The Poet With His Face In His Hands

You want to cry aloud for your
mistakes. But to tell the truth the world
doesn’t need anymore of that sound.

So if you’re going to do it and can’t
stop yourself, if your pretty mouth can’t
hold it in, at least go by yourself across

the forty fields and the forty dark inclines
of rocks and water to the place where
the falls are flinging out their white sheets

like crazy, and there is a cave behind all that
jubilation and water fun and you can
stand there, under it, and roar all you

want and nothing will be disturbed; you can
drip with despair all afternoon and still,
on a green branch, its wings just lightly touched

by the passing foil of the water, the thrush,
puffing out its spotted breast, will sing
of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything.”

― Mary Oliver

10th - 12th August 2020: Samosir Island

Woke up at 6am to have hotel breakfast before our driver picked us up. There was a large spread but I couldn't eat much due to the early morning. Porridge was god sent though, look at all the ingredients to choose from! 

Crazy Sam overloaded on spring onions?! Ewww.

The drive to the port that would take us to Samosir Island was 5 hour long. I had to try and sleep for most of it due to my motion sickness, but in between dusty roads, there were some interesting sights. 

Our lunch, which was included in our package with the driver and some accommodations. They usually offer a number of dishes and you can take or leave some. I'm not sure how sanitary it is because I don't think they throw the untouched/half-touched food away, but I tried not to think about it hahaha. 

By the end of the second day, we realised that the fish was usually the champion dish. A lot of the chicken dishes were dry and small, haha. 

We finally got to the port around 3pm, but were told that the next boat would only arrive around 5-6pm. So we just wandered around the village, playing with puppies. 

These cheeky kids were excited to show us their puppos.

The puppies weren't that pleased to be manhandled but they appeared to accept their fate, haha. 

Sam getting some loving. 

We probably walked the entire length of the village in less than an hour. 

Persuaded him to take some photos because I was bored. 

<3 

God knows how many hours later, we finally arrived at Samosir Island, which is by Lake Toba. We drove another half an hour or so to get to our "resort". 

The exterior was quite pretty, but the inside of the room was pretty bare bones. It was not the cleanest and the bed was way too soft, but luckily the view (kinda) made up for it.

It was kind of quaint to see people fishing in the middle of the giant lake. 

Checking out the menu at our resort's "restaurant". When in a remote place like that, I realised that ordering local food definitely trumps generic western food haha. 

Met more friendly doggos on the way out for dinner. 

We walked a good 20 minutes, past many paddy fields. 

To my restaurant! It was a surprise from Sam, hahaha. 

The fish was AMAZING. We also had a pizza which was very subpar haha. 

Friendly kitty wanted pats and fish scraps. 

Look at those puppy eyes!! 

Got to sleep in a little, before exploring the island the next morning. 

Lol found this in their book section. I wonder who left it here. 

The fresh juice was amazing! 

I ordered "bacon with scrambled eggs and toast". That piece of meat was so tough and unflavourful lololol. 

Our driver stopped us at some beautiful photo taking points. 

We were brought to some kind of heritage centre to check out ancient living quarters. 

It was pretty cool. 

Mini market catering to tourists. 

The air and sky was beautiful. 

More lunch that was included in our package. By this time I was getting slightly sick of fish, so thankfully there was chicken stew. Though the chicken was kind of tough, probably because it was mostly kampong chickens!

Prettiest part of the resort. 

We lounged a lot. 

Finally dragged ourselves up to prepare for dinner. 

By the time we got out to start walking to the next restaurant, it was pretty dark. 

On the way to the restaurant, we heard pitiful meowing so we went to investigate. This little kitty was stuck in a fence and we could not find her mum anywhere so we took her with us. 

Too cute!! 

That night we went to Sam's restaurant, hehe. 

We brought her back with us for the night to figure out what to do with her. 

She meowed a lot at first, but then eventually went to sleep! 

Procedures For Underground

“with shrunken fingers
we ate our oranges and bread,
shivering in the parked car;

though we know we had never
been there before,
we knew we had been there before.”

― Margaret Atwood

9th August 2019: Medan Trip

Tofu giving me the evil eye before I left for the airport. 

We had a mini home celebration for national day first though! 

The only red accessory I could find for him to wear.

My first time at the new airport. We didn't have time to explore much but it was really pretty. 

Chinese food for lunch before our flight! 

Stayed at the Marriot for the first night, and it was resplendent. 

We also had an in-room massage before dinner which was very lovely, but I think I prefer massages in a designated massage room better.

Found this lovely cafe when we went out to hunt for food. 

It was way bigger than it looked from the outside. 

Even had a giant koi pond! 

Happy boy. 

We were pleasantly surprised that the food was really good. We had thought that a pretty cafe would have generic food, but this was pretty authentic. 

We also clearly ordered too much (as usual). 

I thought I was buying a single person chocolate pancake from a stall at the roadside, and was wondering why it took 20 minutes to come. IT WAS AN ENTIRE BOX. I could barely even finish 2 pieces after our dinner lol. 

The courtyard was beautiful. We had to head for an early night because we had to be up first thing in the morning for our long ride to Lake Toba!