So Indonesia is awesome. It’s officially confirmed. I felt that way jthe first time and I still feel that way this second time.

However, my first tip to any American who travels here:

If you’re served fried chicken, or any kind of chicken for that matter, make sure the piece you’ve chosen for yourself isn’t the head..

Twice now, I’ve accidentally served myself a fried chicken head. Today at lunch, I grabbed a piece and noticed it had an extra piece hanging off… I picked it up to look and the gobbler dangly part fell off. That’s when I realized it was the head. Eeesh. This is becoming a problem, but I’m not used to having to check on that detail. Haha. Thankfully both times I’ve quickly realized it and stealthily returned it to the serving plate without too many people noticing.

So, back to Indonesia.

We arrived in Medan yesterday. I can’t speak for the island of Java where Jakarta and the majority of the people are, but I am in love with Sumatra.

We’ve only been here a few days, but it’s great. The people are awesome. There are 3 main groups (dont quote me on rhis). The traditionally buddhist or christian Chinese. The typically muslim Malay. And the typically christian Native Sumatran tribal people (5 main Sumatran tribes or ‘batak’)The Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian people Have good relationships comparatively.

The scenery is fantastic. The food is delicious (except for the chicken heads). The culture is fascinating. Incredible wildlife. And you can grow literally any kind of tree or plant… I’ll explain more later.

Meanwhile, Frisca has a ton of wedding preparations and such, so her mom booked a 3 day all-inclusive tour for us and a couple from Malaysia who are also here for the wedding. Awesome.

We have a driver and a fantastic English speaking tour guide. He’s been giving tours since 1987. So he can basically answer any question we think of.

Yesterday afternoon we started our drive. The road was CROWDED. And driving was crazy like India, possibly worse in a few places. But we stopped at a rubber tree plantation along the way and got to see and feel and smell (eek) real rubber. So crazy!!

The road got super bumpy after that. Our driver is good, but there are too many potholes. The first few potholes, he just chuckled. And then when we started groaning, he started avoiding them 😛 I started to get heartburn towards the end from all the swerving and curving.

The last 30 mins, i thought we’d never make it, but after a 5 hour drive, we arrived at an awesome hotel on a hill overlooking the beautiful Lake Toba caldera. The lobby was FANCY and there was festive music playing and a lot of Chinese people dancing in a conga line.

This morning, after a wonderful sleep and breakfast, we headed to Lake Toba. There we hopped on a boat and enjoyed stunning views with the relaxing bob of the boat as we crossed to Samosir Island in the middle of the lake.

We saw the tombs of some of the island’s kings and then an old Batak Toba village known for its cannibalism. Creepy, but not as bad as it sounds. They would eat criminals. If someone was sentenced to death, they would tie him up like an animal for 7 days and then feed him has last meal before execution and eat it with no hands like an animal would. Even though it’s still what could be called barbaric, the people considered that they weren’t eating a human but an animal instead.

For lunch, our travel mates from Malaysia bought some Indonesian beer for us all to share. It was pretty good, but I’m no beer connesseuir.

Later we drove to see another batak’s (tribe’s) king’s palace. It was used from the 1600s until 1940s when the last king … Well… When Indonesia became a country.

Then we had some incredible but intense ginger tea made with a ridiculous amount of spices and coffee that’s processed only after it’s been eaten and passed by animals.

After that, we drove to a sweet 150 meter waterfall and sat around enjoying the lake view.

Did I mention that Sumatra has AWESOME wildlife and plants? We saw a TON of monkeys around the road! We saw like 3 and stopped to feed them and 30 more showed up. And some were BIG.

We also saw a durian tree, coffee bushes, a clove tree, mango trees, papaya trees, a sour sop tree, a ginger bush, orange trees, and brown palm sugar trees all just along the road. So awesome.

I also saw a butterfly the size of my hand and a chameleon!!

And we tasted snake fruit (a tropical fruit).

So basically, Indonesia is awesome (minus all the giant jungle leaves :P)

Oh, side note. When we say we’re from the US, everyone says with a huge smile something like, “oh great! And we heard about the president.” Not all Americans know this, but President Obama lived in Indonesia for a while when he was a kid. So people here are really excited for him and that someone who lived in their country holds such a position. And I get excited too. Not for politics, but because that’s exciting. Regardless of your own political stances, it would make you feel excited too. Excitement is contagious.

Anyway, now we’re in Berastagi in the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Our guide is from the tribe in this area so he’s gonna show us some cool local stuff around town tomorrow, take us to the fruit market, and find a cinnamon tree for me!!

Then we’ll head back to Medan for The start of wedding activities. Yay.

I told Tiffany this trip was an excellent one to join me on. Traveling is SO much less stressful when you aren’t responsible for making any decisions. My ex-boyfriend tried that our last trip and holy cow I
Should have done the same. Of course, it helps that I’m with local friends here who have planned everything 😉

And also, Indonesia has officially made my list of top 5 countries. Top 5 at least.