Postcard from Indonesia

Blogging from the road in central northern Sumatra.

It was a short hop from Singapore to Medan in northern Sumatra with Silk Air – the sister airline to Singapore Airlines. It was very quick for me to get my visa on arrival and clear customs but it took longer for some of my traveling companions, who were carrying camera equipment, bags of coffee and an espresso machine. We then had a long drive to Lintong on the south side of Lake Toba. It took quite a long time to even get out of the city because of the traffic and roadworks but it was good for people watching – I saw an old man riding a bicycle with four upright wooden ladders on the back, and young men riding atop the frame of a large flatbed truck. We finally left the city, first driving past palm plantations on the coast and then climbing into the mountains, passing through some forest with tall trees and giant ferns. I saw families of monkeys beside the road, both in the forest and then beyond in the roadside villages overlooking the lake.

The place we are staying is very rural and I am lucky to have an internet connection at all – even the electricity supply is patchy. It was very hot and sticky on the coast but here in the highlands it’s much more temperate – between 18C and 24C. It rains quite a lot – 2.5 metres in the last 12 months apparently. It was fine this morning but it’s been raining on and off since about 2pm. Earlier  today it was absolutely torrential but now it’s settled down to a steady downpour, drumming on the tin roof. It keeps things lush and green and is good for the rice and the coffee crops (though not the coffee drying), but it makes things difficult for us in terms of photography and filming. Fortunately I’m responsible for the words so a pen and paper is as high-tech as I need and works fine regardless of the weather.

We got up early this morning – not a problem for those of us who’ve flown from Europe as we’re up early with the jetlag anyway – to watch the sunrise over the lake. We had coffee and barbecued sausages and caught glimpses of the lake, which our Polish-born, Indonesian-resident host insists is the “most beautiful view in the world”. I’ll reserve my opinion that since we only had glimpses – it was quite foggy and it didn’t take long before the clouds rolled in and obscured our view completely. We waited until 9am but it didn’t clear. The film crew and photographer plan to return tomorrow but the rest of us are going to sleep in another couple of hours.

This area is mostly Christian – there are churches everywhere, both Catholic and Protestant, and I haven’t seen any mosques or headscarves. It’s home to the Batak tribe and although it’s not matrilineal like the Minangkabau in West Sumatra, women seem to be very strong and independent. The coffee farmers are mostly women and women also dominate in the parchment market where collectors trade coffee before processing further and selling to exporters. The men help with the coffee too – especially in the drying stage – but they often hold other jobs or take more responsibility for home duties and caring for the children. They are very friendly and welcoming to us and tonight we had a presentation and were presented with handwoven batik shawls. However, the children are often very shy – I managed to make one little girl cry simply by smiling and saying hello in Indonesian.

I’ll write more and post photos when I can but I’m on a borrowed computer so it’s not possible for now. UPDATE: I have added photos to this post.

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