A Day Tour to Tomok

Posted on March 25, 2019 by jipp

If I may reverse on my blog sequence a little, I did mention about a 70-year-old man from Klang in Malaysia who happened to stay in the next room from mine. It started with a simple hello, then a little bit of conversation ensued, and before I knew it he was already tagging behind me to a body massage at an adjacent massage parlor. Heh.

Our hello did not end there, apparently. I offered him to come with me on a day tour to Tomok, which was located about 5 kilometers from our hostel in Tuk Tuk. Tomok is more like a little town – or even a village – which is dominated by wooden shoplots and houses that flank the main road on both sides.

After asking around, and did a few wrong turns at wrong junctions, we finally managed to get to the Batak Museum – our first destination of the day.

Batak Museum was a real Batak house which had been turned into a museum. They had put things here and there – and declared it a museum, which it is. On the display is a combination of stuff, ranging from traditional cookware to clothes, wooden statues and a fleet of artifacts. Dominating the middle section of the house is a King’s bed, which I was told was designed to bed the king only, while the wife had to sleep somewhere else. I found it quite bizarre but I’m sure there must be a reason behind it. Heh.

From the museum, we walked over to the adjacent Tomb of Sidabutar King. I was taken aback by how they forced me to wear a sling shawl, thinking that they might ask for money out of it (but they didn’t and I instantly felt ashamed of myself). I remember how I was forced to wear sarong before I was allowed to enter the Agung temple in Bali, only to find Western tourists strutting their way around the temple in their shorts. Apparently they knew things that I didn’t. Urghh.

The tomb of Sidabutar king was nothing grand (compared to so many other tombs on Samosir island and beyond), but it was placed together with his other members of family and even his body guards, forming quite of a complex of cemetery. But of course the grandness of the tomb does not lie in the structural presentation, but more on the fact that he was the first person (or probably one of. I am sure he did not come alone) to have set foot on Samosir island. He died before Christianity was brought in by Western colonists and missionaries, hence the absence of a cross on his tomb and a few of the others’. But those who have died quite recently have had their tombs adorned with a cross.

Just down the stairs from the tomb was the Batak traditional village, although it was more like a museum now without anybody residing in the houses (I could be wrong). I was told that there’d be Batak traditional dance performances on the front yard if there was sufficient audience but since there was only me and my new-found friend Mr. Loh around, I didn’t see any chance of witnessing any (of the performances).

Having done with pretty much all the things that we wanted to do in Tomok which was not much anyway since neither of us were into shopping, we returned to Tuk Tuk to explore more of this place that I had been calling home for past one week. There was one place that Mr. Loh wanted to check out – a place called Laster Jony’s – a budget hostel that was recommended to him by one of his friends.

Wheeling off to this place had made me realize that there was more to Tuk Tuk that I had yet to explore. Apparently, there were more choices of accommodation on the other side of the bay, and I could see there were more bars and shops. How I wish I knew about them earlier, and not on my last day on Samosir island.

Laster Jony’s apparently a spread of chalets that nestles on a hillside that overlooks the beautiful bay of Tuk Tuk. The fact that there was no room available pretty much cemented the fact that it was indeed popular among budget travelers. There was a bar and a lounge area which was heavily decorated with Rasta elements. A little hello to the young lad who was probably in charge of looking after the bar led to a lengthy conversation about tourism prospects of Danau Toba – which was once at the top of the list of Indonesia’s top tourist destinations before other places like Bali, Komodo Islands and now Lombok took over.

View of the bay from Laster Jony’s

Mr. Loh was very eager to compare the tourism industry in Indonesia with (that of) Thailand, which he said is 30 years ahead. I was beginning to get quite uncomfortable when he kept singing praises for the tourism industry in Thailand, which according to him is very well managed and the reason why Thailand remains the top tourist destination in South East Asia, while hoping that Indonesia could do better than how it is doing now. Although the lad seemed to be taking in all the criticism with admirable calmness, I had to literally drag Mr. Loh out of the place before things got nasty.

We returned to the hostel from there, and prepared to enjoy our last night on Samosir island. Wanting to have a bit of me-time that night, I tip-toed my way to a restaurant called Casa di Manurung and ordered fried rice for dinner. As a bit of tradition for me to have a little bit of celebratory drink on the last day of my travel trip every time (although I still had one night in Parapat the night after), I ordered one big bottle of Bintang – the Indonesian famous local beer to come with the meal.

