Medan

The ride to Medan was pretty straight forward. I was with an experienced American traveler who has been all over the world. He still didn't want to eat the fruits he just bought, which were full of ants. He wanted to give it back to the lady he bought it from, but she insisted that these ants are extra proteins. I actually never wanted to go to Medan but I couldn't be asked for another 5 hours to Bukit Lawang, which is famous for orang utans (which means "men of the forest"). So I stayed in central Medan just next to the main mosque. At 430AM, 12AM, 3PM, 6PM and 7PM the muezzin is yelling all over town a making a conversations in close proximity virtually impossible and of course sleeping. One other attraction is the Istana Maimoon which is a palace which was build by the sultan of Dehli in 1888. The family still lives there but is stripped of all there power.
I never fell in love with Medan so I was a bit annoyed that there was no boat until later this week to get to Pulau Penang in Malaysia.

Lake Toba

After an exhausting night in the bus I arrived in Parabat at 4 AM. Stumbling through the dark I finally found the port next to the awakening market to make the trip to Tuk Tuk. A resort type hotel was my base and for the next few days - I wouldn't move a lot. There were only few guests and they were outnumbered by the young staff. Beers, billiard, a bit of swimming and TV made up a big chunk of my time. The village was a major tourist draw before Indonesia became famous for transport insecurity, Muslim extremism and natural disasters. So the christian Tuk Tuk tries to hang on and wait for better days to come. Sadly they are changing the traditional roofs to corrugated iron. But I had a nice stay, while doing few or nothing - of course I still had to give a lot of interviews to really shy people who came out of close by villages.

Bukittinggi

I had to move fast to get to Kuala Lumpur by December 8th. That's why I took a 48 hours bus ride out of Jakarta, with a ferry to Sumatra and then a never ending sloping road through the hills of south Sumatra. We arrived in Padang at 2 o'clock in the morning, which was the final stop of the bus. Luckily the bus driver allowed me to sleep in the bus for the night and organized the security guy to drive me with his moped to the Bukittinggi bus station in the morning. There I slept some more and then headed into town. I was clearly the only tourist anywhere close and had to let them take some photographs. Then I walked to a park from where you can see a nearby canyon. There I met Tito - a rice farmer. Since he had nothing to do he decided to join me to walk up the canyon. The Canyon is absolutely littered with plastic and a good example how not to do it. After a 1.5 hours walk we arrived at some waterfalls. We took a naked shower under the waterfalls and dried in the sun, afterwords we walked up to a village where he knew some friends. On the walk he confessed that he was bisexual, what made me kind of feeling awkward after being naked in this remote canyon just a few moments ago. In the village we drank some tea and spoke with the guys.
In the evening the guy in charge of my hotel suggested that I could go to a English school in the south of Bukittinggi for a few days and teach the kids how important it is to learn it. I had to decline, because I am short on time. But it sounded really tempting. The next day I was of for Lake Toba.

Jakarta

After speaking with other travellers in Indonesia I was expecting the worst, when I boarded the night train to Jakarta. They said the traffic would be horrific the pollution extraordinary and attractions scarce. They were right with the first two things. But first things first. The train was surprisingly OK, with service personnel running up and down the alleys to sell just about everything you could want. The backside is that people are allowed to smoke and they take advantage in an unparalleled fashion. Then I arrived in downtown Jakarta at 3.30 PM. I messed with the TukTuks and got a ride to Jalan Jaksa. There I slept on the porch of an hotel to safe the bed for the night.
The first day I spent at Kota, a rundown district of the Dutch Colonial empire. There are about two buildings worth mentioning, otherwise the people make this place memorable. A lot of high school students had to take interviews with tourists as a homework. First you hear "HELLLOO MISTER" then you see giggeling teenies and then they ask some really tough questions and the interview ends with an photo session. Without doubt I gave about 40 interviews in 3 hours and got flashed by cameras over a hunderd times. Then I walked to the harbour it self where to museums are located about the maritime history and the "Dutch East India Company" - the first multi national company of the world.
The following days among other things I visited the "National History Museum", took rescue in malls, visited the "Freedom Memorial" and visited the third biggest mosque in the world. I had to wear a long coat because my knee long pants could offend some people. The building was truly amazing, mainly because of the size. I even may sponsored the Jemaah Islamiah with a half a buck donation for the guide, who was pissed in the first place because I proudly said that I am an Atheist and then only gave some Rupiahs for his service.
In Jalan Jaksa things get confusing. Muslim people sell their Nasi Goreng next to the bars where prostitudes in defiance of the social rules sell their bodies and young Jakartans get drunk before heading to the clubs to take Extasy. I even met an Indonesian girl that said that she was also an Atheist. Thats as rare as it gets in a country where you by law have to choose one of the main religions.
Hard to imagine that Barack Obama grew up in a place like that.

