The Trans Sumatra Trail
Officially it’s called the Trans Sumatra Highway, but that’s not what
I’d call it. Yet the tropical beauty surrounding the road is beyond words. Endless
trees so full of coconuts, papayas and bananas make you wonder how there could be enough
people to eat them all. Then you pass town after town with so many people along the road
and in front of each house that you wonder how there can be enough food for them all.
I got home from school on Wednesday night, anticipating the call to confirm
whether I could go on the trip to Sumatra the next day. But before I had gotten home, the
call had already come! In one day’s notice, I could go! So the next day I made my
final arrangements and that night I proceeded to the Kajang train station to meet the
group. We would head to Kuala Lumpur to take the night train to Pulau Pinang, an island to
the north west of K.L.
My first reaction at the train station was, "Oh no, I don’t fit in!! I
shouldn’t be here!" To be specific, the group running this trip was the Graduate
Student Organization from UKM, the university where my program is being held. So I was
actually somewhat in the middle age range as some were in their low 20’s and some
were quite older, and some around my age. About half the group was Malaysian, half
Indonesian, plus one Bangladeshi and me, one American who was actually a Hawaiian Jew of
sorts. The group was about half male/half female. The only person I knew in the group was
one of my Malay teachers who was the one who told me about the program. She also has a
twin who came too. All but me and one other person were Muslim, as one of the Malaysians
was a Chinese Christian. All but two of the Muslims prayed five times a day. As it turned
out, about half of the people were like me, in that they came alone, without really
knowing anyone, but just having a desire to travel. So maybe I did fit in, at least as
much as I was going to.
We headed to KL and waited for the train. Some of the people started taking group
pictures in front of the train but I stood apart as I didn’t feel like I belonged.
One of the ladies told me to "Come on over! You’re part of the group too!"
However, I didn’t. Group pictures are a big thing where when someone starts taking a
picture with someone else, the others run over and then finally there is one person with a
dozen cameras and everyone else in the picture and all the people are too far away to
really see. I now have a lot of pictures like that. Anyway, we then got in the train and
even though we were in Third Class on super cheap student tickets, I still managed to get
my own row. The train ride was over night and turned out to be one of the coldest nights
I’ve ever had! The Air Conditioning was on so high! Fortunately, I got a good
neighbor, Zaki, who was interested in talking to me and I got to know someone else. He
actually thought that by sitting near me he would get to practice either his English or
Arabic, but I would only speak Malay with him. In fact, during the whole trip, the only
person I would speak English to was the Bangladeshi. Whenever I did, my voice sounded so
strange as I then heard what to my ears was the only ‘smooth’ English. However,
despite my stubbornness, there were still some people who would only speak English to me.
We finally got to Butterworth where the train stopped and then took a ferry across
the channel to Pulau Pinang. Then we would take a boat over to Sumatra. You could see
Sumatra from the dock. Furthermore, our boat was a huge luxury liner like on the Love
Boat!! So we waited near the back of a long line as they put all of our bags into a
smaller boat, I wasn’t sure why they weren’t going right on to the big boat.
Then we ourselves got onto the small boat! Well, okay, I guess the small boat would be
faster anyway. Then I learned that that wasn’t Sumatra at all that you could see, but
rather we were facing back to Mainland Malaysia and that we had a five hour boat ride
ahead of us! Well, there were so many people who boarded the boat that I didn’t know
how they could all fit in. When I got on, I figured out how – they couldn’t!
About half our group got seats and half had to sit up top under the sun. Of course that
included me! I managed to find a place leaning against the suitcases on the ground with
partial covering. However as we were headed West and it was morning to mid day, the
covering didn’t help. Furthermore, my suntan lotion and motion sickness pills were
safely stored away in my backpack!