I was on my second bottle of Bintang when the band group took to the stage and performed a fleet of songs, ranging from local Batak songs, to Indonesian mainstream songs, and even English songs. I was baffled because I pretty much had the whole place all to myself so they were literally performing to me, and no one else but to me alone.

Never had I ever experienced anywhere else before where a full band performed for me without the presence of any other person in the audience but me (apart from the staff members of course). In a way it felt awkward but in another it was quite a privilege. But then, I still felt quite relieved when a group of local youngsters came in later after which I felt free to tip-toe my way back to the hostel and immersed myself in the tipsiness that was beginning to demand for recognition in my sorry head.

It was sad that I would have to say goodbye to the beautiful Samosir island on the next morning.

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Completing my Full Round of Solo Ride around Samosir Island

Posted on March 23, 2019 by jipp

I woke up to a bright morning. I remember how I got woken up by the silence of the night at least a few times, and questioned how in the world I ended up spending the night in the middle of nowhere, which was totally unplanned.

After paying for the room, I vroomed my way out of the hotel and continued East towards Pangururan – the biggest town on Samosir island. The morning was so bright and the views of paddy fields with the blue lake in the background and the beautiful range of caldera beyond it – they were simply breath-taking. I’ve been to quite a number of places in my years of traveling but the views on Samosir island are just so unique and different.

Every now and then I’d stop to give myself more time to take in the views – and of course more selfies.  As the sun rose, the lake sparkled in its reflection. It really was mesmerizing.

It was all flat until I arrived at the town of Pangururan which again is the biggest town on the island of Samosir, and probably the most populated. It is here where the island of Samosir is connected to the main land by a small bridge. In fact, it is the only land access to the island of Samosir from the main land. The bridge crosses over a narrow channel (wouldn’t call it a river because I don’t think it is) which reminds me of Sungai Golok that separates Kelantan in Malaysia from the neighboring Golok in Thailand.

I rode onto the main land – aiming to reach Tele Samosir tower, which is said to be the place from where people could see the whole of the island. But checking back the distance and the road conditions on my phone, I had to say no to it and returned to Pangururan.

My random ride around Pangururan town led me to St. Mikhael church, whose architectures are so different from any other church that I have seen anywhere else before. For a starter the roof has the shape of a buffalo’s horns – which is the distinctive feature in Batak architectures. Then on closer looks, there were apparently much more to the architectures than the horn-shaped roof.

The carvings on the walls are a fusion of Batak and Christian elements. It’s safe to say that it is heavy with animism elements, which would have been frowned upon back in my country Malaysia. (I was raised to believe that any non-Christian elements in churches or even homes are against the will of God, until I went to Europe and found the Gothic architectures at churches there). I wish the church was open but it was not so I could only marvel at what were offered from the outside.

After having fried noodles for breakfast at a roadside restaurant, I continued my ride around the island by heading further East. Checking on the list of places that I wanted to go to on Samosir island, I came upon this place called Menara Pandang Tele.

It required me to get off the main road and go further and further up the hills and when road kept on worsening and the tower was still nowhere to be seen, I had to drag down my ego and turned back. I did manage to see some fantastic scenery though so that little detour did not really go futile.

Once back on the main road, I took a good rest after the butt-hurting ride on the gravel road and had iced coffee with banana fritters for lunch. The iced coffee was too sweet for my bladder and the fritters were too cold and damp but of course some situations do require you to compromise on your demand and take whatever there is on the table. I was in one of those situations. With a refueled energy, I continued East and almost on an impulse I stopped when I came upon a place called Pasir Putih.

Pasir Putih turned out to be a beach – only this one is a lakeside beach. It was quite packed with people when I went there, and I was having fun watching people having fun. People really seemed to be enjoying the moment and I couldn’t help but enjoying myself too. Everything really was so family-oriented and I could feel lots of love hanging over the air.

The adults were sitting around a spread of food while the kids were making sand castles. The teenagers on the other hand seemed to be dominating the space in the water. Good thing about being on the beach of a freshwater lake is the lack of tackiness and saltiness that you’d feel when you are on a seaside beach. But it was so damn hot all the same.

I continued my journey, and bumped into a large gathering of people on the roadside. Quite within sight was a large canopy under which another large group of people were seated. I noticed that some of them were performing some kind of ritual. I stopped to watch more, and realized that it was a ritual for somebody who had just passed away.

