Into the Friendly Wild, Sumatra

Put it next to the much famed Kohs of Thailand or the very chic, Bali, Sumatra will seem a humble tourist destination. And it doesn’t take long to figure that after you have landed here. You might be the only tourist queuing up for visa and wonder if you should have really come here. Even though accommodation and food is cheap, there are no hoards of backpackers passing months along in cheap hostels. Even the luxury travelers seeking lake cruises with sunset dinners don’t get here. There are no souvenir thrusting rows of shopkeepers (although plenty of artifacts to be bought at cheap prices because, you see, Bataks are excellent carpenters).  Nor are there any expensive restaurants to fine dine in and spend your cash. Sumatra, I must declare at the onset, is not for bling seeking, chic tourist with a cash load to splurge.  It is for the one seeking slow pace and the charm of the offbeat. It is for the traveler who can work a little harder than usual and accommodate in rooms that have bathrooms no wash basin.

Home to millions of hectares of tropical rain forest, tribes that were cannibalistic until about 200 years ago, culture that worships breast and lizard, orang-utans who they say are the people of the jungle, the largest flower and the biggest snake in the world, Sumatra is the superlative island of superlatives.

For the two weeks in one month we spent on Sumtra, we were held captive on the Samosir. The unassuming hospitality of our hosts didn’t help us escape either. Samosir is an island set on the caldera lake called Danau Toba formed thousands of years ago after a big boom happened that changed the face of the Earth. If you thought, Pyramids , Taj Mahal , Colosseum are important historical sites, think about this one – a volcanic eruption that covered whole South East Asia under layers of ash, altering the Earth’s climate and killed a large part of human population. That’s right – that’s how Lake toba was formed by what they call the super eruption.

Being here was almost like being cast in a spell by the lotus pond at the guest house we stayed in that overlooked the lake which was in turn surrounded by the misty hills. No, there is no exaggeration here. You have to see to believe. Just the feeling of being on an island in an island makes the hop to Sumatra the island worth the bucks. The fact that you can swim in a freshwater lake is just another add on. Who would want to leave a place like that and we didn’t either.

But leave we had to, because the volcanoes of Berastagi  beckoned. From Berastagi we went further North to find to the small tourist ghetto of Bukit Lawang for the ultimate rainforest experience. While, on a weekend you can hear the locals karoking to Indian tunes so loud it would make the orang-utans buy a pair of ear plugs. But this was to be our launch pad into the animal kingdom of Sumatra, so we bore it with patience. Next morning we woke up geared for two days of walking in jungle with our guide, Henry. That fact that we would camp overnight in the jungle thrilled us to no end.  We started the day expecting a beaten trail. Now how hard can it be, it’s a jungle not 3,500 meter peak you tell yourself! But who thought a jungle trek would involve holding onto the branches of equatorial trees to  rapple down steep hill or climb down a muddy patch moving one step at a time not knowing where you will put your right foot as you hold onto your guide with both your arms hope your left foot doesn’t betray you. You look for the footholds along the roots of the giant trees and pray you get home safe while guide teases you jokingly calling it the “Sumatran escalator”. But then you see gibbons jumping from tree to tree holding on to their babies. You see little orang-utans grabbing food from their mothers who lovingly dote on them and you feel a tinkling in your spine. The jungle is muddy but it rewards you with the refreshing shower under the waterfall at the end of the day and a dip in cool pool where monitor lizard arrives every morning to catch fish.

And to rest away your muscle cramps pack your bags to arrive in the tropical paradise of Pulao weh. Tropical paradise, haan, you’ve heard that before.  Haven’t you. But it is so is because I bet none of your friends ever got here and they never will. You have this spectacular island that defines turquoise and calm with few tourists trailing around. You reward to come so far is you get a princely rooms on the water with balconies fitted with hammocks and perfect views. And guess what, when its high tides you can watch exotic fish swimming underneath your hut. You can rent the equipment and jump in the waters to see the teeming marine life of Pulao Weh. The adventure in Sumatra never ends.

So, if you are tired of destinations that pose too much, if you look everywhere and wonder if the world of a traveller is for real, if you worry the juggernaut of globalisation is flattening all cultural differences – then come to Sumatra. It is the home of authentic.