Cape York & into Asia via Timor-Leste, Indonesia, etc

OK... I've been busy, I've been to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) - for the Grand Prix - then been absolutely wowed by the majesty of the Petronas Towers - sat at "the Library" - a themed restaurant - for a couple of $10 Guinesses and ate the last of their kitchen's food around midnight... a quick 3 hours kip... then the taxi ride from hell and back to earthquake central, Padang in Sumatra.

I really like Padang, but sitting talking to the Spice Homestay owners, Siri and Putri, I've, yet again, and for the final chance, missed the sunset down at the beach... 200 metres away. You nong Ian. It was Siri's 38th birthday in two days time, so we had a bit of a nosh-up dinner. "You like crab?" Is the Ayotollah a Muslim? Didn't get it though... Monday night was a problem.,,, crab restaurant shut.

Speaking of being a nong. On the flight to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, we did the slowest takeoff roll I've ever experienced (saving gas?) and then snapped the lovely beach scene... then, started in on my first Sudoku puzzle for a month. 10 minutes later, I glanced out the window and it was the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen from a plane (been on a lot of planes in a lot of countries too). Lake Maninjau. Guess where I decided to go next..... Lake Maninjau - 44 hairpin bends on the way down into the caldera. It wasn't on the agenda until I flew over it on the way to and from KL. It really is the most beautiful scene I've ever seen out of a plane's window.

From wiki - The Maninjau caldera was formed around 52,000 years ago.Deposits from the eruption have been found in a radial distribution around Maninjau extending up to 50 km to the east, 75 km to the southeast, and west to the present coastline. The deposits are estimated to be distributed over 8500 km² and have a volume of 220–250 km³. The caldera has a length of 20 km and a width of 8 km.

Incidentally,I was wracking my brain the other day trying to remember whether the bike had 12k or 14k on it when I left... I'm almost certain it was 14,020 km. The Cape York leg (Bern's place to the Tip and return) was 3,000km. The bike clicked over 27,500km a couple of days back. I fitted new tyres in Bali at 24,000 - the rear is going to be totally bald by the time I get to KL again - the knobs are all cracked but I haven't thrown any that I've noticed but there are some small chunks gone.. The Mitas EO9 I fitted to the front seems to be doing a lot better than the last front tyre I had... I may get as far as Bangkok on it. The last front was done at 3,000 km.... less than 2,000 miles.

What nails the fronts is all the hard braking.... and at times there's some very, very hard braking going on. I've been trying to keep the rear one from spinning up most of the time... but sometimes I've had to.... eg, overtaking up the left, sometimes the climb back onto the bitumen gets a bit high and you have to flick the tail around to get a better angle back onto the hard - I had the bike protest a bit the other day when I didn't do that - meaning it wanted to fall over, which wouldn't be a good look, eh? 'specially not right in front of a truck.

OK here's a few shots from KL -

...one from the GP2 race.... we had the big screen to show us what was going on



It was slippery out there in the GP...



This is just before they stopped the race. It would have been diabolical to be in the following cars down the straight



and the rain did get heavier just after they red flagged it. It was dark too




It wasn't all cars.... although, having flown my son over for the race... I had to decline an invite for a night out with a Mexican guy I shared a cab with on the Saturday. He's a mate of Perez, who came second... and the night before the race, he was going to the Beach Club with some motoring journalists. Not the done thing to take one's son to what it seems is a huge brothel... although, talking to an Aussie expat later on she said it isn't too bad.



and just to show that we didn't go there just for the cars... we also took in the pretty lights. Street scene outside our hotel



Just to balance out the cars... here's some fishing boats from a village down near Bengkulu. I pulled the DSLR out of the tank bag for these (a rare event when I'm making miles... it takes a couple of minutes.... I normally just shoot with the P&S that is hanging off my chest armour)

This isn't the inslet these boats were in... but it gives an idea of the setup. There's dozens of these creeks opening out into the surf... and the local fishermen head out these. They get a decent size surf break that they have to get out through too



They moor up along the creek banks



At this particular location there was some brand new infrastructure... concrete wharf, nice shaded shelter. Looked very much like a foreign aid project to me.... possibly replacing damage from one of the earthquakes or storms. I did a coastal infrastructure job in Oz a year or two back and this setup was right up there when it comes to decent infrastructure.... and the locals here sure as hell couldn't have afforded it by themselves. Good to see....



Same boat... there was water being thrown out of the bilge... something's going on in there...



Ahhh... a bilge rat... with a bucket



And, one more ....

Interesting planking on that dinghy




Here's the lady who runs a street stall just near my homestay...



I had a coffee there with the guys the other day. The bucket just to the right of the fence upright is the one they washed my coffee glass up in... Hmmm... love that black scum ring.



Who needs a truck? These guys don't



Last

After dinner, I gave my camera to Putri and she went around snapping away merrily for a while. She wanted to keep it....



The Spice Homestay really is a home away from home. Siri and Putri are sisters.



Siri, on the left, used to work on Sirius 1935 - a 62' staysail schooner which was the first Aussie boat to circumnavigate (1935-37).. She's based in Thailand now.

This place has had nothing but waxheads staying here for the 3 nights I've been here. The islands off here are a truly fabulous surfing destination. We (Putri and I) wandered down to Pak Agus' again and got half a dozen very large prawns and a couple of fresh fish... she went straight to the eyes to select them, of course.... BBQ'd over red hot charcoals - marinated nicely. Packed in brown paper for the 100m walk back to Spice Homestay... The girls told me why he's so good (Pak Agus that is)... his spices are great, but they still allow the fish flavor to survive. We ate Padang style... some vege's done by the girls, some rice - and with nothing but our right hand as implements. Pack it all together between thumb and fingers and who needs a fork?

Padang fish and prawns being cooked.



Siri was happy



Siri had ordered in some treats for desert. One of which was a tapioca pastry ball. Reminds me of Grandma's tapioca puddings.

A couple more Padang shots

This one reminds me of being a kid in Coffs Harbour. The Jetty there was a regular haunt



This girl was quite scared of the gangplank... she was crawling down it until she saw me with the camera



One of the ferries that head out to the surfing mecca... the Mentawai Islands. Its a 12 hour trip... done at night.




I got to Lake Maninjau and its.....Houston, we have a problem! Not quite the same magnitude.... but its a PITA. My countershaft oil seal is gone... its leaking oil. Oil is in scarce supply here.... or at least the right sort of oil is. Just lost a screw out of my helmet visor too... a nuisance... but fixed at the second bike shop I visited.

I checked in, nice and early at a pleasant litle hotel right on the shore of Lake Maninjau.... that bloody great crater lake. Sitting on the verandah, about 3' above the lake with waves lapping at the shore. Lovely. It must've been a big bang that created this lake. A real big bang.

I just met my first other western bikes on the road since leaving Oz (Keith & Ellen don't count.. they were on the same ship and we didn't meet up on the road).. A Finn riding a G650 BMW (has ridden to here from Finland), riding with a Japanese guy on a Honda Africa Twin. They'd just checked out my hotel, but were looking for something in the $5 range. I was happy at $25 for Hotel Tan Dirih.

The ride down the caldera rim was great... each hairpin was numbered in a countdown. Lots and lots of monkeys on the road. Came across a couple of young locals licking their wounds... they'd come a cropper. "Too fast?" Yes. Bit of blood, but nothing too bad... the worst of it will heal in a couple of weeks (knees, feet - wearing thongs, of course... no helmets)

Plenty of photos and lots of video to come - including me being waved past by a Highway Patrol car with its lights flashing - I was going quicker than him, and he had no problems with that. Unfortunately, he video camera was covered in diesel from the trucks... so I won't post all that video, I'll save it until I can edit it. I undertook a couple of other cops... but the third one I tried it on got snooty and the passenger waved me back.

I got caught, I needed to do some work for a client. The view from my "office" was stunning and there was a fisherman paddling his canoe around in front of me. Again... I have photos, but the internet connection has been weak. I sure won't be emailing this 23Mb Word document to the client... just the edits.

I had brekkie on the shore of the absolutely beautiful Lake Maninjau with a German chap, who is here to close down their office after earthquake reconstruction work from the 2009 quake. He tells me the official death toll on that one was 1,500, but the "real toll" was 2,500 - 3,000. Most of his work up here in the Maninjau caldera was slip-related. They'd had a lot of heavy rain at the time of the quake. The scars are very apparent on the caldera slopes across the lake. One part of the caldera isn't able to be re-built on.