One thing that I quickly noticed was that they really mourned the passing of somebody as a community and still very much full of tradition. They’ll wear their traditional Batak costumes and perform their traditional rituals which involved among others dancing and singing (or chanting) and gift offering.

I couldn’t help but noticing the presence of big boards that they put on the side of the road. On the boards were obituary words, which were nicely decorated and adorned with flowers. They seem to take the passing of somebody in their community very seriously.

I wish I could stay longer to see more of the rituals but the sun really was scorching hot so I had to continue riding or I’ll get roasted. Towards the end of my ride back to my hostel in Tuk Tuk, things were going quite monotonous – villages after villages after villages. I did stop to get onto a viewing tower at one of the villages, for which I got charged by a lady who had suddenly come out of nowhere the moment I stepped onto the tower.

I approached in silence, only to bump into a couple who was about or probably was done making out so I hastily apologized. I found it funny that they were apologetic too. Later on the top flight of the multi-storey tower I bumped into another couple who was in each other’s arms. Loneliness suddenly washed over me. Heh.

But seriously, there was something so romantic about the viewing tower and the surrounding. People keep saying about how romantic the Jeju island in South Korea is (thanks to the likes of Winter Sonata etc.) and I’ve never been there so standing at the viewing tower while looking down at the beautiful spread of Lake Toba and the outer range of caldera beyond it, it was how I imagined the Jeju island would be. Heh.

A beautiful Batak village seen from the tower

From the tower onwards, it was all villages with nothing so exceptional that was worth stopping for. In fact I couldn’t wait to reach back at my hostel and have a nice hot shower – something that I had been deprived of since I started my ride the day before. So when I finally arrived at my hostel, I had a jubilant feeling, a sense of accomplishment, a deep satisfaction that I made a one full round around the island of Samosir on a motorbike. And I did it alone of course.

Cooling off after two days of riding

Once I reached my room, I changed into my swimming shorts, got a hold of my towel and walked over to the lake where I let myself be immersed in the water to soothe my muscles down and my whole physical beings. Later at night, I went to a get a nice body massage at a massage parlor that I happened to bump into the night before. It was such a perfect wrap-up to my 2-day biking adventure all around Samonsir Island.                                                                                                                                

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Riding a Motorbike around Samosir Island

Posted on March 6, 2019 by jipp

So I was on Samosir Island, which is the biggest island in Lake Toba. It is so big, it is even bigger than the island of Singapore.

I rented a motorbike from my hostel for IDR90,000 per day, for a straight 3-day so that I don’t have to return it at the end of each day and avoid getting charged for a late return.

So the plan was to make a one full round around the island and that was what I did. After filling up the fuel to a full tank, I was all set to go. The first thing that caught my attention was the hills near Tuk Tuk. I parked the bike and went up the hill, whose landscape was dominated by a rolling grass-field area. I was welcomed by buffaloes, who seemed quite agitated with my presence. Some of them came to me anyway, probably thinking that I could give some salt to them, which I had none unfortunately.

At the top of the hill was a cemetery. With the views to die for from there, I was quite sure whoever got buried in there had died a happy person. On one side is the sweeping view of the lake, on the other a paddy field set in a beautiful valley. I could see a tall waterfall on the other side of the valley, which was the main caldera that took form when the volcano erupted some hundreds years ago.

Only the day before a bunch of travelers that I met at the hostel asked if I wanted to join them to the waterfall. I politely declined, and they returned to the hostel with swollen faces and arms. Apparently they got attacked by bees when they were on their way to the waterfall. Phew!

I was taking in all the beautiful views from atop the hill when I spotted somebody, who was taking a good rest at the hillside. I later caught up with him and he showed me what he was there to look for. I first heard about magic mushroom when I had a drink with an American traveler at the hostel. He told me that he bought a handful from a shop in Medan and told me that he needed it for energy.

I really thought he was talking about some drug – and that magic mushroom was only a nick-name to it – until I bumped into this guy on the hill and told me that what he had was magic mushroom. So it really is a real mushroom. I remember asking the American if it was legal, and he said “well, it is not legal, but it is allowable”. It made me confused a bit, but I rested my confusion right there at the table.

Of course I later found out that mushrooms are considered narcotics in Indonesia – which is known for its strict punishments for drug-related offences. Not that I was interested in giving it a try anyway.

