Seriously, I don't know what is wrong with Indonesian people. Having been screwed around, woken up, turned around and screwed once more you are really happy to be out of that country. Well, shouldn't be so harsh as I've only been to Sumatra, but especially in Medan you would probably be better off selling a kidney in the black market and having them to drop you off in some remote area of Malaysia than trying to arrange anything with the "help" of locals.
We arrived to Medan after a few relaxing days at Lake Toba and this time the direct bus for the whole route was 20k IDR each as compared to the 120k indirect route that we had the joy of having on our way there. Unable to put things down on paper as I am we took a cab that would most certainly take us to the guest house of our choosing. Sure, 40k is an OK price. Let's go.
After explaining the name of the hotel on a two-way radio to someone at the other end, I was already pretty certain that it wouldn't end well. But after 15 minutes more of random driving the driver hands me a cell phone and there is an English speaking person (by their definition at least) on the other end saying that because our destination is far away, the driver wants 100k. Quite bluntly I said that it's not okay and that a deal is a deal. And the deal was 40k to our hotel. So the conversation ended and we were driving on a good-for-nothing road at a slow speed and when the driver finally saw a hotel he took us there. Well, it wasn't exactly what we had planned but at least we were able to use the Internet there to acquire the full address of the place. And then the driver wanted to have 30k extra because he had already driven us there and now he would have to go to the other direction. We "packed our bags" and came to an understanding that he would take us there and we would pay the amount we had originally agreed on. Guess you need to sink to their level to be actually on par with them. Just have to be mindful that they will most likely still beat you with experience, but luckily he agreed to take us there without any advance payments (which we definitely wouldn't have paid anyway).
Arriving to the destination 40 minutes later, I just gave him 40k and exited the vehicle. It took him some time to count the money but surely he came after us. We checked out the room and he was waiting at the downstairs restaurant. We were discussing the matter with the hotel owner and he was quite understanding. After that we came down, just ignored him, checked in and went back to our room to wash up and change some fresh garments on. I guess his motivation ran out eventually as he wasn't there anymore an hour later and we were free to go to have some dinner and get some money from the ATM to pay for our ferry tickets to Penang.
And did everything go as planned in the morning? Sure, except that the guy disappeared for a while with our passports, the tuk-tuk driver apparently didn't take us to the right place or the arrangements were otherwise faulty as we still had to do some extra digging and nagging to actually get the free transportation to Belawan that was promised to us. The ferry left almost two hours late, but after finally having the Malaysian immigration stamps on our passports we could finally relax. Acceptable accommodation and great Indian food make a good foundation for good nights sleep.
tiistai 29. joulukuuta 2009
torstai 24. joulukuuta 2009
Christmas update
Oh cool, a month already since my last post. I've been on the road for a while, visiting Phuket, Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta with a friend and now we've arrived in Lake Toba. And what a journey it was.
