Traveling Sumatra

“You are eating Indonesian food?!?” “We thought foreigner only ate toast all day long!” This little scenario played out in a tiny warung somewhere in Sumatra where we duly sat eating very authentic local cuisine. A bunch of Indonesians were thoroughly amused and surprised by us “white people” sitting there eating their kind of food – and we even seemed to like it! Of course we liked it – Sumatra is renowned for its delicious, if a bit spicy, padang food.


Sumatra is one of the places in Indonesia that used to have loads of backpackers, but now after one catastrophe after another, Sumatra is well and truly off the beaten track. That just might be another good reason to visit… Other sound arguments for packing your backpack and start exploring Sumatra is the amazing nature that unfolds where ever you look, the chance to climb volcanoes, observe orangutans in their natural habitat (one of only two places left on earth where this is possible), kicking back on gorgeous beaches and incredible diving.



You don’t go to Sumatra for your regular sand’n’sun holiday – that would be Bali. Sumatra is adventure, experiences and challenges of the kind that needs the stamina to live through long, extremely bumpy bus rides, a small compact backpack and sensible shoes.



We went with way too much luggage including a laptop, the most sensible shoes I was carrying was a pair of kawasakis (which is a perfectly good pair of shoes, however they are not made for jungle trekking on muddy slopes in the Sumatran tropical forest – especially not since they were a light shade of yellow…). And as for the long, bumpy bus rides – we did do a few, but for the longest one (would have been at least 13 hours) we opted for a cheap flight instead. Still we had an amazing trip! In little under 3 weeks we tried to breathe through all the smog in Medan; Sumatra biggest city, we swam in Southeast Asias largest lake; Danau Toba, we jungle trekked and saw orangtuans in Bukit Lawang and hung out at the lovely beaches with the locals at Pulau Weh. You’d be hard pressed to squeeze much more in as getting from one place to another is a very time consuming affair in Sumatra. The beauty of that however means that there is still loads of things for us to see next time we venture to Sumatra :-)


Straddled by equator Sumatra is nearly 2000km long, stretching from Banda Aceh in the north to Bakauheni in the south, as slightly smaller than France. Sumatra is the proud owner of nearly 100 volcanoes, 15 of them still active and the tallest one being 3805 meters tall. In the jungles of Sumatra you may be so lucky to discover Rafflesia arnoldii; the world’s largest flower. You might also bump into the endangered Sumatran rhino, elephants and Sumatrans tigers. However the main attraction is the orangutan, they can be found in Gunung Leuser National Park – 5000 wild orangutans are believed to still roam the park.

Silk Road Cities

Greetings from Uzbekistan! We have visited the Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara with their many magnificent medrassas (Islamic schools) and mosques, all beautifully decorated with exotic blue mosaics and turquoise domes. One afternoon we sat at a rooftop restaurant in Bukhara enjoying the view out over one of these striking buildings, watching the light slowly change with the day, witnessing the blue colors of the domes and the intricate tile work morph in the golden light. Children were playing in the plaza in front of us and an old woman was selling huge, juicy watermelons next to the souvenir stalls. A nice peaceful moment to take it all in.



Later in the afternoon the temperature has also dropped to the bearable in Bukhara, it could by now almost be described as comfortable – especially when thinking back to the previous day where we had undertaken a 7 hour train ride with no air-con. In the carriage it must have been at least 35 degrees, and only a hot, lazy wind swept down the corridor, barely making itself felt by the profoundly sweating passengers, us included. To distract us from the heat a Russian TV series, episode 1-29, were put on the small TV hanging from the ceiling of the carriage. It was no easy feat to make out the plot, but is seems to revolve around some dirty cops who did a lot of shooting… Everyone else in the carriage however, from grannies to 5 year old seemed pretty engaged in the series, was this something the everyday people of Uzbekistan could relate to? Corrupt police officers are extremely common in all of Central Asia, apparently this is most easily experienced in the Tashkent metro. Travelers’ wisps ghastly stories about being shaken down for a bribe by crooked police men who will escort you into small rooms to “count” your money, unavoidably some of them disappear during the counting. Lonely Planet, the modern day travel bible, happily joins in on these scary accounts with good advice on how to best avoid the run-ins, or at least endure least possible loss. However the metro being super handy for getting around Tashkent (it is too hot to walk around) we still ride it. Avoiding all eye contact with the many police officers in the metro while trying to look as local as possible we still await that rueful encounter. A couple of times we get to leave, giddy with the feeling of having “just escaped” as we pass the last police man upon exiting the metro and ascending back up to the baking hot streets of Tashkent. However one day we are stopped by a couple of police officers! But after a short chat about Danish football they let us go, maybe the situation isn’t as bad as most people make it out to be? Or maybe we just got lucky! :-)



We also visited a fairground in Bukhara, Russian style! The rides were all old and rusty, and we dared not go near the ferries wheel, as it looked especially rambling. The merry-go-around was of cause propeller driven but it was kinda fun ;) Safety wasn't prioritized, but who cares in Central Asia?



Samarqand was an incredible city, retaining both a Persian and Soviet charm - yes, the Soviet influence actually had some charm. Broad boulevards, wooden houses, medrassas, churches, mosques and markets; it was almost as magical as the name sounds. The Registan, Gur-Emir and Afrosiab were all breathtakingly beautiful with a deep blue sky as backdrop.



We stayed at a great guesthouse with a fabulous garden and great breakfast, with homemade jam en masse. It was located very close to the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, down a small alley in a small residential area - it wasn't as cheap as we normally opt for, but it was value for money!

