Articles from this Category
10 January 2011
Above: This picture of Berastagi makes it look quite nice. And it was taken when dry … without all that mud. Today I took a 3.5 hour shared taxi-ride to the town of Berastagi, also in the highlands. The surrounding area is very fertile and they grow lots of cabbage, carrots and other vegetables. Unfortunately […]
9 January 2011
I woke and found the guesthouse reception and restaurant closed. On the street, it seemed rather quiet. Shops that were open were unattended. Then I realised it was Sunday and most people were either at church or recovering from the night before. It’s hard to imagine that Samosir island some decades ago was home to […]
8 January 2011
I had planned on cycling to various sights around the island but it seemed a lot easier to go on a motorbike with Alfred (my German taxi-mate from Medan, and now neighbour in the guesthouse). It turned out to be a seven hour jouney with three coffee stops and a sightseeing stop too. We circumabulated […]
7 January 2011
Good morning Medan. As it was raining, I opted for the easy solution to my transport requirements. The hardy solution would have involved crossing the busy street using the overhead bridge with my pack, to either the taxi company … or to catch a minivan to the long distance bus station. Thanks to some guy […]
6 January 2011
After a morning in the very nice Penang museum, I had lunch with an old flatmate from my Wellington days. It was very nice to catch up over a delicious lunch. I took an evening flight at 1835 across the Straits of Malacca to land at Polonia Airport (you’d think it was in Poland) at […]
27 July 2010
The Tsunami of 26 December 2004 This morning I took the ferry from Pulau Weh to the mainland and checked into a hotel for the night. I chose to take in some of the reminders of the tsunami which killed 170000 people in Aceh but, not the mass graves which are available for visits. The tsunami […]
26 July 2010
My Two Dives I did two dives today with Lumba Lumba Dive Resort, as planned … but not quite. The manager suggested that I do a refresher dive as I wasn’t highly experienced (15 dives) and it had been about 9 months since my last dive. Of course I suspected this was at an extra cost […]
26 July 2010
My Two Dives I did two dives today with Lumba Lumba Dive Resort, as planned … but not quite. The manager suggested that I do a refresher dive as I wasn’t highly experienced (15 dives) and it had been about 9 months since my last dive. Of course I suspected this was at an extra cost […]
25 July 2010
Fashion Crisis Takes a New Meaning I checked out from the airport Tune Hotel and walked to the nearby terminal for my 1155 departure from Kuala Lumpur to Banda Aceh, I had time for a leisurely curry breakfast (rendang, tempeh, cucumber and pineapples) after dropping off my bag at the baggage drop, then taking the […]
23 October 2009
The sun rises very early in Makassar, not quite as bad as in Manado but it is still very bright at five something. We had decided on an early start to beat the heat. Out the door at 0800, it wasn’t too hot yet. But within minutes we were drenched from the humidity. We went […]