Category Archives: Sumatra
Sumatran Memento
Sitor is a woodcarver. His father was a woodcarver. Carving, he tells me, is what the Batak men do. Sumatra’s Lake Toba and its island of Samosir are famous for this carving. The Batak people’s totem poles, masks and houses … Continue reading
So long, so…matra?
As we left Sumatra today to return to Malaysia I thought I would take the opportunity to extol its virtues one last time. So here are 10 reasons to visit Sumatra… 1. The scenery: jungle, volcanos, crater lakes, tropical islands … Continue reading
Filed under Sumatra
Battle Royale
Lake Toba was a weird place to start with. A tourist haven with few tourists; guesthouses and restaurants empty for miles around, a veritable ghost town. It’s beautiful no doubt, but quiet enough to be eerie. Every pleasure a backpacker … Continue reading
Don’t peak too soon
Hello blog followers and apologies for the length of my last post. I shall keep this one much shorter and sweeter. I went to Berastagi, a town in central Sumatra, and climbed an active volcano 2200m above sea level – … Continue reading
Endangered species
Sumatra is a place where you constantly feel humbled. By the scale and beauty of the ever-present mountains, the awesome power of the weather, and by lives lived at the whim of mother nature. Life is cheap here and work is hard, but pleasures easily found. Continue reading
Mosquito, schmosquito
I was going to blog today about how amazing seeing orang utans in the wild was but I’m sure that’s fairly self explanitory. Instead I will just let you know about another aspect of Sumatra’s wildlife that we’ve grown to … Continue reading
Filed under Health and beauty, Sumatra, travel
Messing about in tubes
My biggest problem at the moment is working out what to blog about first. My new found and burning love for Indonesia? Tubing down the Bohorok river for miles, through unbelieveable scenery? My jungle trek to see orang utans? The … Continue reading
Getting away from it all (or how I met an octopus)
Meaning ‘away from’ in the local language of Acehnese, the remote island of Pulau Weh forms the northernmost point of Sumatra. It’s a remote paradise, a glorious isle of sun, sand, jungle and exquisite coral gardens. It’s known on the … Continue reading
The incredible journey, or “Are you ok for sweat?”
One of the downsides to going traveling is that it actually involves lots and lots of traveling. Yes, I know that I probably should have realised/remembered/respected that fact but I’d forgotten the endless faff/pain and nightmare that international travel on … Continue reading
Naughty bits: #1 Nudey rudey
Coming to the end of this blog writing malarky (Yes, it’s true folks…the Travelog’s days are numbered…I know all three of my regular readers will be crying into their cornflakes), I realised that it’s been quite a clean blog with … Continue reading
