Gayo Highlands

I swear it's the coldest place I've ever been in Indonesia! The water is icy, and when I took a motor-cycle ride (in the early afternoon sunshine) I felt my cheeks froze.

It's a breathtakingly beautiful place though, with a lovely (ice water) lake surrounded by hills on all sides. All around are coffee fields filling the world with the wonderful aroma that is Gayo coffee. There is a hardy local embroidery craft, and the fruit shopping in splendid. Streets are empty, and the fightings are rare than elsewhere in Aceh.

The Gayo people are actually distant relatives of mine since their root is the Karo people of North Sumatra--my grandmother's people.

Pork city

Medan is awful. I feel myself becoming rude and coarse here after a few day's stay. The people are descendants of merchants and farmers, a fertile ground for loud and brash behaviour. One must adjust oneself to fit in, i.e. not get pushed around.

Of course, as elsewhere it is not without at least one positive aspect, and for me that's PORK. This is pork heaven: a mixture chinese and local pork-eating culture has created a wide range of choice which will leave any pork lovers with a big smile even after shaken 12 hours in a 200% overcapacity bus zigzagging the lake. From honey-cured pork rolls, diced pork in cassava leave curry, deep-fried pork, spicy pork cooked dry in it's own blood, even pastries drenched in pork fat, you will eat it like never before.

Lucky me!

Quiz: Where in the world is Madina?

I told someone I was going to Madina, and he was shocked. He thought I'd converted and gone to do Haj.

FYI, Madina is Mandailing-Natal, a district broken off from the South Tapanuli of old. It borders West Sumatra, so it's in that limbo state where nothing really unique, everything's kinda bland. At least that's a first impression as you go pass it by on the Trasn-Sumatra. But stop and head into the mountains a little bit, and you come across terraced paddy fields rivaling that of Ubud in Bali. Even lovelier for the dramatic enclosure of the mountains and the little whiff of fog on top them mountains. And the streams! I keep daydreaming of rafting the waters between green mountains and paddy fields...

The pristine state of the forests is further underlined by local stories of folks coming face-to-face (or face to butt) with TIGERS! Imagine! in general these kings of the (local) jungle don't bother people or livestock, only uses the villages as their travelling path. Excellent.

Food? How about trapped deer in hot sauce, with piping hot rice and super crunchy shrimp crackers? Supper!

Ah, and don't forget the coffee. I'm not connoiseur, but Mandailing coffee is reputedly the best in the world. If only there's a nice bakery nearby, and internet is available, I'd move out there. You know, for a month or two. With lots of books.