Day 84-87, April 30-May 3, Getting High on Mt. Kerinci, Kersik Tua (Indonesia)

Day 84, April 30, 2013, Tuesday, Kersik Tuo (Indonesia)

Slept in, till 7, aha. We ate freshly cooked breakfast…. what a great start to the day. Andres and I set off to walk through the tea fields all the way to the next town over. We meandered through tea fields for a few hours. We even ran into Steve just as we got to the next town.

Just as we arrived, the rain started up so we ducked into a warung to get Nasi pecel for lunch. The son working there asked how we go there. “Walking”… “how are you getting back?” “We don’t know, maybe an ankot, hitch-hiking, or walking” He eagerly offered us a ride on the back of his motorbike and got his keys. Right after we finished our lunch, he asked us if we wanted to go. It was still raining, We didn’t. We hung out a bit longer and he started pacing. After ten or fifteen minutes, he asked again, it was still raining. He was soo eager to get us on his motorbike. Finally, the rain was light and we decided to leave. Andres and I had doubts whether or not his motorbike could carry us two heavies on the back, but we hopped on and he zipped us over to Kersik Tua. It was maybe a 15 minutes ride.

Back in Kersik Tua the three of us(Steve, Andres and myself) discussed the logistics of climbing Mt Kerinci, the 2nd tallest peak in Indonesia, 3,805 m.

That evening  we went out picking up food for our day and night on the mountain, buying snacks, eggs, rice, noodles and sausages. At dinner, Andres started to not feel well, so we prepared like we were hiking the next day but knew we might not if Andres was still under the weather. We went to bed early.

Day 85, May 1, 2013, Wednesday, Mt. Kerinci (Indonesia)

We woke up at 6 and by 6:30, Andres felt confident that we could hit the trail today. We packed up our bags, boiled our eggs, filled up on water and left just after 8. We hitched a ride to the trailhead and tipped the farmers 10k. We passed the entrance to the park, no attendant, obviously. The trail passed through some agriculture fields for a couple of  kilometers and then we suddenly entered the dense, wet, muddy jungle. We trudged through mud, over logs and big vines/roots. We rested at the first post and ate some snacks.

Near the third post, we met a group of Thai birders, and got their emails telling them we’ll visit them in Thailand, they were stoked. Right after passing them, the trail started climbing up, and it turned into a scramble. My legs were not used to the movement, very deep powerful lunges. We were still hauling ass. Some sections were ridiculous, a slippery 8ft wall of mud, where you had use the roots, and tree trunks to pull yourself through. It started raining, but we were shielded by the thick canopy of leaves.As we climbed higher, the forest grew thinner and we became more exposed to the rain. A few kilometers from Shelter 1, it started pouring and we put on our rain gear.

We continued scrambling upward, getting covered in mud. The rain did not let up, and lightning started. We couldn’t see the strikes, but the booms rumbled through the sky. It sounded like God opened up a bag of chips, started eating and forgot to turn the microphone off.

Shelter 1 to Shelter 2 was the last stretch, even steeper and more mud. We continued to haul ass, after about an hour of hiking we came to an elevated tarp of a small stream running down the trail. Did we make it to shelter 2?

No, we made it to a group of eight Indonesian hikers trying to warm up. I couldn’t help but laugh. I was actually burning up under my rain gear and they could barely get out the word “D-d-d-d-iing-g-g-ing-g-g” (Cold) through their chattering teeth. It was probably 60 F, maybe 65 F. They were heating up water… to put their hands in. They’d have been best off if they just ate some calories and exerted some energy, versus being stationary, in wet clothes, under the rain. They gave us the report, only 1km to Shelter 2, so we kept on and got there in about 45 minutes, at 2ish.

We started setting up camp, hung up our wet clothes and change into a fresh, dry set. It felt so nice. The rain let off right before we got to the campsite, but it started up again. Just then, the Indonesian group showed up and unfolded their blue tarp over the metal frame. Thank goodness, cause then we could walk around a bit without getting soaked. At first we thought they brought the tarp for the simple practicality of covering more area. Upon closer inspection of their tent, it was like a kids play tent, something made of non-technical fabric. They would get soaked if their tent was not set up under shelter.

We cooked some rice and waited out the rain. The rain stopped and the clouds sank down around the base of Kerinci. Andres wasn’t feeling 100% so he napped while Steve and I took some photos. Then we prepared some undercooked rice, mixed them with our terrible sausages and hit they hay at 7 o’ clock.

Day 87, May 3, 2013, Friday, Mt. Kerinci-Kersik Tuo (Indonesia()

The Indonesians went to bed at the same time as us, but got up at midnight and effing talked and played music all night. All night. I don’t get it. Honestly, If I were to choose a blatant generalization to make, sleeping is not a big thing here in Indonesia. We did our best to stay asleep and got up at 5 to eat some snacks.The view on the way up was incredible: the clouds had settled overnight and it looked like the view out an airplane window.

The vegetation dissappeared after shelter 3 and the climb continued along a rough, rocky ridgeline. We climbed 700m in 2 hours, snacking along the way and looking back to glimpse the incredible view. We climbed up and up and the summit came abruptly, our view up was ridgeline, and from the top we could see 360 degrees around the volcano. It was spectacular. Literally, one of the best views I’ve experienced in my entire life. It was different than the vistas in the Sierras, or any mountains, rather. In a mountain range, if you’re at a summit, you look down a series of peaks. Kerinci is a volcano, a single point rising up above everything else. Enough writing about it, here are pictures:

We took in the view for about an hour and headed down  so that we’d beat the afternoon rain. We took down camp, packed our bags and made our way through the mud. Down was as hard as up in some spots. Well, it was hard the entire way down. I haven’t used my legs to slow me down in months. We may have made it up really fast, but today I was paying for it, my quads were fatiguing. By the end, I was going really, really slow, almost as slow as going up. I made it to the bottom around 2 p.m. It was raining a bit and luckily some farmers offered me a ride in their truck bed.

