New Yorker has spent the whole trip losing things or wandering around looking bemused. She bought an Indonesian sunhat today (which she lost three times). Whenever you try and take a picture there she is in the background. It'll be like playing 'Where’s Wally?' when I get back.

Lunch is getting depressingly familiar. Even the Indonesian sateh is elusive. You can choose either fried noodles, or noodle soup or fried rice. I abstained from all three today. The inevitable stomach upset is threatening. And the excitement generated by the extensive drinks menu at our first stop has dwindled. Not a cocktail in sight, although avocado juice with chocolate is going down well with the group. They are less keen on Pocari Sweat, an electrolyte drink that seems popular amongst the locals. However, everything is incredibly cheap and the silly money is going a very long way. I’ve  been here nearly a week and I’ve only spent about £70. (And that’s eating in ‘upmarket’ restaurants.) It makes my Shanghai banquet appear to be the height of extravagance.

July 31

Woken much too early by a huge row in the next room. Two women in the group don’t seem to be getting on terribly well. Some very unladylike words are exchanged. Then a long day on the road, with just brief stops. Well, they were intended to be brief, but we are competing with a Belgian tour bus that seems to get to every place just before us. The road is so bad (partly because of landslides and partly because of disrepair) that we even have to walk at times. It’s almost impossible to overtake and the journey is excruciatingly slow. Fortunately, there is plenty to look at when I am not dozing. The mountains and paddy fields are becoming increasingly beautiful. It is Sunday today so the Christians are out walking out in their church finery. The Muslims are gathered in their hundreds in the rivers, washing in preparation for Ramadan tomorrow. The houses along the way vary in both decoration and opulence. There are numerous tin shacks, but even the majority of these have incongruous great satellite dishes. The buses are colourful and the vehicle of choice for families and taxis, appears to be a motor bike with some sort of sidecar attached. These also very in decoration and opulence, but many are elaborately painted. The poorer families make do without a sidecar. We counted mother, father and four children on one bike.

We are clearly moving into a more strongly Moslem area. I have been provided with a prayer mat in my hotel room.

August 1

Woken up at 5.30 a.m. by Eddy - an unasked for early morning call. A scheduled even longer journey day that is extended by another four hours because of a lorry accident. It’s quite good fun watching all the traffic trying to squeeze through the small gap left between the two injured lorries. One has a broken axle and the other is overturned, hanging half over a ravine. It seems easier just to push it over, but no, the police blow whistles to absolutely no end. People mill about all over, many just squat on the road, and the little coffee shops do a roaring trade. Eddy eventually commandeers a local bus to take us the rest of the way with the luggage to follow in our own bus - when it can. This seems a good idea except that three of our party have misunderstood his instruction to walk up the hill and wait for the bus. They are eventually found 3 kilometres up the road and still walking. 

The local bus is amusing. The owners instruct me to sit in the front with them and they giggle all the time as we hurtle along. The driver is texting with one hand and trying to put on a pornographic DVD for the delectation of the rest of the group in the back. I manage to persuade him that this is not appropriate.  We eventually reach the news that our bus has made it through the gap and we have to disembark and wait another 20 minutes for it to catch up, as Eddy won’t fork out any more for the extra bus than he has to. We arrive in Bukit Tinggi (wonderful name) at ten o’clock, shattered. It was too dark to see the Equator signs properly, as we crossed over, and the Islamic Heroes’ Museum was certainly closed. We did manage to get to the Islamic boarding school earlier, but that was also empty, because of Ramadan. Hundreds of teeny beach huts for the students’ accommodation-most of them pretty decrepit and empty inside, other than the insects and the remnants of their last lunch.

Despite all this time travelling we are still not even half way down Sumatra.

August 2 

Yet another early awakening. This time it’s the muezzin at 4.30 starting the Ramadan prayers. As they also woke me at 10.30 last night when I was trying to get an early night am extremely sleep deprived now and grumpy. My room is next to the mosque and we are here in Bukit Tinggi for 3 nights.

I have also discovered why they have covers over the drains in the bathrooms. If you don’t put them back the cockroaches creep out during the night. The hotels all have western style toilets with flush cisterns. However, most of the other toilets are squat style with mandi tanks adjacent. You just dip in the plastic ladle and wash it all down after you. Even the western toilets in the towns have mandis, which makes for a pretty wet seat. The locals tend to squat, even on the western toilets. You can tell by the footprints.

