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 I never found out
why Suria kept his blinkers on when there were no plans for turning. In
fact every car did that so maybe it's just a cultural thing. A short stop
at a toilet before Lake Toba and it was here that I was first shown interest
from the locals. Some school girls called out 'Hello Mister' and 'we love
you mister'. I thought they were just teasing but Rani told me later that
many Sumatrans consider Bule (white men) to be perfect. Because we're taller,
have blue eyes, bigger noses etc. Cooooool! I hadn't heard that before.
So, I was a bit more friendly to complete strangers who said 'hello mister'
After the lake, we headed up the mountains to try and get a view of
Medan from a distance but rain and fog prevented that. (Before all these
we'd stopped and bought grilled corn cob and boiled corn cob. A monkey
received the finished cobs gratefully in the bushes behind the roadside
corn shop) After the fog it was on to the naturally hot baths.
All of us went in the hot baths except Sendy. She filmed us instead. When I first got in, three Indonesian girls in the next pool (there were 15 pools) called out'hello mister' then one of them asked me to be in a photo with her. I thought 'okay'. Eventually all 3 got their photo taken with me separately, asked me some questions and left. I understood what Rani was talking about then! Someone said 'Looks like you're an idol to them' The water was hot and smelt of sulfur, much like the pools in Rotorua. We spent several hours just enjoying the heat while it rained a bit. Before we went we ate, then had a final swim. It was almost pitch black on the way back, with potholes, pouring rain and misted windows for Suria to deal with. We stopped by a Durian seller on the way back and, when we got to Sendy & Rani's home, stopped and ate them. Very nice. Then we were driven back to our hotel. A great day!!! Click here to read the other description of Lake Toba On to Jakarta |
8th
November. A long, winding road to Lake Toba. Each bend required Suria (our
guide) to beep the horn in case someone else was coming the same way. We
were in a 4 wheel drive so potholes weren't a problem. Cakes and film were
bought along the way.
When
we stopped at one cake shop I was surprised to see a building that had
been completely tiled on the outside with bathroom tiles, by the look of
it. Apparently this is a great way to keep the building cool but it is
a bugger to clean!
Food had been
cooked the day before by various people and we walked down some steps at
a look out, to see a waterfall and Lake Toba from a distance, and to have
a picnic on a rickety wooden balcony. Food was great. Suria then drove
us to the edge of the lake where he and Facre (Ade's boyfriend) went swimming
for coins. We had hoped to take the 4WD around to the other side of the
lake but this idea was scuppered when we found that a market had completely
blocked all road access. Glad it wasn't an emergency!