I took a much needed Mandi and washed off the sweat, dirt and mud.

That night I chatted with the guests; Much like our friend Sonny in Java did a regular trip to sell mufflers, they were salesmen from Padang, selling agricultural products.  Lloyd and Surya from France arrived that evening, we exchanged travelling info/stories and made plans to go to Hot Springs the next day.

Day 88, May 4, 2013, Saturday, Kersik Tuo-Air Panas-Kersik Tua (Indonesia)

We slept in till 7, ate breakfast and then went to the market to buy produce and snack a bit. At the market I found something terrible. My L-series 24-105 lenses was filled with condensation. My baby, my love, my dearest, filled with fog. No pictures today. I buried it in rice, prayed and left it all day. Afnir, the angkot driver I saw on my way to Kersik Tua, offered to take us to the hot springs for 150k. I told him we already had plans to go on a public angkot for 8k. He agreedto the pridce  and we hopped in his angkot to the hot springs at Air Panas.

For the first time we chose the not free option. The hot spring #1 was a steaming pool of water amongst cow ponds and mud. We chose to go to hot springs #2. It was a bit disappointed because it was just pumped water into a mandi. Ladeling warm water on ourselves wasn’t appealing; we were looking to soak. I’ve forgotten to mention that our legs are so sore that simple walking hurts, like really really hurts. It hurt so bad that we were actually walking funny. A sort of slow limp in both legs. Even stepping off the curb was a move that needed careful navigation. Needless to say, we wanted to submerge ourselves in hot water. So despite the cultural no-no. We closed the door to our bathing room and the five of us hopped in the huge mandi tub. Honestly, I’m pretty sure the locals do this too. We heard people next store, and there was no sound of pouring water, cause they were in the mandi tub too!

We made our way back to the main road to catch an angkot or hitch-hike the 30km back to Kersik Tua.

I looked down the road to see what cars were coming and noticed a familiar site: A colorful tent and faint music. I turned to Andres “Is that what I think it is?” “Yup.” We turned to Lloyd and Surya “You down to crash your first wedding?” We made our way down and approached the men at the front, we went with the “What is this?”-question. They soon gave us an eating motion- holding their hands up their mouth-gesturing for us to enter. Andres turned to Lloyd and Surya, “That’s how it’s done boys.” ( i.e getting invited in to the wedding. )We were hounded for pictures, and Lloyd’s light skin drew some of the attention from me, finally!!!!

At a few weddings, people have asked, if we sing. We always laugh and answer “No, we’re very bad”.

Steve thought it would be funny to throw me under the bus and tell them I was a great singer. Everyone was excited and wanted me to sing… If  only they knew. I told them no, but they kept asking. At one point, the announcer called out  for the next performer on his written list. I looked up and the entire crowd was staring at me.

Oh man. I was on spot, but I still refused. I really don’t know any songs. They moved on to the next name.

Steve prodded me   and after a bit of thought I decided to go for it. We discussed songs and settled on “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Deonne. I went online and copied the lyrics from Steve’s phone to my notebook and he looked up the chords. I went to the announcer and put my name back on the list. Sing at a wedding? Why not just dive in? I’ll never see anyone again, and from what I hear, there are no standards for singing.

I went to get an ice cream popsicle and just as I got back, it was my turn. I went on stage, Steve backed me up on keyboard and I sang away.

It was terrible.

My voice cracked, I could not get the tune for the non-chorus parts, and I lost the keyboard. They still loved it. I finished singing saying “hapis” (done) and everyone laughed. I got the first applause I’ve ever heard at a wedding. Singing at a wedding. Checked that one off the bucket list.

We left and started trying to flag down a car to get to Kersik Tua. Some just waved back, some didn’t stop and the ones that did weren’t going there. A guy outside of the wedding started waving cars down, and asking them as well. After waiting a bit, we decided to walk further up the road and this guy followed. I flagged down an angkot and he was going to Kersik Tua.  Great! We piled in and made our way along the highway dropping off the kids going home from school. I turned around and saw that the guy also hopped into our angkot. Weird. As we went on, all the passengers got off besides him. I asked him where he lived and where he was going. He just stayed silent and waved his hand in response. The sun set as we made our way back and when I turned around to see this guy, he had his sunglasses and a face mask on. Earlier I had suggested that we try to shake this guy and stop not in front of our hostel in Kersik Tua. Steve brushed off the suggestion. Now he said “I don’t think your fears are too unfounded Chris.” As we approached Kersik Tua, I told the driver to stop in front of a different hostel.

We got out and so did this follower. We walked in to talk with Bandi, to see if he could help us out. He was gone to go birding at night. The follower brought out a rock, handed it so someone, motioned with his hands and started walking down the street. We took this opportunity to hustle up the street to our homestay without him seeing. Success. What a creepy guy he was..

That night, Surya and I stayed in the living room, him on his phone and myself writing on my computer. Everyone else turned in earlier and around 11:30 p.m.  I looked up, out the front entry way, into the face of that creepy follower, shadowed by the yellow tungsten light above him. I was a bit shocked and told Surya to turn around. He was shocked too. We went around the hostel making sure the doors were locked and made our way upstairs to lock the balcony door and upstairs entry-door. From the second level I could see the follower pacing back and forth and Surya came up saying the follower was doing air karate as I went upstairs. The follower saw us through the windows and stared a bit. After a bit of pacing he returned to the main road and walked into the night. It was a bit creepy out, so I decided to retreat to my room, lock the door, and just fall asleep.