The day after the Harau valley trip with Juni, I set out on what was supposed to be a 5 day road trip, but ended up being 7 with Juni. I had originally intended to climb mt. Merapi an easy 4 hour climb from bukkit tinggi and then perhaps go to the Mentawi Islands where one of my all time favorite profs (from a summer program with UC-santa barbara), Lisa Paciulli did her doctorate work on a rare species of monkeys (http://www.ippl.org/2002-november-5.php). I had wanted to go there b/c the mentawi islands are much much older than sumatra in geologic time and thus have very different flora and fauna, kind of like the madagascar of se asia; and also b/c it is a good place to see "primitive" people as the indonesians call them, though I am not sure what the pc choice would be. But I decided not to visit b/c it appeared to require at least 6 days and that was if the ferries worked out in your favor, which is a considerable amount of time to be trekking through the mud when on a set time visa and also b/c they had had a series of earthquakes and subsequent tremors were feared that could spawn tsunamis. So with this in mind and with Juni telling me that merapi was not a good climb b/c it was heavily deforested and b/c so many locals do it that there is trash everywhere along the way (indonesians don't believe in trash cans), I changed to doing a 5* day trip with Juni that would involve two days climbing kerinci volcano and visiting some "primitive" hunter gatherers in jambi province that were not in a guide book and not well known so were much more authentic than the ones in mentawis that I've heard will now change into their traditional clothing for cigarettes or sweets as opposed to always wearing it. The price was a bit expensive, but the trip seemed worth it, and things are always expensive when you have to go alone without a group.
So that next day we set out for kersik tua at the base of kerinci. We left around 9am and didn't reach kersik tua until after 10pm. It was a long, long journey made slower by Juni's frequent stops to rest and also to pray at mosques. It was a beautiful morning, and the drive up the switchbacks was even better than the day before. Again we went on some cool backroads, up and down passes, through wide valleys, past beautiful green rice fields, high altitude farming areas, and 2 large lakes. Some great scenery to be sure. We hit a couple of strong, but quick downpours before 2pm, but otherwise the weather had been great. We started looking for a place for me to have lunch at around 11:30, but didn't find one until after 2. It was a funny place; in this town in a high altitude valley. You walk into this place that is normally open air, but has been boarded up. You walk inside into a thick haze of smoke where about 20 indonesian men are smoking, eating, and drinking coffee. All breaking ramadan, and all happy to see this strange white guy in there with them. It was like a house of sin (not to be confused with the Chrisway house of sin, the previous residence of kendra, morgy, pickles, and myself) or like how I would imagine those types of places were like in america during prohibition. It really gave me a good laugh. We went up another pass and then down a steep valley that had fir trees, believe it or not, the first needled trees I had really seen since maybe the mountains in burma. Then the rain came, and boy did it come. Rained and poured and rained some more. We took some shelter at 6:30 next to a big flowing river to break the fast and then back into the rain. The rain eventually stopped around 8 ish as we were climbing high high up to the kerinci valley. It was clear skies then and with what moonlight there was, you could tell that it was stunning scenery of jungle, big mountains and volcanoes. Finally around 10 pm we arrived at the guesthouse freezing and soaking wet. When it rains that much, even with the motorcycle poncho there is no way you can really be dry, and we were at high altitude so it was quite cold (maybe 50F).
