Sep/090
Super Volcano Lake Swimming
I've been on Samosir island for five days now and can say its one of my favorite places I've ever been, where 75,000 years ago it is theorized the supervolcano it sits on top of erupted with such might it created the ice age. In the 60's it was a popular place with the hippies but since backpacker tourism took off in Thailand, the place has become almost a tourist ghost town, with huge resorts with 50 rooms only occupied by two or three guests. It creates a really intimate and cozy vibe as small groups of people gather in restaurants and guests houses with small parties everywhere with a playground of beautiful mountains and small private resorts to be had all to your own. The swimming is awesome with only small occasional boats passing by, and is calm as can be.
The local people are Christian and don't speak Indonesian much. They speak their own language - Batak, which almost sounds like spanish. There are smiles everywhere and the most relaxed atmosphere that makes Fire Island feel like midtown Manhattan. The workers though work all the time, all year, without a day off. The children just a mile away are poverty stricken and have no shoes - but seem much happier playing in the street than most young Americans. Everyone has fairly advanced cellphones - that are Hong Kong knockoffs of blackberries and Iphones. You will see groups of kids huddled together exchanging MP3's through bluetooth. In a poor country with no computers, cheap cell phones become their computers - and they do email, Facebook, photos and music all on their phones.
The girls treat you like a rockstar. Walking by any group of girls will get you a "Hey Handsome!" or "Come talk to me." But the other side of that seems to be that they want to marry you. Now.
One group of girls invited me to hang out, swim, eat, drink - it was a good time, for about 15 hrs then it got strange. After what could be considered at MOST innocent flirtation one girl professed her love for me and later yelled at me for going out with other girls when her friend saw me at a bar hanging out with a couple of backpackers from England. After this event I got dirty looks from just about every local girl in a 100 meter radius from where I was staying. It was definitely time to leave.
An invitation to join a party with a local couple and a couple of very proper chain smoking raver ladies from England invited me to a party to sample some of the local "magic" omelets and dance the night away with a small group of 6 or 7. I had my "magic" minus the omelette in tea - and soon after eating - I had to excuse myself from the party do to complete and total amnesia for four hours. Id never had an experience with mushrooms like it before - be careful when dosing raw freshly picked mushrooms. Stuff is intense. I couldn't even remember who I was, where I was, what my legs were for, or what the hell I was doing as a conscious being on this planet.
After about four hours tho my memory returned and I danced in the hotel lobby with the party looking on until the roosters started to crow. The English backpacking ladies introduced me to a whole slew of new, inventive, sweet electronic music. I cant wait to get to Europe and dance now.
Click here to see all the pics on Facebook.