The sun was pretty hot, the boat was pretty loud and with the noise and wind, I
couldn’t read. So I just sat there and tried to keep my head and face covered. But as
it would turn out, I got off the boat looking like a tomato! However, it didn’t
matter, we had made it to Sumatra! We got through customs and onto a very nice bus and
there was a man on the bus with a microphone who began to speak. As it turned out, we had
our own bus with our very own tour guide! His name was Dian and he was very intelligent,
an excellent speaker, and skillful at dealing with people, in particular, bringing people
into the group if he felt they were apart. We drove from the port, Belawan, to
Medan, the
third largest city of Indonesia. As it would look to me, Medan is a huge sprawling city
with tons of people, little vegetation, lots of dust, and I never saw what looked like a
financial/business district. Medan is in the state known as North Sumatra. Just north is
the state of Aceh, which seemed to be having serious disorder recently with many people
evacuating. The original plan of the trip was to include Aceh. On the trip with us were
three Acehnese. One had come over just to get his family who had already arrived in Medan
and then bring them over to Malaysia. Another had come over to bring his child and wife to
meet his family. His family had also reached Medan and some relatives were staying at
their house in Aceh. During the week, they tried to go into Aceh but due to a fatal bomb
and other events, were unable to make it through. Thus only one Acehnese,
Amna, our
leader, actually came on the whole program. He said his area of Aceh was not in danger and
his family was okay.
Since our trip only cost about $60, I expected that we were going to stay in dorms
of some sort. That was not the case at all! We were taken to a four star hotel!! Well,
that would mean my first time travelling in Southeast Asia staying in somewhat luxury. We
got roommates and fortunately, I got assigned to share with the guy who sat across from me
on the train who I got along well with. That first night some people were going to go get
some late night durian (one of my favorite fruits here which is quite expensive) and I
wanted to join. Since I was so exhausted, I went to sleep and waited for the call, but
when the call came, there was no way I could get up!
The next day was the formal part of the trip. The whole reason it was so cheap was
that by making it into an educational trip, they could get funding from the university. So
a seminar was planned at the University of North Sumatra. Most of the people walked out in
formal dress, the men in ties. Fortunately, I at least had a pair of pants and a button
down shirt (from Target). Basically, people from the group made presentations and it was
attended to by us and some UKM alumni and some others from this university. After the
presentations, we had to listen to all the closing remarks which in Indonesia and Malaysia
take a long time. They made statements such as how now there was a bridge between
Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra because of this seminar.
After the seminar we went to a crocodile farm which had tons of crocodiles
including a lake they closed in and if we wanted to we could buy a duck to watch the
crocodiles eat it but no one wanted to. The next day we toured a bit around Medan and went
to a former palace of some sort where we got to try on some traditional clothes and take
lots of pictures. Afterwards we got to pay for trying them on.
That afternoon, we went back to the hotel to get ready for our next bus trip which
was described as an 18 hour bus ride. They were wrong, it was about 20. After sitting in
various parts of the bus beforehand, I settled down almost in the very back where I had
space to lay out and also could keep the curtain open since many of the people closed the
curtain when the sun was coming in. I preferred to look outside though. As we got started,
one of the leaders brought around plastic bags for trash. Actually they were for throwing
up. I didn’t need one though since I had bought a Sumatra Guide Book in Medan and
read how they had built a Trans Sumatra Highway connecting the whole island. Of course, as
I learned, only parts could be considered a highway. Much of it could barely contain our
large luxury bus. As it was night, most of what I could see were billions of stars in the
dark sky, which was probably better than seeing the small mountain road we were speeding
around. My new raincoat from Target turned out to be a great pillow in its folded up
form!!
Finally we got to Bukit Tinggi. We stayed in another nice hotel and it’s
somewhat like Lake Arrowhead in being refreshingly cool but not cold. In front of the
hotel along the driveway were a whole bunch of sellers with cloths and other souvenirs. We
went into an underground Japanese series of tunnels that they spent three years digging
during World War II. As it was a secret, they had to kill the people who helped build it.
There was also a beautiful tropical canyon nearby. This whole area of Sumatra is West
Sumatra which is inhabited by the Minangkabau, or Minang people, who have houses built to
resemble cattle horns. We went to a huge lake with tons of fish known as Miraculous Fish
because if you touch them you will get married soon. However, if you eat them, disaster
will happen. So no one eats them. Do you think I touched one?
Then we went to a nice patio restaurant with a pond full of those huge orange
goldfish. Minang style of eating means they fill lots of little plates with servings and
put them all on the table, sometimes stacking them, and then after you eat, they count up
the empty plates. The food is one of my favorites in Indonesia and is also quite spicy. We
had a really good fish and I asked what it was and was told "Gourami". As an
American, gourami is a fish for looking at, not eating. Well, gourami actually tastes
pretty good! That night at the hotel we got to listen to some Minang entertainment and
watch some dancing. They have some gamelan style instruments which sounded great, however,
they also seem to add in an accordeon! Minang dancers are also known for their plate
dances where they dance with plates balanced in their hands without breaking them and then
at the end stomp on them.
