Hi everyone who loves travelling.
I believe some of you ever heard about Sumatera Island which located in Indonesia. Sumatera is an island which located in west Indonesia. Sumatera has a very big rainforest area and tropical jungle. In Sumatera you can found so many vegetation and a rare vegetation like the giant flower is exist in this island. I came from Sumatera Island, especially Riau Province. In my province, you can easily find a wild animal if you visiting the jungle/forest nearby. Even in the village farm, several times people found a bear on that area.
If you like to visit Sumatera, the first thing you should do is making friendship with the local. Having local friend is a good thing to avoid you from a scammer and they can guide you to find several hidden gems in this island. Okay, let me explain to you several tips in bullet point.
1. Find a local friend
Find a local friend sometimes being difficult because several people not talk in English. If you have local friend, they will bring you the iconic things in that area. Especially if they comes from villages, they will know the exact place which maybe a hidden gems in your perspective. Why I say about perspective? Because for us, Sumatera people, going to the forest is quite ordinary. Facing the snake nearby home, lizard nearby the river or even crocodile, is common here. In Sumatera, most of the river is a deep river. Believe me or not, in that river, there're million big entities from crocodile, snake or big fish.
Last time in our village farm, my parents found a big phyton (with upper leg size of fat people). This is common here.
2. Stay in local accomodation
If you have local friend, it's very easy to stay in local accomodation. It's very good to stay in the village area, especially if they have home nearby the ricefield or jungle. The smell of village is very awesome. You'll feel calm. In the village area, usually in the morning time it won't be very difficult to find your breakfast. Usually they will prepare lontong (rice cake with coconut sauce), sate (rice cake, chicken and curry sauce) or pecal (mix rice cake and vegetable with peanut sauce). This kind of breakfast is quite easy to find in Sumatera, especially in the village area.
3. Be kind and humble (not be arrogant)
This is the first point to going well with Indonesian. Don't ever be arrogant. Just giving them smile and simple talk is enough to make them as your friend. We are Indonesian is like to smile even to stranger. It's mean that we are welcoming everyone in our country. Once there's a people who doesn't like to giving smile back, we can consider them as not humble or arrogant person. As simple as that. Even on the train, several people can talk freely to stranger even they never know each other before. I can say that Indonesian people is a friendly person.
4. Prepare your local currency
This is a must. In Sumatera island, only in the big cities you can found money changer. Even in some cities, the money changer is very rare. So you need to prepare your local currency (Rupiah) in advance. But you must be careful to keep it.
5. Took some insect repellant
Sumatera has a tropical climate, so that mosquitos will growth rapidly. You need to prepare insect repellant and be save from mosquitos bites. You also can consume some vegetables like papaya leaves (by boiled it and eat with rice and sambal). Papaya leaves will make our blood bitter and mosquitos hates it. That is what I learn from my father. He was an army in Indonesia and he teach me how to survive in the jungle sometimes.
6. Bring your raincoat and waterproof boot
Due to rainy season, it's a good things to bring your raincoat and waterproof boot. If you have chance to visiting ricefield, then waterproof boot is a good things for you.
7. Just enjoy the wild life
Just enjoy your travelling in Sumatera. Sometimes it will become wild and sometimes it will be okay. You can visiting the mountain, river and lake if you visiting Sumatera.
