Rice Fields at Berastagi

While in Banda Aceh, we booked our flights for Medan and for Kuala Lampur, and then had time to do a bit of sightseeing.  This area including Lhok Nga and Lampuuk were devastated by the 2004 tsunami.  Large sections of the homes and commercial areas were destroyed.  The large mosque in Banda Aceh was left standing while all around it was destroyed.  There has been a large amount of rebuilding going on since then with the help of foreign countries and their own government.  We visited the museum dedicated to showing the tsunami and it's affects on the people physically, emotionally, financially.  It was well done.  We also visited the museum of the fishing boat swept inland and left on a rooftop.

It is always interesting waiting in an airport, watching the people--little children giggling at strangers as their pictures are taken.

We get into Medan and find our way to a hotel suggested by our friends.    The next morning we went looking for rice fields and Mount Sinabung.  The morning we were heading out to these areas, the Indonesian or Sumatran military was setting up for the Indonesian President'o visit to the refugee camps for the people evacuated due to the eruption of Mount Sinabung.  We passed by some basket sellers who sold baskets for carrying items like potatoes, clothes, etc.   In Sumatra, people are still  going down to  the water's edge or to the local pump to wash their clothes. They hang the clothes on lines, fences, walls around old tombs.

At Berastagi, we headed up into the hills to see the rice fields.  Along the way, we came to a village where they had the rice laid out on big cloths to dry.  If it rains, they bag it.

They collect the betel nut or sirih Pinang which is a mild narcotic.  I wonder if this is similar to coco leaves in Peru.  They chew the outside of the nut and it turns their mouths all orange--like lipstick applied without a mirror.  This is sometimes mixed with tobacco.

The rice fields are a beautiful sight--so green, so quiet, so pretty.  Each field is dyked with a small break at the top to let water run from the top into each field below it.

When not looking after the rice fields, they are looking after their children, their animals, their homes living a hard but simple life.

Next it was back to Berastagi to go out the other side to see Mount Sinabung.