Bishkek, the Capital of Kyrgyzstan

When waiting for our departure into China, we spend a couple of days in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Unlike in Uzbekistan where all obvious memorabilias of the Communists have been demolished, quite a few Lenin statues are found around in the squares of the Kyrgyz main city.



Bishkek was a pleasant stop-over: small, leafy and with good dining options. The broad lanes are relatively quiet and there are many old houses and remnants from the soviet days. We got "lucky" finding accommodation, as it is really scarce on the budget level. Only drawback was one of our Japanese dorm-mates tendency to snore louder than a saw-mill. The guesthouse was called Sakura's guesthouse and is featured in the Lonely Planet - it was quite full at all times it seems, as it is one of the better options at budget prize.



As in Uzbekistan, the travellers you meet here are definitely not the gap-year-khao-san-road type; many are long time travelers, with very different backgrounds, nationality and age, each with whom you can share experiences from past shared destinations and whom can lure you into a change of travel-plans with good advice or tales of unheard of places.

Brahmin blue streets

On our tour through Rajasthan we had now come upon Bundi, a smaller less touristy town, which might owe its relative lack of tourism to the bad roads leading to it and the shortcoming of decent train connections. We spend the days walking the narrow Brahmin-blue lanes stopping to look at the bazaar, temples and old havelis along the way.



Looming over the city is the Taragarh Fort, it was build in 1354 and has been long abandoned. It is now partly overgrown with wines and a band of monkeys have pretty much taken over - we were advised to find a big stick up there to scare them away. As we were exploring, we were suddenly caught between two monkeys screaming at each other, chasing each other around. We were completely caught off guard and got a little startled; Martin found a bigger stick – with thorns on it, and we proceeded. There were some huge reservoirs and in some places, and we could still see old, fading murals adorning the walls.



Another highlight was the Bundi Palace; it had previously been shut up and left to the bats but has now been cleaned up and is open to the public. It was a pretty grand place, with decaying murals and pretty ornament balconies; we walked through most of it, enjoying the view over the city through the many windows. In some of the rooms you could still clearly smell the bats, and in a couple of darker passages, hundreds of them were clinging to the high ceilings.

Nusa Lembongan; a laid back island off Bali

Nusa Lembongan is an island off the southeast coast of the main island of Bali. We took the public boat to Nusa Lembongan early Saturday morning; it leaves daily from Sanur beach at around 08.00am. It doesn’t dock at a pier at Nusa Lembongan so you have to wade in through knee-high water, I was offered a piggyback ride by one of the crew member though, but politely refused :)



After having breakfast at one of the cute cafes along the water, we set out on foot south along the shore and the main beach, where fishing boats, seaweed farms and ferries crowd the shallow waters. Crossing the lush headlands that protrude into the blue sea, we found some smaller and more peaceful coves with white-sand-beaches and azure waters. Even in the smaller coves, fishing boats are not to be avoided though, but it doesn’t matter much, as they are actually often quite beautiful with their brightly painted hulls and spiderlike outriggers.



This is a nice place to walk. A rocky coastal path links nearly all the guest houses and hotels. Most trips will take you less than two hours. Bicycles can be rented at most places, and the mainly flat roads are quite well surfaced. Motorbikes are also available but may be unnecessary given the short distances involved, and they also charge outrageous for motorbike rental, one hour is 30.000rp, normally on the mainland you can rent a bike for 24 hours for the same amount. It is also possible to cross to the small island of Ceningan via a scenic suspension bridge.



We swam and relaxed on the beach the whole day, returning in the afternoon, when clouds slowly began to gather and a light shower reminded us that it is still rainy season. We headed back through the small Kampungs (villages) that dot the coasts and interior of Nusa Lembongan. The atmosphere on the island is much more relaxed than the big tourist areas of mainland Bali, and as many of the locals are employed in the Seaweed farming business, tourism is only a secondary income to most, making the locals less intrusive and pushy.



Mornings are a great time to people spot on the main beach; Jungutbatu. Here the locals were already busying themselves with seaweed farming, bringing in groceries from the boats coming from the morning markets in Bali or big baskets of fish caught earlier in the morning. Children were out catching sandworms to use for bait and a few women were putting out offerings at the edge of the water.
If you get up early you can also be lucky enough to get a good view of Gunung Agung, the tallest and holiest mountain on Bali before the clouds roll in an obscure the view. Most often than not it is shrouded in thick mist or clouds, so even though it dominates the landscape of eastern Bali, you don’t see it very often, especially not in the rainy season. But it is a beautiful and humbling sight!

The Heart of Marrakesh - Jemma El' Fna

Marrakesh I will always remember for its Jemma El’Fna. A grand plaza filled with all sorts of people and just a place of general mayhem! There were snake charmers, who were very happy to suddenly jump out and fling a snake around your neck – for a nice Kodak moment… Persistent henna ladies, fortune and story tellers (in Arabic), men with monkeys that you could hold for a few dirham, and then there was the juice stands, selling the best freshly squeezed orange juice ever. There was even a “dentist," whose quick extraction skills were advertised by a table full of teeth.



And that was just the plaza, beyond the plaza was the souqs. A world of shopping! I came out with a cute little teapot (Moroccan style), a scarf, some tea and my new price possession – a real Moroccan puf (you know, one of those round sets in leather). Everywhere you look goods are haggled for in tiny shops and stalls, often over glass after glass of what might be considered the national drink - hot mint tea as sweet as liquefied chewing gum.



You also have to stop by the “Magic Souk” where you can buy potions for all kinds of illnesses, live lizards, dried blowfish, turtle shells, shark fins and tea that will enhance everything from hair growth to fertility. Kids will also love this place!