day 1 (7th jan)

flight was largely ok except delay for nearly an hour while we are waiting for t
ransfer to medan at kuala lumpur
though not confirmed, ricko did come to the airport to pick us up. he brought us
to candi hotel. we met his wife too. we learnt about their love story. ricko is
like the mix of kason and me as he loves coffee and dream theater (stuff like t
hat). i am kind of surprised and impressed.
after buying sim card, we had dinner at candi foodcourt.
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day 2 (8th jan)
woke up at 8am. had breakfast at the lounge of candi hotel. ricko picked us up a
nd brought us to OIC. we met Paul, a volunteer who joined OIC for restoration pr
ogram. we also got to meet Panut, the BIG boss of OIC. he's very kind to us. we
presented our gifts and souvenirs to him. he showed us some leaflets and posters
of them, which are given to villagers and farmers for educational purposes. the
y have phone no. for people to report to them. he also introduced the gunung leu
ser national park, aceh area and current situation of sumatra orangutan to us.
we watched last year's video by HKAPA. i wish we could produce video like this t
o help OIC.
we stayed at OIC for most of the time for today. had lunch with ricko and a few
other stuff from OIC at a warung nearby. though the decoration is simple, it is
tidy and the food is up to expectation. very cheap, good taste.
i went to a nearby patch of grassland and took a number of photos of butterflies
. although i got numerous (more than 10) mosquito bites on head and both hand, i
am contented with it.
ricko was kind enough to help us out by bringing us to a supermarket and a plaza
to buy and see what we need and want. of course, he brought us to nearby atm to
get the necessary money.
for dinner, we had it in a restoran opposite to candi hotel. quality of the food
is, again, up to expectation, and i think it's a bargain at this price (less th
an 300,000 Rp.). but if we take the service into account and compared to HK stan
dard, it's not that good at all. the waiter (or waitress) can speak fair english
, but they got our order wrong at some point. also, we waited fucking long for t
he food to come. we ordered soups and appetizers other than main courses. but th
ey came in wrong orders (reversed indeed).
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Day 3 (9th jan)
ricko picked us up at around noon instead of 9am because his wife contracted fev
er. luckily, she's fine.
we had lunch at the cafe, and of course coffee. i had 2 kopi susu this time. wel
l, maybe i'll try more in the coming days.
with the generous help of ricko, we got to tourist spots like maimoon palace, ru
mah tjong a fie (mini museum), a mosque, and some music stores. i didn't buy any
thing though, but i would if i have spare money when we'll back to medan after w
ork.
after dinner@candi foodcourt, we drank at roland with paul daley, the volunteer
we met on day 2, a bar and restaurant nearby which sells german food and drinks.
we were fortunate enough to bump into 2 great guys: Ian, who works for SOCP, an
other NGO in North Sumatra, and the other one who raises fund for OIC (sadly i f
orgot his name). literally, Ian gave a lecture to us. he talked about lake toba
and its geographical history, and Jardine Co. he encouraged us to learn more abo
ut these things. we also talked about corruption in all levels in indonesia (e.g
. Ph.D), and who actually cut down the forests here.
great day. well, we might take magic mushroom in samosir LOL.
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Day 4 (10th Jan)
mostly a travel day. we departed from medan to samosir after having kopi and bre
akfast with ricko. to get to samosir from medan is really tough. at least 5 hrs
of travel time. the drivers always squeeze as many ppl as they can in a car. as
a result, a car for 6 would be carrying 8 ppl. it's very shitty and uncomfortabl
e. we changed transport 3 times. The 1st car only carried us from medan to midwa
y (somewhere). Then we had our 1st transfer, from midway to parapat. 2nd, ferry
from parapat to tomok. 3rd, minibus from tomok to tuktuk. what made it worse is
that Kason lost his iPhone (probably on 1st car), it rained heavily and the 2nd
car we took was so worn that rainwater dripped in and fell on my shoulder.
by the time we arrived at samosir cottages, it was about 7pm, i guess. we had a
decent dinner here. wifi is only available at restaurant but it was fine. howeve
r, the electricity went out for a few times. i expected the room was equipped wi
th hot water shower but not. shit happens, a lot.
