South Sumatra Spontaneity
I’ve always loved the thought of taking open-ended, spontaneous trips without a set destination in mind and no hard timeline to dictate what I can and cannot do. Now that I’m a grown-up, sort of, there is theoretically nothing stopping me from doing just such a thing, except, you know, limited money and a job and responsibilities that all chip away from having total liberty with an itinerary. That of course, will always be the case, meaning that there’s really no good reason not to make the most of the opportunities you have right now. The day after Christmas, I set out on that sort of trip.
Getting up some time between sunrise and sleeping in, I stuffed a backpack with a couple books, a few changes of clothes and other necessities, and started walking. An ojek, angkot, bus, ferry, and another bus later, spending approximately seven dollars and ten hours in getting there, I was in Bandar Lampung, a city of around a million people at the bottom end of Sumatra. Indonesia is a country with approximately 18,000 islands, and in the nearly five months prior to this, I had only seen one of them. Sumatra with its more rural atmosphere and rugged landscape had a different feel about it from the start and I liked it immediately.
The other thing that was immediately noticeable in Sumatra was the difference in response from the people. South Sumatra is something of a blank spot on the map for most Westerners traveling through this part of the world, and the heightened attention I received for being the only white person around bore witness to that. Before I had even gotten off the ferry, I had started a friendship with a local guy named Agus and his brother who both spoke less English than I spoke Indonesian, but were more than eager to help me get wherever I wanted to go. Upon reaching Bandar Lampung, they invited me into their house, helped me figure out a place to stay for the night, and invited me to hang out with them the next day at the book store he worked at.
That next day had in store a lot of warmth and hospitality from the locals, some questionable yet tasty fish, a tour of the city on Agus’ motorcycle, and a spur of the moment decision to take an overnight train to Palembang with the intention of swinging through Bandar Lampung again on my way back. I ended up taking four overnight trains over the seven nights I was away, partially to save money on accommodation, and partially because my decision to not make a lot of arrangements in advance meant that tickets for trains departing at other times were already sold out. I’d be lying if I said that it was a comfortable way to spend the night, but it did save money and help the time pass quickly so I don’t regret it.
Upon reaching Palembang, the first thing I noticed was the smell. It wasn’t good. I remember reading that Palembang is the wealthiest city per capita in all of Indonesia, but that their two main industries are oil refineries and fertilizer production. Seeing it in person, I could easily believe the latter part of that, but not so much the former. The city was built around a very wide and strategically important river, and seemed to me to look a lot like what you would expect of a more traditional city in this part of the world with the housing and the mosques and the more outdated forms of transportation. Palembang had its charm, but between the increased humidity and the aforementioned lousy night of sleep the night before, I wasn’t terribly charmed and by the afternoon decided to seek out the cheapest hotel bed I could find and nap for a few hours to get a break from the heat and the attention (“Mister, can I take a picture of you with my kid?”). Three hours later and it was back to the train station, and on to the next city: Lubuklinggau.
Lubuklinggau was the end of the train line, and thus, the place that would be the furthest point on my journey. Though it had a population of around 200,000, it had the feel of a small, out of the way town, and it quickly became one of my favorite places I have been to yet. The air was clean, the landscape was not quite what you could call mountainous, but rugged, hilly, and laden with great opportunities for hiking. Aside from all that, the people seemed genuinely nice. It also had the atmosphere of a place that hadn’t been influenced by the outside nearly as much as the larger cities in Indonesia had. The market right outside the train station had more fresh fruits and vegetables, along with still alive fish, whole chicken carcasses, and plenty of other items that let you know the kind of place you were in.
By this point in the journey, my Bahasa Indonesia had grown leaps and bounds out of necessity. That combined with my go-with-the-flow mindset and the friendliness of the locals resulted in a lot of time just hanging out with people from the area during the three days I spent in Lubuklinggau. The second day I was there, I decided to climb the short, but steep mountain on the edge of the city known as Bukit Sulap. I set out alone, but ended up accompanied by seven or eight local guys who had been working on a construction project around the bottom of the mountain. They stopped frequently for smoke breaks, which was fortunate and impressive also, because I needed to stop frequently just so I didn’t die from exhaustion. The view from the top made it thoroughly worthwhile.
At the end of the hike, one of the guys offered to pick me up at my hotel and bring me to his family’s home about twenty minutes outside the city later that night for a local drink known as bandrek (strong ginger tea with sweetened condensed milk). The bandrek was delicious, but it was even more cool to hang out with that family and get more of a taste of what village life in this part of the world is like. Again, hospitality doesn’t begin to describe the way these people treat their guests. It was humbling, and it taught me a lot.
The next day was New Year’s Eve, and the start of the three day journey back to the traffic and pollution of the Jakarta area. By this time, the family that ran the hotel I stayed at had transitioned to what felt more like just a family hosting me in their home than business owners who I was patronizing. Their seven year old son was studying English in school, and would bring me bottles of orange juice to have a chance to practice his English with me. He was also pretty excited to show me his remote control helicopter, that was honestly pretty cool. I wish I had one of those growing up. On the way out that night, they made me assure them that I would stay there again if ever I come back to their city. If I ever return to Lubuklinggau, I’m confident I will do just that.
I rang in the New Year asleep on another overnight train returning to Palembang, and spent about nine hours the next day in what was likely the only coffee shop for hundreds of kilometers in any direction. When I did finally leave, it wasn’t quite dark yet, so I decided to walk through the kampung back towards the train station instead of along the main road. I was hesitant to do this initially because this city was one that I had been warned about back in Bandar Lampung, because there were supposedly many orang jahat (evil people) there. The funny thing was that later, people in Palembang warned me to be careful in Bandar Lampung, because there are many orang jahat there. I think what I’m realizing is that people in this part of the world are just wary of their neighbors from outside of their own village or tribe and assume them to be dishonest. I’ve seen some of the same suspicions in Jakarta too.
My decision to walk through the kampung ended up being one that I was very happy to have made. Maybe fifteen minutes into the kampung, I saw a group of kids and teens playing soccer in a field. Staying consistent with my decision making the rest of the trip, I accepted their invitation to join their game without much thought. It was a blast! After the winning goal was scored, I was bombarded with questions in Indonesian, many pictures were taken, and once they finally started to disburse, a kid who was probably 15 or 16 offered to give me a ride on his scooter to the train station. On the way, he asked me if I had eaten yet, and then if I wanted to come to his house for some noodles before my train left. I hate instant noodles, but for one, these weren’t too bad, and two, having this kid and his mom prepare a meal for me in their tiny, borderline-slum house was humbling and I was really grateful for their kindness.
One more night of (not much) sleep on the train, and I was back to Bandar Lampung the following morning. I was in by 7:30 am, so I had enough time to find Agus and his family again, spend more time with them, and still catch a bus to the ferry port before noon. That I did, and some time around 2:00 pm stepped off of Sumatran soil for the last time for at least a while. The ferry wasn’t the end of people wanting their picture with the white guy or conversations that didn’t end quickly but pushed every limit of my Bahasa Indonesia, but it was the point where I felt like the trip really reached its conclusion. Eight days, countless surprises, immeasurable growth in my language abilities and comfort within this culture, and not a glimpse of anything familiar or comfortable in that whole time. At a couple of points, I had a thought of either not embarking on such a trip, or not going any further and turning back around. As much as anything, I’m grateful I didn’t entertain those thoughts for too long.