The roadtrip this day, and all later days, was of course unique and quite cool (in both meanings of the word). Squashed onto the back of the motorbike with Juni driving you really get to see the countryside and rural life. You get all the strange and bewildered and often scared, but usually friendly looks of the locals as you go buy. Lots of waves and smiles and curious children. Old women sitting on the stoop will smile their toothless smile and the old men will raise their hand up. Although you have to put up with the rain on a motorbike, it's quite a better way to see the countryside, the people, and the culture than on a bus. especially since you can stop whenever you want. It's also a bit nerveracking. Juni, although a skilled driver, was crazy fast and took too many chances in my opinion. Add this to the already wild, and really just unbelievable sumatran roads, and you often find yourself praying to God to let you survive one more blind curve in the opposite lane while passing a line of semis. And Juni wasn't the only crazy driver, they are all crazy out there really. You often find yourself passing trucks on blind curves with unseen potholes everywhere, cars without headlights in the night, and even passing cars when you can see in plane view a bus or truck coming in the opposite lane but just gunning it to cut in front of the car your passing just in time. At the same time your dodging children flying kites in the road, stray dogs, cows wondering in the road, goats running across, families of chickens parading across, rice drying on the road, etc, etc. A few times we'd even be passing a car when we wouldn't have the time to make it all the way past and there you are in the middle of the road, the truck your passing on the left, an oncoming van rushing by on the right, and you in the middle with your eyes closed and knees tucked in as closely as possible. With as dangerous as it all sounds, they are all skilled and very used to this kind of driving, so there are very little accidents I think. They're much more on their toes than we are back home. This is by far the craziest driving I have seen though, beating out the philippines for sure. And then add another level to the whole thing when the time hits 6pm and they all have only 30 minutes to find that restaurant so that they can break the fast at 6:30. The best way to describe it to you guys maybe is to think of the arcade game crusin' world, and basically that's what this was...cruisin' indonesia. Obstacles everywhere including potholes and cows, slick rainy spot, downed trees weird motorbike contraptions used for hauling things of all sorts, cyclists, and of course just like in the game, weaving back and forth in oncoming traffic at high speeds. The only difference between this and the game really is that in the game you get 3 lives and if you do hit that semi, I'm afraid it just wouldn't be your fancy lamburghini spinning out and then slowly accelerating again. One thing that annoyed me with juni besides his constant quick accelerations and quick breakings (he had no idea how to drive efficiently), was that he'd always reach out to kick the poor pooches that found themselves stranded and scared for their lives on the highway. Oh and the other thing is that even though he was married to a very nice lady every single time we passed gals on a motorbike he totally would rubberneck and stare for a while and make some comment about how hot they were or whatever. To me he was not very faithful.
That morning I woke up early and walked out onto the deck of the homestay to see the clear view of the volcano, but alas it was completely foggy and socked in, and you could hardly see very far in front of you. The valley, or what you could see, was nice though, full of tea plantations and potato fields and colorfully dressed villagers commuting to work with 4 on a bike, or riding a cow, or walking with hoe in hand. I met my guide Penny that morning. This was another things that upset me with Juni b/c he was supposed to be the guide for everything I think but he ended up hiring out which made things more expensive b/c then I was not only paying for him, but for the other guides as well. When we were back in maninjau we agreed on a price of 3 million rupiahs which included everything except drinking water. I paid him the 200,000 deposit and he gave me a receipt. But after that he was constantly coming up with other things that I needed to pay for, like petrol on the last day for him to get home, or money to have my big bag delivered, or what not, even though we had agreed on an all inclusive price before. Luckily I was good with not giving in, except in one case where he wanted 80 more dollars to pay for the mtn guide. I said no and that it was supposed to be included and then he offered that I pay 20 dollars, which I accepted partly b/c I was afraid then I wouldn't be able to climb it, but that was early on and before I knew he was constantly trying to rip me off, so I wouldn't have agree to that either if I have known. He always do it where he'd ask to speak to me in private and then tell me something else I needed to pay for. I'd give a strong know and then he'd say ok and just go back to being his happy self, so it became obvious he was just trying to get money from me.
Anyways, I met Penny and we began the climb up Mt. Kerinci at 3805m (about 12,560 ft) the tallest volcano in Indonesia and the tallest mountain in indonesia besides the ones bordering Papua New Guinea on Irian Jaya. Penny was a nice guy, but a slow as mud hiker and struggled quite a bit, which is surprising for a guide. I was always waiting on him and he'd come up completely out of breath. I had thought, with the way juni made it sound that there was a sort of homestay shelter where you slept the night up there, so I didn't question him when he told me it would be best to just bring my daypack for ease on the motorbike during our road trip. But the mtn guide shook his head b/c I really needed a bigger bag for climbing b/c I had to carry all my warm gear, extra dry gear, food, plenty of water, a sleeping pad, and a big sleeping bag. It was initially, for the first hour, ok b/c I just strapped it all onto my pack. But then it started to pour for the rest of the 5 hours up and I couldn't fit my pack raincover over my pack with the sleeping bag and water and pad strapped on. So