First of all we got pretty cheap flights on two days notice from Phuket to Medan and thusly our journey here started with a wake-up at 6am to make sure we catch the ferry from Koh Lanta to Phuket. There were no problems with that and even the airport transportation worked flawlessly. Not minding the surprising running away of the cashier before giving back our change but apparently she just needed to change the large note to some smaller ones. Letting us know beforehand about her plan would have been a bit more settling and would have probably saved the dumbstruck look in our faces when we were just left there ticketless and without our money. But we got to the airport on time and the flight departed pretty much as planned. And getting the visas on arrival was no problem either as experienced from the last time we had US Dollars with us. But gradually the things started going downhill from that point on. The local minivan/bus to the Amplas bus station went smoothly but apparently there weren't any public buses (26k IDR) going to Parapat anymore so we had to settle for a more expensive option of paying almost four times as much for "luxury VIP AC transportation straight to the ferry terminal" by our dearly beloved Mr. Reagan who you should probably avoid at all costs if you ever happen to run in to him late at an Indonesian bus station. Well, still we are talking about sums that are less than a return ticket to Helsinki Airport from the city centre so it was not really about the money that got us a bit frustrated when after a few hours of driving on the wrong lane, death-ridiculing overtakes, occasional refilling of the tires and series of emergency brakings later we were told that the van won't go any further and that we would have to pay some extra for the last leg of our journey. And mind you it was already almost 1am at this point without any proper sleep so the tiredness and being screwed up from both ways combined with the low sugar levels really made you reach for your imaginary shotgun. So eventually we had to pay 40k IDR extra for the change of transportation and we finally arrived on an unmarked bus station in Parapat at 3am. We had figured that since we got delayed about three hours from our scheduled arrival time, it wouldn't be much of use to find a guest house for a few hours and we might as well just struggle through the night and take the first ferry to Tuk Tuk. Well, it didn't depart as scheduled either so finally at 8:30 am we were on the last leg of our route. And arriving in the guest house to find out that the room we can have is still being cleaned so we had to wait extra 15 minutes that honestly felt like two hours at that state of tiredness. But after 27 hours of being awake we were finally laying down and after sleeping until early evening, we were slowly starting to get ready to feel the Christmas spirit as it was after all December 24th. Celebrating the occation with a single man's choice of christmas feast (beer and pizza) we finally got back to our room and I believe it was around eight'o'clock when were sleeping again.
So definitely an unforgettable Christmas, away from friends and family. And the normal day rhythm might actually be possible already today... We'll see.
First of all we got pretty cheap flights on two days notice from Phuket to Medan and thusly our journey here started with a wake-up at 6am to make sure we catch the ferry from Koh Lanta to Phuket. There were no problems with that and even the airport transportation worked flawlessly. Not minding the surprising running away of the cashier before giving back our change but apparently she just needed to change the large note to some smaller ones. Letting us know beforehand about her plan would have been a bit more settling and would have probably saved the dumbstruck look in our faces when we were just left there ticketless and without our money. But we got to the airport on time and the flight departed pretty much as planned. And getting the visas on arrival was no problem either as experienced from the last time we had US Dollars with us. But gradually the things started going downhill from that point on. The local minivan/bus to the Amplas bus station went smoothly but apparently there weren't any public buses (26k IDR) going to Parapat anymore so we had to settle for a more expensive option of paying almost four times as much for "luxury VIP AC transportation straight to the ferry terminal" by our dearly beloved Mr. Reagan who you should probably avoid at all costs if you ever happen to run in to him late at an Indonesian bus station. Well, still we are talking about sums that are less than a return ticket to Helsinki Airport from the city centre so it was not really about the money that got us a bit frustrated when after a few hours of driving on the wrong lane, death-ridiculing overtakes, occasional refilling of the tires and series of emergency brakings later we were told that the van won't go any further and that we would have to pay some extra for the last leg of our journey. And mind you it was already almost 1am at this point without any proper sleep so the tiredness and being screwed up from both ways combined with the low sugar levels really made you reach for your imaginary shotgun. So eventually we had to pay 40k IDR extra for the change of transportation and we finally arrived on an unmarked bus station in Parapat at 3am. We had figured that since we got delayed about three hours from our scheduled arrival time, it wouldn't be much of use to find a guest house for a few hours and we might as well just struggle through the night and take the first ferry to Tuk Tuk. Well, it didn't depart as scheduled either so finally at 8:30 am we were on the last leg of our route. And arriving in the guest house to find out that the room we can have is still being cleaned so we had to wait extra 15 minutes that honestly felt like two hours at that state of tiredness. But after 27 hours of being awake we were finally laying down and after sleeping until early evening, we were slowly starting to get ready to feel the Christmas spirit as it was after all December 24th. Celebrating the occation with a single man's choice of christmas feast (beer and pizza) we finally got back to our room and I believe it was around eight'o'clock when were sleeping again.
So definitely an unforgettable Christmas, away from friends and family. And the normal day rhythm might actually be possible already today... We'll see.
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