Back on the bus for a tour of the Minangkabau homelands. The seats on the bus are incredibly small. The spacing makes Ryanair look generous. Fortunately, I quite often get one to myself. We stop in a little craft village and I spend more than I have laid out on food this week buying the lovely filigree work. We take a guided walk through the rainforest that seems more like a route march down a steep slippery track, and through rice farms, to a lake that we can’t see because it is too hazy - bit of a theme going on here. Another admirer in the fields tells me that he thinks I am nice. Because I look like an Indian in a Bollywood movie.

What have I seen today? There are lots of cats in Indonesia. Some of them are in reasonable condition but many have been born with short, fat tails. And the architecture has changed. The roofs are more ornate. Many are multi gabled, like Thai temples, with concave sides, and are very pretty. They are supposed to represent buffalo horns, symbolising fertility. So great attention is often paid to the roof of even the meanest shops and houses.

Though many of the mosques have tin roofs.   I have even seen a minaret shop or two. Much is closed because of Ramadan and most of the locals are not eating, drinking, smoking or having sex between dawn and dusk.

Then an exploration of Bukit Tinggi. It sits on the edge of a pretty canyon, which we viewed from the Panorama Park. Then we went into town itself. East meets west meets Spanish colonial. A square, complete with clock tower, horses and carts, KFC, giant tiger statues and a Muslim market. This area is shown on the map as ‘Up market’. Further south is ‘Down market’.

August 3

I put on my ear plugs and tried to sleep again, but the Belgian tour group were attending a cultural show in our hotel. That went on till 10.30 and after that some of the hotel staff carried on breaking their Ramadan fast rather too loudly and enthusiastically. So I still didn’t get a full night’s sleep.

The highlight of the day was the eruption of Mount Merapi, one of two volcanoes which sit either side of the town. It poured out ash for several hours, darkening the sky and covering the streets and cars with a grey flaky layer. I’m getting quite blasé about volcanic eruptions after last year and now this.
 

More touring in the bus. Eddy is hot on his schedule. Even more stunning rice terraces, the local king’s palace (still being rebuilt after it got struck by lightening) and a monkey on a chain that had been trained to climb up palms and throw down the ripe coconuts. He looked very unhappy and we feel very sorry for some of the animals here. We have seen birds in tiny cages, a beautiful owl with its wings clipped severely so it cannot fly at all and fruit bats, also in cages, as they are fried and eaten as a cure for asthma.

August 4

Yet another early start to catch a plane (I will get some sleep one day!). Well, two planes, via Jakarta to Yogyakarta. I am a bit apprehensive as the national carrier, Garuda, has been banned from LHR for years. However the flights are fine. Though I was complaining about the lack of even a drink on board, until I remembered that it was Ramadan.

Today’s fun incident was the accidental pouring of a whole bottle of water all over the contents of my rucksack. Just managed to save the computer.

We had time to visit the big Hindu temple complex at Prambanan (still being reconstructed). It had a restaurant that served food other than fried noodles. And the hotel for the next two nights is lovely. Real food and a swimming pool. We are in Java now.

August 5

Despite my lovely hotel I have had yet another dodgy attempt at sleep. This time something was banging in the bathroom all night. The relentless pace has not let up. We have been whisked off to a batik shop, another silversmith’s (ouch!).  Naturally we are encouraged to go to the shops where our tour leaders get the most commission and they are always described as being ‘really, really fantastic’. Then another sultan’s palace (though the Dutch allowed this one to hang around and he still lives there) and another temple complex, the famous Buddhist temple at Borodupur and definitely worth visiting. It is presided over by the most active volcano in the world (another Merapi). Today it just smoked quietly and eluded our efforts to take a decent photo by hiding in cloud. There was a big eruption in 2010 and the bulldozers are still out clearing the lava from the main street of the town and the riverbed.
 

Lovely meal at a great restaurant next to the hotel. Proud of myself for sticking to Indonesian and not being tempted to have steak. The cheesecake was a different story.

August 6

Absolutely not allowed to sleep. Knocking in bathroom cured but up at six yet again for another long day on the road. The traffic is solid. I have discovered what the extra man on the bus is for. He waves his arm out of the window, palm upwards to indicate that the bus is going to overtake in a particularly dangerous spot, despite the fact that there is no room between the vehicles in front to pull in. After the driver has forced his way in the gesture turns into a thumbs up.