The next day was the conclusion of the formal part of the trip. We drove about 3
hours south, out of the mountains toward the beach to a city called Padang. There, we went
to University Bang Hatta for a lunch with UKM alumni. They provided us with entertainment
too which completely outdid the night before!! (Note: In 2000-2001,
two members of that exact group came to UH to teach a martial arts drama
which I participated in learning the movements and the drum, although I was
not in the show. See also Halape
Story.) During the lunch, I noticed that in the
lobby right outside of the auditorium someone had set up a table with goods just like in
front of the hotel. The lady even looked familiar. However, I didn’t like any of the
stuff. Back inside, I found out that the lady was indeed one of the ladies from in front
of our hotel!!! She had asked the bus drivers where we were going and then had made her
own way there to meet us. There were some more speeches and then while it was time for
prayer, me and two other non-prayers went out to the beach right in front of the building
and I got to touch the water! I’m not sure if it counts as the Indian Ocean, but
basically, it is facing the Indian ocean, and in between the full ocean is a few more
islands, to the west of Sumatra. The water was quite warm. Indonesian maps call it the
Indonesian Ocean. Back in front of the bus was the same lady selling goods. Well, I felt
really sorry for her because I don’t think anyone bought stuff from her.
From there we headed back towards Bukit Tinggi and stopped at a mountain called
Pantai Air Manis. That means Sweet Water Beach. I didn’t really know why they called
it a beach but figured there was a crater on top of the mountain. We crammed into a little
van and headed up the mountain. We got to the top, and then we headed down, and we did
indeed get to a beach. At the beach, there was in the sand the remains of a shipwreck
which had turned into stone, according to legend, thousands of years ago. However, it
looked oddly like cement. It seems the real ship had been taken to a museum for its own
protection. I don’t know if the museum really exists. Like most of the places we had
gone to and where we had been, this place was practically empty of tourists, except for
us. There were quite a few stalls trying to sell stuff and no one to buy. It was actually
rather sad, and I especially felt sorry for the stalls who somehow were located way out in
the sand where no one wanted to walk.
We then headed back to Bukit Tinggi and were supposed to have time for shopping
but it was too late as it took some four hours to get back and was quite dark already. For
some reason, on the bus, a whole bunch of people were standing up front, then the bus
stopped and half the bus ran off and into some five star hotel. I had no idea what we were
doing so I made my way up there and found out that after drinking a whole coconut at the
beach earlier, they were about to explode! The hotel people were quite mad it seemed, at
people running in like that. For some reason, I didn’t have the same problem as them,
although it was a rather consistent problem nonetheless on all the long bus rides.
Afterwards we ate nearby and I was one of the first to head back to the hotel. I
was hoping the people would be back in front of the hotel as I had actually liked their
stuff, but there was only one lady and her bag was already packed! Well, I went over to
her anyway, and who else, but it was the lady who had gone all the way down to
Padang!!
She was back and waiting for us again. So I asked what she had and she started taking
everything out of the bag and I felt so sorry for her that I ended up buying two things
from her that I didn’t especially like. Everyone else had wanted to shop too even
though there wasn’t time and so in the end, she actually did quite a good business
that night. I also found out that it’s very common for her to follow tour groups who
stay at the hotel to wherever they are having a program. I felt a lot better.
After such a long day, that night we had to spend back on the bus. Plastic bags
were again handed out but I still didn’t need one since I had taken my motion
sickness pill. However, I noticed that of the two bus drivers, we were having the faster
one. So I immediately laid down in my seat and tried to go to sleep. For some reason, I
was feeling nauseous. But I couldn’t move or it would get worse. But I had to move to
get some kind of bag. So in the dark, I managed to find a batik cloth I had bought from
that lady and took it out of the clear plastic holder just in time to throw up!! I
didn’t know what to do with it and I didn’t have any other bags to put it in,
however, I felt so much better!!! So I just lay down there with my hand sticking out into
the aisle holding the bag. No one around me noticed what had happened and the lights were
out. I lay there for about 15 minutes trying to figure out what to do, my hand in the
middle of the aisle. Then, the bus pulled into a gas station. So I quickly ran out the
back door. Oddly, the gas station lights went out right then. I got freaked out and just
dumped the bag on the ground and jumped back into the bus. Just then, the lights went back
on. The rest of the trip was fine and the bus driver didn’t even stop again until
about 5:30 which was the time for morning prayers. I really didn’t have an appetite.
