Yellow After the Rain

Praise the Lord, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Thor, Zeus, and Isis that that bus trip is over. I was so wrong about the bus ride coming into Bukittinggi; compared to this, that ride was like floating slowly down a lazy, placid river in an inner tube. This ride was like taking that same inner tube over the Niagara Falls.  It put me in a pretty bad mood, but I feel absolutely no need to apologize for causing them so much trouble. 

But in the end, I can be grateful that the terrible ordeal has led me to this beautiful place: Danau Toba.  A beautiful lake in northern Sumatra, the four of us--we met two Dutch guys on the bus, smokers with full-price seats, so they felt fine--took a ferry across the lake to a small peninsula that is the paradise called Tuk Tuk.  Despite explaining how I reacted to cigarette smoke, everyone on the deck except Elias was chain-smoking and I was in a bad enough mood that I let one of the Dutch guys goad me into an argument about smoking in public ("Stop being a quiet, PC American and just tell me how you really feel").  I'm pretty sure I said he was stupid, rude and going to die by 50, but I was really tired and sick so it's all a bit fuzzy.  His response was something like why deny yourself something you enjoy now because you could die tomorrow?  Sounds like a good plan to be fat and broke in ten years, if you ask me, which he did, so there.

Ulrich had recommended a hotel to us ("cheap and clean with good food") that the Dutch guys thankfully weren't interested in.  Thank you Ulrich, you didn't let us down!  Hotel Ramlan had a great price, looked great and served us a delicious lunch, although to be honest anyplace with even a mattress and cookies would have received a similar review.  Elias and I hit our bed hard after lunch and woke up about five hours later, just in time for dinner.  We strolled down the quiet street for about a half kilometer and found a small library as well as a restaurant that offered cooking classes.  And just like that we have plans for tomorrow!  We probably would have kept walking if we hadn't been literally dive-bombed by mosquitos the size of gerbils.  I AM NOT KIDDING!  THEY WERE RIDICULOUS!  I was afraid to swat them because I thought the explosion would spray bug goo across the room.  No joke.

So we just went back to our hotel (owned by Germans, of course), swaddled up like babies, and had a dinner at the restaurant that was really quite delicious: vanilla honey milkshake, fresh tomato soup, veggie pasta that they had just picked the ingredients for, and some German doughnut thing for dessert.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. 

For such a terrible beginning, the day ended ridiculously well.  We weren't arguing about politics, we were eating delicious food while sitting in the breeze on a veranda looking out at the millions of stars, listening to the waves lap against the docks.  I don't think we said two words until we got back to our room because nothing needed to be said.  I foresee very good things for my time on Danau Toba, starting now with bed.  Goodnight.