There is too much sitting and not enough doing. The bus isn’t exactly speedy. The wheels are out of alignment and every time we do get up enough speed to overtake it begins to judder alarmingly and we have to fall back again behind the endless line of trucks. We only manage another sultan’s palace today. (I am palaced out now). Most of the sightseeing in these involves oohing and aahing over the assortment of gifts that the sultan has received. Quaintly, some of these are gold and silver chastity belts for both sexes. The male contraption looks especially lethal, with various spikes protruding.

We have lunch at another Padang. This is a bit like tapas- lots of small dishes but they put them all out on the table and you pay for what you eat. Not a noodle in sight.

Java has lots more traffic and urbanisation. The roofs are also different again. Much squatter and far less elaborate. Perhaps they are fertile enough already down here. We got stopped by the police for an imaginary traffic infringement. The guide tells us that Indonesia is not nearly as corrupt as it used to be. We are staying in one of President Sukharno’s old residences tonight. All Dutch colonial, carved teak and garuda birds. Nevertheless there is a cockroach waiting to greet me in my outside bathroom with mandi. I scoop it up and flush it down the toilet. Don’t want to tread on that in the dark. They are impossible to kill by squashing. Now I’m wondering if it’s safe to sit on the loo.

August 7

Yet another early start, yet another long day in the bus. Although it is a new (well different) bus, the malingerer having been retired. It is becoming increasingly clear that the itinerary is a creative fiction. Twenty minutes at another Hindu temple complex, and an hour in Malang. The bird market contains a whole assortment of wild life, some of it definitely not of the avian variety, crammed into rows of wooden cages toppling into a narrow road. There are puppies and, more surprisingly, mongooses. ‘Visiting the Dutch colonial buildings’ turned out to be an ice cream in an old café.

Otherwise we motor on relentlessly. I was going to say speed but that is definitely not the right word. Not even a lunch break is permitted and I have to beg for a toilet stop.

Lots more rice terraces, with all stages of the growing cycle in evidence. Harvesting, threshing, tilling, harrowing, and ploughing (with hefty buffalo). The countryside is becoming increasingly bedecked with bunting and banners, mainly in scarlet and white. The guide explains that there are a lot of celebrations going on in August. It is independence day on August 17^th and it is also Ramadan of course. Many shops and restaurants remain closed during the day because of the latter. Although there seems to be a lot of cooking going on, so that the people have nice things to eat when sunset comes and they break their fast. Most of the goodies seem to be very sweet, involving lashings of palm sugar and coconut. It’s a bit like celebrating the end of Lent with an Easter party every day for a month. Then there is Eidh, which is a very big party to celebrate the end of all the small parties. Some of the rules also seem to be open to various interpretation. If you travel a long way you can eat, but are expected to extend your fast by another day. So how does that work for bus drivers? They could end up with a year long Ramadan. Will they ever catch up? Ramadan every weekend maybe? And are they banned from Eidh until they have done it? I can’t seem to get straight answers to these questions.
 

My diet today has been disgraceful. I have had coca cola, ice cream, dates, chocolate and sweets.

August 8

I was supposed to climb a volcano to see the sunrise today but as this involved getting up at 3.30 a.m. and then a two hour drive, so in fact one arrived too late for sunrise I declined to go. Which is a shame as the view sounded to be worth seeing. However, I have climbed volcanoes before and this hotel at Kalibaru has a swimming pool and a spa, so I intend to indulge. I had also hoped to catch up on sleep, but we cannot escape the 4.30 a.m.  muezzin anywhere.

I have had my massage- very nice. Though the muezzin hasn’t let up yet. This group is definitely one of the oddest I have travelled with. One girl has decided mental health problems; she is volatile in the extreme. (Think Kathy Bates in Misery). They have elected to put her in a room on her own tonight and then get Explore to blacklist her, so this may get interesting. I’m glad I’m not flying home with them. And I have spent a lot of time chatting to Ian today. He is a stereotypical, but lovable, queen in his mid forties, who is with a 68 year old Dutch woman called Rachel. They both drink and smoke all the time and appear to want to do little else. Ian’s main preoccupation is finding cheese for sandwiches so he doesn’t have to eat the Indonesian food. These two are travelling with another couple, Edmund and Elizabeth who are both geologists. She teaches at a private school in Leicestershire and so lives there. Edmund works in London and flat shares with Ian in Holloway. I reckon they could give the Bloomsbury group a run for their money. I also haven’t yet mentioned private school teachers Janet and Thallia, who have Gay Pride luggage straps, or Aussie Jim, who professes to swing both ways. Or even Dave, who is married to Lynne and is a Key Stage One teacher. He has thick brown hair in an untidy page boy style. We’re all desperate to cut it, even though his bald patch might then be visible.