Yogyakarta

I touched down in Yogya at 6 in morning with a hungover. In the town I took the first hostel that was 5$ and slept for hours. It is the worst place I stayed at in a long time, with cigarettes in corners and just plain dirty sheets. The ventilator didn't work. The only upside was that I was the only guest in the place (except of the mouse near the squat toilet).
Yogya has a lot of autonomous power in Indonesia, which the local Sultan holds. A Sultan is the equivalent of a King. The city it self has few attractions next to the home of the Sultan, which is more a little city in the city. The main reason to come to Yogya is the Prambanan and the Borobudur temple.
Prambanan is a sight out of town where a huge Hindu temple is very close to a bit smaller Buddhist temple. They are both in pretty shape, even though they got hit by an earthquake some years ago. The fact that two religions can live so closely together speaks for the peaceful means of these two religions. The whole place is now part of a huge scam where locals pay 8% of what international tourists pay. But well worth it anyway.
Borobudur is a Buddhist temple to the west of town. Which is nicely located in a green valley. The whole temple is build out of volcanic stone and impresses mostly with it's size.
The last day the already overdue rainy season started. Life comes to a virtual stand still, as soon as the clouds break.

Padangbai

After coming down from the hilly Ubud to Padangbai we encountered a fishing village where tourism is slowly taking hold. The first day we went snorkeling in a remote bay. The amount of fish and corals you could see did by far exceed the experience the Honduran Ocean had to offer. So I snorkeled for an hour to take advantage of this served buffet. In the evenings we struggeled to find a good and cheap place to eat. The only one in our price bracket was crowded with cockroaches and rats. Lorena didn't approve a bit. The next day we got rid of our high flying plans to go to a Hindu temple far away in order to see an other beach. This remote Bay to the south was a bargain paradise. About 8 tourists were there and about 12 people who wanted too sell something. I tried to fish again, but I am completely unskilled and now have a record of not catching a fish since 1992. Instead I did what I can do best. I constructed a bamboo-hammock-holder to string up my Ecuadorian, Amazon tested hammock. We innocently played in the waves smashing in at all times. Afterwords we got a 30 minute massage for a breathtaking 1.5 USD. In the evening we decided to try the much cheaper Arak you can find in street stalls. It was not at all as the original, but if you play for the result it doesn't matter.
The next day we went back to Kuta, because Lorena and me had to catch our separate planes. We went out in the evening and looked at the young Aussie tourists getting absolutly pissed and dancing on cages. Economically sensibel as we were, we almost exclusivily drank the left over drinks of the other guests. At the end we crashed at the beach until 4 o'clock, when I had to walk (40min) to the airport with all my gear. Yogyajakarta was next.

Bromo Lewang

Bromo Lewang is the home of one of the most impressive sights of volcanic activity in Indonesia. Indonesia as a whole is clustered with volcanoes. (you can read about them on the side of the newspaper at home). The active Bromo lies in a valley that is routinely flooded by lava, so you can see the remedies of past eruptions at all times. We then walked up to the ridge and circled it a little bit. Steam is coming out at all times in a big display of thermal energy (potential). In the morning I got up to enjoy the beautiful sunrise over the foggy valley. Afterwords I was of back down to high temperatures and 12 hours later - world famous Bali.

Ubud

Ubud is located in the inner Bali Island and is quite touristy. On the way there I met Jesper (Sweden) and Lorena (Chile) who were fighting to bargain with the cabdriver. They were both Republicans concerning spending, so I was glad to join the group to earn back some dollars of the 150 USD cab in Australia. In Ubud we found the cheapest place, with really friendly staff. The first night we got drunk with some Arak (wheat spirit) from the supermarket after comparing prices for about 1 hour. The next day we rented some bicycles (extreme low quality) to see some rice paddies and the monkies in the parc. It was really cool even though the weather was ridiculously hot. The public market was buzzling and the Hindu temples gave some meditation conference. In the evening we spilled some Bintang down our throat and played Janish.

Kuta

Kuta - the main tourist town in Bali has been strucked by two bombings by Jemaah Islamiyah in this decade. In the more powerful twin bombing in 2002, most of the victims were Aussie, closely followed by Indonesians and then maybe 40 other countries. A big memorial has been set up at the place where the bombs went of. But the most interesting part is that apparently nothing has changed in how things are down in that town. Bali of course (Hindu) is more liberal then the Muslim part of the country, but the hedonistic tourists are partying every night and getting as pissed as possible. Thats what we did as well - that was especially funny because Neil (a taxi driver from Newcastle) had no manners worth talking about, had his funny gypsy English and could dance better than John Travolta in his best years. Kuta also has a beach, but not comparable to the postcards you get from Bali. After arranging a flight to Jogyakarta I was off to the countryside to see the rice paddies.

Surabaya

After I had to change the already boarded plane in Kuala Lumpur, I arrived in Surabaya late at night. After struggling with the immigration officials about the visa I ended up sleeping at the airport. Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia and an "economic powerhouse". Traffic is massive and difficult to understand. The hostel I found without a Lonely Planet had rats and a squad toilet. Walking around in Surabaya is not that funny because sometimes you have to wait 5 minutes until you can cross a road while running. Especially the huge amount of mopeds and the apparent maverick interpretation of traffic rules make it difficult to operate. The smog and the blazing sun make it a nice ambient to take rescue in a shopping mall. Though the next day I felt like I had to do something, so I went to Madura Island northeast of Surabaya for a day trip. People are all really friendly - maybe the friendliest nation I have got to know so far. But even the nicest fairytale has to end at some point - so I left Surabaya in the search for more sane cities.