From the hill, I continued my bike tour to Tomok, a lakeside little town which is known as the epicenter of Batak cultures and history on Samosir island. Since the town is quite near to my hostel in Tuk Tuk, I decided to skip it for now and return to it on my last day on Samosir Island. I did go to what is known as the floating tomb, a very old tomb that has now been lifted from its original position in the ground by the growth of a fig tree.

After parking my bike and asked a local woman for directions, I made my way towards and was at the tomb in less than 5 minutes. I was there completely alone and everything suddenly went very silent and for a moment I had this eerie feeling growing in me and the urge to just get the hell out of there. But then of course, like always, my curiosity won, just how it always does.

I instantly noticed that it was just a small tomb, probably the tomb of somebody who died before he or she grew into an adult. The position of the tomb really tells a lot about how old the tomb is – although there is no way of telling how old exactly. I made one quick round around the tree, but slow enough to take a video of it, before returning to my bike in a brisk walk. Seriously, the silence was deafening.

From Tomok, I made my way up to the mountains and stopped at a restaurant with a sweeping view of the lake. The view from there was just surreal. I ordered a fried noodles with chicken and egg, together with a cold Coke which came so smoothly down my throat. I wish I could stay there longer but seriously I had no way of knowing how long I was gonna go so I had to leave as soon I had finished my meal. Not quite far from the restaurant was a waterfall that falls right onto the side the road. It was such a perfect place to clean up vehicles because of the very easy access to water.

Then from the waterfall I just rode higher up the mountains until I came to a point where the road splits. One of the roads would cut across the island – and would take me to the inner parts of Samosir, while the other would take me along the coastal areas so I would never lose sight of the lake.

“If you want to see more beautiful views, you go for the coastal road. If you want to shorten your ride you can take the inland road” a lady who happened to be around told me. I gave her some ringgit notes for that little advice that she gave me, which she excitedly took because she had never seen any ringgit notes before, while I vroomed my way off towards the coastal road.

And she was right. More and more beautiful scenery came unfolding right before me from there on. It really was a countryside with beautiful Batak villages and farms along the way.  I couldn’t get enough of the sight of buffaloes grazing over the grass fields – which were sometimes got intruded by the presence of overweight pigs and goats. They certainly live harmoniously with each other and I was so glad that I was there to witness it at least for the moment. Then there were the ponds to complete the whole countryside scenery, probably to provide source of drink water to the animals.

Then there would be churches (or chapels) and of course the beautiful cemeteries for which the people of Batak are known. Like seriously, the sizes and landscape decorations of cemeteries in Samosir (and probably beyond) really amaze me. I remember how the taxi driver that drove me from Parapat to Silangit airport joked about how Batak people spend more money on cemeteries than on their houses. It might be a joke but it really was the case. They put statues on their cemeteries, complete with metal railings as fences when they don’t have any on their houses.

Every now and then I’ll stop to take pictures – or just to enjoy the views – and I just could not believe how beautiful Lake Toba is. In fact some of the spots remind me of New Zealand – or perhaps some pictures of some beautiful fjords in Norway. They were just so surreal. The extra essences would be the presence of terraced paddy fields and even non-terraced ones when I reached the South-Eastern part of the island which consisted mostly of flat areas.

By then it was getting quite too late, and quite a few times I was not quite sure whether to turn back or to keep pushing on and explore more. Turning back would be quite of an anti-climax and there was no way I was gonna make it back to my hostel in Tuk Tuk without catching up with the night. So I decided to just push on and find somewhere that I could stay in for the night. In fact I also opened myself to the possibility of just knocking on someone’s door and begged to be allowed to stay in at least until the next morning. After all Batak people are known to be very accommodative.

Another stupidity that I later realized was the fact that I did not bring any warm clothes with me. The cold was beginning to bite into me as the evening wore off, and I could only pray that my ride would continue to be dry because seriously, it would be a disaster if a rain suddenly decided to come upon me.

In the meantime, the scenery along the way continued to amaze me. I mean, where else in the world can I ever see a beautiful spread of paddy fields that comes with a blue lake in the background – and a beautiful range of caldera further off in the back? The more I told myself to keep riding because it was getting too late, the more of my insta-self demanded that I should stop and take pictures because those views would probably never come back to me again. I only stopped stopping for pictures when things were too dark to be caught on my amateurish phone camera.

Then I started asking people about where to find a hotel. Good thing about the people of Samosir is the fact that they are good drinkers. They drink their own rice wine and they drink a lot so you’ll see them gathering around a table and drink their time away. It was easy to ask them if there was a hotel somewhere around. They were more than happy to tell me. I remember how glad I was when the first group that I asked told me of a hotel called Hotel Gorat. At least I was assured of a warm place to stay in for the night.  “About 1 kilometer from here” they told me when I asked how long it was going to take me to reach the said hotel.