there I was climbing this incredibly steep, slipper and muddy trail, with often huge steps, holding a sleeping bag and a pad in one hand and water in the other. It was similar terrain to that on gunung tahan or the pinnacles, except here I had no hands. I fell several times without having the hands and even a couple times I fell back down the trail several feet. At this point I was pretty miserable and wishing I was anywhere else. I was even considering just turning around b/c it was so miserable and appeared as though it was not like I'd see anything from the top anyways. But my crazy determination and never quit attitude kept me going even though I was not a happy camper. I was soaking wet--(I wasn't wearing my rain gear as I wanted to keep it dry for the next day when it would be really cold and since when you're hiking up you stay hot anyways--covered in mud, carrying stuff in my hands up a nasty trail made worse by severe erosion so that you were often in this narrow trench that I was nearly too wide to pass through, and feeling like it would be hopeless to see a view up there let alone the lava lake that you were supposed to be able to see in the crater. And seeing real life lava is something I have always really really wanted to do since those days in 1st grade when we made baking soda and vinegar volcanoes from play dough and then upgraded to the more real looking volcanoes given for free in the rice krispies boxes. And up to this point I had been shut out twice in my quest to do this having been to the two most active volcanoes in the world but seeing only rain and clouds on arenal and in hawaii being with anna windler who was too lazy to hike the two hours to wear the lava was flowing into the ocean. I had still been under the impression that there was some sort of shelter where we set our tent up when we get to the campsite, but halfway up I was told this wasn't true by Penny, so that made me even more negative thinking of spending the night in a wet tent at near freezing temps. Sleeping in a puddle of water with asian quality tents in taman negara in the steamy jungle is one thing, but on the side of the mountain where the temp is 34 degrees is another. However, Penny brought tarps as well and did a good job making a rainproof shelter, so I needn't have had to worry. We finally got above the tree-line and above the really really dense clouds where we hiked a bit further to set up our tent in the mist. A few times we did get to see up to the top of the volcano for a few moments, but for the most part we were cloaked in a heavy mist which was disappointing b/c after coming out of the humid jungle I was hoping to be in fresh, dry, and sunny air to let everything else dry out. It was freezing cold up there so we just jumped in our sleeping bags and read until we fell asleep. The ironic thing, and I have to laugh at it now was that Penny had given his pack a full washing after his last trip and had forgotten to put the matches back in it. This meant that we had nothing from which to light the stove to make steaming noodles or a warm cup of tea, let alone build a fire when it cleared up a bit. It was so cold up there that I really would have loved that cup of tea. But the ironic thing was that Penny was the first indonesian man I had met who doesn't smoke 3 packs a day, let alone a single cigarette, which meant he didn't have his supply of lighters with him and didn't realize he was without matches until we got to the top whereas a normal indonesian would have realize this 1 minute into the hike when he reached for his cigarettes. So if there was one indonesian I did wish had smoked, it was Penny. But he was such a nice guy and I didn't blame him for it, it was just bad luck.
The next morning at 3:30 we left for the summit with the hopes of being on top at sunrise to see the sunset but also getting there before dark so that we could see the glowing lava. We arrived at the rim of the crater before 5, but it was incredibly foggy from sulfur eruptions in the volcano. There was so much sulfur, in fact, that sometimes if the wind blew right I could hardly breathe. It was actually clear all around, except that the sun rose on the other side of the crater, so we couldn't see that b/c the sulfur smog was so thick. After the sun rose we stayed up there for quite a while longer and eventually the sulfur smoke calmed down and we got a nice view into the huge and deep crater where you could see the sulfur vents and also had good views down to the kerinci valley and the kerinci rainforest and mountains as well as some crater lakes. Really a very nice view after all. We walked back down, past the memorials of people who had fallen into the crater (400 feet deep and straight down) and packed up our tent and headed down. Of course the rain soon came and then one of the heaviest downpours I had ever been in. I was more wet than had I gone swimming I think. Luckily for me on both the climb up and down I am always overly prepared. I have a rainfly for my backpack which typically keeps out most rain, but when you have a river running down your back, it eventually soaks in, but I also had waterproof stuff sacks for my clothes and camera, so I ended up not having anything ruined and having dry clothes for when I did go for the summit in the cold morning. That evening it cleared up a bit, though sunny would be a huge exaggeration and I walked through the tea plantations and enjoyed watching the rush hour of people coming back from the fields to the village on all their various means of transportation of motorbikes to cows.
Juni, had tried to convince me when I got back down that I should do this tiger trek thing where it is guarenteed to see a tiger or your money back. You basically trek to this field where the tigers hunt when they get hungry, and sit in a tree for however long it takes (usually 1-3) days until a tiger comes. Tigers are one of my favorite animals and the thought of seeing the extremely endangered sumatran tiger enticed me, but the thought of sitting in the jungle for 3 days in the rain and just getting a blurry glimpse of a tiger in the dark with a flashlight (and knowing juni's track record for promises) made me say no. Though a cool thing was that Penny found tiger tracks on the trail that had occurred sometime after we first went up the trail...so perhaps we were being stalked by a tiger??
