I had a go of the rice with bits and pieces (That's what Nasi Campur translates as) and It perked me up enough to grab the next bus out of Medan (Pinang Baris bus terminal) I asked two guys how much did the journey to Berastagi cost. one said 8000 and another said 20000.Of course , I asked in english.I think it's time to start speaking a bit of Indonesian ('Barapa an' means how much....satu ribu is 1 thousand ,15000 = lima belas ribu 20000 --- dua pula ribu...now, if i can learn 1 to 10 , i'll be set!)
So, I got on the bus and nobody got on for another couple of kilometers. At that point, 3 girls got on and I thought they looked Japanese so when I heard one of them say 'english', I asked them if they were traveling. Of course, they were from indoensia and i am guessing that gir just said that I was the english guy at the back of the bus. I really should stop guessing where people are from. Anyway, one of the girls was keen to improove her english so she asked the most common question asked to me over the last week....hello meeeester, where you from? - 'Ireland'. where you from? (the question is ALWAYS repeated) - ireland, do you know it? -no- (I am really surprised.I thought one or 2 people might not know about ireland but it seems like nearly everyone (with the exception of people who are watching the football)) has never heard of Ireland. [The people who have heard of Ireland nearly always go ,ah, ireland Robbie Keane!] but I digress. That girl kept staring at me every few minutes (It was as if I had a mole on my face) At one point she asked why I was going to Brastagi and I mentioned having a friend there (which is stictly not a lie. i was talking to a guy from couch surfing from Brastagi) Anyway at one point she asked if I knew any Indonesian so i did the usual satu, dua,tiga malarky. Then she called me handsome. It was at that point that I realised one of two things.
a.) Her english is very bad
b.) Her eyesight is very bad.
during my riveting conversations, I decided to take a few photos out the side of the bus .here are just some of them.
women working in the rice fields
View of a town from the side of the road
flowers, trees and vegetables. what more do you want!
At this point , one of the guys at the front of the bus shouted at me but I was so focussed on taking pics that I hadn't a clue what he wanted. The girl that kept staring at me told me he was crazy. After a couple of minutes , i understood him.He was gesturing with his arms pointed upwards.I think he was asking if I wanted to go on the roof. The whole bus laughed at him but if i realised what he was trying to say, I would definately have gone for a visit to the roof with all the heavy bags!! I don't think it's a s safe as staying on the roof of a jeepney though!
Anyway, the minibus conductor shouted at me that we reached my stop so I had to elbow about 5 people and step\squash someones lunch to get to the door of the minibus.I think the whole bus waved me goodbye at that point!
The first 2 things I saw when entering Brastagi were the monument at the top of the centre and a few murials situated beside the monument.
The monument adorning the town
This plaque greets you as you enter the town
I found a hostel in the centre of the town and threw my stuff in the room (I went for one with a shared bathroom as the bathroom looked fairly clean to me. )
The room that I am staying in
I went to lock the door but the door was a bit dodgy at the bottom so you had to give it a kick such that it would close properly. The guy (Peter) sleeping next door heard the commotion and we had a pretty interesting discussion about life and stuff. He was telling me he had travelled all over the world for years. He was one of the original backpackers who had travelled with little or no money in their pockets way back in the late 80s and the travellers today are not the same as they do have money but stick to a budget (and some of them spend as little as possible in Asia such that they can waste it all drinking shots in oz.) I am hardly a world traveller but he gave me a lot of good advice like try to speak Indonesian and the Indonesians might beless inclined to take more money. To be honest, if I were in their shoes, I would probably rip me off also but I would try to stick to the loud foreigners first!!
Anyway afterf an hour or so, I said my goodbyes to Peter and went to grab a nasi campur.
These dinners are class and they cost less than a euro
The bright light(s) of Brastagi
where I bought a small pot of ice cream (it was the first ice cream i have had in quite a while.)
and headed back to the hostel to have a look at the fish aquarium.
Tonights supper.....not
At this point, it was around 10.30 and I bumped into peter and another guy chatting outside the rooms on a type of verandah. The rain was belting down. I didn't thinkmuch of it untiil i retired to my room 30 minutes later and felt a wet patch on one side of the bed. The window was noot fully closed and a bolt was missing from it . the rain had come through the window and drenched one part of tthe bed...eep!!!
Oh No, the latch is missing!!!
ah well, the next morning the window was fixed up before I set off on my walk to the volcano!
I set off to find the volcano around 8.40. As I was walking past the monument seen in one of the pictures above, a guy stopped and asked me where I was going. I saidf the small volcano and he pointed to a bus but I wanted to walk so I did what I normally do, ie: put the head down and start walking bristly! I took a few photos while walking up the road.
The goose staring at the camera was screaming goose noises at me. It was almost human!
