Locals on Lake Toba

Lake Toba

Rice needs a lot of attention:



Wedding:


You can tell by satellite dishes that we are not far from equator:



In spite of her physical deformities Hita has cheerful personality, husband, three children, successfully runs her own restaurant (I suspect that in Europe a person in similar condition would be sitting on social security, complaining about unfairness of it all). Her guests: Natasha and Boris from Moscow.

On the move

Having placed Langkawi as my second favourite after the lake in Thailand, I took a ferry to George Town (Penang) where I've been half-a-year ago. Landed in the same Guest House in the same room. It was nice to be here again, I like this city. I am glad I met here a wise man, Barrie:



Two nights in George Town and then off I go to Medan (Sumatra, Indonesia). On the ferry between Malaysia and Sumatra:


With Jade and Chris from New Zealand:


Its medicine in there, but the absence of Red Cross is puzzling at first:


Medan is the third biggest city in Indonesia, noisy, polluted. Spent one night here and then by bus (5 hours) to lake Toba, which is quite something: 30x100 km, 500 meters deep, 900 meters above the sea level. 70 000 years ago a volcano exploded and (Wikipedia): "it had global consequences, killing most humans then alive and creating a population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today."



I'll spend two weeks here, and then it can explode again for all I care :)

Muslim

I had spent two years of my life (when I was in mid-twenties) in a Muslim country - Azerbaijan. Subsequent trips in other Arabic countries always confirmed what I experienced back then - men are preoccupied with utmost important issues like honour and respect.

Its very different here. People are warm and welcoming, more similar to Thais(Buddhists) or Philippinos (Catholics). Its just we tend to judge people by their clothes...

On several occasions I was asked for permission to be photographed with someone on the beach. I obliged but thought it was strange. Then a group of school children dissented on me: their task was to find a foreign man in underpants and to take a group picture to prove it. Then it dawned on me. Yes, locals are swimming in different suits. But there was no pressure for foreigners to comply. (Two years ago in south of France I was not allowed into swimming pool in this outfit, it had to be long swimming trunks. So there...)




Did a trip around the island on a motorbike, ca. 150 km. Pity this restaurant was not open, I would've loved to have a plate of pelemeni or borsh:


More sunsets:

Sunset

A little bit of jogging in the evening, when it is not so blazing hot:


Sunsets here are the most beautiful ones I have seen so far...

Met some interesting people

Magnus from Sweden, surviving in KL, running a guest house, looking for other opportunities...


Berken from US, learning several languages simultaneously (and managing!)


Vladik from Moscow spends most of his time in SE Asia...


Ten days ago came to this island, Langkawi:

Malacca

Dutch captured Melaka from the Portuguese in 1641, their legacy:


The same spot at night:


Later on British took the place over, this is what they did to this Dutch fortress:


Nice town, much nicer than KL.

KL

A panoramic view of a centre:


The KL Tower is the fifth tallest telecommunication tower in the world:


There was a Formula One motor racing here, felt a bit guilty missing such a big event, but it is not my thing...