I am still here

7th May

stinking cold for the last 3 days. started ok, I had remembered all my Tibettan Yoga moves and did 2 sets of 7 and a set of 14, great. THis was followed by a very satisfying meditation session. Then in my wisdom I went for a swim in the lake and a cold shower (no warm water in the room). I guess I chilled my body too much and am paying for it now.

I changed guest house 5 days ago. I was in Parapat with Andrew for lunch. Then spent 3 hours on the internet updating journals and photos. In the market square having bought some deep-fried bananas and rice balls I met Liz, Italian. She had just got down from the mountains all covered with minor numerous scratches to her arms and legs, having got lost from the track and trying to find her way back. She had camped on the mountain. There is hope for me yet: compared to her I am a totally irreverent clown, No sense of humour, civil Engineer with a serious face permanently carried. Has lived in Australia, Switzerland etc. She is doing some work while she is travelling too, completing some stuff about her Phd. and setting up a business with a friend, in between serious climbing and trekking. I helped her find somewhere to stay.This also allowed me to take a look at the other end of the island, very different atmosphere and people seem a lot friendlier and less touristy too. We get off at the first stop on the Island and look at a few guest houses and since she is tired she settles for Toba COttages, not cheap but she needs hot shower. The garden of Bagus Bay guesthouse and the pond full of large cerice water lillies are amazing and good enough a reason to stay there too. On the way to my own guest house I pop into Lindas, another guest house but it is late in the evening and she suggests visiting the next day and tells me she has lake front rooms, not obvious from roadside location which is some 15 meters above the lake. The next morning I pack and get out of the guesthouse, fed up of the very amature selling tactics and isolated situation. I walk the 25 minutes to Linda's, good exercise I figure. She walks me down these very uneven sized and level, tilted steps, through a courtyard and a little alleyway to come out overlooking the Toba Cottages garden! fantastic. She has 4 little and simple looking rooms with verandas withing 10 meters of the lillie pond and great view of the green covered mountains straight ahead and the lake less than 10 meters to the left, at a fraction of the price at Toba. As a bonus I have access to Toba WiFi and password courtesy of Liz. Toba is run by a humourless 30 something Germanlady who has been here 15 years.

Few nights ago I had spent a few hours in Bagus guesthouse with Cheyene, Dutch girl Liz and I had met at a home-stay run by a very pleasant Mr Moon. We had visited him when Liz arrived but he had no rooms and despite that was most pleasant and offered us his welcome drink anyway. Cheyene has an interesting way of expressing things and I encourage her to write which she finds strange, I think she will be good. For example she said once"I have eaten whole rice fields" which immediately brought an amusing picture to my mind. Anyway I got totally disoriented coming back to my guesthouse. I was basically looking for it far too early. I decide to get through Toba to get to my room but the gate is effectively locked. with a bit of effort I manage to squeeze my still slim and gorgous figure through the gap but I am concerned about the 3 dogs that roam free. Sure enough they do appear and come to greet me, but thankfully they are quiet and one of them specially wants to play. SO as I am walking through the grounds trying to be quiet and inconspicous, this dog is trying to trip me up with his pows, sticking his snout in my crutch!

I did play with him a few minutes then sat on my veranda enjoying the fresh air and the sounds of the night and the lake.

Toads are everywhere at night, these according to Gema have come from South America and tend to destroy the local population as they are bigger and feed on the local frogs. They are also poisonous and kill anything that usually feeds on frogs. But if you want to get high you can lick them or rub them on your skin as the poison is also halucinogenic!

magic mushrooms are being advertised openly everywhere, these are also halucinogenic, you might also be served food containing them if you ask, such as magic piza.


I have been on this island for over 10 days now and mostly resting. It is a sort of place that you can easily lose track of time in unless you are Liz who gets restless and decides to climb the nearest mountain. Resting is itself a challenge sometimes as I have to stop myself packing my bags and just heading out in order to visit as many interesting places as possible.

Today I met Vladimir, Russian by birth, lived in Germany many years, separated from his british wife last year. We had lunch and talked about his life and how he was fixed by a monk in Thailand. I have been frequenting a small eatery run by a small lady, both arms are short and deformed as is both ankles and hip, one eye appears to have cataract, she is a great cook and her prices are very good too. She has 4 young boys almost permanently glued to the TV, she does do some homework with them too. This lunch time I went for the fish as I felt I needed some kind of meat, she said it was not fresh, but it was rather good with a sauce, plus an aubergine dish that she also does well. Vlad and I shared these with some rice. The aubergines are grown on bushes next to the tables, on the bush they look orange in colour when not ripe, and even when ripe they are about a quarter of the size I usually associate with aubergines. yellow t shirts I enquire of Vladimir about the yellow Tshirts that he wears, they dont actually suit his colouring. He has bought 40 off the ebay for 42 cents each, he is good at finding bargains even from the German hotel keeper!