Reflections On the Road: Three Days on Sumatra, Indonesia's Largest Island

What follows is lifted from my personal journal and is set in 2004 on Indonesia's largest island, Sumatra.  I don't think the entries you'll read below are particularly unique from my other journal entries.  That is, they do not recount a particularly dramatic episode and are, I think, comparable to many of my other entries.  The entry begins with me leaving Bukit Lawang, a village from which earlier in the week I had done an overnight hike into the jungle to see orangutans.  Bangbang was one of my guides, and Paul and Davis were two 21-year-old Canadians who had also done the hike.  Nora is a guesthouse owner.  Medan is Indonesia's third largest city, and was also my transfer point between Bukit Lawang and Berstagi.

 
Students heading home from school, on the road from Bukit Lawang to Medan

March 17 (WED)

I awoke this morning and took a good look at my feet:  a purple mark where Bangbang yanked away the leech; a swollen (and now misshaped) toe that was probably broken two weeks ago but after this hike has been truly agitated; a blister (caused by the Teva strap or a toxic plant) that was rubbed raw and now is red and a tad oozy.  My feet have done battle of sorts and so I don't mind these physical memorials.

            Nora makes the best chocolate-banana pancakes I've ever had.  I had planned to take the local bus to Medan but instead took a private van with Paul and Davis, who invited me to hitch with them (they had chartered the van).  We left at noon.  At 2:30pm I was on a local bus going to Berstagi.  Sat next to Flora, an English-speaking 18-year-old Christian girl from the town just south of Berstagi.  I asked if she goes to church every Sunday.  She said, "Of course, it's the most important thing."  She asked if I liked Christian music and offered the names of several contemporary Christian artists in the States.  I said, "Not most of it."  She then suggested I focus on the positive ones.  In the course of our conversation I had that very distasteful feeling that I was being a little cold, self-focused, and hard hearted.  If I were in her shoes sitting and talking next to me, I'd not be very fond of the 30-year-old American.  He would overall seem distant and hard to converse with...and those times when communication did exist would indicate he was not a giving or loving person but rather an impatient one.  I tried to change my demeanor during the last of our two hours together.

            In Berstagi I hoped to stay at the El Shaddai Hotel but it has closed down.  So I checked into a dorm bed at Losman Sibayak Guesthouse for 10,000 [less than $1].  Ate dinner (burger, fries, coke, and then fruit salad and chai) at a place called Raymond Cafe.  The weather here is cooler and mountainous.  I pulled shoes and a long sleeve shirt out of my pack for the first time since Dalat [Vietnam], which meant I pulled out a few memories too.  I'm in the restaurant still as I write this, waiting for my camcorder battery to finish charging.  I've been thinking about how much weather, among other things, affects one's perception of, well, EVERYTHING.  I feel refreshed again right now by the cooler temperatures and change of atmosphere.  I feel "remote" but happy as opposed to remote and trapped like I have in some other places, like Medan (or is it more true to say "in other times")

             The guidebook mentioned an internet café in town, but to my surprise I learned it has closed down.  This is the first place I've ever been that once had internet but now does not.  At first I was disappointed but now am happy about it.  I can't help but wonder how my Asia journey would have been different so far without internet.  Would I have been able to more quickly and confidently accept and even thrive in Asia as my home for a year?  Until now I've focused on the positives of email access but tonight I'm putting my thoughts to the negatives of it.  What does "connectedness" mean?  Does it mean "not letting go of the past in all the ways you should and thus not focusing on the present in all the ways you should?"  But isn't the past also part of one's present?  And thus you should incorporate your other world into this world?  Where does "commitment" fit into connectedness?  Can I be a good friend if I just vanish for a couple months, becoming unavailable so that I focus on "my" present?  Tonight I am smiling at the tantalizing thought of telling email to go to hell for a few months so that I can live in this world rather than the one on cyberspace.  I won't go to that extreme, of course, but maybe I'll learn better to hold onto email a little more loosely.  Without a community to which I belong here, email becomes my primary community - or reminds me that I currently have no community.  My approach to the internet would be different if I also had deep relationships here in Asia.

            Tonight, without internet in town, my chai tasted better and my book read differently.  I felt remote and happy about it.  I saw the map of Sumatra on the wall - particularly a little place called Berstagi - and did not mind at all that the lines of cyberspace didn't cross here.  I looked at Sumatra on the map and felt like I was actually 100 percent, happily, and properly there - HERE!

            I have often missed my friends terribly - have missed sharing, being understood, fitting into a network of relationships.  But if I do not have a second community in Asia in which I can plug in and feel stabilized, what is it that can do this for me?  Is it sense of mission?  Hope of writing a publishable manuscript?   Spiritual growth?  Adventure?  Are people I meet for only a day or an hour - even though I like to think of the world's citizens as my family - really, honestly any form of a community?