So off I went and I was quite sure I had surpassed the 1 km while the hotel was still nowhere to be seen so I had to stop again to ask.  Again, I was told that I still had 1km to go – so I continued riding and I would stop to ask again when the said hotel did not come to sight. Bizarrely enough, each of the groups or individuals would keep saying with confidence that I had 1 km to go when it would still not come to me even after 1 km. In the end I decided that the people of Samosir had problems with deciding on a distance. LOL.

I was actually worried that it was getting to cold for me to continue riding so there was a big relief in me when the hotel – hotel Gorat – finally came into sight. All the check-in and check-out businesses were run from a little café just outside of the hotel so I was happy to have my dinner right there and avoid any necessity of going somewhere else in the cold.

The food was however so limited so I had to settle for a cold rice with egg, topped with some sauce with acidic pungent smell – and when the whole thing did not come smoothly on me, I had to request for them to cook something from their shop (which was part of the café) – a noodle soup to be exact – just so that my throat could tolerate more of the food. I happened to take a glimpse of the insides of the kitchen cubicle when I was paying for the food and I was so glad that only saw it when I was already done with my food. URghhh!

Hotel Gorat was a big hotel, and it had that grandeur of a 5-star hotel when seen from the outside, but once you are inside, you’ll see that it is just another run-down hotel, probably a left-over from the heydays when the tourism industry at Lake Toba was still booming. The room was huge and it had a huge wooden closet. I had to squash off lizard droppings from the bed before I had the courage to land myself on it. It was such a long long day for me but I was eager to find out what the next day would bring me to. I was not even half-way around the island!

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Horas Samosir!

Posted on February 17, 2019 by jipp

So after more than a year break from traveling, with the last trip was to Chiang Mai in October of 2017, I decided to return to it (traveling) this year and decided to go somewhere for Chinese New Year public holiday. So when I saw that a return ticket to Lake Toba would only cost me RM225, I immediately went ‘why not?’ I was even more exhilarated when I found out that a room at Bagus Bay Homestay – which is like one of the top lodges on Samosir island – would only cost me about RM160 for 6 damn nights. In the end I only changed some RM600 to rupiah, which made my trip to Lake Toba one of the cheapest travel trips thus far!

So I flew directly from KL to Silangit Airport near Lake Toba – instead of flying to Medan like most travelers had to do before this new airport was opened. I have heard so much about gruesome experiences that travelers had to go through going on the ride from Medan to Lake Toba so I was glad that I didn’t have to do it. From Silangit Airport, I took the free ride offered by a bus called Damri which dropped me off near the Tiga Raja jetty in Parapat from where I would be taking a boat to the lake island of Samosir.

Parapat that I found out is a very nice lakeside town. I checked myself in at a budget hotel called Hotel Bagus Inn – which is probably the nearest hotel to Tiga Raja jetty. At IDR100,000 per night (MYR30), the room was very basic but it would do me just fine for the night. I really like that the room has a veranda from where I could get a sweeping view of the Tiga Raja market and also the jetty and what there was beyond.

Hotel Bagus Inn in Parapat

But of course being near to the market means you have to know how to shut yourself down to all the noises from the market and the traffic. The people in Parapat (and probably the whole of Indonesia) honk their cars and motorbikes a lot so you gotta make yourself get used to it or you’ll go crazy before long. Then the Batak people – which dominate the population – are quite loud too. They joke a lot and they talk at the top of their lungs. But I really like them. They are so friendly and welcoming to outsiders.

So from Parapat I went on a 40-minute boat ride to a place called Tuk Tuk on Samosir Island. The most amazing thing is, the boat would drop passengers off at the jetty nearest to their respective hotels so it really was so hassle-free. Once I landed ashore at the jetty, I was at Bagus Bay Homestay in less than 10 minutes. Talking about convenience!

I liked Bagus Bay Homestay almost instantly when I got there. It is very green and I feel like being so close to nature. The restaurant is probably one of the best in Tuk Tuk and it has all kinds of foods and drinks and the great ambiance was a big plus. The pork rendang was definitely my favorite among all the meals that they offered – or at least among those that I had ordered. The combination of curry and coconut just clicked at the right spot of my appetite I actually found myself ordering it over and over again – even to the very last day of my stay at Bagus Bay Homestay.

