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

A special patient

“Hello, there is a call from Chamgang”

As soon as we heard this line, we knew it was Mr. Pemba calling for ambulance. Don’t be so surprised how we knew this. Let me tell you about Mr. Pemba who was 45 years old with Alcoholic Liver Disease (ALD). I don’t know since when he started using (misusing to be precise) the ambulance and emergency medical services. By the time, I joined the Emergency Department of JDWNRH, everyone knew about him very well and all of our friends went for emergency call he activated several times. I was told that he previously served in military and because of his drinking habit, it seemed like he was terminated. I was even told that he had a wife and three little kids but then his wife left him taking two of the kids probably because of his bad drinking habits. I always saw him with his son, Wangchuk who was barely ten years old.

 

P.C.: Google

So it was his heavy and continuous drinking habit that would cause him abdomen distension and pain. Every time we brought him to the emergency department, he would act very humble and go back home saying he would stop drinking. But he would call back for ambulance within the next 3-4 days and that also always at night as his place was some 10 kilometers away from the hospital (no taxi available at that time). Reaching at his place he would be in pain and his ten year old son always had to accompany him to hospital hampering his studies. He was seen by medical specialist and psychiatrist as well but his own efforts were so minute that it nullified everyone’s effort (including us who served him several times) and his health deteriorated so badly that he was physically very fragile and weak within few months. Still he was not willing to give up drinking. We tried our best to serve him, not only as health worker but as friends also, advising him to stop drinking and to let his young son have a smooth childhood. But he never hesitated to dump our advises and turn up completely drunk and stink so badly. Wangchuk, his son would always had to attend his father for so many times and spent sleepless night at the hospital.

Recently when I joined back my work, my colleague told me that we no longer have to go to Chamgang for Mr. Pemba as he expired last December. I couldn’t take it though I had somehow expected this outcome of him. I still feel I will get an emergency call directing me to go to Chamgang for him. Often times, we are told not to get attached with the patients but it’s hard not to do so when we have such patients who made us work so much and even think and talk about him. He even made me write this post because he is hard to forget. MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PEACE. I will pray for you to be reborn as a good person who would always take care of your body and cherish the presence of your loved ones.