Trekking on Volcano Mountain

Our trip started from Medan, the capital of Sumatra Island in Indonesia. It was a long 5-6 hour drive from the city to the world renowned lake, Lake Toba, a crater lake bigger than a Singapore country. From the pier, we took a boat the resort in the middle of the lake called Samosir Island. 

Our excursion started the next day, when we explored on motorbike around the island. The first stop was a museum with unique Batak culture, followed by a Batak Village, specifically built for tourism purpose. The iconic Batak culture is shown in the houses with high slanting roof with pointed ends. 

Unique Batak House

Traditional Batak Culture

The key highlight in Lake Toba is the mesmerising nature with volcanic greeneries on the hillslopes and the lush wild plants at the edge of the lake. What a wonderful world! The relaxing experience was enhance with the lake view of our rooms in the resort. Our journey then continued to Bukit Tinggi.

Samosir Island

Greenery abound

View from lake edge hotel

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Sunset in heaven

Bukit Tinggi is a small town on a highland in central Sumatra Indonesia. As the name Bukit Tinggi means High Land, the weather is cooling with abundant colorful fruits in the local market, one of the key highlights. Besides, it is well known as a gateway to the heaven of mountain trekking.

Start of Mt Sibayak trek

The journey continues

One such mountain nearby is Mount Sibayak, an active volcanic mountain. It took around 2 hours to trek from starting to the vantage point. From afar, Mount Kerachi can be seen. The trek along the way is quite rocky with gradual ascend. Sulfuric fumes can be seen escaping from the volcanic slopes. Upon reaching the peak, the volcanic lake could be seen below. It is a 360 degree view of surrounding nature.

Sulfuric hole

Sulfuric ash

Sulfuric lake near the peak

Hand drawn words?

Impressive view

Peak of Mt Sibayak

It is always refreshing to visit places of nature, especially through hiking. 

NATURE ESCAPE ON A FLOATING RESORT

Khao Sok Nationak Park is 2 hours away from the town of Surat Thani in the east of South Thailand. It is a great escape into the jungle. There are 2 parts of the national park, with over 2 hours away from each other. 

The headquarter of the park is located not far from the main road connecting Surat Thani in the east to Khao Lak in the west of South Thailand. It is convenient to reach there, as buses pass by the national park. Upon dropping off at the trunk road leading to one of the entrances to the national park, one can either walk or contact the hostel host to fetch to the resort few km away. This is the headquarter of the national park, called Khao Sok Village. 

Khao Sok Village

I stayed in a cozy triangle chalet for 2 days but it was raining cat and dog as it was a raining season in June. So, the only thing to do was reading, sitting in the balcony of the chalet up above the ground surrounded by foliage and mosquitos! There were only few massage centers around, as massage in Thailand is a luxury to me. 

Tree house @ Khao Sok Valley Resort

One can walk to the headquarters where the jungle trails begin. The main trail is wide and one can walk without getting lost, I took  about 2 hours at a snail speed before reaching the final hut and a mini river. After that, one would need to engage a mountain guide to trek further.

Main trail in Khao Sok National Park

The key highlight of the national park is Cheow Lan Lake, a emerald green dam lake in the midst of jungle surrounded by limestones cliffs. The lake is far from the headquarter, about an hour away. I joined a 2D1N tour. We were picked up from our chalet to drive to the jetty of the lake. From there, we took an open longtail boat about 1 hour to reach the floating huts in the middle of nowhere, with deep water level. We were soaking wet as the rain poured into our open boat. The floating chalet was the key attraction of the stay. One could just jump off the into the water right in front of the chalet to enjoy a swim. The irony of the trip was I was the only Asian among the Western travelers in the group and the only one with a life jacket on, as I could not swim well. In the night, it was pitch dark, a great moment to be in wild serenity, away from bustling city.

Cheow Lan Lake Jetty

Mesmerizing scenery on a longtail boat

Floating Chalet

The next morning, we went to a waterfall where we had to climb on flowing waters to reach the falls. As the westerners were great hikers and tall, their one foot forward was equivalent to my 3 feet movement. It was an adventure to hike up and down along the flowing river trails. Next, a visit to a cave in a limestone rising majestically in the lake. The most exciting moment for the fellow travelers was the sighting of monkeys, which to me, is a common nuisance back home.

Climbing up on the this flowing trail to waterfalls

It is always a soul refreshing moment to soak in nature, especially a nature filled with greeneries and lake...

PS: The pictures shown are from the internet as I lost the pictures I took.

Pompei and Rome - Cities of the Past

My journey to Pompei started with a guided tour from the city of Rome. It was around 4 hour journey with a with stop in Naples, the city famed for its pizza in Southern Italy.

Pompei was an ancient city that was buried in a volcano eruption from Mt Vesuvius nearly 2000 years ago. It was only discovered not long ago in the 16th century.