I was going to try and sneak in to the camp that was created for the people who had to be relocated. Thousands of them... into a camp with tiny semi-permanent housing. Each family apparently got a 2m x 3m shack - three years ago. The limited toilet facilities failed. There was a lot of rape of young girls.... and not many happy campers. The locals I spoke to, I couldn't get through to on this... not sure why. It was the German guy's area and he'd told me about it ... but he wasn't around to direct me to it.

I also had some interesting conversations with people who live in Padang during my 3 days there. An Aussie guy "Shoey" who owns a surf charter boat (nice one too, ex Japanese patrol boat - huey.com.au ). The last big one, 2009, almost claimed his wife. He was saying that a stroke of the pen meant she lived.... while 16 others died.... her university class was divided into two.... one half Tues, the other, Wednesday. The other half didn't make it. Other than fault lines running along rural roads, well out of town - and some cracks running across tiled floors, I didn't see any signs of it... 3 years later. Siri, my hostess at the homestay, said that the reconstruction was driven by the local Chinese people. They didn't want any signs of it left.... for business reasons, so they made it happen. She said its very different in Aceh, further up the island... where there are still very visible signs of the earlier 2006 quake and tsunami.... and no Chinese community.

I mentioned this to my German friend and he said "Yes, the Chinese are certainly making their influence spread".

Mur, the sister of the owner of the best little nook restaurant in town (Bagus Cafe) took me on a ride around the inside of the caldera, a 50km lap of the lake. She and her sister were concerned about her reputation, so her brother in law dropped her off 3km down the road and away we went. She picked up the best communications method pretty quickly and started thumping me on the shoulder whenever I went over 100kph.... but we hit the rough stuff soon enough.

Here's the detour we took onto a headland that juts out into Lake Maninjau

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Warning... there is a swear word there, I had a bit of difficulty getting onto one section with some sharp-edged concrete on a particularly steep bit with overhanging sticks. It doesn't look nasty in the video, of course.... but such is life. The bit at the very end is me releasing the pressure from the fuel tank. Its a serious problem I have to fix. That's petrol spewing out everywhere past an o ring on the fuel level sensor. The new cap the tank manufacturer sent me is worse than the old one.

Mur had been telling me the tigers don't eat many people around here, but they are here. Two years ago one killed a farmer up the road a bit; just taking his heart and eyes apparently. I got some decent shots around the lake... with the little camera, so I'll go see if I can upload some now over brekkie. I'm hoping for a decent view of the big smoker volcano just near here. I've moved on to Bukittinggi and am heading for Lake Toba.

​

I love these updates. My heroes grace the pages of Ride reports and you, for sure, are one of them.

Thanks Saso.... don't know that I can handle words like "hero" though.... but gee, don't let me stop you - incidentally, this RR is my report in to my kids too, supposedly.... my middle kid, Pete, who came to the GP confessed he'd only been reading my emails.

Bandwidth where I am this morning is pretty limited. There's zero wifi showing and my dongle is showing its lowest grunt level. But here goes, I'll do some catching up.

I got asked an interesting question by an American friend earlier.... about how much of the hospitality I've received do I believe is genuine hospitality, not because I'm a "wealthy foreigner"?

I'd say the vast majority of it is genuine. I've had a couple of instances where people have tried to take advantage of that wealthy foreigner bit... jumped in on a dinner invite for someone else for example, but only a couple that I can genuinely recall... both in Bali, where its a real tourist town. Of all the guides I've used, I can only think of one that was chasing the dollar more than trying to make sure we saw what we wanted.

I can think of four occasions straight off the top of my head where people have refused money - and three of those were for commercial services (buying a bottle of water in a tiny roadside stall, guiding fees x 2) and the 4th was the family I stayed with in Baron, Java.

There's no doubt, I've had people ask for money... eg the kids with the Vespa racing machines. I put money in the offering tin several times yesterday... but none of them had anything to do with hospitality. For example, I put my 30c change from dinner in the local mosque building fund.... but I do that a little bit conspicuously in towns like this one. Its very, very traditional Muslim and I don'tthink it hurts for them to know that a non-Muslim will help. No beer.

A Spanish guy who arrived on a 1200GSA last night,headed in the other direction isn't getting the same reaction... he's complaining about prices, wanting beer, etc. Its a dry town. Very dry... and he made it clear he wants to get pissed. I'd rather leave people thankful that the infidel contributed something. I saw the same thing back in Timor-Leste with a 68 year old woman (born Hungary, raised Argentina, lives America now).... she's been travelling for years and she really, really pissed people off. I saw her fail to get what she wanted time after time and in the end, the guy running the backpackers told her there were no beds available when she wanted to extend her stay there. Similar thing with the Belgian guy who rode his pushbike through Indonesia during Ramadan - he stopped and ate his lunch on the steps of the local Mosque every day. I'd say the fact he survived, doing that, was a show of genuine hospitality.

I'm sure glad I'm not riding the Spaniard's GSA. Its at least a foot wider than my bike - which means he's got problems in the traffic.... he's got grunt, but can't use it because of his bike's size and weight. He's got 9,500km on his tyres and they look like they've got at least that left. My rear won't make 5,000 before its bald (last front and rear were gone at 3,000).... and to get life like that out of his tyres, he's riding like grandma - following buses. He probably spends at least triple the time I do in the clouds of black diesel smoke (it showed on his face last night).

Incidentally, I threw 2,000 rupiah (20c) in the tin for some young guys clearing a fallen tree off the road today. The guy asked for more. I smiled said "no, no... need it for others down the road" and got a smile and thank you from the guy - can't blame him for trying eh?

I've been warned time and again about criminals, etc... but I've not encountered a single problem to date. I've had the bike swamped with people when I've had bags open... and I've been worried about light fingers... but nope. By the same token, my bike is in the lobby tonight... the Spaniard's is outside. I didn't ask to bring it in... the hotelier suggested it.

So... that's as much as I can think of to try and come up with anything where money has dictated. Take Lake Maninjau. My guide (oops, that's three now) didn't ask for, or get, money. She did it because we got on well during my time in the cafe and that night when they put on a movie for us... and I'd asked her if she'd show me around.... that's despite organising tours being part of her/her sister's business.... and she was happy to do it for free.

Things like that dinner with Siri and Putri... not their idea. Entirely my suggestion... I'd been genuinely impressed by their attitude. eg, they'd stored my bike and gear at no charge while I went to Malaysia.... they got up at 5am to cook me breakfast that day, etc. Siri and I got on really well (keep yer minds above yer navels) and I was happy to reciprocate. She's asked me to keep in touch and I'll drop her an email in a week or two. That's genuine friendship in my book. It ain't gunna happen at this hotel though.

Another one... my visit to Smile's family. My "relationship" with Smile was based on her and Dianita being in a restaurant when I walked in with a mutual friend - and I discovered she was going out with an Australian guy I know, who is up there every couple of weeks. I ended up inviting the three of them to dinner later.... and a fourth person, who I didn't invite, tagged along ... but I didn't mind too much. I asked her about her kids. She told me the story. I asked if I could visit them. When I got there, I invited grandma and the kids out, they were going to cook, but I didn't want to impose and was happy to treat them to something they most certainly wouldn't do normally... When I was leaving the next day, I pushed some money into grandma's hand.... and had it returned. I stuffed it somewhere she couldn't reach without a chair... smiled at her and told her it was for the kids. Young Kiky had certainly won my heart... she's a vibrant, intelligent 9 year old... and neither she nor grandma had been exposed to "wealthy foreigners".... and I wish I could have left more than the $30 that I did.

I interact with as many of the local people I can every day. I end up on at least a dozen mobile phone cameras every day too. I'm guessing its my handsome face, my intelligence and my wit and humour that has all these ladies falling at my feet.... because it sure isn't my wallet. Seriously though... there's a difference between the last town and this.... the young women there came running up, asking for photos... here, they hid... fascinating difference.

OK.... while I've got a tad of bandwidth... Here's some of the infrastructure around Padang... Don't cut the corners... or, you'll drop a metre or so in a hurry



This security fence was in Padang too. Those spikes - many of them bent out at an angle - are about eye level



Jumping forward to Lake Maninjau now... here's a couple of bridges we encountered doing our lap of the Lake. There were dozens of these





This lady was smoking tiny fish out of the caldera lake (Maninjau)



This isn't dad or even granddad taking the kids home from school He's a commercial bike "taxi" and he's getting paid to drive them home. Most kids walk. Young ones like this always in pairs, holding hands. It seems to keep them safe


`
Continuing on the lap of the lake theme... here's the lovely Mur. Her hand's nowhere near my wallet



I do believe she had difficulty seeing over my shoulder though.