The next morning when we set off on the bike to go towards bangko in jambi province, it was misty in the lower elevations but clear up top, so although it wasn't a crystal clear view, I finally got to see the whole outline view of the beast I had just climbed. In his original five day plan we were supposed to leave that afternoon when I got back from the volcano, but Juni was too tired (since you know he was the one who slept all day while I climbed a gnarly volcano) so he wanted us to stay one more night. It ended up being an ok thing b/c he greatly underestimated the time it would take to get to bangko and we would have arrived there at like 4am had we left that afternoon. The drive to bangko was again through some wild backroads along big rivers and dense rainforest, where like in Colorado you often see wildlife while driving, we saw civets and gibbons and macaques, and lots of red monkeys and baboons, and some other monkey species as well. Eventually we got to what you always hear about for sumatra and that was rainforest clearing. We drove 80 or so km's along a bumpy and windy road surrounded by clear cut forests and then some more that was all oil palm plantations before arriving in a town to break the fast. After the bumpy dirt roads, my behind was definitely hurting. At one point in the day we had stopped at a tiny little village to ask for directions and the apparent policeman, though not in uniform and playing chess outside the station asked to see my passport. I gave him a copy I carried with me and he asked to see the real thing. Told him I didn't have it and that I had left in in maninjau (a lie as it was on my body) so he grunted and just waved us on. Later Juni asked in disbelief why I wouldn't carry my passport with me. I do I said but I certainly wasn't going to tell him that. He laughed and said I was so wise, but in truth, it's just that I'm a good listener, and I listen to all the traveler's stories which often involve the extremely corrupt police of indonesia who will take your passport even though you are not required to give it and then ask for money for it back. You should really only give your passport, so I have been told, at national park offices, at border crossings, nicer hotels, and to the police only if you are about to be thrown in jail. The american passport is a hot commodity and the police love to take bribes to get the passport back At this point of the journey we were supposed to be camping out at the edge of the forest where the "primitive" people are which is accessed from bangko. We still weren't even at bangko and yet juni said we would spend the night here. He said we were only 4okm or 1 hour from bangko and we'd go there early in the morning. I did not agree with this wanting to just get there so that I knew were were there insead of spending all the next day driving and only have a few hours with the traditional people. So I made him go on (I have always thought it wise when with freelance guides to not pay the whole fee agreed on until arriving safely back at your destination as this give you bargaining power as well as ensure the guide won't just leave you lost in the jungle somewhere with all your money in hand) and we immediately saw a sign that said 80kms to bangko and it took 2 hours, so I am glad we went that evening. Stayed at a really dumpy hotel there.
The next day I met my two guides. Well one true guide for the primitive people and then one english translator since the guide could only speak the native language and indonesian. The indonesians call the people Kubu people, but they call themselves orang rimba (people of the forest) After a 3 hour bumpy motorbike ride we arrived at the government village that had been set up by the government in an attempt to lure the primitive people into more "civil" living. From there Juni had said it would be 2 hours of trekking into the deep forest to see the really primitive people, but we ended up only going for about 1/2 hour before setting up our camp. But it was a very neat experience for sure. The people definitely lived in a "primative" way with little western or modern influence. They did have some things such as rifles for hunting, a few had flip flops, and some of their shelters had tarps, but other than that they were basically living completely off the jungle. Maybe how the native americans lived after they had first made contact with the europeans and had shared ideas and things. They couldn't read or write and they wore only loin cloths. Some of the women did wear entire sarongs, but still most just wore loin cloths. The children ran around naked. The boys were very curious, the little girls very scared. The people are nomadic hunter gatherers. The woman, who weren't very friendly (or perhaps were scared) stayed home with the children while the men were out hunting all day. Each little tribe consisted of just the family. During my 2 days and 1 night in the area we visited 2 tribes. They just build simple shelters out of the trees and basically sleep out in the open. While I was there the men brought back a few birds and a flying squirrel to eat. We helped the little kids gather mussels from a stream and we kept some for ourselves to eat with our noodles. The people seemed to have a very simple existence and from what I could gather from the guide had no elaborate rituals or anything, but I do suppose they were animistic. It was definitely a very unique experience b/c there are not many people that still live that way. Like in thailand or borneo where you trekked into the jungle to see traditional villages, they often had cell phones, sattelite tv's, and of course western clothes and ny yankee hats. These people had probably seen plenty of "modern" indonesians in the form of the government people, but it was most likely that they had seen few whiteys as Juni kind of had a hookup here with his cousin (the translator), so it wasn't like there were other guides taking people here, and most go to the mentawis anways to see the traditional people.