The Bangladeshi guy happened to comment that he thought something he ate the night before
had been bad and he felt sick so I asked what he ate and it seems we had eaten the same
thing. However, I don’t really know what the cause was of my first vomit since my
definite food poisoning from Sizzler on Maui on Xmas 1991! I won’t go into detail
about all the other vomiting that went on during the whole trip.
We finally made it to our next destination which was
Parapat, a town alongside the
largest lake in Southeast Asia, called Lake Toba. In the middle of the lake is a huge
island, about the size of Singapore. It’s pretty high in the mountains so somewhat
cool at night and it looks somewhat like Lake Tahoe but with the vegetation, actually
reminded me much more of Hawaii, particularly of my view from my house, since there was
the water out front and then the mountains. Since we were now back in North Sumatra, this
area is inhabited by a people known as Batak. They are actually former cannibalistic
people and much more crass than the Minang people. Once again we were about the only
tourists. That night we had entertainment which was very different from the
Minang.
Although they had some gamelan like instruments, most of their music was on guitar and was
really quite Mexican sounding. I managed to get a tape of theirs but didn’t get one
from Minang. That night, as we looked across the lake, there was a bright orange glow. We
figured it was a forest fire, which was famous in Sumatra a couple years ago when it
caused a huge haze over Malaysia. The next morning, however, in the place of the fire was
a volcano! The lava inside was so bright that it had made a huge glow. In the daytime
though you couldn’t see anything as it was really quite far.
That day we took a boat over to the island, called Samosir Island. We walked
through a couple villages and saw where they used to keep their prisoners to fatten them
up and then where they slaughtered them to eat them. It is in the middle of a village
which is still inhabited. Their houses are built to resemble boats as the story is that
their ancient ancestors sailed over from China after they were conquered. With so little
tourists and so many shops, as elsewhere, it was incredible that prices were not lower.
But they were cheap nonetheless. They were so desperate to have us in their shops and
these old ladies were literally grabbing my wrist to pull me in. When they saw our name
tags they would start yelling our names and others would hear and repeat and for me all
these ladies would say "I love you Jeff!" I just told them, "That was
fast!" I did buy pretty much, and in fact, to my knowledge, I got the lowest prices
for their songket cloths which are embroidered rather than batik. By that point I needed a
bag for all my stuff so I bargained for a songket bag. They started at 75,000 Rupiah and I
started at 30,000, which is under $5. I ended up paying 30,000 which I was quite happy to
pay. When we made our way back to our boat to head back, all the people were trying to
sell us huge bunches of bananas. As I do not eat bananas in motion sickness situations, I
didn’t buy any. But when I got on the bus, there were maybe 100 bananas as a whole
bunch of people had bought! Then alongside the boat about 10 little boys took off their
clothes and jumped in the water to get us to throw in coins for them to dive after. So we
threw in 100 Rupiah coins which is about 1.5 cents.
We then headed back to Parapat to head off to our next destination. The leader was
going to go swimming in the lake and I wanted to go so four of us managed to go swimming
really fast. It was cool but very refreshing and so weird to taste tasteless fresh water
as compared to the beach in Hawaii. The lake is supposed to be very deep and has its own
tale of a huge fish that lives in there.
Our next destination was not so far but on those roads it took several hours.
Along the way we stopped at a place that had extremely delicious ginger tea. I bought
some. Our next destination, Brastagi, was very high. One of our member’s brothers
lives there so we had an outside barbecue there and I can’t say I enjoyed it that
much as I was so cold. In fact, I was shivering, even with three shirts and my Target
raincoat on. The food was pretty good. As usual, I had to ask if there was shrimp etc. I
never had to worry about pork of course. (Everyone knew that I’m Jewish.) It was
kinda dark but one of the dishes actually had cut up white meat chicken. So I took a whole
bunch and put a lot of the sauce on my rice. Then when I was at the end of the table I
heard someone say ‘otak’. That means brain. So I asked if there was brains and
yes, the dish I thought was chicken was cow brains!! I only ate the other half of my
plate. I just couldn’t try it. Then it seemed there had to be a program, as is the
custom, and we all had to introduce ourselves and tell our thoughts about the trip as the
program was almost over. I got up and spoke in Indonesian. It was kinda simple, whatever I
said.
