Surviving Sumatra

Where to start after a week in which most people have exclaimed at one time or another “highlight of the trip”! A week full of activities, culture, surprise and intrigue. Sumatra, so far removed from the parts of Southeast Asia we've visited up til now, has charmed us all, not only with her incredible natural sights but also her people. A country that to the first world might look poverty stricken but on closer examination shows people with a real happiness and purpose in life, keeping their culture and values strong, even when a catalogue of natural disasters, and further ones inevitable, attempt to shake their spirit.

With little useful or up to date information in guidebooks and on the internet, we were the Sumatran guinea pigs, and have no complaints at all. We've loved the feeling of discovery and adventure that is so often missing in travel nowadays with such comprehensive information available at our fingertips. We haven't done anything that hasn't been done before but at times it certiainly felt like it, being the only people at the top of a volcano or deep in a bat cave, a feeling to savour.

Ryan, Hels & Rogs at the top of Mt. Sibayak

After coming back down to earth with a literal bump and whizzing across Sumatra to Lake Toba, arriving at sunset, we had a chance to read a bit about the place. The facts and figures make it somewhere you'd think everyone would have heard of. Aside from being the largest volcanic lake in the world and containing the world's largest island within an island. Even more impressive is the supervolcanic eruption (described as “mega-colossal”) that occurred there approximately 75,000 years ago with global consequences, killing most humans then alive and affecting the genetic inheritance of all humans today. It is the largest known explosive eruption anywhere on Earth in the last 25 million years. Mind blowing!

Sunset over Lake Toba

Sunset arrival at Tabo Cottages

Most of the people who live around Lake Toba are ethnically Bataks. Traditional Batak houses are noted for their distinctive roofs, which curve upwards at each end like a boat's hull, and their colourful décor. Higher at one end to bring good fortune so the children of the house might go on to achieve even greater things than their parents, perhaps from farming to becoming a teacher or doctor. We all explored the island in one way or another, on foot, peacefully kayaking (and swimming if you lost your balance as Nick and Laura did) or hiring scooters and going in search of a small lake within the island already on a lake within the island of Sumatra (are you keeping up?), which involved some fun off roading and steep gravel inclines.

Batak style accommodation at Tabo Cottages 

Church on Samosir Island

G-Rod, Jim, Julia & friends

Jeff & G-Rod having a game of chess

John & Hels biking around Samosir Island

Nick hanging out with the locals

Nick, Hels & Rogs

Kayaking around the island

Batak style houses

Solar-powered boat

Chickens sheltering from the rain on a terrace

Protecting her chicks from the rain

Dotted around Samosir island were collections of stone chairs where as recently as one hundred years ago criminals and enemies were trialled and if the king, queen and their families agreed, were promptly beheaded on the stone block, chopped up, cooked with herbs and spices then eaten to take away the evil. We had our own little tea party one afternoon, with less beheading, gathering on the balcony of one of the Batak style houses at our accommodation. A nearly all British turn out for a classically English past time, tea drinking.

Stone chairs

Betsy in between the King & Queen

Hels with her head on the block

Nick & Ryan enjoying afternoon tea and a slice of cake

The next morning we made our way to the jetty of Tabo cottages to flag down the passing 8am ferry, with no booking system operating you have to make sure you're there, although we needn't have worried as a German couple also leaving that morning had beaten us to it and were ready and waiting. An atmospheric misty morning embraced us as we crossed back to the mainland and onto our bus for the journey to Berastagi.

Stunning scenery and acrobatic monkeys on power lines entertained us on the journey as we followed the lake around to the North, down to single track lanes at times but well tarred. We had a short stop off at the 120m high Sipiso-piso “like a knife” waterfall, formed by a small underground river. It appears to pour out from the rock face, cascading down the cliff and keeping the lake topped up.

Sipiso-piso waterfall

Street vendor with his cabinets

Believe it or not this is a flower not a fruit!

Ryan loves his chillies

On arrival in Berastagi our bus ascended the ramp to the undercover entrance of the Grand Mutiara five star Hotel, the best in town! The same thought passed through most heads “there must be some mistake”. Thanks to a local contact we were able to secure a favourable rate, our backpacks all battered and dusty must have been a change from the regular wheely suitcases they normally receive, but they seemed delighted to have us there. The exceedingly grand hotel was virtually empty but beautifully kept with a fantastic huge swimming pool and picture perfect view of the textbook smoking volcano, Mt. Sinabung.

Rules of the hotel, leave those wheels on heel at home

The far too Grand Mutiara Hotel, Berastagi

Picture perfect window from the hotel to Mt. Sinabung

It was in Berastagi that we celebrated our last birthday of the trip and all the stops were pulled out to help Rowan celebrate turning 23. The hotel staff watched in amusement as we dashed around the grounds in small groups, huddled studiously over the riddles then darting off again in another direction, counting glasses on shelves, glass bricks in walls and searching for a famous rodent in the garden. Jim & Julia had put together an extensive treasure hunt which took us all over the hotel grounds and was great fun. The birthday girl was on winning form with her team including Jeff & Rogs. Later on Betsy put us all to the test with a quiz about the trip so far, casting our minds back to the names of hotels, currencies and bringing back memories with quotes, once again Rowan's team were victorious!

Two thumbs up for Rowan on her birthday

Birthday girl blowing bubbles

Betsy the quiz master

The winning quiz team deep in thought

The victorious treasure hunt team Rogs, Jeff & Rowan

If that wasn't enough for one day, earlier on we'd climbed an active volcano, Mt. Sibayak (2,094m). A few hours uphill through the jungle and then clambering over rocks we reached the peak. Approaching the caldera we began to smell the sulphur and hear the powerful force of the fumaroles as they spewed gas into the air. Health and safety plays no part on the volcano and we could get right up to the holes, the rocks surrounding them stained bright yellow from the sulphur and the noise near ear drum splitting level, like a hundred chef's blow torches on full blast. A spectacularly eerie landscape, it was quite a 'high' to just sit and take in the surroundings.

