Sumatra

I visited Sumatra about 10 years ago – caught the ferry from Penang to Medan, found a guide there to take us trekking in the rain forest, saw no orangutans but only a handful of chickens one misty morning.

I was traveling with a couple of friends and we thought we were all Indiana Jones with our machetes and our Banana Republic outfits, but then every once in a while an old granny with 50 lbs of cargo on her shoulders would blow by us like we were standing still. It was pretty humiliating.

If you go trekking, do a long trek (3 days +) or it’s not worth it. And expect leeches.

We spent New Years eve recovering by shores of Lake Toba, drinking cheap gin and listening to the Austrian couple who owned our hostel screaming at each other.

I’d love to see these little Sumatran tigers in their natural ecosystems. How exciting to be one with the wild… here’s a little William Blake for you:

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry

Have plenty of family around lake Toba that I have never met, seeing as I have never been there. My great grandfather was some kind of Raja out there (and my dad was thrown in the hot spring in some kind of coronation ritual in the 50’s) as you can probably tell I don’t know much about it! Really want to go though and see how many relatives I can meet..

so far i’ve been to medan, lake toba and parts of aceh. the nature is just so lush and amazing – jungle, flowers… it’s amazing. i have memories of this huge island that will never leave me.