6th November. Finally, a day of relaxation. Talking, planning, sleeping, eating, swimming and getting mentally prepared for the reception.  Notes on aspects of this culture that concerns me. 1. The complete ignorance of the idea of other people's possessions. While it annoyed me initially I realised it wasn't disrespect, just a non-awareness of the situation.  Even so, I did get extremely annoyed when I found my full bottle of shower soap almost empty (means I've got to search and buy one that I'm not allergic to, somewhere in Indonesia) my food eaten, drinks drunk and other things used, or taken, without any permission being asked or even considering that someone else might be needing them later.

Related to this, there is also no concept of storage here. So if you have something sitting on the shelf not being used or eaten, it must mean you don't want it! Which is why a lot of food and drink I'd bought to take with me on the trip to Jakarta and beyond disappeared. Two. Another thing that annoys me is that there is no sense of time. Things will happen when they want to. Only big business has any kind of schedule and even they allow for what Indonesians refer to as 'rubber time' So if you organise a meeting for 10am, that means we can meet you at 12pm when we feel like it! I really don't like that. I get upset if things are 5 minutes late and am completely ropable if it is more than an hour. Two hours waiting and I'm ready to have a nervous break down!

Well, we were going to have this Resepsi within a few days of arriving here. We'd been discussing it and planning it months before. But when we got here nothing had been done besides telling people that there would be one sometime soon!!! We had to reserve the hall ourselves. It's been delayed and delayed and we've had to cancel our trip to Yogyakarta because of the delays. We've been stuck 4 days more than we planned and all our plans are thrown out the window. So, if you are a planner like me and you're planning a trip to visit friends in Indonesia, take my advice. Plan the first day and the last day. Don't plan anything in the middle. It'll change like the wind!

7th Nov
Resepsi. The day of the reception was a very hot and tiring one. After 5 hours of singing, greetings, shaking hands, photos and a handful of rice it was finally over. I heard speeches from many groups of people about various topics in several different languages. I also shook the hand of at least 360 people. Unfortunately, in Batak culture, the father of the bride gets the gifts and the couple get some Ulos - woven cloth suitable for use as a coffee table tablecloth. Christine's mother had left a microwave for us in her will which was very nice but we couldn't take it back with us. She and Pak had also saved up and bought a fantastic looking Ulos that really stood out against the other 12 or so that we received.

A horrifying thing I saw at the resepsi was the fact that 360 people, who's hands I'd just shaken, were eating their rice, soup, randang and other sloppy dishes, out of bowels with those hands. No knives and forks, no chopsticks. Just unwashed hands. I'm assuming one or two people did wash their hands but the majority didn't. I nearly threw up when I saw this and immediately requested knives and forks! And here I was thinking I wouldn't suffer from culture shock and that I'd read enough not to be. Uh, uh. Didn't know this one. Totally threw me. Got over it within an hour or so though and it was back to shaking hands again!

So, after the tiring day, and a quick cup of tea with the family afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and collapsed, ready to take on Lake Toba the next day.

Finally, Danau Toba!