Girlfriend for the Night

Perverts, get your head out of the gutter. Guidebooks tell women who travel alone or with other women in Indonesia to invent a boyfriend or significant other to dissuade prospective Indonesian male suitors from harassing them. In this case, a girl didn't have to invent somebody--she merely pointed at me from across the table and said "he's my boyfriend," which meant that I had a girlfriend--a blonde Swede to boot--at least for the night.
How I got to be in that position is an interesting and bizarre story that I will explain at the bottom of the post.

Since I am posting this, it means that I have indeed survived my first Indonesian domestic flight, which actually wasn't all that bad considering I was flying on the national carrier. Medan's airport, like the town itself, is easily among the shabbiest places I've been in, whereas Jakarta's was actually pretty nice.

My first impression of Jakarta? Big, crowded, and I can't get out of here fast enough. In fact, even though I booked my hostel for two nights, I am seriously considering taking the night train tmw night to Yogyakarta--my next stop. I'm paying double what I paid at Lake Toba for a much crummier set up. The only reason why I am here is to see the old colonial part of the city--that's it.

Sorry about not posting any pics--last night at Toba was raining cats and dogs and the power was in and out, and I didn't want to risk losing anything--the internet cafe in Jakarta is a little seedy, as I am staying in the backpackers area. I am backing up my photos by posting them on facebook (big help I know).

So what did I do at Toba?
Two days I ago, I walked around the Tuk Tuk peninsula (the main resort area), and just wandered around, and then hung out around my hotel. The next day I arranged onward travel, and then hired a motorbike and a driver to take me up to a scenic viewpoint from which I was able to take lots of good pictures. Of course, during the ride, where I sat behind a dreadlocked, confessed hallucinogen user, it rained off and on, creating some interesting scenes. For the first time, it genuinely felt like I was at a volcano (Lake Toba is a caldera, created by the massive Mt. Toba eruption some 70,000 years ago--it was so massive that some scientists believe that it caused a significant die off of the human population at the time. It made Krakatoa look like a mere cherry bomb firecracker in comparison)--the weather was similar to how it usually is around the Kilauea crater in Hawaii--foggy and misty and the like.

I genuinely liked Toba--it has probably my favorite spot of the entire trip--but it's only negative is that getting to and from there is a pain in the neck. I took a shared taxi again, and this time it was only about an hour delay before we departed. Seeing as how I had given myself about a 2 hour window in terms of my flight (they said eta in Medan would be noon), I was somewhat concerned. It got worse when we hit some random traffic jams along the way. Somehow (and I have no idea how) I managed to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare--and it just so happened that my flight was delayed by about 30 minutes. My only complaint about this ride is people who start having in depth conversations on their cellphones whilst in a crowded space. Its annoying no matter what language you are speaking.

A couple of notes about the flight--the aircraft, a 737, PK GZK, was ex Aeroflot. How do I know this? Because when the safety video ended, it flipped to the Aeroflot logo. There was also cyrillic writing on the bathroom door latches. I realize Garuda is technically OK according to EU standards, but considering that Indonesian airlines have a shoddy reputation to begin with, about the last thing I needed to know was that they were using aircraft that Aeroflot decided to dispose of--especially because we took a long time to reach cruising altitude. Oh, and the inflight magazine included a list of prayers from several faiths. Guess which faith wasn't represented?

Okay, now on the story that everybody wants to read. My hostel had a restaurant/bar in it that me and the other four westerners staying there hung out in quite a bit. The staff was very friendly, and we'd occasionally get visitors who weren't staying there. Well because it was friday, we had a couple of newbies, including a girl from the Netherlands, and then the Swede and an Indonesian guy walks in.

Well, the Indonesian guy, who gave the Swede a ride on his bike from her hotel to my hotel, starts throwing back the beers. He invites me to join them and I sit down at the table and start having a conversation. The first sign I knew we were in for an interesting night was when he threw down a gang hand signal when he found out I was from the U.S. Well, that was just the tip of the iceberg as he became an obnoxious drunk.

His drunken personality was nearly identical to the drunken personality of a certain friend of mine who shall remain nameless for the sake of his professional future. He could have easily blended in on any campus as the typical drunk frat guy.

You can do one of two things when you are stone-cold sober like I was when you are confronted with an obnoxious drunk that you have no responsibility for (I might have been on a sugar high from the several cokes I drank that night): you can either get irritated and frustrated by his presence, or you can turn him into the laughingstock of the table by calling him out on the BS that he spews.

Guess which option I chose?

I'd have to say it was one of the finer moments of my life. I was simply on fire that night, generating tons of laughs. Granted, I've had practice before, having dealt with my friend on numerous occasions, but this was the first time that I could do this without constantly apologizing behind my friend's back for his behavior (instead, his friends were actually apologizing to me, especially since one worked at the hotel and didn't want me to get the wrong impression).

So, this guy starts to get a little touchy feely with the Swede, the person that he is no shape to drive home, and that's when she uses the "he's my boyfriend" line, and I had a girlfriend for the night.

I would have loved to stay for a couple of more days, but I had already booked my airline ticket. I figure I can always come back, especially since I am cutting some parts of my itinerary short, and Medan/Lake Toba is a natural bridge to get back to either Penang or Singapore.

The place was cheap, relaxing, fun, not too hot or cold, and the people, a unique ethnic group known as the Bataks who actually used to be cannibals, are nice and extremely friendly. The only touts you have to deal with are people asking you from their front porch whether you want to rent a motorbike--and once you say no, they leave you alone.