Finally, the next day, we had to head back to Medan for our last night in
Indonesia. We went back early in the morning as most of the people’s goal was to do a
lot of shopping and wanted to do last minute shopping. I can’t say I complained,
although I was a bit shopped out. However, the one thing I wanted most, I had not yet
gotten to have. First we stopped at a fruit market and I bought some
passionfruit, avocado
and something called in Malay ‘banana feet’ which I have no idea what it is as I
had never eaten it before. It’s more like an apple though than a banana and none of
those fruits are in Malaysia. I figured I would give them to my host family. Then we
stopped off at a market which sold cloths from all over Indonesia. I bought a Javanese
cloth to wear at our concerts and two Acehnese ones which I had never seen before. Then we
checked in the hotel and a bit later the tour guide said he would show me where to go get
that thing I wanted most. On the way, I asked him what different tour groups were like.
My
group was extremely late to the point where we were practically a day behind and had to
skip a lot of stuff. However, I would say not a single person was moody and there were no
personality clashes that I could tell. By comparison, the two day trip to Melaka with my
program a month ago was much harder for me because of all the complaining, sensitiveness,
and disagreements. I much prefered travelling with this group even though I had to miss
out on some stuff. Anyway, I followed the guide to a shopping complex, went upstairs into
a grocery store, and I finally got to buy my coffee! I also bought some Sumatran tea. It
was actually my first time to be on my own during the trip and I got to wander around the
complex. I only saw one other foreigner and the people were quite nice, a lot of them
smiling at me and wanting to talk to me. Some kids (low 20s) invited me to hang out with
them while they waited for their favorite movie, an Indian movie, to start. They had lost
count how many times they had seen it. One of them worked in a cigarette paper factory. I
also got a chance to be on the internet for the first time in over a week! That was a long
time! Finally I lugged all my stuff back to the hotel, we had our last dinner along with
our last formal discussion about the trip and our goodbyes.
The next day, we began our long journey back. We got to Belawan nice and early to
board our ferry and get seats, but they had made a mistake. They were supposed to get our
boarding tickets in Medan first! Well, we thought we were gonna miss the boat but they
managed to get them in time, and meanwhile to get someone to save a whole bunch of seats
for us. (Money was definitely involved.) The inside of the boat was nice, with air
conditioning and movies, though they were horrible choices, and the seats were very
cramped. The man across the aisle from me got up to get something for his wife and in the
process saw the passionfruit I had bought and took some out to eat. I only saw he had them
when he sat down and I told him they were mine. So he returned them. However, he also kept
three! So they ate them and then said "Sorry!" I bought some pickled fruit after
we got off the boat for my family here so it wouldn’t seem like so little.
Once we got back, the immigration kept us in the boat for about half an hour. I
got through with no problem. I would say the group had more than double the amount of bags
as when we went and I did not necessarily buy the most, nor spend the most. We then walked
to the next ferry to get to the mainland, ate, and took our last night train. Fortunately
it was not so cold and I slept very well. Supposedly, at some point, some guy boarded the
train and tried to sit next to me but couldn’t wake me up. I also woke up at some
point and started eating my Chinese noodle crackers as they were all over my seat. We got
into K.L. about an hour or more late, waited for those who pray to pray, and then took the
Commuter train back to Kajang. Then I and two women who live near me took a taxi back and
finally made it home. I showered, ate, and took a very long nap!
Well, it was a great trip, I really enjoyed Sumatra and it’s a huge island, I
only saw a little of it! I’m not sure but I think I improved my language a lot, at
least my comprehension abilities. By a lot, I mean by as much as I can in a week, though
it’s hard to measure. Language was the major challenge for me, which included
balancing Malaysian vs Indonesian style Malay. I made it pretty clear that I really didn’t want
people to speak English to me and for the most part, everyone was very understanding, and
even involved me in some seriously philosophical discussions. Well, they were more one
sided than not as I couldn’t respond in serious detail.
They’ve invited me to join them for their next trip, which is a two day trip
to an east coast island the very weekend after my program ends. I’m pretty sure the
highway up there is much more manageable.
