This is us at Meulaboh's version of Starbucks. I finally got to see some more of Indonesia! I had a week off for R and R and my friend and colleague, Herly, and I had fun exploring. After a night in big city Medan enjoying ice cream, pizza, real Starbucks (ya ya ya, it just makes me think of home!) we headed to the AMAZING Lake Toba- about 5 hours south west of Medan.

I've had conflicting reports, but I'm told it's the biggest crater lake in the world (or 2nd) and it's the deepest lake too (not sure on that one either) but whatever the stats are, the truth is that it's beautiful! We were high enough in the mountains that it was cool- cool enough to want a blanket at night! (talk about exciting). We stayed on Samosir Island at the amazing Hotel Carolina.

ahhhhh

Samosir Island and Hotel Carolina

Lake Toba is in the heartland of the Batak people, and the Carolina hotel is a great example of traditional architecture- cool, hey? The lake was nice and cool- and great for swimming. It was a lot of fun relaxing and exploring here, and extra cool because Herly is Batak and got a ton of local discounts for us!

Here's a close up.

After a few days of Toba, we headed south to the province of West Sumatra to the town of Bukkittingi- another place of amazing natural beauty. The mountains here were gorgeous, and once again-cool! (hooray for cool). One night we stayed in luxury (sheets and hot water and a pool) and one night we stayed at this great homestay place right beside a nature park.

And here's the view of one of the many volcanos from our luxury room in Bukkittinggi

This is how we got to our thatched-roof homestay cottage near the foot of that great cliff.

Some rice fields in the valley by Bukkittinggi.

Near Bukkittinggi there's still an operating waterwheel that pounds coffee beans into powder (that's how they do coffee in most of Sumatera). Here's a woman collecting the coffee powder to bag.

The people group around Bukkittingi are matrilineal- one of the few societies in the world to be so. And their houses are really cool too: traditionally each "horn"on the roofline signified how many women were in the family.
Here's Herly in front of the "King's Palace"

Also, the world's largest flower- the Rafflesia Arnoldii- grows here, so we decided we had to trek out to find it. With a local guide leading us scrambling up muddy mountain sides, we finally found this flower- a bit of a small example of the species- but interesting nonetheless! These flowers are so weird, google 'em sometime to learn all about it.

And then, for the last hoorah before heading back to Meulaboh, we went to Bukit Lawang to see the famous Orangutans. Of which we did- after another few hours of scrambling around muddy jungly mountains. But it was well worth it (though I had no idea a person could get this sweaty). We met with 4 orangutans, and though I've never been a huge monkey-fan, I'm definitely a fan of these amazing primates. As this area is a rehabilitation area, there are many orangutans who live on the fringe of the park that don't mind coming down to meet human visitors and share a little banana picnic.

When I returned to Meulaboh, I thought the adventuring was over for a while, but no! I got to hitch a ride up with some friends to Calang- an incredibly bumpy 3 hour drive north of Meulaboh. Much of the road was completely washed away last year, so we had an adventurous time driving on the beach, through craterous holes and over dubious log bridges. It was a lot of fun. And Calang is a gorgeous area- with really nice beaches (tons of cool shells). Pictures will have to come later as my camera ran out of batteries (most unfortunate).
Calang is a townwas essentially completely destroyed, with 80% of its population killed. They are working hard on rebuilding, and there are many good projects underway. FHI is busy up there with agriculture projects, and temporary housing.

So, now I'm back in Meulaboh. I enjoyed a nice, quiet Easter. And am now working hard catching up on all that missed work!

Oh- on other news. I made it into SPU's Master's of Teaching program- hooray for that. I'll be starting the year-long program this summer, if all goes according to plan (but you know how it is with my plans...)