The Ancient City of Pompei

Walkway

Our guide leading the way

Upon reaching Pompei, I could feel the timeline of travel back in time. Our guide lead us through the walkways made of bricks nearly 2000 years ago which still stand strong. We entered some ruined houses from the volcano eruption. I was in awe as the painting on a floor of a house was still clearly visible. I could imagine the lives of people back then, living luxuriously as we do now. One of the interesting highlights was the existence of brothel even 2000 years ago as our guide showed us the signpost of a private part made of stone pointing to a direction, supposedly to the brothel. Visiting Pompei reminds me of how civilisation of human existence occurred long long time ago with a modernisation.

Painting of nearly 2000 years old

This painted wall remained buried for centuries under volcano ash

Wonder what paint was used for its lasting effect

Rome is a city of the past, as there are still remains of Roman empire to be treasured. The whole city is filled with historical buildings that proof the strength of past human architecture. The most impressive icons are The Colosseum and The Pantheon. The Colosseum is an oval amphitheater. Just outside The Colosseum lie the Roman Forum, an ancient hub of political and social activity involving religious and public life. The Pantheon is a unique cylindrical building with columns at the entrance. Both were built nearly 2000 years ago. I truly adore the Roman architecture with the round columns around. 

Colosseum - the battle ground of Gladiators

Roman Forum

The hub of ancient activity

The Pantheon - a Roman temple turned into Catholic Church. Can you see the dome structure?

Vatican City, as the smallest country in the world and the headquarters for Roman Catholic Church, is located within Rome City. The giant oil paintings from well known painters created from 14th to 16th century in the Vatican Museum are truly impressive. Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City reveals the master art piece of the great painter, Michelangelo on the ceiling. 

St Peter's Basilica at Vatican City

Visitors adore the curved Roman columns adjunt to the Vatican Palace behind

Besides the historical sites, many tourists flock to Trevi Fountain to throw in coins and nearby Spanish Steps to remind oneself of stepping into the city of Rome. In fact, the whole city can be explored on foot if you are adventurous to discover and snap pictures of every beguiling site of the city. 

Trevi Fountain

The Spanish Steps

Pompei and Rome remind me of how great the past civilisation was and make me realise how small I am.

Riding on top of a jeepney

In 2019, I visited an unique rice terrace on high mountain called Batad, in central Luzon, northern Philippines. It is a world Unesco Heritage.

Going to Batad from central Manila will need an approximately 12 hours. I took an overnight bus that left at 10pm and reached Banaue, a small rice terrace town at around 5am. 

The tourism office did not give a good impression about their welcoming service, as the officers refused to share their public transportation information. Instead, travelers were encouraged to take the private tricycle or car available. Then I hired a tricycle to bring me to Batad, an hour away after a morning breakfast. 

Batad is a mountainous village, where the houses are built on the slopes, surrounded by layers of mountainous rice terraces, built over 2000 years of legacy. Upon reaching Batad, I started my trek down the hilly slope to my homestay guesthouse right at the bottom of the valley. The stairs are winding and the route is through village houses and paddy fields. It is a mesmerizing view, seeing the houses and paddy fields below as I trekked down. It seems near yet so far, as I took an hour to reach the bottom from the top, despite a signboard claiming 10 mins. 

Beautiful mist greeted me in the morning

Stairs connecting the village

View along the trek down to guesthouse

Walkway to guesthouse right at the bottom of the valley

Imagine, sitting at the porch of the guesthouse, viewing the paddy field right in front with a hilly backdrop. A true heaven in nature. 

View from guesthouse

Tranquil village life

Later on the day, I explored Tappiya waterfalls by trekking up and down to the falls. Sitting half way on the journey in a porch, overlooking the majestic rice terraces on the slopes just took my breath away... 

Tappiya Falls

View from the top on the way to the waterfalls

The next day, the exploration continued with more trekking up and down the surrounding rice terraces. Sitting at a simple hut, chilling on a bottle of beer with the awesome mountainous rice terrace view was a great blessing. Human ingenuity was established even 2000 years ago with the ability to carve the terraces for paddy without any modern technology back then, yet still lasting until now.

Stairway to heaven

View from the top

Exploring the terraces

One of the relaxing activities is to have Swedish massage back in the guesthouse, besides just doing nothing but enjoying the scenery. Surprisingly, massage in Philippines is cheaper than in Thailand, especially with the increasing value of Thai currency. One hour of painful Swedish massage was less than USD10, compared to Malaysian currency as of 2019.

Can you see the guesthouse?

Traditional village hut with stairs

View from below the hut

On the last day, I sadly waved goodbye to this peaceful village. Trekking up the slopes took another 1 hour before I managed to get a public jeepney (their local bus) back to Batad. The best experience was to ride on top of the jeepney, with 360 degree view of mountains and valleys along the winding mountainous road. The same happened on the jeepney ride from Batad to Sagada, another unique region in central Luzon. This rooftop jeepney ride is only available in this region. I was truly blessed... 

Rooftop ride from Batad to Banaue

Another rooftop ride from Banaue to Sagada