The room is very basic – it has the bed, a little wooden rack where I put my stuff on – and that’s it. There was one power socket, but I had to be creative with fitting in my hand phone charger because the universal adapter that I took with me would easily slip off the socket under the weight of its bulkiness.

There is a mosquito net which I never got to use anyway because I think the mosquitoes were bearable even without the net. They did not provide towel and shower stuff but thanks God I’ve been traveling quite extensively for the past few years (except for last year of course) that I already knew how to be prepared when going on a budget trip such as this one.

The only downside is probably the rooms being far from sound-proof so it is quite a problem for those who have a sensitive pair of ears. I mean, I was not surprised when the American guy who stayed next door when I first came in moved to another room on the next day. I remember how somebody came nudging at my back in the middle of the night when I and my friend Frank joined a hiking package in New Zealand a couple of years ago.

Watching the Batak dance and folks song performances at Bagus Bay Homestay

I would have been more prepared this time if he came to me but he never did. He did not even say anything when I bumped into him several times all throughout my stay at Bagus Bay Homestay so I just went with the flow and pretended like nothing ever happened at all. LOL.

My favorite part of the whole homestay is the lounging area at the lakeside.  I really like to go there and take in the moment and everything that comes with it – the beautiful view, the serenity of the lake, the relaxing ambiance, the cooling atmosphere – everything. I could spend hours just lounging idly on one of the wooden chairs and watch the world go by – usually until it was too cold or dark to stay outside, then I’d return to my room and do whatever there was to do for the night. I certainly had no specific plan and my trip this time was intended to be such.

For me there is something so relaxing about being on Samosir island. It is so peaceful and for one I felt so glad that there were not many tourists around when I was there. Lake Toba was once a top tourist destination in the region but somehow it had diminished down for reasons that I am still trying to apprehend. When I was there, people would compare it with Bali, which remains the top tourist destination in Indonesia for so many years now.

Lake Toba has all it takes – and one of the locals insisted that Lake Toba is even more beautiful than Bali. I had to agree with him. The fact that Lake Toba is a fresh water lake makes it stand out from the rest (counting in the size of the lake of course). The weather is cool and it doesn’t have the saltiness and tackiness that you’ll get from the air at sea beaches.

Tuk Tuk

But then he was fast to admit that the people around Lake Toba have mostly embraced the modern cultures brought about by Westerners (or may be the more modern people from other regions) so they are losing the cultural appeals that the people in Bali still very much retain.

One of the very first things that struck me when I first arrived at Lake Toba was the existence of so many churches. I mean, churches of all sizes and designs can be found all over the island of Samosir and beyond. It’s like every village has at least a couple of churches – probably one for the Catholics and the other for Protestants. Samosir for one is so Christian – it is even more Christian than most places that I’ve to in the Philippines.

I did make my time attending the Sunday mass at the Catholic Church near to Bagus Bay Homestay. Although the mass was run in Batak language, I had no problem aligning myself to it because Catholic masses are pretty much standard everywhere in the world. One thing I immediately noticed was the dresses of the locals at the mass. They were so dressed up I actually spent most of my time at the mass gazing at their beautiful dresses. I felt so out-of-place dressed in a simple hiking trousers with a tattered round-neck T-shirt but then that was all I had – or rather the best I had on this trip. Heh.

I did do a little bit of hiking to some of the hills near Tuk Tuk and the views were simply amazing. The sweeping view of Tuk Tuk and the rolling hills and the blue lake all around – then the surrounding caldera – they just come straight out of a picture postcard. I saw buffaloes in muddy pools – something that I used to see a lot when I was a kid but not quite anymore – not in  a very long time but this. Being an animal lover now, I can’t bear looking at their roped noses though, something that seemed so normal when I was a kid. I can imagine myself being roped in the nose all the time – the difficulty in breathing and all. It must be so choking for them.

Nights at Tuk Tuk can be deafeningly silent. The travelers at Bagus Bay Homestay would go to the restaurant and spend their time chatting up til late at night – usually over beers. I did join them a couple of times, but somehow I did not really feel like engaging myself with other travelers this time. I did however get on quite well with somebody by the name of Loh from Klang in Malaysia, who at 70 years plus is still very much actively roaming the world. The most amazing thing is, he’d usually go on his own!

