October 22, 2006
To Tuktuk on Lake Tabo: Respite from Ramadan
We are dropped off about 2 km from the ferry harbor. It takes us a little while to put the wheels and pedals back on, turn the handlebars and gear back on the bikes. Then off to the harbor. Patrick asks an opelet driver for directions and he follows us down the road, honking to get us the right turn. The boat to Tuk Tuk is there, but there is some confusion about when it will leave, 9am maybe? Turns out to be 9:30.
The air quality is just as bad as it was in Bukittinggi, as soon as we set off, the coast disappears in a thick fog of smoke and humidity. It is pleasantly cool up here though. On the boat, we meet an older Dutch man and his young half Indonesian son and a guy from Penang. We are dropped off at a concrete pier in Tuk Tuk. We set off for some hotels recommended in our guide book and soon find trouble. Tonight and tomorrow night is no problem, but after that most if not all ???? are fully booked for the Idul Fitri holiday. We try four or five places with the same result until a guy at one of the full hotels directs us to Haraira Garden. The rooms are fairly nice, clean, hot water, the setting is very nice with a garden right on the lake. The place is run by a guy, his wife and four daughters that also run the "Four daughters" Restaurant just down the street.
Our neighbors to the left are expatriate Americans having lived in Scotland the past few years. She a doctor doing research on maternal infant mortality. He is an ex-lawyer who started a law university in Ethiopia. They last lived in America 15 years ago. To our right, also an older couple, Danish living in Java, she is a nutritionist and he a furniture builder and runs a factory.
We have ended up in a beautiful spot to wait out the holiday.
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