An Update from Tuk-Tuk (in North Sumatra, Indonesia)

by Jon

We are now on an island in the middle of a volcanic lake that used to be inhabited by cannibals and is now almost all Protestant Christian with the surrounding areas are all Muslim. It seems unreal that we are relaxing in such an exotic area. However things like this are beginning to seem normal to me. Deb and I danced a traditional dance with some of the natives this morning and saw some of their traditional "Batak" homes and graves and a few days ago while biking we heard monkeys hooting in the trees, so we walked down a path a little ways and saw a few of this crashing through the trees (the only bad part was a bloody leach on my foot). Not all of our recent time has been spend relaxing and dancing.

We have had two long and excruciatingly painful bus rides. One was 36 hours long which seemed never ending, and the other was only 14 but it was though the night and it was on the economy bus, no AC, the seats did not recline, it had no suspension and the roads where almost non-existent for a while. The good thing is that our bikes made it OK and we made it OK, although both buses arrived around 3am and we ended up sleeping on concrete in a park and a ferry terminal at the end of both rides until restaurants and hotels opened up.

Having a digital camera and laptop are great. We can write mail like this and update the website and then upload it all at a internet cafe and then download our email to read later on the laptop. This gives us plenty of time to read email so don't hesitate to write. It has also given us time to keep a day to day summary of our trip, complete with digital pics. If you want - check it out on our webpage.

Jon (and Deb)

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