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Berastagi - climbing Mt Sibayak

First stop in Indonesia!
After I got off the plane from Singapore I hopped on the back of a motorbike who took me to the local buses that go all over Sumatra.

I climbed into a pimped out minivan with all sorts of animal print and frills and we were off to Berastagi!
It was a ridiculously crazy ride back and forth, up and down the sides of mountains. And just to my luck there was a huge thunderstorm and cars in Indonesia dont seem to be waterproof.

After I found somewhere to stay i wandered around town and found myself on the top of a hill that overlooked all of Berastagi.


The next day I met up with some people from Montreal and we set off to climb one of the two volcanoes in Berastagi. The path to the two was pretty easy as it was paved mostly the whole way, the only trouble we really came across was this one part that was completely covered by a land slide 


We were told that there was a big crater at the top so once we got to a big plateau we were quite confused when we didnt find one.


we thought it might have been this big concrete pool like thing? but we really werent sure and there was no one else around to ask.

So we did the obvious thing and posed for pictures  pretending we were at the top!


then we saw some more people with a guide heading up a small jungle path that we overlooked so we ended up tagging along. 
there was a bunch more stairs along some cool cliff side scenery.


since it was still early in the morning the clouds hadnt cleared yet which made it look like we were on the top of the world.


then we got to the crater! i was giant! really cool feeling to be walking right through the middle.




there were some super loud gas vent and the rocks around them were stained yellow from the sulphuric gas.


There was also a big lake right in the centre of the crater.


it was really interesting walking down after because it was so peaceful and i never really realized how loud the escaping gas was until i couldnt hear it anymore.


Overall i felt pretty accomplished as we headed back to town.

Next stop: lake Toba!


For more photos check the album on the left! Remember to comment and pass on!

Comments

  1. wow, not many people get to see the "creator". Lucky guy!
    :-)

    ReplyDelete

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