After 40+ hours of travel, finally made it to my destination in north Sumatra. Looong day, and so much travel by plane and bus.
Flights
Continued on with flights to Kuala Lampur, then to Kuala Namu. The second flight was SO empty. There were maybe 10 rows in each direction of me that had no people.
But I got to do some pre-shopping in Malaysia (we’ll be back on the ship in a couple weeks), but got my Starbucks mugs and a Tiger Bear.
Airport Pickup
Got to Kuala Namu and through immigration and customs with relative ease. As I entered the terminal, was expecting someone to pick me up with a sign or something at baggage claim, but couldn’t find anyone. I waited about 5 minutes, and then since I couldn’t find anyone, started wandering around the terminal. Found signs for the meetup point and ground transportation, so went over there (and was bombarded by people asking if I needed a taxi, etc.).
Still didn’t see anyone so I messaged the number that I had from the tour company on WhatsApp. Waited a bit, but they finally picked up and said they’d call the driver.
Turns out they must’ve been late or something cause they were actually back over by baggage claim, so I walked all the way back there. Found them (two of them) but still didn’t have a sign, so not sure how I would’ve ever known it was them if I didn’t call. It briefly occurred to me that they could’ve been any two random people and that I might’ve just been getting into a van to the middle of nowhere, but I did have data and signal so I left some breadcrumbs everywhere with some folks back home in case something happened to me.
The Drive
We set off to get to the guesthouse and found that it was a 7-8 hour drive (on top of all the flying), so that’s why there were two drivers, they were taking turns driving and sleeping as we went. The two of them didn’t speak a ton of english, so I mostly just listened to music / audiobooks and napped some more (or tried). Road itself wasn’t the worst I’ve ever been on, but also there were some bumps in the road that when I was napping and basically had the neck control of an infant, my neck would snap back against the headrest or window like some really bad whiplash.
Every once in awhile I’d open my eyes and the views were simply amazing as we drove. Misty and layered across the valley and some volcanoes as well (at least one that was active).
Halfway Point – Lunch
We stopped for lunch about halfway (actually first we stopped for cigarettes I guess). The drivers started smoking at some point which was mildly annoying, but I had a neck fan with me, and eventually just opened the window as well.
We got out at a pretty nice lunch spot overlooking a volcano, and thankfully the place took credit card, cause in my rush over at the airport, I didn’t have time to convert any cash to Rupiah. Couldn’t really understand any of the menu, and google translate wasn’t super helpful, and my drivers didn’t really speak english so they couldn’t help either, but I just randomly pointed at something on the menu and ordered since the wait staff were just waiting for me to order and couldn’t help (and there weren’t any pictures or anything).
Food turned out pretty good though, so not a huge deal!
The Guesthouse
We finally arrived at the Guesthouse around 5:30pm, so in total it was somewhere around 42 hours of travel to get here. Was shown to my room, and settled in for a bit. Found that the toilet and shower were…a little different than I had expected.
There was running water…sort of, but the toilet itself didn’t fill, and I had to reuse water from the shower to fill the tank by hand every time I would need to flush (at least I assume that’s what I need to do, cause there’s no instructions or anything). Guess I’ll figure it out as I go along…
Went to go set up the mosquito net as well, and the four corners definitely didn’t stretch all the way across the bed (as in the net was too small for the bed), so I ended up just attaching one corner, and then sleeping on like half the bed diagonally. Good times.
Suprisingly, get some decent cell signal so far out here in the guesthouse, so have been able to keep in touch with folks on the ship and back home.
Dinner
Grabbed a little bit of dinner before turning in for the night. Some noodles, chicken and vegetables and one of my favorites….watermelon juice! Very good and delicious.
A Surprise
Was settling in for the night, and half passed out around 10pm, when all of a sudden there was a very loud noise. Turns out that it’s Ramadan and there was chanting or a call / response pretty much all night long. Every time I thought they were done, a couple minutes later there was more.
At one point, I was too awake so I looked over at my phone to find the time and was shocked to find that it was 3am. Definitely didn’t get a ton of sleep.
Vibe Check
5 parts joy – exhausting day and a little different than I imagined, but am safe and intact, so can’t complain!
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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