August 9

Got the ferry to Bali today.  The land of curly roofs.  Now I’m in Lovina and am a little worried because I don’t remember much of it from when I was here 10 years ago. I’m not sure if it’s changed out of all recognition or if it’s just that I spent quite a lot of time trying out the bars on my last visit. But I don’t even really recognise them. The black volcanic sand beach, though, is still the same.

August 10

Snorkelling on some really excellent reefs. Myriads of coral scattered with Foxes' glacier fruit fish. Gorgeous sandy beaches and iridescent blue water. It’s been nice to escape the group. Though I’ve just remembered that I’m supposed to be having a fish barbeque with them on the beach.....

August 11

I’m still quite worried by the amount of Bali I don’t remember. Perhaps we just went to different places last time? As I don’t have photos (as far as I recall) of the things I don’t remember that would seem to confirm this theory. Will check again when I get home. Though last times’ visit to Indonesia was much more riotous. I am definitely getting old.

As Bali is a mainly Hindu island I had also hoped to escape the muezzin but there was still one wailing on last night.

Today we found the real Bali. Beautiful temples with thatched wedding-cake towers. We travelled from Lovina in the north to Candidasa on the south coast, climbing over volcanoes on the way. We went to Besakih, the biggest temple, which has hundreds of smaller ones within it. Each of the houses also has its own intricate shrine, so the whole countryside is littered with curlicues and carvings. Shimmering green lakes and skirted statues galore.

August 12

No muezzin, a beautiful balmy sea breeze and a ten o’clock start. Gorgeous. An immaculately manicured Bali village with sales pitches for weaving included in our tour as soon as the guide thinks he can get away with it. Then another temple, this time with hot springs and some royal tombs at the bottom of even more amazing rice terraces.

There are several celebrations going on at the moment here too. The temples are full of men and women weaving and conjuring up baskets full of offerings, like pig’s heads and coconuts. The temples all look like giant school fetes with harvest festival going on at the same time.
There’s also of course national day looming and the flags are still multiplying. They are now appearing on all the cars too. We only get this in England when we are in the World Cup!
The people are incredibly friendly and seem very gentle but there is another side to them as well. There are rows of cockerels in baskets all along the waysides. They are being sold ready for the regular bloody bouts of cock fighting. And the tourist routes at the temples are all cunningly contrived so you have to weave your way through endless stalls when you exit and it’s quite hard to get out unscathed and without being assaulted by women waving sarongs. I am very tempted to treat them as if they are toreadors. But names are easy to remember. There are only four Christian names, one for the eldest, one for the second born and so on. If they have more than four children they start again with the first name.

The food in Bali is more varied and many places have a good stab at western style food. Chicken Gordon Blue is noteworthy on several menus. I’ve also noticed lots of western style advertising hoardings. Most of them seem to be promoting cigarettes. Apache seems popular. The guide says the people like the Red Indians.

August 13

My last day in Bali is to be spent in and around Ubud. This I do remember. It’s like Glastonbury - health food shops, reflexology and palm readings. The hotel is the same one I stayed at last time, nestled in the paddy fields. We visit a school where ceremony fever seems to have taken over and the teachers have given up. Some boys are conducting an interesting experiment with matches in one corner of a classroom.

There’s even more ceremony fever right in Ubud town. There’s to be a big cremation soon and they are building all kinds of artefacts at the palace in readiness. There’s a huge bull that will hold the casket. There is also a very tall totem pole affair from which the body will be launched. It appears that it will travel down a long garlanded roller coaster until it enters the bull. We can’t work out how the body is going to get up the totem pole to begin with, but it’s wide enough to fit a hoist inside. It’s all fascinating.

I round off my stay in Bali with an afternoon in a spa.

August 14

I say my farewells to the odd ball group and head to the airport. Mad Gillian has disappeared. Ian is desperate to get home for some decent food (he signed off the tour as soon as it hit Ubud, saying he couldn’t stand any more temples) and Jim is staying on to ‘get some action’.

The road to Denpasar airport takes me through Kuta, the Aussie version of Benidorm. Remind me never to spend any time there. The airport has the usual shops selling the usual tourist at double the price it is in the towns. There is even an outlet carrying copied DVDs.

Indonesia has continued to offer more that is curious and unusual than almost anywhere else I have travelled. Sumatra, in particular, was very interesting and the temples and scenery in Bali endlessly appealing. The time in Java was just too rushed with most of the day spent on a bus. I might have to think long and hard before booking any more ‘adventure travel’.