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.