Motorbikes and jumping fish in Indonesia

In which our heroine rides a motorbike and swims at a waterfall in Sumatra, dashes out for Christmas shopping in Singapore, then flies home to Europe.

I didn’t have time or a reliable internet connection (or at least not both at the same time) to update my blog after last Thursday’s post (now with added photos), but the rest of my trip to Indonesia was great! On Friday we spent the morning touring the Lintong area on motorcycles and calling into visit various coffee farms where we saw the coffee being washed and fermented. The cloud had lifted since my earlier post so we had stunning views of the lake as we rode around.

Then we went into town for lunch at a local restaurant and visited the market, where they sell everything from coffee parchment (partially processed coffee where the green bean has been removed from the cherry but is still in its husk) to dried fish. A few kids latched on to us and followed us through the market and everyone smiled and laughed and said “horas!” in greeting.

Saturday was a travel day but we had beautiful views of Lake Toba as we drove down a winding mountain road. We arrived in Samosir Island at dusk and checked into the Samosir Cottages where I had a clean and simple room right on the lake. It was a comfortable place with good food, both Indonesian and Western style, and good facilities including internet terminals, pool table, ping pong and so on. There are a lot of guest houses on Samosir Island but many of them are struggling with a lack of tourists since the Bali Bombings in 2002 and have even closed down. This lodge was almost full so I figure it must be doing something right!

On Sunday, the camera crew got up early for the sunrise and did some filming and still photography around the town, as many of the locals dressed up to go to church. The rest of us took a speedboat out to a beautiful waterfall. There were mountains rising almost directly out of the lake – misty blue from a distance and dramatic emerald green steppes from up close – and dozens of waterfalls cascading down into the valleys. We passed fishing villages and small-scale fish farms along the way.

Our waterfall plunged directly into the lake and we dived off the side of the boat and swam out to it. The water was sweet and very clean and the perfect temperature – warm but still refreshing. It was hard to approach the waterfall because of the pressure and the mist in the air making it difficult to breathe. I managed on the third attempt approaching from the side and swimming backwards. Underneath the waterfall dozens of silver ‘pora pora’ fish were jumping – or being thrown in the air – and occasionally a large white bird would glide by languidly and take one in its mouth.

We drove again in the afternoon and arrived back in Medan in time for dinner – we went to a great Balinese-style seafood restaurant and ate fish and prawns and crab with our fingers. That night I was put up in the brand new Swiss-Belhotel, which was very grand and had free wifi. The staff were very polite and friendly though perhaps a little over-attentive and I was highly amused that they kept calling me “sir”. I was allocated a smoking room despite my request for a non-smoking room but it didn’t matter since I was the first ever guest. All I could smell was new carpet rather than stale tobacco.

On Monday I was able to tidy up loose ends and complete some interviews for the story. I can’t go into too much detail there as it could be another six months before the magazine comes out. We flew back to Singapore that night. My photographer colleague and I had scheduled an extra day in Singapore because of the possibility of a job but we ended up with free time instead and took the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping. We headed to one of the numerous malls along Orchard Road and I managed to buy and post all the Christmas presents for my family in Australia in two and half hours. Exhausting but I’m pleased to have it done!

We freshened up at the hotel and checked in early for our KLM flight back to Europe. We were flying economy but we had three seats between the two of us so we were able to stretch out a little. Miraculously I did sleep most of the way – probably eight or nine hours out of a 12 hour flight. Admittedly it was a shallow and restless sleep but it’s better than I usually manage.

I landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and had a couple of hours before my flight to London. I’d turned my nose up at the omelette on the plane so I was a bit hungry and quite pleased with myself for remembering to bring my change purse with Euros in it. Unfortunately nothing was open for the first hour or so. I pounced on the bakery as soon as it opened just after 6am and bought a fantastic olive bread roll still hot from the oven. Heavenly!

I lucked out because KLM let me board the 6.50am flight to London City rather than the 7.15am flight to Heathrow. Not only did that mean leaving 25 minutes earlier but it also meant landing at a quiet airport within half an hour of home rather than dealing with the Heathrow circus and mammoth trek across town. They wouldn’t normally allow it but because the flight wasn’t full and I only had hand luggage they were able to help out.

I arrived back in London early this morning and so far I’m doing fine but it’s only lunch time so we’ll see if the jetlag hits in tonight. I hope I can kick it early as I have a busy few days coming up socially. I should be okay – it’s usually worse going the other way.

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