A little about Sumatra

I've been in Indonesia long enough to get a decent impression of the culture, and so far I really love it and find it more tourist friendly than anywhere I've traveled so far. And, as opposed to the other places that have plenty of tourist traffic in down season, this is high season and one would expect a lot of people to be competing for tourist dollars. For example, when I got out of the airport I didn't get hassled at all by drivers asking to take me somewhere. I was politely approached by only one person, ad got a good price for a ride to my hostel without trying to convince me to go anywhere else. He was very talkative and pleasant and seemed genuinely interested in learning about my travels and America. The one thing an American will hear absolutely everywhere in Indonesia the second they tell someone where they are from is "Barack Obama", because he went to primary school here for a few years and his sister from his stepfather is from here. Therefore, Indonesia basically claims him as their own and is very, very proud of their ties to the president of such a prestigious nation.

The guides at Bukit Lawang were very nice as well, buying big amounts of food and giving some of it to us and helping us out in ways you wouldn't expect as part of just a "trek". One of the guides even brought me to his friend's wedding, which was very fun. He said that there is no real "normal" age for marriage in Indonesia, as some girls get married at 15 because of unexpected pregnancies and others wait until their twenties (the latter was the group our wedding belonged to, thank goodness). About half the women were in head scarves and half weren't--so far it seems like religions, though pervasive here, don't really come into much heated conflict. One of my guides was Protestant (they only have Protestant/Catholic, not further denominations) and said he feels safe and welcome in the community and never has had problems. Good to hear.

 

 The language also hasn't been as much of a problem here, as the phonemes and cadence of Bahasa Indonesia are a lot closer to English than other languages in Asia. The guides could all speak a decent amount of multiple languages, like French, Dutch, Danish, etc. And even though Sumatra is primarily Muslim, I fell like there is less of a culture shock here than in the rest of Asia. Maybe it's because the guides I work with  are always in contact with westerners, or maybe the cities in Sumatra are just more relaxed. Maybe it's because they all listen to American music (most of Asia listens to some, but mostly they listen to music from their own country). Either way, I don't feel like as much of a foreigner here, even with the light skin.

The saddest thing I've encountered in Indonesia is the strong memory of the tsunami of 2004. Everyone was affected by it in many ways, and there hasn't been one person I've talked to who didn't know someone who died during it. The most poignant story was a guide's friend whose child was 3 at the time. The eucalyptus trees grow here very infrequently, but they float really well. One happened to get uprooted during the tsunami and his child, who was about to drown, clung onto it and they didn't find her until the next day, 20 kilometers downstream of her house. She doesn't remember the event anymore, but her parents make her retell the story every few months to she will always know why she is alive now.