He told me about his epic journey in the US, where he did a hike with a Japanese in Grand Canyon but had to turn back after awhile because he just couldn’t keep up with him. Then how he had to disembark from a bus full of Mexicans because the bus had entered Mexico without going through any immigration check (he ran back to the US side and walked back into Mexico the proper way) then how he was detained at Honduran border check because he was suspected of being a Chinese dissident in light of the student massacre on Tienanmen Square in 1989.

Me and Mr. Loh in front of Batak Museum in Tomok

He was quite of a story-teller and I have to admit I enjoyed listening to him and his stories but some of his thoughts are quite too traditional for me. He might have traveled the world but I think a big chuck of his minds is still very much stuck right where it was before he started traveling and arguing back would have been a waste of time because I know it is not easy to change something that’s been developed in one’s head – probably for half a century in his case.

In the end I would just nod to whatever he had to say. I think he enjoyed being listened to quite too much that he decided to come with me when I crossed back over to Parapat the day before I was set to return to KL. But then, I did find quite a big chuck of inspiration in him too. For me, an old man is like a library. You have to read as much of its books as possible while it – the library – is still there.

One of the highlights of my trip to Lake Toba is my motorbike ride around the island of Samosir. It really gave me the opportunity to explore more of this island and see for myself why Lake Toba was once considered the top tourist destination in the region. But of course I would have to spare that for another post.

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A Day Tour to Tun Sakaran Marine Park

Posted on February 3, 2019 by jipp

Since I was already in Semporna where I spent overnight at Mabul island, I decided to stay back for a couple more days so that I could join a day tour to Tun Sakaran Marine Park off Semporna. The picturesque view of Bohey Dulang kept coming to my head and I knew I had to see it for myself whenever I had the chance.

So after a little bit of browsing on the internet, I decided to book the tour with SMP Tour and Travel Sdn. Bhd. My phone call to this company was answered by a lady by the name or Maira. She asked me to whatsapp my full name and IC number, which I did, and she told me that I could pay at their office on the day of the tour itself. So the price was RM150 and it would include a tour to 3 islands, namely the much anticipated Bohey Dulang, then to Mantabuan and then to the famous tiny island called Sibuan.  It would also include lunch and one session of snorkeling in between.

So I shared the tour with 2 young couples, one was from Hong Kong which was surprisingly struggling with their English because I really thought the people in Hong Kong speak fluent English after so many years under the British rule, then the other one was a young doctor who is currently attached to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu. She was there with her boyfriend. Another member of the tour was a local family of four who came about 45 minutes   late. They came on board, pretending like nothing happened, so I had to remind them that they were late. The fact that they did not even bother to apologize kinda irritated me, and I did not mind to make it known to them.

So the day started off with a perfect weather in the morning when we dashed across the strait of Semporna towards our first destination of the day – the much anticipated Bohey Dulang.  But before going there, the boat took us to a short visit to one of the floating villages of the Palau, the famous seafaring tribe that’s been staying in the Celebes Sea since the beginning of time.

Their houses are scattered all over the area, without any form of walkway to interconnect them (the houses) so it really is isolation within isolation where each family stays in a single-standing house. I could only assume that any visit to a neighbor would involve either a swim or a boat ride. They’d look out the window and wave at us and some of the kids would come near to us on a crafted boat, asking for food and money. I think all of us were aware that giving them food or money was not a good idea, because doing that is known to draw attention from other kids and we’d be swarmed by them in no time.

It is also a well-known fact that they are a people of no nationality but whose rights are protected by international laws. Yet, I really think that they should be helped in any way, probably by facilitating them with (proper) education so that they become aware of the fact that there is much more to the world then just the sea and the islands. They should be given the opportunity to progress with the rest of the world and in order to that, their mindsets need to change first and of course in order to change their mindsets, knowledge should be brought to them in the form of education.

So from the village of the Palau people, we dashed off towards the most anticipated feature of the whole tour – a climb to the peak of Bohey Dulang. The jetty was already bustling with incoming boats when we arrived, and the walkways were already crowded with people. In fact the whole trail was crowded, from the jetty all the way to the peak. It really amazed me just how popular Bohey Dulang had become when it was relatively unknown not so many years ago. Having been there I can now safely say that Bohey Dulang is the most climbed peak in the whole of Malaysia, no kidding!