If I'm not mistaken, this one shows some of the landslides from the earthquake 3 years ago



... and one of only two bridges we saw being rebuilt



I'll leave it at that for now.... don't want to push my luck with this connection and lose yet another posting attempt. The sun's about to come up and I want to get of the road early.... although I'm not looking forward to my visit to the Mandi. I seriously doubt my ability to fit into the dunny... its a squeezed in Turkish squatter... there's slime on the floor in there and there's definitely slime in the bottom of the Mandi.

OK... let's see if we can catch up a little. Its been an interesting few days with some hard riding and interesting sights.

So... back to my lap of Lake Maninjau. This is a new house going up in one of the earthquake affected areas



Some of the more intensive aquaculture developments on the Lake.



I've read that there are some pollution effects becoming apparent on this lake. Lake Toba has them too and we ate fish from one when some local fishermen we stopped to talk to plonked a couple of plates in front of us... and refused to let us pay for it. They said the Swiss introduced the aquaculture technique here.

The two Japanese chaps I met - one has ridden here from Finland, the other from Japan

Those guys were on road tyres. You wouldn't catch me here on road tyres in a pink fit. I've had to head "bush" too many times. I've had my cruising face on when riding lately, rather than my race face... and even then, there's still some pretty quick stops required at times... and at others, you don't bother stopping... you just ride off the road.

I saw my first Korean car the other day... a Hyundai. The vast majority of cars here are Toyotas and the other Japanese brands. I don't know if they manufacture here, but Honda is opening its 4th motorcycle factory here. There were 8 million motorbikes sold in Indonesia last year and they are anticipating more sales... as Indo has 1 motorbike per 7 people and neighbouring countries have 1 per 3.

This thing, btw, is a Toyota. Cute eh



Back to Lake Maninjau. Here's fish being packed for shipping. Live. I presume the gas is oxygen... although it may just be air. Brownish cylinder top... that'd be air, wouldn't it? Oxy is blue IIRC. I saw a guy on a scooter carrying on of these large cylinders crossways on the footrest area... about 10" above the road.... any sort of incident and the valve would be gone.



This isn't a very good shot... but it gave me the heebie jeebies... Two guys in a sawmill. That log he's running through was about 8" square and I'd reckon over 20' long. One guy holding it... freehand. No fence or guards on the saw.... Ughh.



Nearly back to the start point... and time for Mur to get off and protect her reputation. Lovely lady, but unfortunately, she's decided she likes me and keeps sending me messages. I'd swapped phone numbers to arrange the pickup out of town. Hmmm.



Maybe I should have done one of the organised tours, rather than asking Mur to show me around and buying her lunch?

​

Hmmm... just noticed the wording on that sign "We offer the one thing that everybody wants".... and seeing my missus (and kids) read this.... No Dear, she isn't following me home. There's no sin in this place!

A couple more Lake Maninjau shots from my hotel - Hotel Tan Dirih. Not a bad place btw.



Same view, wider out, in the morning




Checking the traps







I did a quick run to Bukittinggi



The hope was that the next day I could get a crack at one of the three volcanos that surround the town... one of which is a smoker, but it pelted down and the volcanoes were cloud-covered in the morning



Nope... not riding up that one... nor this one



So, I headed north for Lake Toba. I wasn't expecting, nor trying to do it in one hit.... but I didn't have a clue where I'd find accomodation. I struck rain a couple of times and pulled in at this shop to wait one cloudburst out... and to rehydrate



... and found myself being entered onto numerous mobile phones again



There was a pretty grotty "house" opposite that place... with three little kids who were running away every time I pointed the camera their way. A very poor family. I grabbed three bottles of orange juice - I'm the last of the big spenders, that cost $1.80 - and took them over to the kids.... so all the adolescent girls started pointing at themselves, "me, me".... nah... smiled, shook my head - they laughed and off I went.

The road got grotty and on one of the slower mountain passes, I spotted this. A waterwheel genset - I took a nice video of it, but for some silly reason held the camera sideways. I'll post it if anyone wants to see it... with their head cranked over...



A couple on a nice new KTM (a local scooter brand... not the KTM I'm riding).. who I'd just passed, tooted as they went by. 200 metres and 3 corners later, I was second on the scene. She was up, he wasn't.... and he didn't look happy. I did the thumb up, thumb down, shoulder shrug... and got a thumb down. Busted leg from the look of it. Scooter was pretty well scraped up. Sign language continued and the passenger said they'd be OK... someone had gone for help. As it turned out, there was a small town a couple of km further up.... and there was a Red Cross sign there. I didn't take any photo... he was in enough pain without someone taking a photo of it. I'd had no trouble at all on that road btw. I ended up having a few, easily caught, slides... on both wet and dry roads... the latter with a smooth surface and a bit of sandy dust around. Nothing to worry about, but reason enough to keep the race face in the bag.

I spotted these guys in one of the rivers and thought at first it was a water pumping operation.



I realised later, in town, that it was a gold mining operation.

I tried "nearest lodging" with Mr Garmin... and got a comedy show instead. What a hoot. Mr Garmin wanted me to go across this



The locals further up the road pointed up the road for a "losmen" (hotel)... and I eventually found one in a grotty little town. One of the few side roads on the way had this lot loading up for a trip into the hills. It was sure getting crowded on that truck



There were a lot of memorials on the ride through this part of Sumatra. All, I think, related to 1945 independence fighting..



Some guys, asking for money for clearing a tree off the road. I kicked in a little bit... the guy pointed to my stash of small notes (I'm not pulling out a wallet with more in it than these guys will see in a year...).... and asked for more. Hey... what's wrong with 20c?... I said "no... no... this for the next guys"... and the guy smiled and nodded and thanked me "Terimakasih"... I gave him a "same same" (you're welcome) and was off.



Found myself rather happy to find this five star establishment. $13 for my room. El Conquistador, the Spaniard on a GSA 1200 who arrived later... a miserable sod who whinged and moaned about every price paid $12 for his much smaller room. His style of bartering doesn't work.... and it pisses people off.



I took a photo of the "bathroom"... but don't seem to have uploaded it. I might later. It had a Turkish squat... in a tiny space that, well, you don't need the details... let's just say it was interesting... and the mandi (large water reservoir) was full of slime... and the floor was slime covered too. I had a bucket shower out of the tap.... with nice brown water.

So... I stopped for the night in Kotanopan. Its a very conservative Muslim town. Vespa scooters with sidecars everywhere... the local taxis.



I didn't see a single other type of bike with these sidecars... in this town. The next town had all small motorbikes with these sidecars, then the next town again... back to Vespas, then the next... motorbikes.

Weird little things... but I guess it rains a lot



Most of them have some sort of car badge attached... mainly Mercedes Benz badges, but I also saw Suzuki and Toyota... all on Vespas



I took a photo of this miserable bitch for one reason only. She really pissed me off.



She was trying to attract my attention and was pointing to someone, something that I couldn't see and laughing and carrying on a treat. I went back to see... and it was a young bloke with Downs Syndrome... Poor bugger. I expressed my displeasure to Miss Bitch and smiled at the young bloke and said G'day. The guy must get a real pasting from bitches like her. Truly though, I've seen many disabled people here (my waiter yesterday had legs so twisted, he'd have been in a wheelchair in Oz... then again, they wouldn't be twisted.... they'd have been fixed)... and that's the first sign I've seen of nastiness. I hope that Karma proves to be a real pain in the arse for her.

... and gold mining... I wandered up the street the other way and saw a young bloke grinding up something in a small bowl. I figured he was a pharmacist. Nope. He was grinding up some alluvial gold and the other guy was weighing it up and calculating payments. I asked the guy on my side of the counter if he was a miner and got a nod. It reminded me of when I did a job in the horse racing industry though... and was in the weigh-in room with the racing steward watching the jockeys. Serious stuff. Don't intrude type of stuff. People cheat and if you intrude... watch out.

I wandered around Katanopan a bit... my room wasn't that appealing. I was tempted to take a couple of hijabs home for the missus, but wasn't sure what colour to get her



I ate at a fairly large restaurant... the normal type you see on the roads - all the food prepared in the morning, then left on display in bowls out front. I tend to play it a bit safe with these and stick to Ayam (chicken). They'll give you a few bowls of stuff... I've had up to six plates put in front of me at times... and I ate them all until I figured out that they only charge you for what you eat. I had a mother raised in the Depression, who drummed into me stories about starving Biafrans... and always eating everything put in front of you. Sorry Mum....



There were some sad sacks sitting around this place.



The next morning, as I was leaving, the owner called me over for a photo with his family, which I hadn't expected because he'd been a bit cool. This town is pretty much the last Muslim strongpoint for a while... up the road a bit I spotted my first Christian church... and I think there's a bit of tension there. I'd walked in on the owner at just after 6:30 the previous evening, walked up to the counter and said something to him... and he disappeared... dropped to the floor behind the counter. Oops... he was mid prayer. I left my camera on the counter and buggered off outside for 10 minutes. He obviously appreciated my leaving him to it and he was friendlier after that.



El Conquistador, on the other hand... had stormed into the place and didn't seem too popular in any of the places I went with him that evening. He bitched and moaned about every price.... argued over every line item on his bill. His change went into his pocket. Mine had gone into the mosque building fund box. I'm willing to bet he doesn't know what that is. I first heard him when I was in my room uploading photos "Hey, you took my parking space in the lobby"... eh wot?... as he stomped through the place in his boots (mine were outside the front door). I'm sure he's having a wonderful time. He spent half of dinner videoing himself and his food. I ended up sharing stories about him the next day with an English couple who'd had the misfortune to actually ride with him. He doesn't own the bike apparently... its a sponsored ride



I'm pointing at a broken video camera mount on El Conquistador's bike there. He'd lost a GoPro camera that day. Andras had problems with their mounts too. My Contour HD has been fine.

I really was struck by the size of his bike. It was just so fat-arsed that I couldn't believe it.



It would have to slow you down on these roads. I asked him what time he'd left Lake Toba. He did the trip down in 10 1/2 hours or so. I did it going the other way in 8... and I had my cruising face on, not my race face... and I stopped heaps of times... including a long lunch, several coffee stops, photo stops...

Here's El Conquistador 'imself.



Ahhh - here's the photo of my slimy dunny at that hotel. Photobucket has shuffled my photos for me.... I uploaded about 80 when I got to Lake Toba.



Appealing eh?

So... off I went, destination Lake Toba. I'd already missed getting a photo of me crossing the Equator the day before - apparently there's a line painted across the road, but I missed that... I did see a small memorial, but thought it was an early warning that it was coming up.... and I wasn't interested in turning back when I realised it wasn't

I did spot the first Christian church.



This was one of the last big mosques... but there is some crossover



I've mentioned to a couple of groups of Christians that I've been talking to since then that the Muslims I've met have all been good. They don't seem to agree.

I did spot an earthquake resettlement camp. Tiny shacks. I'd been told that most are 2 metres x 3 metres for a family... and that the toilets for the camp couldn't cope.



I spotted a naked kid - about 10 - 12 years old taking a dump into the gutter beside the road. The gutter had flowing water at least... but 50 metres down the road, there was a woman doing her washing in it too. Hmmm.



I didn't stop... just shot some photos on the way through... I'm guessing this is the camp the German NGO guy was talking about. A lot of unhappy people, young girls being raped, etc.

The road varied quite a lot. I got the imperial ton happening in one stretch... and in others, I was picking my way through massive potholes in first gear. My Garmin decided to stuff my track for the day up... and I ended up with 3 tracks.... of around 80, 89 and 219 kilometres... with average moving speeds of 57, 53 and 40 kmh - but the last one included a slow ferry ride. The first 30km out of Silbolga took me about 1 1/2 hours. It was a really chopped out bit of road.

I snapped this shot of a dozen young kids on an outfit



.... but missed one with about 15 older boys on it going the other way. You couldn't have got another thing on it.

I had to stop plenty of times for trucks taking up all my bit of the road. Situation normal. The drivers like to know where their drivers side wheel is.... and everything else will sort itself out. I ended up diving to the other side of the road when I saw them on right hand corners (for me)... and passing them on their side of the road... because they never use it.



Oops. I stopped on the other side of the temporary bridge and threw some money in the rebuilding fund... and a cop I hadn't seen popped out from behind a rock and thanked me.



Same place... the locals down for a bath and to do the washing. You see this absolutely everywhere



One of the better sections of road. I can guarantee you I was holding my breath here... This camera doesn't really pick up the smoke well.... but this truck was a belcher. I've got a video that shows it, but the bandwidth here's a bit narrow. I uploaded a short video last night and it took damn near 5 hours to do.



This was a lovely little inlet when I got out of the mountains and back to the coast near Silbolga.



As mentioned, the road back up the hill was fun.





This is Sibolga from the climb up the hill.... looking back to the coast.



This lovely ran a road stall where I grabbed a coffee and a couple of bread rolls.... there being no breakfast available back in Kotanopan



She asked me where I was going... "Danau Toba... you come too?" She laughed , shook her head and showed me she was pregnant. She kept trying to flog me some fruit



Plenty of it around



This is just typical of how they drive here.... and why I scoot up the left so often. They haven't got a hope in hell of getting past, but they block it for everyone else too.



I've finally figured out what the right side indicator is for....

For guys like that... its "I'm going to pass... so bugger off if you are behind me"

For the truck in front its "It isn't safe to pass"... or "I'm overtaking" and sometimes its "It is safe to pass" ... and very occasionaly its "I'm turning right" Yep.... all of those

For a bike riding on the left side of the road its "I'm going slow... pass me"... or "I'm going to spear off across the road (but mostly not, because they mostly don't indicate when they are going to do that)... or "I've forgotten its on"... or whatever.

In other words... ignore them, use the horn... and smack their mirror if they squeeze you. The local response for guys who squeeze you is to face your hand backwards and give a few squeezing motions.... presumably its something to do with testicles. I prefer to bang their mirror... although there was one bus that I banged with my handlebars.

Lots of white water rivers





A funny thing happened to me on the way to Lake Toba. I couldn't get brekkie in Kotanoban - had to make do with a coffee... then another coffee on the road, and a water, and... so on. Finally, I spotted a restaurant that was packed. It'd just taken me about 90 minutes to go 25 -30 km across some rather interesting "roads".... and I hadn't been dawdling.

Anyhow, I saw a packed restaurant in the middle of nowhere... up in the hills.... so I did a u turn and went back. I got mobbed and with appropriate sign language, plates of food appeared. Some sort of dead animal that had lots of arteries and gristle. Dark meat. - First thing I was offered was some home brew petrol of some sort.... with a smile and "Christian" but I said no... and got water. They kept wanting me to try it, given they knew I'd just come several thousand km through Muslim territory... but I held firm.

Anyhow, about 40 or so people - all adults - mobbed me... photos and "where from... how old... name... etc" I knocked back two plates of meat, a big one of rice, some soup and some veges - and two cups of water and one bottle of water. When all was said and done... I asked "brappa?".... how much? Much consternation... an exercise book was produced, but they wanted me to write in it... so I put my name and home town in.... Nope... that wasn't it. Then someone with a smidgen of English says "this a big party... no pay price... you give what you want" I could have walked out for 50c... and they'd have been fine... So - was that hospitality laid on for a wealthy foreigner? Not in the slightest. The last thing mentioned was money - and it was me that did it... Seriously... these people love meeting foreigners and it isn't for the money.

Here's the guys in Christian land.... pissed, of course. This is the party where I stopped for lunch. I kept refusing the home brew hooch... I still had a long way to ride....





This lady didn't want her photo taken at first... and then eventually came over and threw her arms around me for a photo.



They kept throwing food at me... and I had to protest several times. Its presumably buffalo



Quite nice, whatever it was... plenty of arteries and gristle though.


I ended up passing these guys a few times, what with various stops




Chilli, anyone?



The other side of this hill was more interesting... but hey... that's two u-turns to get a photo. Its in-situ brick making on the hill.



More schoolkids on their way home. Try this in Oz or the US



More sh!tty roads



It started to rain again and I threw on the poncho and kept at it. It appears my poncho isn't designed for 120kph... its a tad shredded now. Eventually I spotted Lake Toba .... and an hour or so later, I was still not at the ferry out to Samosir island. I eventually got there and finally got a cop with a submachine gun to let me take his photo



Locally made gun apparently

I tried to roll onto one of the passenger ferries, but the skipper said "bike too big" and I got sent around to the vehicle ferry... and got to wait for an hour






Samosir is apparently the world’s largest island within an island, set in the world’s largest volcanic lake, in the world’s largest volcano crater caused by the world’s largest volcanic eruption!!

Nice ride over on the ferry... and I was first off... whilst the ferry was still moving. Should have turned the video on for that one.







Some girls from Banda Aceh on the ferry, down here for a holiday



The ferry crew, getting pissed on home brew hooch. They invited me in and passed the bottle, but I declined again. It isn't a bad brew.... but I'm not sure I want to share the bottle these days....



A bit of blurb about Toba. Pretty impressive place.



My Garmin failed the test again... I asked if for lodgings on the island... and it couldn't find any. The place is crawling with hotels and homestays. I'm at Caroline's... one of the most popular places.... and I'm in the top level room IIRC... at $15 a night. I just spoke to a bloke who's paying $3 elsewhere. Incidentally, unlike El Conquistador, I have zero sponsorships... and I don't want any. If Garmin offered me a sponsorship deal I'd tell them to stick it sideways where the sun don't shine. Their SE Asia map product is shit.

I pulled into Caroline's and saw 3 bikes. This is Andy's, a Pom who got his licence 4 years ago and hit the road. That's a GS650 or whatever BMW was calling the single cylinder 650 then (I've got a '94 F650 Funduro... which I gave my son)



Andy's been getting around a bit



Also there... hiding their bikes under a tarpaulin.. were Lisa and Simon Thomas (2ridetheworld.com) who've been on the road for 10 years.

I had dinner and brekkie with them... and then they headed off towards Australia. Lisa and Simon have a deadline they have to be in Australia for, which I think is a pity... they won't have the chance to poke around some of the lovely parts of Indonesia and Timor-Leste. I've just decided today that I'm not heading for Malaysia yet. I've got a flight out of KL on April 8... but I'm leaving the bike here in Indonesia for another poke around the northern part of Sumatra when I get back here on May 8.

The three of them bolted together in the morning. I couldn't believe how much gear they were wearing... Lisa and Simon had full Touratech undersuits and oversuits on. They'd have been very comfortable I guess... but I'm happy running light and don't mind getting wet. I was cool when riding in here... wet and at a bit of altitude, but not shivering cold. Lisa's bike (another 650 BM) and Simon's (an 1100GS) weigh 320kg and 350kg. My 950SE is going to be a lot lighter than that when I eventually find a weighstation... I'm guessing around 250... 260 loaded and fueled.



.... and my road profile is one hell of a lot narrower



I really liked their carbonfibre helmets.... although I don't want to be riding in goggles.



I'm loving it here at Caroline's... although my hot water isn't - its footy guernsey territory at times... and blanket at night sometimes too, so hot water would be nice.

One of the local birds, in the trees off the balcony. I'm sitting in the open restaurant, 30' above the lake and about 20' back from it. Went for a swim in it yesterday. Very pleasant temperature.



The day before yesterday was wet...



but I got some exploring in. Yesteray started out beautiful... and the American woman, Connie, who has braved the back of the Super Enduro and I did some great exploring... and then got totally drenched. Totally. No real worry, except I was wearing my shoes, not my boots... and they are still soaked.

We walked around the peninsular we are on at Tuk Tuk, on Samosir Island... and, of course, stayed drug free



Someone I know... not me... has tried the magic mushrooms here.... but I remember all my mates chucking their guts up on them when we were at school. No thanks. My friend said she had visions of zebras and the like. Nah... I'll stick to a couple of Bintangs

We called in at a salon and had a facial and head/shoulder massage each. I have to say, I appreciated the facial... there was a lot of diesel in my skin.

The local Batak houses are interesting. They are higher at the rear, where the children sleep, than at the front, where Dad sleeps... because the fathers want their children to rise higher in life than he did.






We took in a local dance show... which was mildly interesting. The girls looked a bit bored... and as soon as they finished, without exception, they dived for their mobile phones and Facebook



We bolted at intermission



... and headed up to the Reggae Guesthouse. Nothing was happening... but we asked about live music... and all the local lads grabbed an instrument

... and five minutes later, about a dozen of them were at it. Fabulous.



... the rest of the gang



No cover charge... but we had a Bintang or two.

Late in the afternoon, when the rain had gone, Connie and I decided to go find the tomb of King Sidabutar. We eventually made two unsuccessful expeditions, over two days before finally finding it. No signs... and a distinct lack of distance sense when locals talk to you. They point directions. That late afternoon trip, we found what we thought was a sign to the tomb and a +/- 9km distance on it. We were already 2km past it as it turned out... and we headed down this rugged track. Really rugged. 30' puddles... slippery mud, slippery smooth rocks... and so on. With us wearing street gear (and helmets). Connie told me yesterday that she'd been thinking that if she survived that trip she was never getting on the bike again... but now she's enjoying it.... and is really impressed with how the locals have a different attitude to us because we're on the bike.

So... 10km down the track... I pulled up at a local small Warung (pub/restaurant)... and asked about the tombs... as I'd done several times... with no luck on the way. "No... in Tomok". Oops. I did a u-turn and thought... bugger it, let's say G'day... so we slipped and slid our way up to the Warung and got welcomed in.

We ordered a Bintang... although the local guys had been thrusting cups of home brew at us... and it took a bit of organising to get the Bintang instead. I gave it to Connie and got into the local brew



Next thing we knew, there's a plate of the most delicious fish in front of us. These guys are local Batak fishermen.... working on aquaculture setups a few hundred metres away from the Warung. The Swiss introduced the aquaculture here a few years back. The fish we were eating was fresh out of one of the pens that afternoon.

That fish went south and another appeared. Bloody delicious with a lovely fresh chilli sauce



Great food, great company



Plenty of guys there... and a couple of women - the cook, who I think owned the Warung and another woman (maybe she owned it?)



Here's the cook



One of the lads




He was a cool dude with his cigarette tucked in that gap

I don't know the story behind the Indian Turtledoves on platforms in the roof... I know I shoot the bastards at home ... they don't visit my place any more and the local, native pigeons have returned to my area. I hate these feral bastards



I asked "Brappa" (how much) and got a horrified look from the main man. No, no... no pay. I pointed at the Bintang and he shrugged and reluctantly said 30,000 rupiah ($3 for a 600ml, large bottle)... and pointed at the fish and said "no pay". OK, thanks mate. Much appreciated. Lovely hospitality. Interesting too, because he'd already asked me how much I paid for my camera... 27,000,000 rupiah. His jaw dropped on that one. Guaranteed more than he makes in a year.... maybe two (fishermen are poor here).

By this stage, it was dark outside... and we had the ride home, 10k on the track from hell and another 5-10k from there on local roads. I had one headlight hanging from a single bolt (I've got zero bolts holding my luggage rack on, I've lost tools because the tool bag has rubbed through and somehow they've escaped from under the seat and there's bound to be more.... I've lost my third left rear indicator... and so on.... Did I mention the roads here are rough?)... and it was an interesting trip back. I got sick of going sideways... I reckon because I was going too slow, so I got into it and caught up to a local guy and followed his lines through the puddles and potholes.... until he stopped at a Warung. Unbelievably, I then came up on a local guy riding with no lights. He appreciated mine... and got into it, and I followed him to his local Warung... and eventually we made town in one piece... albeit rather muddy.

... and that's where I'm up to with photos. I've got more to upload. We did the tourist bit yesterday... but we're off for a massage soon... and I want to go buy this bronze walking stick I saw yesterday.

Here's a little one from yesterday. Still on Samosir Island on Lake Toba. A little Batak village that isn't on the tourist trail, we stumbled in after some wrong directions.... we'd been looking for the King's tomb.

We got invited in for coffee and a chat by a lovely family.
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They really were lovely. Mum was off working somewhere. Dad, 58 is blind. Cataracts in both eyes and they can't afford the $800 for the operation to fix it. I'll see if we can organise something back in Oz.

poop.... I've lost my 3G internet dongle. How's a guy supposed to keep things up to date without a dongle? I'm headed off a little ways tomorrow to check out a volcano that Connie told me is good value, then off to see the Orangutans a bit further north... then into Medan, where I should be able to get a new dongle

I've arranged lock-up storage for my gear and bike in Medan... and will fly out of there on April 8 and back in on May 8 or 9.... with a new countershaft seal and maybe even a new chain. Definitely a new tyre. Air travel over here is so damn cheap. Medan to Kuala Lumpur was doable for $60... I ended up paying $83 for a prime time flight. I really didn't want to be chasing my tail and end up being stranded with the bike on a ship and me needing to be back in Oz for client meetings.

I go riding for 3 weeks and come back to pages and pages to read and catch up on!

It makes a good read, thanks for taking the time to write it up

Glen

My pleasure Glen...

This will be a mostly non-visual update until next week sometime..... I'm having some internet access problems. One of the restaurant staff at Danua Toba picked up my dongle and, whilst I eventually got it back, I'm thinking she may have abused it. I lost internet access - put another 100,000 rupiah on it... supposed to be 5,000 a day for access (50c)... but its all gone 2 days later...

...so... I'm across the road from my guesthouse in Medan... at KFC, using the Colonel's freewifi. Not sure how long I can take sitting at a KFC with kids birthday parties going on.

Re cameras - I've upgraded from the near-dead S6100 Nikon point and shoot to a Nikon AW100 - which, funnily enough, is made in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the destruction manual is Indonesian only.... but it seems to be a ripper. Its waterproof to 33' and shockproof to 5'. I wonder how it stands up to bull elephants... my guess is that he'd have busted this one too.

I&#8217;m in Medan now. My bike is wedged into the living room at the guesthouse&#8230;. and that&#8217;s where I think I&#8217;ll leave it for the next month while I duck home and quieten a few client nerves. The bike's where the guesthouse owner wants it&#8230;. and given we dragged it around on the tiles to get it there, I&#8217;d rather grab local transport for the next few days than try and get it out again. He likes bikes and he absolutely insisted I bring it inside last night.

Yesterday&#8217;s ride was good&#8230; but nerve wracking, not because of all the buses running me off the road, but because I was carrying my new bronze walking stick&#8230; and its wider than my handlebars. That's something I do not like one little bit. I seriously wouldn&#8217;t like riding a bike like El Conquistador&#8217;s or any of the others I&#8217;ve seen&#8230;where the panniers are a good 6-8&#8221; wider than the handlebars. You might as well drive a car instead

I ran with the wider part of the walking stick out on the left yesterday&#8230;. The &#8220;near side&#8221; as the English would say. That meant I had to give an extra 6&#8221; width to everyone I was overtaking&#8230; and given I clipped mirrors with a small truck I overtook the day before, it took some adjustment on my part. Riding here is all about gap management.... riding into and through small gaps.... I&#8217;m glad I changed the extra overhang to the left side compared to having it on the right, like the previous day&#8230; I was having a really good 90 &#8211; 100 kmh dice with a local when a bus going the other way decided to overtake. I squeezed past, hard on the brakes but still doing 45 kmh - three wide on the bitumen. I&#8217;d have gone bush if the overhang had been on the bus&#8217;s side&#8230; rather than risk getting smashed to pieces by the walking stick. I went bush for three army trucks on the run from Danua (Lake) Toba, where I bought this bronze monstrosity, to Berastagi. I never saw the local again after that bus, so I don&#8217;t know if he&#8217;s a bus mascot now or whether he went bush&#8230;. Or hopefully, just reached his destination.

So, back to Danau Toba. What a truly magnificent place. I posted a photo with the key statistics earlier IIRC. From when I first got to its shores &#8211; halfway across one end, until I reached the ferry to Samosir Island, which leaves from halfway up the lake, I rode hard for well over an hour. Its one big lake.... 87km long and its deep too&#8230; I&#8217;ve seen it listed as 450 metres deep and 525 m&#8230;. and so on. I believe the eruption that created it 74,000 years ago had a significant effect on the world&#8217;s population. I had a great time there. To use her words, I "hooked up" with an American woman, Connie... and we explored the island and its attractions together. I always thought 'hooked up' had a physical connotation... and apart from the fact that riding two-up on a big dirt bike on rough roads is, shall we say, a bit physical,... we made good travelling companions.... but only good travelling companions.

Connie commented at one stage on what a different reception we got from locals, with us being on the bike rather than the reception she normally got. She was amazed. She also said that she'd resolved on the first day... when we ended up slithering and sliding down a horrible road in the dark.... that if she lived through the experience, she was never getting on the KTM again. She relented, changed her riding style - and loved it from then on. She'd been tensing for bumps, rather than going with the flow.

The back country ride I did from Danau Toba to Berastagi was interesting.... I stopped to get some chow in a small town - ended up getting a coffee... which turned out to be tea (can't win them all) and three boiled eggs (can't win many some days) and had a good, if stilted, "conversation" with the locals - two of whom were whallopers - one packing, in plain clothes. There was a guy there dressed in rags, filthy... really, really filthy - who stayed outside the cafe. He was very dark skinned... much darker than the others and they shunned him a bit. I don't know the whole story there... but he refused my offer of food... but asked for money. I tried to get into my gear, but couldn't get to any clothes without a total unpack in the rain and mud... so he missed out on a new shirt. I gave him some cash as I was leaving.... and got a lot of thumbs ups and nods from the locals.. the same ones who had been giving the guy a bit of a ribbing. Buggered if I know? Here's the lads..



I did the 177km (according to my GPS) from Danau Toba to Berastagi in 3 hours 49 minutes moving... but a lot longer than that overall. I moved from Toba, after 4 nights there, to Berastagi.... and spent two nights in this strangely deserted hotel... there was just me and someone in the next room the first night.... and there's also over 100 villas there... 1 of which was occupied. Weird. Nice location though... on the lower slopes of a nice volcano - with another one not far away.

Anyhow, I'd been warned the back way was broken and twisty... but I wasn't expecting to find a wormhole to another galaxy...



I'd picked that as just another pothole to jump and was concentrating on my line through the big puddle and broken road before it when I spotted some reinforcing rod sticking up... tried to change lines, realised I wasn't going to make it and and went for the brakes. I stopped a metre short.... slid to a halt with the front wheel turned and locked and damn near dropped the bike.... just managed to hold it.

I backed away to get the photo.... but that hole is about 18" wide and over 3 feet deep. It wouldn't have been nice.

I'll upload the rest of my Lake Toba and Sibayak volcano photos... along with a few from Medan - when I get home early next week. I've "hooked up" with a young Dutch girl... in the non-physical sense... a tiny slip of a thing, Hanna.... and we, and two Dutch guys went out and got wet last night (big tropical dump of rain). Another friend of Hanna's is flying in about now, so we should have a bit of a Good Friday party happening tonight... although the other guys have flown out.

I've really been enjoying this RR and in particular the insight you give into the lives and culture of some of our nearest neighbours.

BTW I recently scored the AW100 to compliment my aging D70 and so far am very happy with it. I have the manuals in PDF format if you'd like a copy.

WOW! This RR is great!
Read the whole thing in two days.


BTW. you didn't happen to hear what route the Japanese dude rode from Finland?
I would really like to go from Europe to Singapore one day, but having a having a hard time finding a good route.

I did... at the time, but that's garbled into the mists of 6 discussions with other riders now. Sorry. I recall Peter, the Dane that I rode Cape york with came through Russia, Mongolia and Thailand... but I'm not sure of his full route either. I keep in contact with him, so will ask.

Cheers

I've got them in English on CD... but no CD drive with me. I've just put them with the pile of gear to fly home with me on Sunday.... so I should be OK thanks. How about one of us gets disappointed? I paid $360 ($370 with credit card charge) here in Indofor the AW100 . What are they there?

Gee, its going to be a bugger getting off the plane in Sydney on Monday... and spending the damn day working. I've got a draft report to finalise and get to the client on Tuesday. I don't think I'm looking forward to that. I am looking forward to getting back here in a month's time though.

Hanna, (Hannies really), Willemijn and I headed out to get an early meal and have a look around. It turned into a fascinating journey... we had a tidbit, then moved to another area, and ended up being dropped off at the main mosque here. Visiting was over, but one of the main guides grabbed us and took us around anyhow... showed us the Sultans graves, described the whole mosque / prayers bit.... got the girls going a bit by telling them that menstruating women aren't pure... and so on. Eddy (our guide) went to Islamic school for 3 years from the age of 8. At one stage, Willemijn bent over... and exposed her lower back / upper butt.... in the mosque grounds. Eddy had a look of horror... grabbed her shirt and pulled it down. Women praying in the mosque can only expose their face and the palms of their hands.

We ended up wandering through the grounds of the Sultan's Palace (the current Sultan is 14 years old)... and then going miles to a street restaurant. Dinner included fried pippies, boiled turtledove eggs, capcay, tempe, etc, etc. Washed down with avocado juice lashed with chocolate.

Quite a feast. $15 for 4 of us... well, 7 of us actually. Three 12 year old boys turned up looking for money for food... so I sat them down and handed them our left overs. They were still hungry, so they all polished off a Nasi Goreng each too.

Eddy was somewhat smitten with Willemijn... so we rescued her but buggered it up a bit. I slipped him some money.. and so did W. He did OK for himself. I'll get some photos up eventually.

There's an 88 yo American guy here at the guesthouse... with his girlfriend... a local Muslim lady who'd be no older than 45 at a guess. He's well looked after and she looks content, if not happy.

I see that Ryda are selling it for about $360, up to $450 at Teds and less than $300 online - grey market imports perhaps? I got mine for "free" using reward points from my credit card. I did buy a 2nd battery and a 12v charger for it as I can easily flatten the battery in less than a day.

About the same money then... except for the grey imports. Let's see how this one lasts... I drowned a Canon Ixus 105 last year when I dropped the Katoom on a slimy causeway up on the Liverpool Plains.... I'd been keeping it in the unzipped top of my tank bag... and it looked a bit sad staring up at me from the bottom of the creek. The funny thing about the elephant doing the Nikon S6100 in was that it was in my shorts pocket at the time... and I had my D7000 hanging around my neck. The D7000 survived us being tossed, luckily, Three weeks later though and I've still got a sore leg.

OK... I've wandered off to Sun Plaza here in Medan... its a major shopping centre and there's lots of affluence on display there. Lots. Medan is Indonesia's third largest city and according to Lonely Planet, around 30% of Indonesia's exports come from Northern Sumatra, so there's some wealth here to go with the poverty and beggars. I went there the other night with Hanna and the two Dutch guys. I shouted them a half beer each at the sushi bar. Yep...you're the last of the big spenders, Ian.... it cost me just shy of $30 for two German beers. I'll stick to the Bintang at $3 for a large bottle (around a pint).

Anyhow... I've stocked up on oil for when I return. Stanley, from the guesthouse told me where to go at the Plaza to get the good oil. Its damn hard to find decent oil here and I want to do an oil change, put a new chain on and fix a few things up when I get back. I know I'm missing at least 8 bolts.... some of which I won't be able to replace because I've lost the fittings that went with them. My luggage rack has been held on by precisely zero bolts for weeks now.... not a single one... but its been a ripper... it doesn't need them... although it moves around a bit when the luggage isn't on. My numberplate is ziptied on now too. Did I ever mention that the roads here are a little bit rough? I thought I was going to get decent mileage out of my Mitas E09 front tyre, but its showing significant wear now, at 4,500km - the blocks are worn down at the back, presumably from the hard braking. The rear, a Mefo Super Explorer is shot at the same mileage... which is 50% better than I got from the last pair of tyres, perhaps because I've toned down the wheelies and the roads are a bit more open, if no smoother?

I got a funny story from Stanley... he's rather finicky about security. Made sure there's nothing removable left on the bike, got it covered up and locked away too. So Stanley tells me about El Conquistador... who stayed here a few days before I crossed his path. He wanted to go into town to get something... and Stanley told him to take local transport, not his bike. Nope... and off he went. That's where he lost the GoPro camera that El Conquistador told me had snapped off. Someone pinched it while he was shopping. I'll make no further comment on that one.

So, I got the girls at the Plaza to sort out my dongle... and I should be able to get a few Danau Toba pics up... Lessee

Lake (Danau) Toba.



The view from the restaurant/bar at Carolinas, where both Connie and I were staying



She was in the cheapest rooms at about $9. I spent up big and was in a big room with supposedly hot water at $15.50. At least the chill was off the water... we were at a bit over 800 metres altitude here.

This is the village we blundered into when lost, whilst looking for a tourist site.



The Batak house that the girls (17yo and 20yo) invited us into for coffee. Not exactly my sized door.



There was a dog in there btw... the girls said it climbs the stairs, but we didn't witness that. These Batak houses have an odd number of steps. Criminals used to be made to sleep in houses with an even number of steps. Apparently there's a reason....

The girls



The rest of the mob... including dad (the 58yo guy with cataracts). I've been making some enquiries here in Medan, but haven't pinned down a solution yet.




I reckon we can get him sorted out, I'll have a chat to the Fred Hollows Foundation when I get back to Sydney and go from there.

Did I ever mention that I don't like Chupa Chups. Dunno why



Ahh, coffee.



Incidentally, that mat is what they sleep on. Not exactly inner springs... but they aren't that harsh. I've had a massage or two laying on those sort of mats and its survivable.

Connie and I both thought this daughter was around 14, but she says she's 17



Back at Carolinas, I heard a noise in the restaurant ceiling. I'm no cat fan... but apparently Hanna wants me to send her this photo



..... and on that note, I'm about to pack and flit back to Sydney for a month to keep a couple of nervous clients happy. Its a bummer of a trip home from here. I've got to be at Medan airport at 9am to fly to KL... which takes an hour or so... then at 11:45pm its off to Sydney for a 9:45am arrival... and straight to work.... on Easter Monday. Fortunately, I scored an English language book at the plaza.

I'll get the rest of the photos up here over the next week or two and I'll be back here on May 8th. The plan is to go north of here a tad... to see the Oran-gutans in the wild - one or two days trekking involved, but there's 5,000 or so at a place about 90km up the road. Might try to get to Banda Aceh too before choofing off to Penang, Malaysia.

I'm hoping all my friends on the West and Northern coasts of Sumatra are OK.

The news of the 8.6 and 8.2 earthquakes is horrible... although its sounding like there's no major tsunami.

To put a face to this... these lovely girls on the Lake Toba ferry were all from Banda Aceh.... a city which lost 60,000 dead in the 2004 tsunami.



Connie, my American friend has just emailed to say she's OK - she'd gone to Nias Island... not the place to be if there's a tsunami.... but is back on Sumatra and up in the hills at Bukittinggi.

Again, I hope the rest of the people I know over there are OK

Well, I found that whole earthquake experience horrible... knowing so many of the people there... and being here in Sydney, watching from afar.

I flew home from Medan to Sydney, via Kuala Lumpur on Sunday/Monday... and got straight into work after I got off the plane - for another 14 hours. Deadline met, I crashed into bed and its taken me till now to start to feel human again.

So, now I'm trying to think about what's needed to go back with me (chain, tyres, the fourth set of rear indicators and some more bolts... and more). I've been on the phone to the three-letter acronym agency that do bike registration here now and they were useless. It will be interesting trying to get the bike registered. I need an inspection certificate... but Indonesia don't do inspections. The Poms have a system where you don't need to keep paying the full fees if you are overseas. Our mob though want me to pay insurance in case I injure someone in Australia... while I'm out of the country. Pricks.

Anyhow... enough of that. Let's bring this ride report up to date.

Back to Lake Toba. Connie and I finally found good the 200-year-old stone sarcophagus of King Sidabutar. It was right under our noses, in the village of Tomok, a hop skip and jump from where we were staying, in Tuk Tuk. We must've put in 40km looking for something that was 3km from our hotel.... but it was good fun looking around anyhow.

Here he is. Apparently his sarcophagus is the shape of a ship.







Plenty of carved statues around there too







and even some cuties



Right next door, life goes on... drying out the corn crop



... and trying to flog dried/smoked fish to the tourists

.

I did buy a few trinkets here.... a thin hand-made blanket/scarf thing and a bamboo noise-maker for the kids soccer games. I was surprised to get it through customs - but I declared it and did. I felt pretty sorry for the ladies flogging stuff - there were lots of them and not many tourists. Toba is an absolutely brilliant tourist spot... but there isn't an airport within cooee... so with the advent of cheap point to point airfares, tourism here has died.

A quick stop at a bike shop to get a screw.... for the headlight that was falling out.



The guy there had a daughter who was scared of the big bule monster and his camera... but I caught her eventually.



We headed off in the other direction... looking for Ambarita, just north of Tuktuk - rated as one of the musts when visiting Samosir. Its a traditional village with King Siallagan's stone chairs. These traditional Batak houses are interesting. The lines on the front symbolise the continuous nature of the family.





We paid our 40c entry fee and got the current King as our guide. He explained that he - and all Bataks - know his grandfather's grandfather's brother's descendants. Did you follow that, or do I need to draw a diagram? We got the diagram.... a mud map. I suppose I should point out that it pissed down on us between Tomok and Ambarita... and we didn't have any wet weather gear with us. Such is Asia.

Here's the King, giving us the full rundown on the stone chairs... with me being allowed to sit in the King's chair.





These chairs are 400-500 years old. They were used in a tribal council arrangement to determine the fate of baddies. Generally a thief would get off by paying reparations, most of which went to the King. Real baddies (including those who got among the King's wives) would be sent off for execution. Being pretty fair chaps, they'd test the baddie to see if he was magical or not... they'd slice him all over with a sharp knife. If he didn't bleed he was magical. If he did... they rubbed lime juice and chillies in to the wounds... to soften him up a bit.

This is the execution site.



Some Aussie bloke volunteered for a demo to the assembled crowd. Um... that'd be Connie...





Afterwards, they carved them up and ate them.. the King getting first pick. Maybe the lime and chillies were really a marinade?

Wandering through the tourist traps... there must've been about 40 stalls all trying to attract Connie and I... the only tourists there... I spotted a "nice" bronze walking stick. The stallholder wanted 600,000... and I was short on cash, with no ATMs on the island. Bugger.



Some local details





Oh... I nearly forgot. One of the nice touches on the houses is the fertility displays. 4 breasts.



You've got to give credit to a culture that reveres breasts, eh?

