It was the end of a long day on the bus. We had arrived in Sumatra the previous day. Our entry point was Medan after a flight from Singapore. Medan is a large sprawling city once voted third worst city in the world by Lonely Planet readers. Armed with this snippit of information before we landed we were not disappointed by the initial culture shock. Trying to get around was difficult as the shops extended their real estate by blocking the pavement to display their wears which ranged from household goods to motorbikes and generators. This forced you to take to the gutter to pass the shop and as it had just rained this was no a pleasant experience. On our return visit with a couple of weeks experience in Indonesia the place did not seem so bad, it just takes getting used to and to learn how to cross the road.
We had left Medan in the morning with a local bus company whose name we were told meant safe or reliable. This was interesting as the bus we were to travel on had certainly had some “rearrangement” of the windows during its long service. We noticed that none of the window pillars on the left and right side of the bus aligned and one side definitely showed signs of non standard welding techniques. To add to the feeling of safety, the door obviously had new hinges welded in by what looked like a first year trainee gorilla. To display this handywork they had made sure not to replace the lining of the door. With this auspicious start we set off West towards the mountains.
After walking in the UK in late October our bodies had not acclimatised to any form of heat which meant that the trip was a hot one. The locals do not like the windows open as there is a belief that illness comes from the wind so they do not want to let it in. The seats are obviously made for smaller people and there were 6 seats across, one on the left side of the bus and 5 on the right, all in gleaming dark blue vinyl. Our destination was Lake Toba, the site of a huge volcanic lake. The road climbs slowly to the rim before descending down a winding road built into the inner rim of a huge caldera. At the bottom of the descent the bus belched forth its content of hot sweaty travellers and the smoke of a thousand cigarettes by the ferry jetty.. We were the only westerners on the bus.
Lake Toba from the central island
There And Backpacking Again 