We landed in Medan after an hour flight from KL. Despite the short distance, Malaysia and Sumatra are two separate worlds. One can tell right away that Sumatra is an underdeveloped region. Crazy roads, dirty and noisy streets, very poorly built houses and all sort of animals wandering around the streets. It felt as though it is not a very popular tourist destination, hence, it is still quite an untouched and unique place. As a consequence, one can really appreciate the authenticity and diversity of Sumatra’s culture.
Our impressions
Fertile land
Indonesia is the country with the most volcanic activity in the world. As a result, the soil is extremely fertile, which explains why every little house, has their own garden where they grow their vegetables.
Off the record
Either if you buy a bus ticket, guided tour or pay for accommodation, they will never give you a receipt. We rented a scooter a few times and we were never asked to fill out any form or show any drivers license. I guess that plays in our favor. However, the prices are never listed, so you really have to be on constant watch for scams.
Transportation comforts
The roads of Sumatra are in very bad condition. The main road consists of one lane in each direction where all the trucks, tuck-tucks, scooters, buses, cows, horses, goats, people, chickens would share. Besides, there are holes every one hundred meters, apparently caused by the trucks transporting stones and palm oil fruit. On top of that, the public buses are minibusses, they fill up quickly, locals smoke inside, they sit on your lap and the drivers take their time to do their own errands. When cooking all these ingredients together, the result is a very uncomfortable, long and painful journey. No kidding when I say that it takes 4 hours to travel fifty kilometers.
Public transport is indeed very uncomfortable. However, it is fair to add that for a little bit more money you can move around with a tourist bus, an option that is two / three times more expensive but you travel with no interruptions, with aircon and with no people sitting on your lab. Expect long hours in the car anyway.
Musical talent
Everywhere we went, they seemed to have a big passion for music. It seemed that everyone could sing or play guitar. Seeing locals gathering and singing together with a few guitars would be a quite frequent event. If they had the chance to go abroad, they would probably make a decent living out of music.
Out of sight, out of mind
It is a very common scenery to see smoke coming out from a house backyard. With 30 degrees outside, they are obviously not trying to warm up themselves. There is no recycling culture or the resources needed for it. That leads to every house having to manage their own waste, which they decide to burn. As a result, you would every so often find yourself breathing toxic air. Not a very pleasant feeling.
There is hope though, as in some areas there are communities raising awareness about the importance of reducing plastic waste and keeping nature clean.
Corruption
When getting through the border, the police officer wouldn’t allow us in, unless we showed him a return ticket. That is if you access with the free 30-day visa. As we did not have a ticket out of the country, we had to buy one on the spot. The policeman came up with an alternative for us: “If you don’t want to buy a ticket, I know a friend that can give me a flight number for 25 USD”. We ended up purchasing a ticket to Singapore, where we would spend a night and fly the next morning back in Indonesia, for 30 extra days for free (Or that is the plan at the moment)
We also had a bad experience a couple of times when taking public buses. There are mafias that try to sell you overpriced tickets. Once, when going to Berastagi, switching buses in Medan’s bus station, we were hustled by a group of 6-7 people asking where we wanted to go. They rushed us into an empty bus. Once in the bus, they wanted us to pay three times the price to them in advance. As we did our research before and knew the actual price, we did not accept the price. However, they would not stop insisting, so we decided to get off the bus while it was still running. Luckily, they gave up and got off around the corner, where all the locals would jump in. Don’t know how these mafias work but they seemed to be in sync with the driver. We learned then, that before traveling, we should always know what the price is and always pay when getting to your destination. Altogether, not a pleasant experience.
Walking wallets
We would sometimes feel really uncomfortable as lots of people approach you trying to sell you stuff, give you a ride, sell you a tour, etc. After a long uncomfortable journey, It gets even more exhausting when constantly hustled.
Poor Region
Unfortunately, we had to deal with quite a few times with some people that were very desperate for money. Some people, live exclusively from tourism. This means when high season is over, difficult times lay ahead. That was very noticeable in Lake Toba, as there had been recently a boat accident in June 2018, where unfortunately a lot of people lost their lives, reducing drastically local tourism.
Plenty of time to spare
We noticed also in some areas, that a lot of young people would spend the whole day doing absolutely nothing. Indonesia is one of the most populated countries in the world and, even though all children finish secondary school, the university is unaffordable for most of them. This may be the cause of this lack of ambition or drive for building a future that some of them present.
The power of a Smile
If Malaysian people were friendly, people in Sumatra seemed to be even more. They all smile at you, everybody says hello and again, we seemed to be celebrities in Sumatran land. It is difficult not to stay happy with all these smiles around you.
Our highlights
Orangutans in Bukit Lawang
This little river town is famous for their orangutan rehabilitation center, where they would rescue orangutans in captivity and teach them how to live in the wilderness again. They told us, the center is now closed, as they have successfully reinserted all the orangutans.
In order to see “wild orangutans”, we booked a two-day jungle treck, where we would walk across the jungle trying to spot them. We would sleep in the Jungle and come back rafting downstream.
Unfortunately, Bukit Lawang is also famous for a big disaster in 2003, which killed a lot of people. We were told by some locals about the horrifying story and how they lost their families. The bright side is that they managed to rebuild the town and thrive again.
Hiking to the top of Sibayak in Bersatagi
Berstagi is another popular spot due to Mount Sibayak and Mount Singabung, one dormant and one active volcano which tourists hike. After a day trip to the top of Mount Sibayak (the dormant one), we had our first food poisoning experience. As a consequence, we stayed in bed for the next two days.
A week in Lake Toba
Lake Toba is the crater of a very old volcano, which has a huge island in the middle due to another eruption that took place thousands of years ago. Yes, it is indeed an island on a lake, which is on another island. We relaxed in Tuk-tuk for the following days so that we could finally recover for our next journey.
Samosir island is home to Batak people, who used to be cannibals in the past. They have their own special language, dances, and architecture. Another interesting fact of this island is that the majority of the people here are Christians. The influence of the Islam was not so strong as they lived on a secluded island.
Sumatra highlights video
All in all, our time in Sumatra was our first feet grounding experience. We have a lot to learn from the locals. It is amazing how resourceful people are here, they survive one disaster after another, living basically off nature. A lot of talent that would surely make the region thrive if they had access to the right resources. Off to Java!
Outdoor Travel Addicts 
que gran experiencia
BESOS
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