Studies in Laziness and Volcanology: North Sumatra Province
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008It was well after dark when we arrived in ‘Siantar, and things didn’t start out too well.
We were urged to take a becak (kind of like a motorcycle with a sidecar) to the nearest hotel which was “far away,” but which turned out to be about 300m down the road. Once we arrived we discovered that the hotel had a karaoke bar that kept blaring until 01:00, and when we went out for dinner we got into a monstrous row with the proprietress of a warung (small, basic restaurant) when she tried to change the agreed price of our meal after we’d ordered. In the end she gave us the original quoted price, but slapped our fried noodles into a banana leaf (a common carry-out container in Indonesia) making it clear that we were not welcome to stay and eat there.
I suppose all of these had their silver linings though… The staff at the hotel were very friendly, the karaoke singers got better later in the evening, and the noodles were tasty 
An “Indonesian Tow Truck” on the main street in Berastagi
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