Indonesia has endless kilometres of coast line and fits perfectly with our aim to find some surf. Live the Search. 🤙🏻 The quest started a few weeks ago in Sumatra and it becomes us well, even though we have not seen a single wave. Two reasons. First, it takes time to travel around this immense country that just fits between London and India, and two, we were in low gear.

The jungle was simply too beautiful and it was too easy to convince ourselves that we needed extra days on that balcony overlooking the jungle to read a book and watch the monkeys crossing the white-water river. Apparently monkeys can swim. Although, they look more like kamikaze pilots, throwing themselves in the water hoping for the best.

Also, in Beristagi we dragged our feet. After living in 30 plus degrees for a year this lively little mountain town was a breath of fresh air. Spring temperatures! And thus, it’s true for us: no matter how much you love an endless summer, seasons will be missed. It was a perfect cool down and a lovely area to explore. Waterfalls, the local market, traditional houses, hot springs and active volcanoes.

The volcanoes were pretty thrilling because close by Sinabung erupted two days earlier. The Dutch ministry of foreign affairs warned us to be careful in North Sumatra (twice the size of The Netherlands) and to notify our family that we were still alive. The Indonesian newspapers talked about some descended ash 10 kilometres around the volcano annoying farmers. We had a look as it was our only way through to the South. Beristagi was ash-free, but man o man, we were in shock when we heard the air-raid siren. We were about to move under the table (as if that would help…🙄) when the guy in the restaurant told us: “Guys, it’s the sign for sun set. Ramadan”. All right. We also knew from that moment that setting an alarm clock was no longer needed. 😵

In all seriousness, there is of course regular news about the elections, earthquakes, eruptions, flooding, tsunamis and it is all true. Situations you don’t want to be in. What’s also true, it’s often very local. Indonesia is huge and I wonder if all European news would be broadcasted as one, would it sound like a safe place to travel? That does not alter the fact that the earth is in constant motion. In particular, in Indonesia where three tectonic plates meet. It’s shocking how many push messages you get if you download the earthquake app. Don’t do it. Luckily, most are not catastrophic and again, Indonesia is enormous. And still it’s something that’s on our minds. Not constantly, just somewhere. I’m afraid it’s part of the game when travelling along the ring of fire…

We became completely lazy at Lake Toba. We were treated with more spring temperatures, a picturesque village and a beautiful lake that constantly asked for a refreshing dip. Why would we hurry? That wave will wait for us.

>>> Lake Toba (Tuk Tuk) ‘thrown together’ Quick Story <<<

So far the touristic route. Not that we saw many tourists along the way and compared to the South East Asian tourist Walhalla, Sumatra is already off the beaten track, but further down South we sometimes felt there is not even a track. Most people fly and we don’t blame them. Sumatra is larger than Sweden and our average travel speed hardly goes over the 40 kilometres an hour and that’s by car. We’re not even considering the bus. Not even, if our legs would fit. In some areas roads are fallen apart, stones are pushed up or the road is just gone. The Earth is definitely in motion.

Travelling overland in Sumatra requires a lot of patience and strong nerves. You’re better off in getting a good relationship with the driver to ensure you’re not in a hurry. And not only that. Most of them have an USB with 10 to 20 MP3 songs of local artists. Just imagine a trip of 8 hours… and you can understand that we take over the DJ duty. “What music?” Without exception they request Scorpions or Bon Jovi! “Aaaaalwaaaays” 🙈.

Oh yes, it takes effort to travel overland, BUT you get awarded as the countryside is crazy beautiful. Jungle, rice paddies, rivers, waterfalls. So green. Fantastic. The best tropical environment we’ve seen in Asia! 👌🏻

Unfortunately, a lot of forest is dissapearing and replaced by huge palm oil plantations. Wild life lose their habitat, ground erodes causing more flooding. And to make it worse, oil palm trees require a lot of water and extract all nutrients from the soil. Not much else will grow there. In 2018, the government stopped the expansion of the big plantations, but it’s only for three years… Let’s see. Sustainable tourism might be a better money-making machine?

On the way South we spent time in Padang Sidempuan, Bukkittingi, gorgeous Harau valley (where we found a few other tourists – Hurray!) and finally Padang. It all was without real noteworthy attractions and instead we wandered around in daily life, where we – once again – often ended up as the HIGH light ourselves. The, on average, shortest people on this planet live in Indonesia and we bring up the average length in our own ‘tallest-people’ country. People regularly run to us like paparazzi: “selfie,selfie” or more awkward: people stop and stare forever. Luckily a cheerful ‘hello’ often turns the stare into a smile. 🤗

The Indonesians are nice. Really kind. We just need to be careful when speaking Dutch. It surprises us how many people still speak some Dutch after so many years. Dutch East Indies ceased to exist in 1945 when Indonesia proclaimed independence. Although, it took another 4 years for the Dutch to recognize the end of 350 years of colonization. Despite too many cruelties at the time, we have not experienced any negative sentiment when we say we’re from The Netherlands. “Ah, Belandaaa!” 🤗. The Netherlands is just another far-away country. The people we spoke to learned Dutch from their parents and one can still study Dutch at the university, as many law and historical documents have not been translated. Many lawyers are even required to do so.

When there are no real attractions to visit, it’s great as you don’t have to go anywhere. Just walk and explore and see whatever comes up. In Padang it was the ambassador for tourism who lacked tourists and desperately offered us a free tour around town along the ‘no real’ attractions. The letter sign of ‘I love Padang’, a small hill and a mosque. Which to be fair was impressive, but Sumatra is littered with mosques and many are still being built so along the way there are plenty to admire.

We can’t wait to see more of this beautiful country. That said, it is also time for action. We miss the ocean.

Let’s find some waves.