From Bangkok Leo and I flew to Medan in Indonesia, the capital city of the Sumatra island located to the far west side of the country. It’s the last country of our trip and we’ll be flying back from Bali in one month. It’s only when we got here that I really looked at the map and realised how much land we have to cover to get across this huge country ! It will be a bit of a marathon 😬

We just spent one night in Medan; the time to find a local sim card and to take Leo to an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue to celebrate his admission to the international school next year! 🥳

The next day we took a 3 hours bus ride to Berastagi at the foot of mount Sibayah, and the next morning at 4am we were hiking to the top of the volcano to see the sunrise 😍. We also bathed in the hot springs nearby.

Back down around 11am; just enough time to take a shower and hop on to our next bus ride! No time to loose, we’re in a rush! 😂

We reached Parapat at 5:30pm just in time for the last ferry to Tuktuk, on the Samosir island. Lake Toba is a vast lake in the gigantic crater of an old volcano, a crater of 100km by 35kms, over 500m deep! The Samosir island covers a large part in the middle, making the lake look like a giant donut 🍩

Enough rushing for now, this looks like the perfect place for a break. Anyway, the monday bus to Bukittinggi is full, so we’ll spend 3 nights here and leave on tuesday night.

On the island we discovered the traditional houses of Sumatra with their inclined walls and curved spiky roofs. We rented a scooter and scoured the island from north to south. In the center we found more lakes, that are on an island, that is on a lake, that is on an island.. inception! 😳

We stopped at a beach and swam in the clear waters, until some buffaloes came to join and we stepped out. Good we did because soon after Leo found a couple of buffalo turds floating around! 💩🤢

The roads we drove and the views on the lake were stunning, we had a great time on lake Toba. Time to get on the bus for 16 hours down to Bukittinggi. By chance the ALS bus is rather comfortable, in spite of the loud horn playing a football song plus the winding, bumpy road!

Around 7am we reach Bukittinggi. The room I had booked is not ready yet, but the owner kindly lets us take a nap on a mattress in the living room. When we wake up we realise we don’t really like the house, but the owner is very understanding and we just book another place.

Around noon we rented a scooter and were ready to go explore the whereabouts. But first we had to stop at the bus station to plan our next leg. We were told that the regular bus takes 5 hours more than the shared minivan, for about the same price, so we agreed to the shared minivan that would take « only 17 hours » overnight.

We had just two days to explore the area and there’s quite a lot to see around Bukittinggi. First day, we started with the panoramic view park overlooking the canyon just below the city. In the park, one can also visit military tunnels built by the Japanese occupants during WW2. Then we went down into the canyon and ate at the wonderful Taruko restaurant in an old traditional house. From there we went to a viewpoint, Puncak Lawang, overlooking lake Manijau.

On the second day, we looped around the north. We rode along rice fields and villages with beautiful spiky rooftops, first to a viewpoint in Payakumbuh, then to the ancient palace of Pagaruyung, and finally to Puncak Aua Sarumpun, overlooking lake Singkarak.

On the third day we had our bus in the afternoon, so we just took Leo to the hairdresser in the morning. The bus was actually a minivan, which arrived an hour late and my window wouldn’t close and it started to rain heavily so I had to take my poncho inside the car to not get wet! .. Long story short, we drove all afternoon and all night and finally reached Bengkulu at 11 the next morning, after 23 hours in the van.

Being alongside the beach, I was expecting Bengkulu to be more touristic, but we seemed to be the only aliens in town. People would stare at us, all the more since Leo almost looked like a local. Contrary to everywhere else in Southeast Asia, I was surprised -and disappointed- that we couldn’t rent a scooter here. After asking around some more we were directed to the only guy in town who seemed to rent scooters. After a long discussion and some negotiation and some selfies with the aliens, he finally agreed to drive us to his home to give us the scooter! By this time we had already missed the sunset but we still went to the beach in the dark.

The next day, we set out to explore the nearby lake and waterfall. The lake was small and uninteresting, the waterfall was misplaced on google maps and it took us 2 hours to find it. It was boring and dirty. We rode back to Bengkulu’s beach. A long empty sandy beach, some horse carriages riding back and forth. We bathed in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and drew some maths lessons on the fine sand.

That’s it Bengkulu, we weren’t very impressed. Another 15 hours bus ride and around midnight we reach Bandar Lampung in the south of the island.

In the morning, we find a scooter to rent and head to the bus station to book our next ride, to Jakarta! #neverenough

In the afternoon we decide to go see laguna Gayau on the coast. The road along the coast is beautiful but quite long (and very bad!) and we reach the laguna around 5:30 just before sunset. Once there we’re forced to take a guide for the 10mins walk to the laguna. There’s a “magic bathtub”, a hole in the rock that constantly empties and refills with the waves coming back and forth underneath. We bathe and jump and have a great time, before driving back for 3 hours in the night.

Way Kambass Ditutup!

If that’s not clear enough for you, you’re in for a long drive!

So the next day we decide to ride our bike to the Way Kambass national park. Leo is excited because he may ride an elephant! We reach after almost 3 hours on the bike and .. we learn that the park has been closed for the past 3 years!! Ditutup, as it said on all the signs we saw, means closed! 😭 “You want to see elephants?” One of the guy asks, “there’s a park in Lampung!” That’s where we come from! It’s already late, so for lack of a better plan we head back there! At least we’ve seen quite a bit of the countryside and some rubber plantations on the way.

The park in Lampung is an amusement waterpark and a zoo. We start with the waterpark to freshen up after almost 6 hours on the bike, and Leo has such a blast that we completely skip the elephants !

Today we’re in the bus to Jakarta, only 8 hours 🙂 Sumatra is splendid and has lots to offer but 12 days is really not enough – as one might have guessed 🤷🏼‍♂️ We drove past the Orang-Outans of Bukit Lawang, or the tigers of the Kerinci national park amongst many other things; we’ll have to come back!

Now the great news about Jakarta is that Mary already got tired of Dubai and she’ll be back with us for the last 15 days of the trip! 🎉