Serapuh, Serapuh

26.2.

Today, we want to tell you about a very special chapter in our story. A chapter that is unlike any of the others, telling stories only very few others can tell. It is about a time in the enchanting village of Serapuh. But before we get there, we first want to tell you about our adventurous journey to get to this hidden place, as it is also a tale worth of a bard’s song. One small disclaimer, this is going to be a unusually long chapter. We are riding the seas once more for three days and fill our time with writing blog posts. So, grab a cup of your favourite brew, put on some fantasy tunes and enjoy reading about our adventure.

As usual this story starts where the last one ended: in our not so small inn in Seremban. Filled with excitement for the quest of the day (getting to Serapuh), we rose an hour after dawn and broke our fast in our room. The previous day we had decided to treat us to the luxury of a private carriage to the harbour instead of taking the odyssey through the public carriage system. It cost us less than a galleon and allowed us to stay one hour longer in the realm of dreams… so worth it. Our carriage driver was a former adventurer himself and told us of his stories of his travels to distant kingdoms. He further told us that his daughter is currently residing in our home settlement. A bit later, we smoothly reached the harbour of Port Dickson. Reminiscent of the harbour in Butterworth and with the option of an online check in mentioned on our ticket, we expected a building resembling the interior of a star destroyer. However, the building we encountered was rather like the train station in Jim Knopf. Furthermore, we were standing out like two trolls in a group of smurfs: We were obviously the only two not coming from this part of the world. A further surprise presented it to us in form of several fees we still had to pay to get onto our vessel: the boarding fee and the baggage fee. As we were about to leave the country, we had about 6 ringgits left at this point. This would not cover all our fees, so Sesy, searching through our bag of coins, asked if it would be possible to pay in another currency. We had several different to offer (none would cover the sum in full, as we only had the notes left too small for an exchange office to change). In the end we paid the two fees with 16 singaporian dollars, 6 ringgit and 5 US dollars, you can ask the magical device in your pocket how much we paid in the end. And you would get the exact amount, as the lady at the counter (definitely possessed by Sam Gamgee), not only accepted all our currencies, but gave us the exact exchange rate her magical device told her. Pascal and Meeko were weighed, and we paid per kilo of companion. Remind us that we need to put these two on a diet, I swear they were not that heavy when we weighed them. Or maybe we were just overcharged. We left the two outside with the harbours animal companion carer and finally entered the building. The former steps all took place outside in the heat under the blazing sun. Ok, there was a roof. But it was still far too warm. Hobbits are not made for these temperatures. You cannot grow potatoes here. A quarter of an episode of Game of Thrones later, the boarding started. An NPC entered the hall and explained to everyone the proceeding… in the local tongue. And then he repeated the same thing for the two of us, starting with the words: “and again for the two Germans”. There are two classes on this vessel: VIP and regular. VIPs can board first, followed by the regulars. We belonged to the second group, however, the NPC in charge was a big fan of the Skorpions and thus, we could naturally go to immigration first and consequently boarded the ship as the first passengers after the crew. In case you were wondering, the ship was sadly only resembling the black pearl in speed, but not in looks. On the bright side, it had a magical cooling device on board.

Around one Harry Potter movie before we had boarded the ship, we had noticed something shocking: We had forgotten to pack lunch. With no way to change this dreadful situation in sight, we went with Newt Scamanders motto “Worrying means you suffer twice” and dealt with the imminent problems at hand. Now, sailing towards the next destination, lunch time was approaching, and we were faced with the consequences of our substandard preparation. Ok, we obviously had snacks with us. We go nowhere without at least some food. Us without food is like Captain Jack Sparrow without rum (we took a ship that day, so deal with the pirates of Caribbean references). But cup noodles, a carrot each, peanuts and some crackers are not a proper lunch, and we had not even discovered the hot water yet so we did not know if we could eat the cup noodles after all. An episode of Friends into our sea journey we were thus delighted as both of us were presented with a white box which contends smelled very edible. They revealed themselves to be some rice, a piece of chicken/a fish tail, and two slices of cucumber. Additionally, we were handed two mystery liquids in plastic bags. No Hogwarts feast, but it would do. Also, it was surprise food and that is always a good thing. We proved as competent in pouring the substances over the rice as Hagrid is in keeping a secret from Harry. We definitely did not poured half of it on our seat. It was a quarter at most. With food in our belly we happily sailed towards our next adventure. We spend some time watching the absolutely adorable movie Lyle Lyle crocodile before going to the back of our high-speed ship for some fresh air. We leaned against the railing with the wind in our hair and the sun in our faces, as suddenly the railing gave way and Artey was dangling over the open water. The only thing that kept her from falling into the water was her hold onto the gate in the railing that had opened unexpectedly. Luckily, she managed to step back onto the boat quickly and the gate was closed immediately by a couple of other people in the surrounding.

A few hours later….

