Sumatra March 2019

Main hub airport for North Sumatra is the city of Medan (google it?) Not much to see or do, so we headed to find some Indian Food in the section called Little India. Nice people. Fun conversations. Great food, as there is amazing food everywhere we traveled in North Sumatra.

At the top our "to do" list was to visit the equatorial rainforest village of Bukit Lawang. The neighboring national park, Gunung Leuser, is home to many primates including Orangutans, Black Gibbon, Longtail Macaque, Thomas leaf Langur, and a few others...From Medan, the 4 hour car ride took us through agricultural villages based on the farming of rice, corn, sugarcane, palm for copra and others for palm oil. Lots of smiling faces and happy folks waving to us. We checked into this riverside hotel that our tour guide arranged. Very nice accomodations and delicious food in the restaurant. Indonesian food is really good. The view from my hotel room overlooks the Bahorok River and the national park beyond. The next morning after breakfast began the 6 hour hike (yes, you read that right...6) up and down, but mostly up into the rainforest. (Promotional pitch for Motrin here.) Here, our guide, Rinto, is making my life interesting. This is the kind of jungle that

Lake Toba (google it) is the world's largest crater lake. Samosir Island is the world's largest island inside a crater lake. Therefore, the island of Sumatra contains the world's largest island inside the world's largest crater lake...one more to follow later... Here is an explanation of the geologic history. I love this kind of stuff. We hired a driver to take us from Bukit Lawang south to Lake Toba. Along the 6 hour ride way we passed the same sort of agricultural villages and lots of beautiful views. Volcanos abound. Some extinct, some dormant and also the active volcano named Mt. Sibutan. It last erupted in 2018. We arrived at the lake to a village named Parapat and took a 1 hour ferry boat to Samosir Island. Samosir Island is home to a rather ancient cultural tribe of people called the Batak. They are known for their fabric weaving of unique patterns that consist of the colors: red, black and white. They also do tribal wood carvings in the

Ah...Nias Island...google it!!! We took a connecting flight through Medan to the barrier island of Nias. Nias is home to Sorake Beach. Most surfers agree that this is consistently the best wave in the world. I was there and I believe it. Beyond description, but I will try. The island is...primitive. We landed at the airport and hired a driver for the 3 hour wild ride to Sorake beach. The ride was kind of like riding a giant snake. We assumed we were lost until we came out of the jungle to Sorake. It was a magical sight. We booked a couple of rooms at the Oseda Nias Surf House. From the balcony outside my room, I saw this. There are essentially four right point breaks. 4' to double overhead at 14 second intervals. Just amazing. For 4 days we very rarely saw a section breaking in front of the curl. At all times there were 8 or fewer people surfing. Most were pros taking a break and practicing for the tour. Most rides last longer than a minute or three. This spot is called The