Heading for Bukit Tinggi

We deaparted Bkt.Lawang for Medan and later in the afternoon decided to leave medan for Bkt. Tinggi along the way stoppin at Selamat's house where I took a bath and performed my Magrib prayers. Soon after we were on the road and i slept most of the way in the back seat as it was took dark to see much travelling at night. We arrived in the morning at a roadside coffee shop where we had some breakfast and continuedon our journey along a narrow road punctuated by pot holes every fifty yards or so which made the journey slow and very bumpy. The road ran through an oilpalm plantation belonging I was informed to investors from foreign countries including Australia and the US. The road has suffered from the abuses by the heavy vehicles used to transport the oilpalm products out of the area.

After sometime the road got better as we left the oilpalm area and headed into a more flat area where ricefields replace the landscape from oilpalm. i ften stopped to take a shot of the breathtaking scenes of miles and miles of ricefields that stretches all the way to the foothills in the horizon. As we continued on we were confronted with on coming traffic of wild motorcycle riding schoolkids and minibuses zooming at break neck speed passing by us with barely inches to spare. It was a miracle of life that not an aciident occured throughout the journey despite the suicidal rally like traffic. It seems it was the last days of school for the some secondary school kids and so it was like a victory celebration to be finally liberated from the business of schooling. Most of the kids had colorful grafitti splattered all over their white school uniforms and some more enthusiastic ones even had torn their school shirt to shreds. The minibusses were loaded to the roof with these yelling and screaming teenagers speeding past by us as though headed for a doomsday jamboree.

Later still in the afternoon we came by the local town area where a market scene greeted us along the roadsides. It reminded me very much of most parts of rural Malaysia and the activities looked very fammiliar with people buying and selling everything under the sun. We stopped and had lunch at one of the restaurants further down the road and the main dish was gold fish. I was begining to feeli like i could shit gold after eating so much of this fresh water fish as salt water fish is almost unavailable in these central regions of Sumatra. The food here is not something that one would brag about as one would the enchanting beauty of the panaromic scenic views that one encounters amost all along the steep and winding road as it passes through one village after another and one valley to the next. The distant mountains and the flowing rivers,the lush green foliage and the rustic huts, mosques and other roadside attractions carries one's imagination back in space and time.