“You should have a nose for news from the Islamic world. See what is happening in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Gulf, Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai, Malaysia. Take news clips from there for the front page, check IINA etc. Take from this website, that website,” went on my editor as he issued instructions at break-neck speed. He never once mentioned Indonesia, the nation with the largest number of Muslims in the world. So began my cyber travels into the websites of the “Islamic World” which I slowly changed to “Muslim World” while editing. Show me one truly Islamic nation in the world today!
Deadline days would be horrifying as I would wait for some Muslim country to do something positive so that it could be made cover page news. After praying fervently the night before to God to help me, promptly there in the morning was Saudi Arabia coming to my rescue. Either their King (God bless him) made a very progressive statement about inter-faith dialogue or a lone brave woman there became a cabinet minister. So continues my soft corner for Saudi.
I used to wonder why Indonesia did not figure on the front page of our publication. Scanning news sites from this country, nothing really striking turned up. Till the day came when I was lucky to be part of my husband's backpacking travelling sessions to Indonesia, to a part of it—the enormous island of Sumatra.
So off we set to explore Sumatra. I was very excited as I was setting foot on the nation with the largest Muslim population.
From Penang in Malaysia, there is a ferry or small ship that takes 5 hours to reach the harbour of Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia. The best thing to do while travelling in a ship is to sit on the top deck to get a great view. Medan is like Mumbai. Crowded, with itinerant traders selling their wares all over the city. The city did not stop to take time and breathe or think about culture, literature or life. Money makes the world go round in Medan.
Medan is dotted with mosques with big shining steely domes. Just half an hour before the Adhan for the five times prayers, the Qirat is played on the loudspeaker of the mosques. This is probably to alert the worshippers to get ready for the salat.
Hiring a rickshaw, or gejak as it is locally called, which here takes the form of a motorcycle to which is attached a sort of cart, is not an easy affair. Be ready to be taken for a really real long ride, as we were a rickshaw man who duped us of a whopping sum of 80,000 Rupiahs when taking us to the bust terminal to catch the coach to our next destination, the mountain resort of Berestagi!
A fascinating, and, equally, exasperating, thing about Indonesia is their currency. Have a coffee for Rupiah 10,000, a plate of noodles for Rupiah 25,000. But, alarmingly expensive though it may sound, it actually works out not much different from India, an Indian rupee being worth more than 200 Indonesian Rupiahs.
Berestagi is habited by an ethnic group known as the Bataks, the majority of whom are Christians, with a fairly large Muslim minority. One can easily while away a week here, visiting the volcanos (not alive now) and traditional Batak villages high up in the wooded mountains.
From Berestagi, it is wiser to escape to Lake Toba…. Samosir Island and a haven called Tuk Tuk. The lake, over 1000 square kilometers in size, is supposed to be the crater base of an enormous and now extinct volcano . The minute one steps into Tuk Tuk, a sort of spiritual peace descends. It is like a fairy tale island described in Enid Blyton tales, with wooden log huts, smoke from a kitchen chimney in a faraway house on the hillock, lush green meadows with pretty billy goats munching on grass. Here, life is very laid-back. Lake Toba seems to have bestowed immense natural resources on the inhabitants with fishing as one of the main sources of livelihood. Shops with Indonesian arts and crafts dot the lanes. The population here is 100 per cent Christian Bataks and the town has many churches.
What is most calming about the place is the neat and tidy ambience around the island. One does not find rubbish thrown around and people seemed more soft-spoken and gentle in their behaviour. I was in a place, with not a single mosque, but it was here I found the calmness as a Muslim to pray my five times prayer in peace. Spirituality does not spread by having scores of mosques surrounded by filthy drains and rough sounding people who call themselves Muslims, cheat travelers, smoke non-stop in public mini buses, playing jarring disco music and watching trashy pirated versions of Bollywood movies—which is how I remember Medan. Every Indian visitor to them is a distant relative of Sharukh Khan!
From Tuk Tuk to Parapat harbor by ferry and from there by bus to Medan can be a pleasant journey if one politely tells the driver to stop the jing bang music which is kept on in the bus even at 2 am in the night when passengers want to sleep. From Medan to Banda Aceh is a 15 hour journey, pleasant again.
Hit by the Tsunami in 2004, Banda Aceh seems to have recovered with many buildings and homes completely rebuilt. The city today looks very neat, with a grand mosque and a very good museum too. With many NGOs housed here providing relief work, prices of things are sky-high here. The population here is majority Muslim.
It is on the same Tsunami-hit Andaman Sea that a ferry took us safely by God's grace to Pulau Weh, an island not too far away from Banda Aceh harbor. Pulau Weh is blessed with clear blue sea and one can spot different types of fish and corals. This is again populated by Muslims. The pristine nature is of course marvelous, but the tourist homes and cottages are depressing. If you do not mind sharing space with monkeys, wild boars and maybe green geckos in your room, you are welcome here. The Iboih and Gapamg islands here are the main attractions and it's the blue sea that will take your breath away.
Urbanites must have heard of the tortoise mosquito coil, but the inhabitants of Ibioh island seem to have taken this too literally and have conveniently dropped a turtle into their public well to clean and eat up the mosquitoes. According to locals the turtle has grown up in the well since five years, living there all alone. His is the official cleaner of the well! Our attempts to rescue the poor turtle out of the dark well failed. Politely telling the denizens of Iboih that the turtle had his mama, papa and brothers and sisters waiting for him in the lovely blue sea did not appeal to them. That the turtle ought to live in his natural environment did not seem pleasing to them. All they did was let out loud giggles and laughter when we asked them to free the turtle of his duties. Fat and lazy boys hogging on noodle soup too refused to go inside the well to take the turtle out.
From Pulau Weh to Banda Aceh, a ferry takes back travelers who then take a bus back to Medan. Sitting in the ferry from Medan to Penang, close your eyes, and you will feel you are inside a public bus in Kerala! Driving at maddening and break-neck speed, you will be rocked and rolled, swayed right and left! Even my inspirational stories about how Ibn Batuta travelled all over the world did not help in calming my nervous husband who sat glued to the top deck sweating and swaying all the six hours till we reached the calm shores of Penang.
Sumatra is just a slice of Indonesia, but an extremely good learning experience if you are a sociologist, a researcher, a backpack traveler and adventurous enough to pay Rupiah 10,000 for a small cup of coffee. An unforgettable part of Sumatra is the clothesline in every house, every tourist cottage and every village. Go to any hamlet in Sumatra and you will find ropes and ropes of clotheslines available in plenty. So there is no problem of hanging your washed clothes inside rooms or houses. Colourful clothes happily dangling on the clotheslines flying in the breeze across meadows…. a fairy tale scene. So what can other Muslim nations learn or emulate from Indonesia? Their clothesline of course!