These look like cabbages
More veg. There seems to be a lot of stuff growing at the bottom of the volcano
Cool vista from here
cool contrast of colours here
Nice countryside
The fields just run into each other
As I was taking these pictures a minibus coming from the opposite direction stopped and the driver shout at me, 'photo,photo' .I am not joking when I say that there us a scene in 'Father Ted' where Fr Jack grabs an emty tea cup and says 'photo, photo' .This was THE EXACT SAME thing!!
I didn't ask him to pose, he saw the camera and acted 'cool'.
Eventually, I got to place where you had to pay 4000 Rupiah to pass. I signed in. I asked one of the guys 'how much is a journey up to the volcano'. He said it cost 600,000 for a car. I decided to walk.
The route up to the volcano is not that clear so I had to ask 3 or 4 people (Guys who I bumped into along the route) for directions. Everyone was super helpful though!
At one point , I was told to walk (what looked like) into the jungle and up some random steps!!
here are just a couple of photos of the walk...
Pace yourself John, It's a long way up!!
Note: I HATE when people refer to themselves in the third person :-)
View down from the sprawling road
There seems to be a lot of green here. It must rain quite a bit
The road up to the volcano is not great.
(This could be a pic of some place in Cavan\Most places in Ireland during the 1980's)
I must be on the right track!
The volcano is hiding behind the cloud
Steps the the top of the volcano (hidden amongst the undergrowth!)
The undergrowth is getting heavier, eep!
I am getting closer to that cloud!
I must remember the way down!
The path to the top has turned an ashen colour!
lots of flowers grow oround the volcano!
Can you see the steam??
An impressive sight!
Inside the volcano (If you look closer, you can see People have signed their names!)
Can you see the tinge of yellow??
The smell of sulphur (like rotten eggs) was fairly powerful here!
While climbing up the mountain , I started chatting to a couple . The girl was from New Zealand and I thought her boyfriend had an American twang....I am getting worse at this guessing game! (He was from Connemara but he had lived in New Zealand so he (Excuse me :he= Cormac Her=Joey)) had a hybrid Galway/New Zealand accent which sounded like nothing I have ever heard before. An original accent! cool! Anyway, As I have the directional powers of wrong way Corrigan (Look him up on the google!) The 2 guys reckoned it was a good idea to wait a few minutes before making our way down the mountain. Good move as the mist descended fairly rapidly and going down the mountain would be quite dangerous in that mist. We started down the mountain and at one point we inadvertently straayed off the beaten track.A few local kids saw this and after they had finished laughing , (which was quite a while!) walked by us down the easy route. We followed them down (At this point it had rained for quite a period of time so the rocks /stairs/ferns were fairly slippy) for a couple of miutes before we continued on (with confidence shattered :-) ) About 45 minutes later, we had reached our destination (some hot springs) yay!
Cormac and Joey stocking up on some well deserved Nuts after walking down the volcano
(Sorry about the quality of the pic. My camera seems to absorb all the water )
The hot springs were class! At the same time, I came very close to fainting as I was exhausted from the walk! There were maybe 6-7 pools of differing temperatures so I tried as many pools as possible (without fainting /falling asleep!) There were only the 3 of us and a local couple there.At one point, the girl wanted to improve her english so I got the usual questions 'what is you name', 'where are you from' . I learned Ireland in Indonesia is Irlandia so from now on I will say I am from Irlandia! Most of the locals have not travelled much as they cannot afford to go anywhere. It makes you think...well, It made me think how lucky I was anyway!
I am MILES taller than everyone here!
After leaving the Hot springs we decided to get a minibus back to Berestagi. As I was talking to Joey, a girl cam over and asked if she could have her photo taken with me. I said 'cool' and then kids came from every direction to get in the photo! They seemed to completely ignore Joey and only noticed Cormac when I told them he was from the same country as me!!! I reckon,It was the funniest moment of the trip so far.
Smile for the camera!
Now, does anyone want an autograph!
After this ....ahem...adulation, it was time to head back to the hostel. Later that evening I met up with Cormac and Joey for a few pints in a localhostel come bar. I found out that the guys had been to Bukit Lawang also and there friend who joined us for some beer had been there also! We all chatted about the 'Bukit Lawang' experience for a couple of hours and then it was time for bed! This time the window had been fixed, so my bed was dry! yay!
Cormac and Joey headed on to Lake Toba the following morning and I decided to take it easy in Brastagi , just going in to various shops / restaurants and talking to the locals. One of the guys invited me into his shop the next morning at 2 am if I wanted to see the Italy Germany football match. It was a tempting offer but I turned it down as I would never have got any sleep that night otherwise!!! I have to watch one match of that tournament though!!!!!
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