Climbing to the peak of Bohey Dulang is certainly doable, and even children could do it (with extra care by whoever is with them). But then it is certainly far from a walk in the park. The trail is quite slippery which explains why no climb is allowed when there was rain the day before. Many parts of the trail are heavily studded with sharp-edged rocks which explain why the use of shoes to the trek is mandatory (although I did see some visitors wear sandals). After battling against the ‘human traffic’ for about an hour or so, I finally made it to the peak. As expected, even the peak was crowded so there was no way one could take a photo up there without the spoil of craning heads, umbrellas, selfie-taking hands and what-nots.

The view from the peak was breath-taking, I had no doubt. After all, it was the very view that I saw being widely posted on facebook, Instagram, twitter and what-nots. But then, one of the very first pictures that I saw of Bohey Dulang had the jetty extending far into the sea, but what I saw from the viewing spot now was only a very small fraction to it. In fact, I could only see the jetty head. I guess the restriction was quite loose back then and visitors had more freedom to roam around before the manning ropes were put up in place to restrict the visitors’ viewing area.

Prior to my visit to Tun Sakaran Marine Park, I was told about a white dog that used to usher hikers to the peak of Bohey Dulang and back, so I had this sudden joy in me when I spotted him lying still on the beach. But then he was so still I began to think that he was probably dead and it kinda made me sad. But when I was about to return to the boat, he suddenly came nudging at my leg and the joy that I had in me when I first spotted him returned to me.

But then he appeared to be so old now, and he seemed struggling with his walking. But then he still made the effort to usher me all the way to the jetty head (I’m not sure why he picked me, out of so many visitors. I guess he just knows an animal lover when he sees one). Somehow I felt choked with emotion as I had my last look at him – knowing that I’d never see him again. I remember the same emotion I experienced when I went to the peak of Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka where a dog walked with me and my travel buddy for about a few kilometers before he finally stopped – probably knowing that he had reached his last boundary – and I had my last look at him before walking out of his sight like forever.

So from Bohey Dulang we crossed over to another island called Mantabuan and I couldn’t help but getting awed by how clear the water was I could actually see the pieces of reef at the seabed. We were at Mantabuan island for lunch break and I was so (pleasantly) surprised by the extent of effort that they did in providing food for their tour participants. It was quite a big spread of food; with quite a few choices of dishes I felt so spoiled and wasted after two rounds of meal.

There was nothing extraordinary about Mantabuan to be honest, apart from the crystal clear water of course, but the fact that it is quite isolated from other islands makes it such a perfect place to go nude. But then getting nude may put you into trouble because of the run-in with the laws. Heh.

So from Mantabuan the boat took us to a little more ride before it staggered to a halt somewhere in the middle of the sea – which I found later was a snorkeling area. As the engine stopped running, it suddenly felt so silent as there was no other boats at sight. I did not snorkel. Instead, I just kept myself afloat with the help of the safety jacket and took lots and lots of selfies while I was at it. The fact that I had to have my glasses on while snorkeling did not help at all. In fact I might break my glasses if I forced the goggles on me while I had them on. Otherwise I wouldn’t see anything if I wore them without my glasses.

I was back in the boat when there was a commotion. Apparently, one of the tour guides had just resurfaced with a red octopus in his hand. The octopus was wrapping tightly around his hand and I watched in disbelief when he squeezed and twisted the beautiful octopus with all his might. He then took the half-dead octopus back to the boat where the excited tour-mates were waiting to get a hold of it. I was stunned and disgusted and I really could not believe my eyes. This is a protected marine area and people come all the way to this part of the world to see the richness of its marine life and yet these tour guides who are supposed to be eco-tourism ambassadors of some sort acted totally the opposite. I told myself to file for a complaint when I returned home.

So after this snorkeling session, the boat took us to the last destination of the day – Sibuan island. Sibuan island that I found out is a long beach that stretches out from a tiny island to form the shape of a tadpole. I wouldn’t say I was so wowed by it, but it is quite unique in its own way. The beach is tip-top, and the azure water just completes the beauty.

There were a significant number of tourists on the beach that day, so it felt quite more like a beach party. I walked to the end of the beach, and later into the water which was surprisingly warm. By then the sky had darkened and let out a rain before long so everybody scrambled back onto their boats. We were all fully soaked, and having just completed a long snorkeling session, we were all shivering and it became worse when the boat started to pick up speed. I gotta highlight though that the company had provided us each with a dry towel so it really was there when we needed it most.

We were back at Semporna Harbour at around 4.30pm and I wiggled my way back to the hotel with my towel wrapped around my cold body. It was quite a day.

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