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Day 5 (11th Jan)
we rented push bikes from the hotel. riding them to travel around tuktuk somewhe
re nearby. originally, we wanted to go to the waterfall by ourselves. on the way
, we met a mid-age local guy who became our guide to the waterfall. the way to w
aterfall is no joke. it is highly inaccessible, extremely difficult and dangerou
s too. one slip is enough to lose your life as you would fall down from a cliff
to the rocky river stream. fortunately, we made it to about half or 2/3 of the w
hole, where there is a small pool surrounded by large rocks. the guide said it i
s possible to climb up to the top, but he didn't suggest us to do so. plus, i do
n't think we are strong enough to make it. after staying in the pool for around
10 to 15 min, we returned (which was easier i think). it is worth to notice that
up to a certain point, we had to take off our shoes and sandals, and walked on
barefeet. it is much more easier, if not impossible, to go on with shoes on. i r
ealized that the best hiking shoes are our feet. we get the best feel and balanc
e with them. and the guide was on barefeet all the time. it didn't seem to get h
urt anyway.
after our return, we had lunch at the guide's home. we met his family and friend
s. the lunch is simple: rice , fried egg (little bit spicy) and black coffee wit
h sugar. it's the first time we use our hand to eat. good experience. we talked
to one of the guys in the house. he speaks good english, french, some dutch, and
of course, his native batak language and bahasa. he said he was a businessman o
f antique trade, and worked in singapore and malaysia in the past. he also claim
ed to have magic mushroom twice a week, and marijuana everyday. batak ppl really
santai and know how to santai.
that was a very unusual yet good experience. you don't always get to interact th
is much with local ppl when you travel.
we went back to the cottages to take a bit of rest by dunking into lake toba for
a while, and writing new melody as i sat by the lake side and bathed in the bre
eze.
hea until the time for dinner, and watched performance by samosir cottage grup,
with Mr. Bloom, the manager as the leader. there were 2 sets of performance, bat
ak dance and batak folk songs. although i intuitively felt like it was somehow a
ltered from the tradition, it was a nice one. i got inspiration for writing my n
ew song.
Some Indonesian women were quite beautiful LOL
and the hot water shower was back!
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Day 6 (12th Jan)
we rented motorbike and a driver/guide instead to show us around the island. ove
rall, excluding tuktuk, the whole area was rural, rather undeveloped or underdev
eloped. daily life of villagers is pretty primitive. farmland, roosters, ducks,
dogs, cats, buffalos are everywhere. for others, photos said it all.
it was a very tiring trip. it started from 10:30am and ended on 6:30pm. it reall
y hurt my butt, but it worths. we were stunned by the absolutely beautiful scene
ry of samosir and lake toba. the drive was unexpectedly long so we only found ti
me to have lunch at around 3:30am.
the driver was sincere, and had a fair command of english as we were able to com
municate quite smoothly. after the tour, kason invited the driver to come to our
room to chit-chat. it was a nice one. we found out that indonesian do not love
mainland chinese, like us LOL
Russian and French tourists follow.
Kason finally had mushroom in the form of omlette, but seemed that it was not st
rong enough that he didn't really show any abnormal behaviour. he remain conscio
us and able to talk to the driver and me.
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Day 7 (13th Jan)
left samosir for berastagi. on the way, we chatted with a couple from switzerlan
d, and a big guy from norway which we later travelled with.

we booked sunrise guesthouse originally, but eventually we opted for thalita/tal
itha guesthouse, which was very cozy and full of warmness like a home. the boss
and his wife, their workers, the tour guide (awan) and the dog were all friendly
and helpful.
we had lunch with nils, the norwegian, and walked around in berastagi. banana bu
rger tasted not so bad LOL. dunno why, ppl/kids in this town kept saying "hello,
mister" at us. i guess they were friendly. later we walked up to gundaling to w
atch sunset. but some random stupid guys stopped us and charged us a few thousan
d rupiah as so-called entrance fee. we met and talked with a mum of a daughter a
nd son. later, a group of guys came up and saw nils. they joked about nils' jesu
s-like look and took a number of pictures with him. after finish watching sunset
, we walked back to the guesthouse. Boss' wife was so kind that she cooked dinne
r for us (didn't charge us). it's a BIG dish of tasty nasi goreng with lots of c
ashewnuts, one of my favorit.
electricity suddenly went off for about 15 minutes. As we planned to hike sibaya
k to see sunrise and sinabung from a distance, we had to sleep early and wake up
before 4am. that's something!
That was the day.
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Day 8 (14th Jan)
we took a van to the bottom of sibayak. we then hiked uphill with our flashlight
s. we walked through jungle with broken roads or no road at all. Roads were brok
en or blocked because there were landslides. yesterday also rained. that added d
ifficulty to our trip. after about an hour, we got to a very high point of sibay
ak, near the crater. it was freezing and very windy up there. it was a very nice
experience.