If the mist clears the volcano Sibayak can be seen | ||||||
"you can't climb the volcano without a guide" the hotel insisted |
I really wasn't interested in the volcano, I had no plan to go, but why were they so insistent ? Rubbish people me at one of the 2 travellers cafes. So Saturday I walked up to see for myself. | Sure enough a minibus to Kama then a 70 minute walk up aroad and a 20 minute walk up some steps. Not exactly a whole days trek or difficult hike. Then I easily came back down road to pass hot springs in about an hour. 
The other Volcano Reason for no tourists in Indonesia #8 Lies and disinformation
| If the would-be-guides said "yes you can alone, but I can make your walk a wonderful experience plus by taking a local guide you are supporting the community and nature instead of logging and animal exploitation." I would go with them, particulary if it was the custom to give a large tip afterwards instead of paying before, because how do you know if the guide is a local expert or a chancer who has just stepped off the bus from the city ?
| If they lie to me then I tell all the other tourists be careful of these guides they are lying bastards.
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volcano Sibayak reflection Of course it wasn't as spectacular as th active Volcan Villarica in Chile nor the views so good cos of the mist, but it was OK and you could hear the sulphur funnels. My guess is that the volcano is partially controlled as part of the geothermal plant. a video of the panorama a video of the view On the top I met a bunch of students, coming up from the waterfall track, they suggested I come down with
them on the track to the hotsprings. I said I'd stick to the road cos of the danger. In fact as I left the hotsprings they arrived so that path must take 2.5 hours, ie much longer than the road. I guess you could easily get lost if you left late in the day and decided to hike down through the trees the true message from the hotel is : "best take a guide if you want hike down through the trees"
As I came down the road I passed farmers and then teams of workers setting up the geothermal pipeline.
Strange photo me in the hotsprings pool wearing a pear of shorts on the left a muslim girl wearing jeans and headscarf with her arm around me and on the right the four boys in her group who are drinking brandy. walked back to town past nothing much to see ..rundown forest park where the forestry executive said they would soon log the trees.
Sunday - walked around Karo Villages
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I knew there is a traditional house village and museum about 4 Km away and if I walked there I would walk through indigenous villages of Batak Karo people. A church minister took me of his motorbike. There the guy from the mosque across the road guided me through the village.
| Here the people are Batak Kayo and a percentage are muslim so it's back to the earsplitting eary morning mosque alarm clock. 
(The Villagers) and through a bamboo forest, (this volcano created landscape is flat with deep crevices) to the next village Guru Singha (Lion Teacher) 
karo house in Guru Singha There are 4 traditional houses, but even though they are a great design : cool and resist the twice a year earthquakes people have abandoned them. Thro another village no traditional houses, a girl led me to her family orange grove and filled a bag with fruit. They also has a large brown monkey tied up. |
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I reached the museum of course the guardian was away at church or something. At the Lingga I quickly approached by an a man, who said I should come with him to register. He unlocked the cabin and at registration he said it was the tradition to buy a carving made by the old grandpa's to fund the old folks home, the list showed all the tourists paid 100,000 only $10, but 150 tiimes what most mueums cost. I almost said to him I'll pay on the way out, but instead I offered a $3 donation, hoping the exhibition would be very interesting. It wasn't my tour lasted 6 minutes total : we entered a house still used by families at night, he indicated the fireplace. Took out me past the single mens house and that was it. was I ripped off ? for the tour yes ,but if some money went to the old that's OK. In fact a photo at the museum showed the village used to look great a neat layout of traditional houses 40 years ago. But now it's a higgledy piggledy mess of ramshackle ground level sheds, with only the one visitable long house and 3 falling down. It's not worth visiting The real museum was much better, entrance was 800 Rp the woman shared lunch with me a little run down, but informative.
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Karo Folk Performance
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In the town of Karbonjahe I passed some people rehearsing for the cultural performance at the Asian Christian Festival in Parapart. So got to see a free show. | 
karodance 
karochoir 
karochoir2 Great English spoken - a Reason to visit Indonesia |
In Malaysia Malay people tend to be rarely fluent in English, but it was a big surprise : In the village or in the bus suddenly someone starts speaking to you in good English. Many people seem to speak some, but 1 in 10 speak pretty good and not just in tourist areas either. I guess they must be using a really good active system in the schools, as there are few foreign teachers, tourists or missionaries.
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| Later walking in some more villages I was lucky to get a ride from a kind pasteur in his nice car as he travelled from village to village photo'ing the new churches, but not the old long house ! I noticed from the comments book at the museum that other people thought the introduction of modern religions were instrumental in the decine of traditional longhouse culture no laundry - find this guy who does your laundry without pounding out the pattern, in 30 mins and for free
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I tried to get washing done, hotel ridiculous item pricelist, laundry closed down. 3 Km to next laundry ridiculous item pricelist, Ok I'll nip to the village and get a villlage woman to do, a lot of steps no washing woman. OK how much ais a bar of soap ? I'll do it myself.
| The villagers passing laughed. 20 minutes later I realised I had dropped my key. Amazing when I went back to the river I spotted it immediately lying right under the water flow Reason for no tourists in Indonesia #9 Low standards
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I was shocked to see how the villagers used the river for bathing, peed in the river and squatted down to shit in it. Don't they have the first idea about health standards ?
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|  Me eating street food near by a traditional house in Peceren where I did the washing In the Rudang hotel nearby the boy took me around these strange tunnels they have maybe catacombs as it doesn't seem natural or like a mine.
Orang Utan spotting zoo or circus ?
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| The next popular stop is Bukitlawang - where people go to see Orang Utans, but when I did my research I found that apart from all the hassle from the out of work guides, it was severely criticized. It used to be a rehabilitation centre for Orang Utans, but part of the process is that you don't touch or feed them, but since the only way to get a photo of Mr tourist next to an Orang Utans is to offer a banana the rehabilitation centre had to give up and it's now a kind of open zoo. I found some hotels were offering guided tours to a place called Ketambe where there are wild Orang Utans, this sounded better than supporting the bad practices. Since I was now cynical of guides and since the place is 5 hours down the road I decided to go alone to check it out.
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