Apologies for the gap between posts—but there has been a lot of overland travel in the last few days. Before I go into detail I understand a few people are unsure how to leave a comment. So a quick tutorial:
At the bottom of each post (entry) is a gray box with text and icons in it. If you click on the link that says “Comments” the page will reload with any comments shown below it. There will also be a box after all comments with the title “Post a comment”. You can just type your comment in this box and click on the “Post comment” button below it.
Hopefully that helps a few people and we will get a few more comments; remember feel free to ask questions and let us know you’ve been reading and looking at the photos
Now, our post...
When we last posted we were in Yogyakarta—a city we really enjoyed. DeWi—the guest house we stayed in—was down a gang (alley way). Set back in a courtyard full of trees and plants, it had lots of little seating areas to enjoy a beer or your breakfast.
I think Eli mentioned that we had pigeon for dinner one night; but what he neglected to mention was that it came with its head and some of its vital organs still attached! Given my dislike for things with beaks, I was happy to leave the dismembering to Eli. Although I have to say it did taste delicious.
After three nights in Yogyakarta, we decided to get an overnight economy train to Jakarta. Once at the station we realised that it would be difficult for us to determine which train was ours. Why? Well trains in Indonesia don’t run on time and there are no signs saying where they’re going. Luckily one of the stall-holders, seeing our confusion, offered to let us know when our train arrived.
About an hour into our trip a train conductor came by and asked to look at our tickets. “You’re on the wrong train” he said. “This train doesn’t go to Jakarta” he added. I looked at him blankly so he turned to Eli—obviously thinking there wasn’t much point in trying to explain to me what was going on.
It turns out we needed a later train. So we got off at the next station and eventually got on the right train. How the conductor knew we were on his train and that it was the wrong one we haven’t quite that figured out.
Arriving in Jakarta we did our usual trek around looking for somewhere to stay; again in the rain. I have to say this time after about 12 hours on a crowded, noisy, smoked-filled train my humour was a little lacking. So we took the first place we found and caught up on some much needed sleep.
Jakarta was always going to be a brief stopover as it doesn’t have much to capture your attention. We wandered around Plaza Indonesia—a very flash mall (clean western style bathrooms!!)—, the flea market and Jakarta Kota—the old Dutch part of town. By the next evening we were ready to jump on the overnight bus and cross over into Sumatra.
Before we left Jakarta we read that the southern part of Sumatra is somewhat lacking in things to see and that flying to Medan in Northern Sumatra was a cost and time effective option. The difficulties of overland travel being greatly exacerbated by the poor state of the roads. We briefly considered the flying option but decided it seemed like a bit of a cop-out this early in our trip. We were soon to learn that perhaps the Lonely Planet authors had a point.
The overnight bus from Jakarta took us to Bandar Lampung where we decided that there was nothing worth staying for. Within an hour, we jumped on a train heading to one of two places we weren’t sure exactly which. Both being viable options to spend the night in.
After about 10 hours on the train, we ended up in Sumatra’s second largest city—Palembang. Once again finding not a lot to pique our interest we headed off the next day deciding this time to go directly to Medan.
The man who sold us the bus ticket said the trip would take 20 hours, the Lonely Planet said 36 hours. I figured somewhere in between was probably a good estimate ...
About 17 hours in, it was clear from checking our position on the map that we were well less than half way there: 36 hours was looking like a generous estimate, and 20 hours, well that was a joke or at least a serious translating error!
About 22 hours in, when we reboarded the bus after lunch, I had hit the wall. The constant cigarette smoke, lack of sleep and erratic driving on windy roads bought me to tears. As I tried to pull myself together without drawing to many more curious stares from my mostly male, all Indonesian fellow passengers, Eli realised a new plan was needed—Medan was just too far away.
The new plan was to jump off the bus at Parapat—on the shore of Lake Toba—and take the short ferry ride to the island of Samosir, which we had heard was a relaxing place to stay. I was feeling momentarily calmed by this new plan.
Things, however, rapidly deteriorated along with the state of the roads. I spent the next couple of hours with a death grip on the arm rest and desperately trying not to throw up. The Lonely Planet describes the journey along the Trans-Sumatran Highway as something to akin to the spin cycle on a washing machine. We might go one further and suggest that this experience was more like riding with a drunk driver on a ski field access road for 40 hours.
Finally about 40 hours after the journey began we jumped off the bus in Parapet, exhausted yet relieved.
Next stop Tuk Tuk, Samosir Island, Lake Toba
xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment