Wonderful Indonesia (D5 to D9: Samosir Islands and Lake Toba)

HORAS SAMOSIR :( greetings by the Batak People)

Chinese Fung sui believes that our house should face the sea/lake as it is believed to bring us happiness, luck and success and have mountains at the back of our house as a sign of protection. So coming to this beautiful island of Samosir, I was able to realize the effects of it for myself. I spent four nights there in a traditional Batak house. I must confess here truly that I was really happy to be there and every moment I had there counts as one of the best times I ever had in my life. 

 

A traditional Batak house

Batak architectures are really unique and are well-preserved by the people. Since the first time I saw the Batak houses, I kept wondering how it looked like from inside because it was so much different from what we see in a usual rectangular shaped-houses in Bhutan and India. Now I understand why tourists coming to Bhutan admire our traditional houses so much. Uniqueness is what makes a place and its people worth remembering.

Samosir Island

Geographically, Samosir is a volcanic island surrounded by the incredibly beautiful Lake Toba in Sumatra Island of Indonesia. It has a population of less than one hundred thousand. The first thing I came to know as I set my feet on the island was that anyone (especially tourists) can rent motorbikes and ride around the island without a license and helmet. So my friend Rima was offered the golden opportunity to ride me around the island as she knew riding a motorbike…hehe. Kadinchey la!

Ready for a ride! 

Tomok is a famous market for tourists to buy home souvenirs. Once there, the shopkeepers keep nagging us with so many unwanted stuffs. However, for Bhutanese I thought the traditional batik-patterned shawls are must buy as they so much resemble our hand-woven kiras. The shawls match kiras so perfectly.

Coming from the mountains, I enjoyed seeing the way people over there has maintained a beautiful friendship with the form of nature called lake. Young kids enjoy jumping into the lake and swimming and floating. Like our mountains made me take on a number of hiking from my childhood, Lake Toba there had served the people to pick up a hobby/interest of swimming, boating and sea diving. A geography-induced hobby/interest!

As I had a morning walk around the island, I was amazed to see so many fruits graduating on their trees. I was seeing the Avocado trees for the first time. And even the durian. The durian tree was quite huge and I was told that the people don’t have to pluck it. It will fall off the tree as and when it’s ripened and those ripened durians act like they have eyes because they never fall on a human’s head. Well, if a durian hit our head, I am sure we will sustain some degree of head trauma as it’s not less than a kilogram with spiky coverings. I just wondered if this special feature of durian made them the ‘King of Fruits”. Other fruit trees I saw at the island were passion fruit and pineapple. Thank you Samosir for linking me back to nature in such a beautiful way.

 

Durian tree

Avocado tree

Sigale gale dance was a traditional Batak dance, which most of the tourist experience and enjoy while in Samosir. The tourists are made to put on a head gear and a shawl over the right shoulder. Then an instructor guides us through various steps. And next to him was a wooden puppet on which are the same costumes as us and that moves with the rhythm of the Batak song played in the background.

 

In the Batak Costume

With this, my trip to the Wonderful Indonesia came to an end. It was such a memorable time there where I was taken so close to the beauty of nature as lake and boat were so less in my life. Perhaps that made me develop some level of hydrophobia as well but so glad that Lake Toba reduced this phobia in me. I shall cherish those memories forever.

Terima Kasih

Wonderful Indonesia (D3 and D4: Siantar and Tarutung)

There were so many first times happening starting from the first mid-night flight to tasting the king and queen of fruits (Durain and Mangosteens). So on my third day in Medan, I had my first time experience to visit the bean-curd tofu factory and tasted the fresh products manufactured there. Soon I was enjoying the exotic view of Sipiso piso waterfall and even a part of so-much-heard of Lake Toba. Lake Toba is the largest lake in Indonesia. Now this Lake Toba was not in my surprise list but I must say that its real beauty was yet to explore in the few coming days.

Sipiso piso waterfall

In Bhutan, Tsirang is known as the yellow valley for the abundance of orange it produces every year. But I have never been to this yellow valley of Bhutan. I have nothing to regret even if I cannot visit in the future as I had my first time experience of visiting an orange orchid in Siantar and be able to pluck the orange right from the tree myself. The orange and green surrounding with the clear blue sky above made a perfect setting on a sunny day to have some beautiful pictures clicked. 

I tasted varieties of fruits that day. The first one would be again so-much-heard of durain. It was not allowed in air conditioned places and hotel rooms for the strong smell but the people loved so much. So I was alerted of its smell from the way it was not allowed in certain places, but when I tasted it, the smell wasn’t that strong and I ate around one whole of it. Then I knew its strong smell as I kept burping with its smell till the time I slept that night. I had mangosteens and salak fruit which were all new and first time for me.

Durians in my hands

Passion fruit, salak fruit, mangosteems in my hands

 

Welcome to my orchid

I don’t remember when was the last time I had a fresh spring water bath (may be long long time back) but that evening I enjoyed being in the spring water after I was so much hesitant to soak myself in it at first. The spring was surrounded by trees and animals (monkeys) and it was so much natural.

The next morning, I was again standing in front of Avalokitesvara praying at the Kwan Im temple for the third time in Indonesia, far more exceeding my expectation. This ended my stay in Siantar as our next destination was Tarutung. Thank you Siantar for so much of hospitality

Pemadian Air soda water

After a six-hour drive from Siantar, we reached Tarutung, south of Samosir islands. Here was the one of only two Air soda waters in the world: Pemadian Air soda water where I soaked myself in the bubbling soda water and learnt to float on the water surface. It was sad that I didn’t know swimming but I really enjoyed being in the water with the floating tube and being pulled here and there by the people who knew swimming and at times not moving from a particular spot as I was scared of being drowned.

I am thankful for being in the land of volcanic islands where I had the experience of visiting the hot spring water coming from the volcanic eruptions. The water was very hot (naturally) and made our skin very red when we soaked our legs there. Tarutung visit came to an end with visiting the Air Soda water and hot spring water.

So next was to the Samosir islands, crossing the beautiful Lake Toba…

(to be contd)

Thank you Rima for so many beautiful pictures!

Wonderful Indonesia (D1 and D2: Medan city and Berastagi)

Wonderfully wonderful Indonesia

When this trip was planned, I had so many questions and queries as I was to spend nine whole days in Indonesia but I kept it all to myself as I wanted to taste the full dose of surprises that were waiting for me. All I had in my knowledge was that I would be heading to the beautiful Samosir islands surrounded by the incredibly gorgeous Lake Toba of which I had read and saw so many pictures. Now I tell you that it was the best thing I did. Those feelings I felt everyday as so many surprises kicked in day after day were something I would trade anything for it to come back again.

I am coming Samosir!

On the 11^th of February 2019, Silkair flew me from Singapore to Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, Sumatra. I was welcomed with warm weather along with the heavy traffic of the Medan city. I was fortunate to be able to make my presence to Buddha Maitreya and Avalokitesvara (Chenrizig) on the very first day at the Maha Vihara Maitreya Buddhist temple. Indonesia has the highest Muslim population in the world and this Buddhist temple in Medan was one surprise I had because I came across several beautiful Muslim mosques en route. Never did I think that I would set my feet on the premises where Buddha Maitreya and Avalokitesvara were housed while I came across those Mosques. Once inside the temple, it was a moment for me to show my gratitude for everything I had been blessed with. (And the list is very long)

 

Maha Vihara Maitreya Temple in Medan, Sumatra

Burning the incense sticks

Buddha Maitreya (Jowo Jampa/Furture Buddha) in the centre

Avalokitesvara (Chenrezig/Compassion Buddha)

A trip to Indonesia meant a weight-gaining trip as there were varieties of foods which were very tasty and I know how much I miss those Indonesian foods here. Thankful for the people with me who suggested the best amongst the best for me to taste. And I had to flush down the idea of being a vegetarian there.

 

Drooling heavily!

Into the second day and I found myself travelling to the mountains as I woke up from my power nap in the bus. “We are in Bhutan”, said Rima as I was amazed to see the road like our Bhutanese roads (curved into the forest). Berastagi was our destination for the day where I was able to have a horse ride with my little Prince Charming Rico at the Pasar Buah market. We went around the market and I felt the humble horse was quite happy to let us on his back as we both were light especially me (I just weighed 50 KGs…haha) As my Prince Charming was enjoying the ride too much, he commanded one more round again.

 

My first horse-ride

On the second day, I again had the opportunity to thank Avalokitesvara at the Vihara Dharma Shanti Buddhist temple. It was a Taiwanese temple and the nun who was also the care-taker of the temple advised me to be a vegetarian after looking at my palms. I thought it was not possible for the next few days especially in Medan but I would definitely work on it once I was back to Bhutan.

 

Vihara Dharma Shanti in Berastagi

When the bus was parked on the Gundaling hilltop, I kept wondering why people took so many photos there as I didn’t see anything special apart from a walking trail. A few minutes later, I heard someone near me say, “The view is best from this spot” and when I looked into the distance I was like “OMG!! A Volcano?” I had to confirm from others what my eyes were just seeing. It was Mount Sinabung Supervalcano which was still erupting. For a Bhutanese like me, volcanoes were something which existed only in the books and movies. This encounter with Mr. Volcano weighed too much of a surprise that I couldn’t take my only pair of eyes off it for few initial minutes. With your volcanic crown, you are simply gorgeous Mount Sinabung!

 

Mount Sinabung Supervolcano erupting still

Now I ask myself, "Why you didn't expect a volcano in Indonesia?" 

I feel funny as I now know that Indonesia is made up of thousands of volcanic islands. It was nothing new or uncommon for the Indonesians with their volcanoes unlike me. So here is the surprise for not doing any research on Indonesia, especially the Sumatra island before the trip. 

…to be cont