The default beverage, but surprisingly not many Sumatrans drink it. They prefer the cheaper local moonshine

Landed in Medan but was on da road most of d time for work with my local contact Heri. Started well, as dinner at his place was ubi leaves and babi panggang. Awesome shit! Thin strips of lean charcoal-bbq pork.

Lots of them in north Sumatra are Christians.

Dats da shit right there. Aka BPK - babi panggang Karo. D sambal on d left is in some pig blood / chili cocktail

Probably more churches there than here. In every village

Medan is a typical Indon city – noisy, dusty, crowded.

Sorait. Aint my scene.

Plannin our route. There're blackouts almost every damn day in Medan

We headed south to Berastagi, up in the hills at 2,000m+ above sea level. Nice.

Cold place. Main thing goin down here is vegetable & fruit farming. Stayed at a joint called Bamboe Hill or sumtin. Pretty cheap at about 44 bucks, if u excuse d goddam mosquitoes!

With Heri after a night of little sleep thanks to crazy mozzies

View from bed, with accompaniment for d cold night in white box

The backyard area of our accommodation leading to a romantic lil bench

View from hut

One of the three mountains near Berastagi

Berastagi is the only place i liked among all the ones we were at, like Kabanjahe, Medan & Siantar.

Fruit feast, Berastagi market

Same market. D dude said the white ones "Paling enak." Haha

Poser. The mountain at d back is volcanic, and was brewing clouds of vapour

Veg farms, Berastagi

Pretty tiring being on d road so much. The dust, heat, noise, diesel smoke, etc gets to u. There was a point on d road where we didnt shower for two days! Dirty cowboys. So dam good to see a mirror & a proper toilet when i got back to KL!

Our ride for d trip, aka The Tank

Of course no trip is complete without sampling the local talent. They got sumin called tuak there. Had it during a bbq at Heri’s chicken farm. He’s got 10,000 birds almost ready to be sold & slaughtered. So they just grabbed a few to burn.

Talk about convenience.

Chicas lined up, to layan the sunset i guess

Lookin cute...

cuter...

...cutest. Haha

Their so-called tuak is nutin like d one here. Theirs is made from coconut sap, like regular toddy. It looks n smells like toddy but tastes like bland tuak.

Not a good combo. I switched back to Scotch.

Local brew (in black bucket)

Also gobbled some Nasi Padang in a hill town called Siantar

Final day breakfast - pack of Nasi Gurih - local version of Nasi Lemak. Some spicy-ass noodles thrown in as well

Havin 'kopi ginseng' with a coupla local boys

Poser, at Heri's huuge guava farm

Heri with a new buddy . Maybe coz of d cold weather, all dogs in Berastagi are furrier

Even ol' Bill is in on the babi panggang gig

.

Brain damage: None. Minimal drinkin!