The dark side of Sumatra

Following the advice of an Indonesian guy who pretended he wanted to help us we left the idyllic lake Toba on the 13/08 at 7:30 o'clock. He told us that he had arranged some transfer for us so that we didn't have to look for a connecting bus ourselves. We paid a lot of money because we thought it would be a faster and more convenient option than the slow and overcrowded public buses. How wrong could we be...
Our first bus driver, who said he would bring us to Sidikalang, stopped for a lunch-break in Pangururan where he wanted to wait for over four hours. Only after threatening him we would get another bus he left earlier. The promised air-conditioning was as much a lie as the personal space of our seats which was literally non existent. It took us another two hours to get to Sidikalang where the driver called one of his mates who took us from there. The start wasn't too bad. We tried to communicate, he didn't speak a single English word, which was fun and the views form the road where panoramic. We drove through the Karo-Highlands and every now and then we got a glimpse into the very futile valleys filled with fruit and veggie fields. After two hours we stopped in a little village where we had to wait a bit and found out that we had another four hours ahead of us. We had been driving one and a half hours into the completely wrong direction. We tried to complain and claim some of our money back but it was like talking to a wall. We also thought that he was making fun of us and everyone in the bus seemed to be laughing at us. It was a nerve braking trip and Bekki was very close to loosing her temper. By the time we arrived in Berastagi the cheap hostel we were planning on staying in was already full but we found another one which was OK. That trip was a really bad experience and probably the worst on our travels so far. We loved Sumatra, even with all the rip-offs and the "expensive" tourist prices but that was a bit heavy and we lost some of our sympathy for the people there, especially for the bus drivers.
The bad trip made us almost oversee the nice things of the day. The windy roads up towards the crater of the volcano in which lake Toba lies, offer a magnificent view over the lake and the surrounding mountains. It was a cloudy morning and it was impossible to make out the whole lake but the morning light breaking through the clouds onto the water was purely beautiful. After we had left the lake behind there was not much to see, apart from the valleys I mentioned before, for a long time so we could concentrate on being mad at the drivers but as we reached the area of Berastagi a new spectacular view opened up for us. Berastagi itself is a rather boring place to visit as a traveler but not far from the town are two majestic volcanos that are quite easy to climb and still active. Driving onto the plateau on which Berastagi is located the first thing that catches your eye is the higher volcano, the Gurung Sinabung (2450m), which last erupted in 2006. As we drove towards it we could see a big smoke cloud coming out of the crater. The smaller volcano, the Gurung Sibayak (2094m), is less active but there is still plenty of smoke and gasses around the top. Because of the accessibility of the latter (the Sinabung is two hours away) we decided to climb it the next day.
The next day however was cloudy and cold but our only day in Berastagi because we were flying out of Sumatra on the 15th and so we decided to climb the volcano anyway. We could have taken a beckak, the public bus, but the driver charged us 50 times the usual price so we walked the  4km to the base of the mountain. Our spirits lightened as we reached the base and the sky had cleared a bit but after 1/2 hour we found ourselves in a cloud that wouldn't move til the end of our trip. It wasn't really raining but the air was moist enough to soak our clothes but we didn't give up. The path we took was quite broad and easy to walk and even the steps that followed where no challenge but by the time we reached the top it had started to rain and we heard some thunder not very far away. The wind had also picked up and it was really cold. We didn't go all the way up, we thought that wouldn't be very smart during a thunderstorm but we got close enough to the crater to hear the volcano and we could definitely smell it. The only thing we couldn't was see it. The cloud around us was so thick that we could only see for about 20 meters. It was definitely not the sight we had hoped for climbing on to a volcano but we couldn't change it so we tried to make the best out of it. And it was fun, apart from the disappointing sight. We were really cold though and almost jogged the way back down. The bus driver who took us down into town was nicer than the others and we paid the regular price and got safely to our hostel where we wrung out our stuff, jumped into bed and stayed there, watching movies, until it was time for dinner.

In the beginning the weather was OK...

...until the cloud came...

and made everything wet.

This is the view we had on top of the mountain.

...everything. But it was fun!

It was a shame that everything seemed to be working against us in those days but we decided never to go back there and to not recommend it to anyone. I think that was a little bit fast to judge the place like that but it definitely was the least nice place where we went. Still I think it can be a nice place if you are in Sumatra and want to get away from all the tourist hot-spots.
The next day we headed to the airport in Medan to catch our flight to Bali and we were early... as always. We had planned some extra time suspicious about our driver but he brought us there in time and again the plane was late so we had to wait for a few hours which gave me some time to write more for my blog. At 5pm our plane took of and we had to say goodbye to Sumatra, at that time almost happy about it but all in all a bit too soon.