I'd been off and sorted out my airfare from Medan to KL... I had intended to get there by the end of this leg of the trip, but I'm not going to be rushed anywhere. If there's places to stop and enjoy... I'm going to do it. I extended a Lake Toba a couple of times, for example... as I had at Padang.

Connie played old fart... and I headed out that night by myself. My ticket agent had invited me to her Karaoke bar. I got there and found her canoodling on the couch with her boyfriend... so disappeared after one beer. It wasn't "that" sort of Karaoke bar btw.... just music and beer. Some locals came in while I was there and strewth... one of the girls could sing. She was brilliant, but I left them to it and wandered across the road to a blues bar. There were only some locals playing pool. Here's the shy barmaid...



I bought a couple of beers for the winners of the pool games, which they appreciated.

I loaded up in the morning and headed towards Berastagi, the back way. I'd managed to get a bit of cash advanced on my credit card... one of the benefits of staying at the upmarket ($15.50 a night) Carolina's. Rooms can be had around Tuk Tuk for about $3.00.... in the dives.

So... $40 later, I loaded up the walking stick



and headed up the hill. I spotted lots of these above ground burial crypts. This one was where the current King's brother (the previous King) is buried, but I saw one that had five levels. They go into the bottom slot for 10-15 years... until the family raises enough funds for a decent sendoff... then the bones are consolidated and they go upstairs a level.



Not a bad road, but littered with fallen rocks everywhere.



Took a coffee break here



Overlooking the northern end of Lake Toba



I probably should've stopped here to see what the go was. It looked like a wedding... but I decided not to intrude. I still had my wet weather poncho on... or what was left of it. I'd lost the left arm and the rest of it was shredding a bit when I opened the throttle up a bit.



The road was getting narrow and was peppered with potholes





I posted this shot already... but it put the heebies up me enough for me to post it again. This sort of thing normally gets a palm frond or branch stuck in it to attract your attention. Mine was diverted to the broken road and puddle just before it... and I damn near went in to this.



Ughh

I couldn't figure this one out. Designed to stop buses and trucks using the road... but I couldn't figure out why. I had to duck to go under it... and there were plenty of minibuses after this that wouldn't have fitted under it. I dunno



I was getting ready for a break when I came up to this one horse town... a few houses, a copshop and a cafe. I pulled in for a coffee... asked for one and got tea, asked for food and got nods... so I pointed to some eggs and held up three fingers. Got three boiled eggs. Total bill $1.20. The guys here were giving the dark chap a bit of curry. He wanted money and I offered food, but he said no.



Incidentally, the guy pointing to my front wheel is another cop... packing a pistol in his waistband. I tried to get into my pack to give that guy a shirt, but couldn't get anywhere without a total unpack... so I gave him a dollar... and the guys who'd been giving him a hard time all thanked me. I dunno what the deal was.

I ended up on a more populated road and eventually stopped for another coffee. This view was totally built out on a corner by a succession of little cafes.



The monkeys were all in the rubbish 50' below us... chomping away on whatever people threw them.

Ahhh - Berastagi. The only town I've ever seen with a cabbage monument



Its also got two active volcanos. Gunung Sibayak, which I climbed, and the currently erupting Gunung Sinabung, which is off limits.

I stayed at the Highlands Hotel - a weird place with only me and one other guest in the hotel... and over 100 villas, of which only one was occupied.



A lot of these villas were crumbling, derelict



Really weird.

Mate, I've been following this for months. Great report and even better photos. You're the reason my wi-fi gets maxxed out every month. Keep it up .

Thanks Maverick. I'm almost done with this part of the trip... but I'll be back at it again in two and a half weeks. I just booked my flight back into Medan (at a fraction of the cost of local airfares.... a normal fare from KL to Medan is around $53, but mine cost another $20 with luggage and premium seating.

Just to show why that town I was in, Berastagi, has a statue of a cabbage in the main street, here's the view opposite my hotel.



I was staying at the top end of town in more ways than one. $30 a night and up on the slopes of a volcano for starters. That doesn't mean its all top end stuff... although I did have hot water and a flush toilet... that actually worked and didn't even have a sign asking me to not put paper in it. A nice touch was the tape over the powerpoint near the holder for the shower head. You could lift the shower head up well beyond this point too btw. It always pays to check the electrics out in bathrooms in Asia...



The main reason for stopping at Berastagi, only 75 km or so short of my departure point from Sumatra was to climb Gunung Sibayak a relatively small volcano. As usual, I made a couple of wrong turns finding it.... paid my 40 cents entry fee and rode up to the top carpark. Most people were walking the access road, as it was a bit steep and narrow for the minibuses. I stopped to speak to a small group just before the top carpark and was lucky enough, after I couldn't find the access track, to see them disappear into the jungle. It was a German girl, her husband and sister and two local guides. They literally stepped into the jungle. I could just hear them and chased as hard as I could, on foot of course. Eventually, I caught them and we broke out onto the proper trail. It'd just been the guides taking a shortcut.



We got up a bit, out of the jungle and could see the volcano summit



There were plenty of vents as we got towards the top and it was quite noisy.

These were real screamers



One of our guides giving some scale to the vents



Sibayak is 2,212 metres tall, 7,257'. Wiki said it last erupted in 1887, although the guides said it went off about 50 years ago. Its bigger twin in the area, Gunung Sinabung is a bit taller, just over 8,000' and is erupting at present. It was mostly cloud covered, although I did see the brown eruption cloud a few times. I've got a rather crappy photo of it somewhere, but didn't upload it.

Plenty of sulphur around



Another couple of views from the summit



This one is looking down to the geothermal power station and where the commercial hot springs are. The Germans continued on down this side, I went back to the bike and rode around to the springs



Plenty of clowns have jumped into the crater lake and used boulders to write their name, but its a bit hard to see that from this view, fortunately



I headed back down myself, although there were half a dozen local kids, including the guy in the shot above, who had done the climb who followed me and kept asking for money. I only really encountered this up in northern Sumatra but its never worried me much. I normally say no, but I'll buy you some food if you are hungry. These guys were smoking and I reckon that's what they were after.

The trail was a tad wet





At the hot springs - I ended up in the wrong one, the German girls were in one a bit down the road, dammit....

Anyhow, the view from here was fabulous. There were plenty of individual pools, so you could avoid the kids. Looking back up at Gunung Sibayak





I was the only westerner at these springs

There was an old bloke wandering around selling packets of ground up minerals from the volcano. The locals were keen on it... men and women both rubbing it in on any exposed skin.




Heading into town again, I saw plenty of this sort of thing... cane baskets, lined with banana leaves, waiting to be loaded up.



I stopped at this little place, loading tomatoes



I tried to ask the bloke there how much.... and he was saying, I think, 50,000. If that's 50,000 rupiah per basket... that's $5.

It was late enough in the day after all this that I'd missed checkout time, so I stayed over and headed to Medan in the morning.

I checked in to the place in Medan that Simon and Lisa Thomas (2ridetheworld.com) had recommended to me. Medan is Indonesia's third largest city and the guesthouse is quite noisy at the front.... and I couldn't talk Stanley into giving me one of the ground floor rooms at the back because he keeps them for the old and infirm folks. Um, Stanley, mate... my knees... Nope. Stanley insisted I bring the bike into the living room though, so it spent 3 days parked in there next to the organ.

Stanley pretty much insisted I not ride around Medan... he was worried about the bike and me. He'd told El Conquistador the same thing... but he'd ridden into town and someone had snitched a video camera off El Conquistador's bike while he was shopping. Um... I guess its nice to be sponsored and not have to worry about things like that... El C had 4 GoPros, so who cares if he loses one - not him apparently? He'd told me when I saw the busted mount a few days earlier, up the road, that it'd broken off... yeah mate - broken off when someone reefed it off.

Young Hannah and I decided to head out for dinner, then a couple more Dutch kids turned up, so we took them along too. Walked into town to Sun Plaza, which was a rather high-end shopping plaza with everything you'd expect in a similar thing in the west. I offered to buy them a beer and we ended up in a Sushi Bar. The beer was German... and $15 a bottle. We shared two between the 4 of us and moved on to somewhere that didn't need a wheelbarrow full of money to eat. I picked up a new camera there, so it was good shopping.



Unfortunately, we ended up in the Islamic quarter... from a beer drinking perspective.... so it was off the menu, but it was a fun place to be - until the heavens opened up on us....



The four girls here are local nurses on their way home after work. I think there must be a maximum height limit for nurses eh?




Hmm... I seem to have run out of photos again... I better check the cameras, because there are more... including the mosque that made it onto everyone's screens with the earthquake coverage a couple of days after I left Medan.