            I sometimes miss the days of handwritten letters and the time and thus patience communication required.

The view of Mt. Sibayak from my hotel

Rina, the manager of Raymond Cafe

March 18 (Thur)

            Woke up at 8AM and stayed in bed awhile to enjoy the use of a blanket.  I was still tired too.  Spent 2+ hours reading Thomas Merton and eating breakfast (coffee, scrambled eggs with toast, pineapple pancake) at Raymond restaurant again.

Went to the neighboring town of Kabanjahe for three hours.  Back in Berstagi I ate chicken and rice on the street for 8,000.  The BBQ chicken was scrumptious.  I took a 30 minute nap and then went to Raymond to read another three hours and eat scrambled eggs and toast again.  I also drank a pineapple shake, coke, and hot tea.  Then at 9:30pm I had the chicken and rice dish on the street again.  I'm feeling just a little unhappy with my skinniness after seeing a photo of me shirtless that I asked Paul to take for me at the river in Bukit Lawang.

            Some of the food for thought in the Merton book today:  the difference between work and agitation.  "Agitation is the useless and ill-directed action of the body.  It expresses the inner confusion of a soul without peace.  Work brings peace to the soul that has a semblance of order and spiritual understanding.  It helps the soul to focus upon its spiritual aims and to achieve them."  Agitation more than work has characterized most of my time in Asia so far.  I had this sinking thought of what a waste this year has the potential to be if I do not turn it into disciplined, soul-enriching, soul-originating work.

 
Looking into the crater (right) of Mt. Sibayak

March 19 (Fri)

Woke up at 9AM and had breakfast at Raymond.  AT 10:30 I began a 3-hour walk from the guesthouse to the crater of Mt. Sibayak.  It was an hour through town and neighborhoods, then two hours alone with nature.  I sweated profusely on the way up.  Heard and then saw a hornbill in flight.  Lots of lizards too.  I really enjoyed this time alone with the sights and sounds of wildness.  A couple of the songs that came to mind as I walked were (1) the Eurythmics' "I Saved the World Today" and (2) Journey's "Faithfully".  The crater had that wonderfully barren and raw volcano look to it.  I did not expect to be here alone but I appeared to be the only hiker today.  Inside the crater, I climbed to several steam vents for photos and video.  The noise was piercing and the setting gave me a healthy dose of fear.  (The tourist office in town recommends one not do this hike alone - several tourists have died or vanished over the years, and to emphasize the point they've posted a large sign in the office with the dates and nationalities of the dead or vanished.)

            IMAGE OF THE DAY:  The loudest steam vent, its contents being shot out of the earth with frightening power as I rested on my belly five feet away.

Read a little Thomas Merton on the crater rim.  Wanted to read more than 20 minutes, but the wind was cool and the clouds piling up into the shape of a thunderstorm.  Took a little over an hour to get to the hot springs below the mountain.  I paid 2,000 rupiah for a 25 minute dip in the very warm water.  It was great.  A local guy gave me a lift in his 50-year-old VW to the Medan Highway where I caught a bus the last 7km to Berstagi.  The bus was full, so I hung off the side (a side grill is built into the bus for that purpose) and relished this final thrill of the day as the bus swerved its way to town.

            Once back in Berstagi I remembered I had left my bathing suit at the hot springs.  I'll have to go back tomorrow.  Ate grilled fish and rice on the street for 10,000 at 5:15pm.  Finished reading Romancing Vietnam and then went to Raymond's for a second dinner (tuna sandwich, plate of fries, and fruit salad - avocado, papaya, pineapple, banana).  Talked an hour or so with two German girls there.  Got lots of sun on my arms and have a bad knee as a result of the quick run down the mountain.  And now I am lying in bed and aware of my skin:  I smell sulfur, either from the crater's steam or the hot spring.

 
Three and a half hours of March 20 were spent retrieving my bathing suit.  Two of those hours were in this van, mostly with it standing still as the driver waited for for enough passengers to make the trip worth it.  Once we were off, this older woman rested her hands on my knee for most of the 20-minute journey.

		Joel Carillet, Gather Travel Correspondent
	Joel's column, "Reflections on the Road," is published every other Thursday to Gather Essentials: Travel. His articles, based on extensive travels in Asia and the Middle East, seek to shed light on humanity, both our own and that of others.   They aim not merely to entertain and inform but also to develop a sense of connection between the reader and the world. Joel's writing and photography have appeared in several publications, including the Kansas City Star, Christian Science Monitor, and The Best Travel Writing 2008.   Currently his agent is seeking a publisher for a book manuscript entitled Sixty-One Weeks: A Journey across Asia. If interesting in purchasing photographic prints, check out jcarillet.imagekind.com. When not on the road, he happily calls Tennessee home. Keep up with Joel's article series by joining his network, or subscribing to his content.