The next day was the bumpy 3 hours back to bangko, then a long long haul to Padang, the large city by the ocean in west sumatra. Here Juni told me I had to pay the petrol the rest of the way...yea right I told him, transport was all included. The ride was uneventful though nerve wracking because it was on a big highway to padang, until we had to break the fast. Actually before the dinner we went over a really beautiful pass with stunning karst mountains all around. While having dinner, a crazy downpour came (knew I must be back in west sumatra. Hadn't rained in jambi province, but had rained so much in west sumatra province). Juni then informed me that we would spend the night here as it was raining and tomorrow we could go to padang. I told him that was unacceptable as it was already day 6 of our 5 day tour and who knows if it would be raining tomorrow, and I just wanted to get there. So we waited a while for the rain to settle and then set off again in a lesser rain. The rain eventually died off before we started heading up the huge (and freezing) pass that eventually drops down all the way to sea level in padang. It was pretty intense for sure especially with all the big trucks struggling to go up and down, and it being dark. As soon as we got into Padang, around 11:30 it started to pour. Juni said we were almost there and no need to get out the rain gear. I said, yea right, and told him to pull over b/c his almost there could mean another 30 minutes. But I was wrong...2 hours later of driving through the city, then past the airport then into the countrside, all in pouring rain, we finally arrived at the homestay he wanted to stay at. You can imagine I wasn't feeling the happiest. I would have gladly taken any of the hotels and guesthouses we passed along the way and just got out of the rain and into a bed to sleep considering I wanted to catch the first flight to jakarta at 7am. I was pretty grumpy and just wanted to get a shower (I hadn't showered the whole trip as I had been way too cold in kerinci, the water was nasty brown in bangko, and the jungle didn't have a big enough river to bathe) and go to bed. Then juni informed me I'd have to pay more to have my big bag which we had left in maninjau, 1.5 hours drive away, brought to me. This really irritated me, b/c of course this was part of the all inclusive. So he forgot about it once I told him know. He then told me the bag would be there by 7 so I could catch my 7 flight. I tried to tell him I needed it by 6 or earlier to check in, so he said it would be. Then he gave some sob story about how he just wanted to get home, so I told him to go (weird thing was he had been complaining about how tired he was when he wanted to stay at the place we ate dinner before getting to padang, but now he was ready to drive in the middle of the night to maninjau). I paid him what I owed him and he took off. The price also included transfer to the airport and he said the car that was bringing my bag would take me. Of course the bag arrived at 7:30, so I couldn't take the early flight and the car just dropped the bag off and didn't take me. Luckily the homestay owner was very nice and took me on his motorbike to the airport where he told me that Juni was a very dishonest guide and that almost everyone he took to to his homestay was upset with Juni. A couple weeks before a german guy had really been irate and yelled at him for ripping him off. I don't know if this made me feel better or worse.
In the end, looking back the trip was quite amazing. I saw some amazing countryside and experienced a great culture in west sumatra. I climbed the tallest volcano in indonesia and got to glimpse into its steaming crater. Then I got to visit with very traiditonal peoples and camp in the jungle with them. And just altogether have an amazing indonesian experience. But it was a bit tainted by the combination of crappy weather and a rip off guide. Had one of those been better, I probably would have much fonder memories of the trip. But the truth is during a lot of the trip I wasn't enjoying it b/c of the bad weather and bad guide, but the good thing is that I did have some amazing experiences and will remember those.
At the airport I needed cash to buy my flight, as of course juni had failed to stop at an atm like i asked, and I was a little nervous the airport, which wasn't huge (and could rival DIA in the airports with unique pointed roofs contests as it to was built in the minangkabau style) wouldn't have one. But it did, and had two. The first one I tried wouldn't except my card so I worriedly had to go to the other. I had a lot on my mind including the last experience and the best way to hide and secure my money while in jakarta as they apparently have some of the best pick pockets in the world. There's even a pickpocket school in jakarta (yea incredible huh) where the graduates are said to be able to get your wallet without you noticing while you're sitting down. So as soon as the atm spat out my money I secured it in my money purse to meet back up with the homestay man to help me buy a ticket. In all this rush and other thoughts I left my debit card in the machine, which I realized after landing in Jakarta. I can't remember how the atm's back in america work, but I do have to say now, that I think it's the dumbest order to have the machine give you your money and then after you've taken your money and then clicked on the screen you don't want another transaction that it gives you back your atm card. I think it should be the other way around where you must pull out your card before you get your cash b/c the whole reason you came there in the first place is to get cash, so your obviously not going to forget that, but your card is easy to forget.
But I made it safe and sound into jakarta and I was more than ready to start anew with rainless skies in Java.
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