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"UNITY in
Diversity” is the national motto of Indonesia. There are over
300 tribal-ethnic groups living on 6,000 islands. The
remaining 11,000 islands are uninhabited. The larger islands
are Java, Sumatra, Irian Jaya and Kalimantan. Kalimantan
comprises two-thirds of the island of Borneo, the other
one-third being East Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah) and the
Sultanate of Brunei.
North Sumatera (formerly spelled as Sumatra) is one of the
thirty-two Provinces of Indonesia, with Medan as its capital.
The shortest international flight to Medan is from Penang. It
takes 40 minutes and costs about US$137 return. There is a
hydrofoil ferry service also across the Strait of Melaka
(formerly spelled as Malacca), which takes five hours. I would
have taken the ferry, but as Malaysia does not allow
Bangladeshis to enter the country by surface route (due to
illegal immigrant phobia), and as I had to come back to Penang
to catch my return flight to Bangkok and Dhaka, I had to go by
air.
Medan – a friendly welcome
The Tourist Officer at the
airport was quite helpful and directed me to a comfortable
hotel in the centre of the city, within walking distance of
the distinctive black-domed Grand Mosque and a historic palace
of the Sultans of Dili. He also gave me his private business
card. The government pay is not sufficient, so he has to do
some ‘professional consultancy’. The hotel offered a Superior
room with attached toilet, a/c, hot water, TV and telephone
for the equivalent of US$12. It was located on Sisinga Manga
Raja Road (named after a National Hero, a powerful tribal
king, killed by the Dutch in 1907). As I did not know anyone
in Medan, I called the Grand Master of Medan HHH, a
jogging-for-fun club, Rudy Lee, and introduced myself. He said
he would meet me later in the afternoon.
At 4:30 Rudy was at my hotel and greeted me with “Its beer
time, let’s go”. He is a Chinese businessman in the travel
trade. He had in the meantime asked a few of his friends to
join us at their regular ‘café’. An Englishman with a Chinese
wife and a few other Chinese came over. One of them is
nicknamed “K.K.N.” – Korrupsion, Komision and Nepotism -
probably as much of a way of life with them as it is with us.
These staid Chinese businessmen do have a sense of humour, and
they can be friendly and fun loving too, as I discovered the
following day. We chatted till late in the evening, while I
tried juices of exotic local fruits – avocado, passion fruit
and melon. Eddy Kusuma then took me to a wayside restaurant in
Chinatown before dropping me back at the hotel. Medan is the
fourth-largest city in Indonesia. It is a booming commercial
centre for the region’s oil, gas, palm oil, rubber, cocoa and
tea. Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of LNG.
Next day was a holiday for “Mother’s Day” and in the afternoon
we went for a hike in the woods. Eddy and his wife picked me
up and we also picked up Rudy from his mansion in a posh
suburb. We drove for about 25 kms along the road to Berastagi,
to the foothills of the Karo Highlands. Gleneagles, the
Singaporean hospital people, sponsored the event of the day
and provided a T-shirt and the food. A big toukay (boss) had
come over for the occasion. Gleneagles own the Mount Elizabeth
Hospital in Singapore, a heart hospital in the West End of
London, one in Penang, and had also set up a “state of the
art” hospital in Medan. One of their problems is that the
government does not allow foreign doctors to come in, and
well-to-do Indonesians lacking confidence in their own
doctors, prefer to go to Penang, KL and Singapore for
treatment.
Well, 24 hours earlier I did not know a single Indonesian and
here was I partying with a group of over one hundred
like-minded, multi-racial nature-lovers. Small world!
LAKE TOBA
Medan, Lake Toba and
Berastagi are located in a triangle in the province of North
Sumatera. Eight-seater minibuses with sufficient leg space,
ply between Medan and a town called Parapat on the shore of
Lake Toba. The fare is $5. I took Taxi Kita from S. M. Raja
Road and the journey took five hours with stops for coffee,
lunch and Juma prayer. Lake Toba was formed by the eruption of
a volcano. It is the largest and deepest crater-lake in the
world. At an altitude of 900 meters above sea level, it is 90
km long, 31 km across, and covers an area of 1,145 sq. km. The
depth is yet to be accurately surveyed, and estimates vary
from 450m to 800m. There is an island in the middle of the
lake, called Samosir, ‘Island of the Dead’ – a sinister name
for an awe-inspiring place. 530 sq km in size, the island is
as large as Singapore. Tourists come to Lake Toba from around
the world to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and the
tranquility; and to cruise, swim, water-ski, climb, trek and
just relax.
There are luxury hotels in Parapat on the lakeside. These were
of course not there when the Dutch imprisoned Soekarno for a
few months in Parapat in 1949. (Soekarno – popularly called
Bung Karno - was earlier declared as the first President of
independent Indonesia on August 17, 1945) Most of the budget
hotels are romantically located on the lake, in the village of
Tuk Tuk. Tuk Tuk is a peninsula jetting out of Samosir Island.
It is connected to Parapat by hourly ferry, the trip taking
about thirty minutes. The hotels are clean and well furnished.
I took one of the better ones. I had a room with an attached
shower-toilet for $5; a bathtub would have cost a dollar more.
The restaurant serving both Indonesian and continental food
was in a large patio. I had simple fare. A group of French
guests were apparently enjoying the food, so it must have been
good.
Most of the Batak tribe of North Sumatera – Christians,
Muslims or unconverted – inhabit the highlands surrounding
Lake Toba. They are a colourful and forthright people. The
young manageress of the hotel belonged to Batak Toba, one of
six sub-tribes. After welcoming me, she disappeared for a
moment. She went to her room and came back with a bindi on her
forehead, and two on the temples. “This is for you”, she said.
“You are from India”. “Kuch, kuch hota hai…” she intoned.
BERASTAGI
The four-hour drive from
Lake Toba to Berastagi, skirting the lake for a long way, is
picturesque. It is a narrow, winding road through pine forest,
terraced plantations and verdant meadows in the Karo hills,
with hardly any people around. On the way, at the tip of the
lake, is a waterfall named Sipiso Piso (Razor’s Edge). It is a
tourist spot with food stalls and souvenir shops.
Berastagi is a hill resort, 66 km away from Medan, at an
altitude of 4,600 feet. It lies between two volcanoes. The
area is known for its cool climate, orchids, flowers, fruits
and vegetables. Back-packers use it as a base for climbing the
two volcanoes, jungle trekking and for visiting the nearby
Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Roberto, from The
Netherlands, fit as a fiddle, became my friend, companion and
guide. He had been living in Berastagi for months, eating only
fruits and vegetable and soya curd for protein.
Package tours to the Triangle are available from Malaysia and
Singapore, in another name, at another price. However, one can
do the tour conveniently on one’s own, economically and
leisurely. If you have missed Lake Toba for your honeymoon, it
is never to late for a visit.
The writer is a Dhaka-based
eco-travel consultant.
E-mail: nishatch@bdcom.com
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