Jeff letting off steam

Descending into the smouldering crater

Mikkel and guide Smiley

Rowan getting a face full of sulphur

Ryan dwarfed by the boulders

Ryan at the peak

Our reward at the end of the climb was a visit to the nearby hot springs. It's great to see the locals harnessing the natural power source, adjacent to the hot springs was a geothermal station that powers the whole of Berastagi town.

Hot springs looking back up to Mt. Sibayak

Powerful fumerole

Cold beers all round after the hike

Shelagh & John

The next day six of the group decided one volcano wasn't enough and signed up for the longer and more difficult climb of Mt. Sinabung (2,450m) whose last major eruption was only three years ago and continually sends significant amounts of smoke into the air. We watched from the comfort of our hotel as cloud occasionally covered the peak and then cleared, wondering where they might be at that time and hoping they'd had clear views from the top. Expecting the trekkers back around 5pm, by 7.30pm there was no sign and we started to worry. Dark for nearly two hours, we tried ringing the guide and everyone in the group with no success. Nick had sent them off with his Spot Tracker as it has a button that can be used in an emergency which transmits your location. Just as he was logging on to the website to see if it had been activated a minibus came zooming up the ramp of the hotel, the door of the A-Team style van slid back and a very happy group of volcano trekkers stumbled out, laughing and hugging their tiny guide Polo. Having reached the peak and back down again across some challenging terrain they'd been for some well deserved celebratory grub and a beer and were on a high from their day.

Jody just couldn't resist

The Mt. Sinabung trekkers

They all return safe and sound

Others had a less energetic day and explored a bit more of what the local area had to offer. A walk in Tahura National Park didn't materialise when they discovered it doesn't really exist anymore and resembled more of a children's playground than a national park. A more successful visit to Desa Lingga village where traditional Karo architecture was seen including long houses that are still used, entered by a bamboo ladder.

Betsy and one giant jungle fern

Chris in a traditional Lingga house

On to the jungle proper, we arrived in the small town of Bukit Lawang at the Eco Lodge the next afternoon. Accessed by a wobbly rope bridge some were wise to pay a local to carry their big bags across. A peaceful spot on the banks of the Bahorok river with rambling walkways through the gardens and signs identifying various plants and trees, from cocoa pods, bananas and pineapples to star fruit and stink beans. Bukit Lawang has had its fair share of disaster too being all but wiped out in a flash flood in 2003. Being on the cusp of the rainy season we were refreshed by the afternoon rain and evening thunderstorms.

The highlight and main reason to visit Bukit Luwang “gateway to the hills” is a jungle and orang-utan trek into the adjacent Gunung Leuser National Park. Sunny our enigmatic guide adorned us with jungle hats of various styles along the way, stopping also to point out interesting plants and trees. Instead of going to the feeding platform we trekked straight up in to the jungle as six of our elusive red-headed cousins had been spotted earlier in the morning. With only about 30,000 left in the wild it was a privelege to see them swinging from tree to tree in their natural habitat. They once swung through the forest canopy throughout Southeast Asia, but are now found only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Experts estimate orang-utans have lost 80% of their habitat in the last 20 years and could be extinct in the wild in as few as 25 years.

Our red-headed cousins

Orang-utan doing the splits

Rope bridge over to the Eco Lodge, Bukit Lawang

Cher in this season's fashion

Chris in his latest outfit

Thomas Leaf monkey

Gazing up in wonder at the orang-utans

Giant jungle ant

Jim's interesting head gear

John risking monkey attack for a photo

Jungle royalty, Rogs, Hels & Sunny

Fresh fruit platter mid jungle walk

Mikkel up to his old tricks

Rogs swinging from the trees

Chilling in the jungle

Rowan & Laura getting a few tips on ladies swimming attire

Rubber tree

Sunny the guide

After the humidity of the jungle we jumped in the river and attempted to swim upstream before boarding huge inner tubes roped together and rafting back down the river to our lodge. A perfect way to end another memorable day.

G-Rod & Rowan attempting to swim upstream

Tubing back down the river

Tube rafting fun

On the spare day in the jungle a lot of us decided to follow signs to the bat cave (dinna ninna ninna ninna dinna ninna ninna ninna...), expecting nothing more than a simple cave with bats in. We did not expect cave after cavernous cave linked by narrow cracks, clambering over rocks in flip flops, through puddles, over boulders, thankfully with helpful guides and torches. The bats got bigger the deeper you ventured into the cave system, occasionally stirring and darting out overhead. The swallows living in one cave were more disturbed by our presence and flew directly into the face of G-Rod and Mikkel giving them all a fright. If that wasn't enough, back at the lodge some small and vicious monkeys decided to terrorise our end of the resort, bearing their teeth and threatening attack!

To the Bat Cave!

Bats covering the roof of the cave

Mikkel squeezing through

Nick & Pip return in search of light

Rogs sliding through the rocks

Against all odds, powerful earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, monkeys and flash floods we all survived and now reach the end of our wonderful time in Sumatra. We have a night in Medan, Indonesia's third largest city and as un-enchanting as we'd expected, before flying back to Malaysia and a couple of nights to explore Georgetown further. Sumatra comes highly recommended, if you're after real unspoilt adventure visit before it's too late!

Pip & Laura braving the pavements of Medan

Anyone for a can of sweat?