volcano climbing 101, plus my job

http://benlisch.name/pictures/Resorts%20Around%20Medan/Berastagi%202.jpg


this is a photo of the volcano we climbed, i will post this so you have an idea, but when we get our laptop this week i will post my pics! along with a bunch of others.

berastagi was the name of the town we went to for the weekend, we stayed in a guesthouse for 50 000 rupiah, which is 5 bucks canadian. there was 9 of us that went, my roomates and significant others, plus another girl from school. we took a bus up which was about a 2 hour, squashed hot ride. it is much cooler in berastagi than medan, medan is HELLA hot. berastagi we got to wear sweaters at night time, it was SO nice. on the ride there we saw monkeys on the side of the road, they were gibbons, they were so cute and i just wanted to reach out and high five him.

we got to berastagi and searched around for a place to stay and get a great deal, we went to some places that had chained up gibbons, they were chained up by their dick. it was really sad, so we said fuck that place, they also had a owl and a weird looking thing that none of us knew what it was.

we drank some beer, which is pretty good, and cheap. 17000 for a tall bottle, so 1.70$, then headed over to the veggie and meat market, NEVER EVER will i go to a meat market again. I have been having a really really hard time being a vegetarian because they dont eat any beans here and all i want is some fucking chickpeas, or kidney beans. and its very sketchy to eat veggie because they are sneaky little bastards and think that if there is only a little bit of meat in it, its all good. anyways, so i have kinda been thinking about eating meat, but after this weekend i dont think it will happen for quite a while, if at all. there were dead cows just hanging all over, and lots of dead chickens and chickens just all stuffed in little tiny cages, and fish with their heads being smashed and heads cut off live. it was SO disgusting. i got some veggies for cheap though, i think 4 or 5 beets for 50 cents, and 1 kilo of sweet potatoes for 50 cents. and i got 2 kilos of mangosteens for 1 dollar, and 5 avocados for 1 buck. it was wicked.

at night we just went out for dinner and layed low because we were going to climb the next day. i learned to play poker and it ended up down to me and adam and we kinda just played stupidly to end the game and i won. we werent playing for money cuz we were just learning! but the next night we played for money 10 000 each and i WON! well danny (american roomie) and me just decided to split it, so 25000 which is 2.50$ haha.

we started the climb at 930 on sunday morning, and walked to the base from town, which took about an hour, and then started the climb, we were with three indonesians and they do NO exercise what so ever, so it was a bit of a struggle for them at first. but the first part was just paths and really steep, but then we started to go downhill for a bit because we had to climb around a mountain before we got to the base of the volcano. we stopped for some lunch before the base, and it was about noon. then the next little bit was all paths but REALLY steep. it was getting cooler though so it was not so bad, beautiful amazing views though. there was a part where we were supposed to climb stairs but the stairs were actually just mud with steps that peoples footprints had made so we kinda got lost for a few minutes there, then the next part was like jungle trek, it was so cool. we didnt see any monkeys or anything because it is too cold for them up there. after the jungle you can see the hot spots blowing out hot air and the rest is just rocky mountainous climbing, mostly flat ground so that was good. adam pooed on the volcano, before the crater, it was ridiculous. i had to add that though. by this time we could fully see the crater and all the hot pockets blowing steam. after about 20 minutes of climbing we reached the top of the crater and it was just SO cool. there was water in the bottom, but we climbed down and it was not hot. but there were hot pockets and they were all flourescent yellow greenish, and some of them had water that was just boiling so fast. ( OH YEAH, its an active volcano.) it was so weird to be on top of the crater, obviously i kept thinking, holy shit, imagine if this just decided it was going to blow up now. it was scary, but exciting scary. we clearly would have died, but didnt, i am alive, no worries. i got some cool sulphur rocks, it STANK so bad like rotten eggs. it was quite windy on the crater, much more than anywhere else on the mountain. we stayed around the crater for about 30 mins and decided we would do the last of our uphill climb and start going down. Climbing down was definitely the hardest part of the whole thing, which i dont think any of us were expecting. it was all just mud for the first 30 minutes down and didnt even look like a trail and we all thought we were lost but kept going, we ran into a guy from switzerland, so we joined us. we finally made it to jungle and there were steps the rest of the way. it was really muddy and we all were so dirty by the end, with our legs killing. at the bottom there was a hot spring which was kinda lame cuz i was picturing a spring like in dantes peak when they almost die, but it just looked like a bunch of pools, i just put my feet in to relax them. it felt really good, but again smelt super bad, i def did not want to submerge in that shit.

we came home and ate curry and drank beer, got drunk and played poker. on sunday we just wandered around to the fruit market and i would have bought a dog if my roomates had allowed it. it was so cute and a little puppy and they treat them so shitty i wanted it to have a decent life. they were going to sell it to me for 300 000 which is 30 bucks but i could have got them down to 20. :( i am still upset about this little guy. we took the bus to dannys gf familys house and drank some fresh juice and sat on the roof with the beautiful view of mountains and volcanos all around us.

it was a great weekend, good to be away from this hot polluted city.

ramadan started yesterday which is where muslims fast between 5am and 630pm so SO many restuarants are closed for an entire month. its crazy, but we will deal! we only really eat out here because it is much cheaper than cooking your own meals. though tonight i might cook. i want to eat a salad, some beans and smoke a joint so bad. it is unreal.

my legs are in so much pain, i cant even think. i will post something else about my job because this one is just enough already.

i miss you guys more each day.
MUCH LOVE