Our modern black pearl docked in Tanjung Balai at 4.15pm local time and we stepped of the ship around 15 minutes after that. Then the true challenges of the day presented themselves to us. I might have to mention that we left our vessel without a working map, translator or simcard. The only had the name of our destination and a friend’s phone number, we could not call without outside help. Firstly, we had to officially enter the realm on which we just had stepped foot. A task we had successfully accomplished multiple times. This time we had to wait until all nationals of this new kingdom had officially entered this state. Then we had to endure a long questioning by the realm’s guardians (bit like gargoyles in front of a castle) of what our plans were to discover this unknown land. One very curious gargoyle asked Sesy some more questions even after she had acquired the mark of entry in her parchment of identity, such as what she is studying, how would she get where in the next couple of weeks. Simultaneously, friends of the gargoyle had to retrieve Meeko from the sea of other animal companions (Artey had already reclaimed Pascal after stepping of the boat). The tricky thing with the gargoyle questioning was that when we were applying to be allowed to enter this realm we had put down the address of an hotel in Tanjung Balai as we had planned to stay there for a night. This was before we changed the plan to go straight to Serapuh that night. To avoid complications, we thus pretended during our time at the border that our plan remained the old one. However, this started causing complications as the curious gargoyle accompanied us outside of the building insisting on arranging our transport to the hotel. We didn’t want this assistance as we had clear instructions how to get where we wanted to go, we just needed the local currency to do this. The gargoyle told us the next source of money was 2 km away and we would need to take the Tuktuk he arranged us to get there and to the hotel afterwards. We agreed in the end but said that we had to go to the station first to arrange tickets for the following day. The next machine that ended up providing us with gold was around 20 meters away, instead of 2000. But well, now we had a transportation to the station. On our way there the local folk, unaccustomed to the sight of hobbits, stared at us and showed high interest in how we were doing. Alas, we were whisked away by our tuktuk before we could answer the questions shouted at us along the way. Our driver had another method to start conversation: he just named all the German football players he could remember. Finally, we arrived at the station. It appeared however, that there is more than one of these stations for local transportation here and the carriages from here were destined to the wrong location. So, we boarded our tuk tuk once again and headed to the next one. When we arrived there, the last carriage of the day was already gone and communication on how we could continue was beyond our skill set, as the local tongue is not mentioned on our character sheets. This was the point that we could use our one weapon fit for this territory: the phone number of Jefris. We linked one of our communication devices with a local’s access to the invisible network of all things and called. His brother picked up the phone and talked to the characters in charge. In the meantime, we started to attract the attention from more locals. They tried to communicate with us, however their skill sets include only a very basic understanding of the tongue commonly used in the homeland of the creators of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. In between there were 12 NPCs standing around us (+ two children) who were quite keen on taking photos with us. During this time, Artey tried to keep track of her communication device which was passed around a lot to organize a possible transportation. So mostly Sesy’s image ended up on multiple devices. Yet most folks insisted on getting a picture of them with both of us, two girls also asked to stay in touch. Eventually we were told that another carriage could bring us to our destination of the day for 300 000 IR. Few moments later we were in our private transfer which usually would carry up to 20. Our driver was told to call Jefris when we arrive in the village but to do that, he needed to get his number onto his magical communication device. As simple as this might sound, this ended up being a group effort, with many people eager to help. Then we finally departed with many waves and shouts of goodbye. So we were speeding towards Serapuh, our hearts filled with excitement and the high of living through another small adventure. Around a LotR movie later we arrived in Serapuh where we got picked up by our trusted fellow adventurer River and her niece. Equipped with some fried noodles we then set out to the house of Jefris and Rivers family, and our home for the next four days. The whole family was there, a group of 20 kindhearted adventurers, all with a tale to tell for themselves. They welcomed us like Elrond welcomed Frodo into his halls. We could not have hoped for a nicer welcome. Meli, also known as Princess Melongetti, with whom we celebrated Christmas and New Years was also there. The house is nothing short of beautiful and even has some round windows, reminding us of a hobbit hole (by the way, Jefris build this house himself). Our resting place was resembling a pillow fort with a mosquito net over it and a wall of chairs around it. It was also the coolest spot in the house and had a round window next to it, making it nothing short of the best spot in the whole house. The bathrooms had quite basic design: the flush, sink and shower were a bucket. However, for everyone to whom this might sound strange. Showering with a bucket is very efficient and functions a lot better than some other shower heads we came across on this trip… We actually miss these bucket showers a lot right now. We joined a couple of card games before retiring into our fort, where we slept as if Madam Pomfrey had prepared us a sleeping draught.

27.2.

The next morning we feasted on mungbean porridge, fried bananas, and rice with a mix of small fried fish peanuts and green beans for breakfast. Afterwards, we were allowed to participate in a traditional Batak ceremony to honour their dead, more specifically Jefris father. We went to his grave which was cleaned and decorated with flowers and his family even brought him cigarettes. Then we each washed our face three times over the grave and saying Horas (Jefris said it’s the Batak version of Aloha). When we left the grave we were strictly ordered to not turn around and look back at the grave. From the graveyard we thus ventured forth without a backward glance towards a much needed relief from the heat: a swimming pool filled by a natural spring, where we spend the next hour or two. For lunch we again had rice with the small fried fish with peanuts and greens, a staple food in Indonesia (its really tasty) and fabulous potato pancakes. In the afternoon we send off some digital owls and walked into the village with a group of people to get some magic potion. To make it even more perfect we had some time to dive into the fantasy realm of our books and played a round of Settlers on the balcony with the rain and some guitar as the background music. Dinner was feast for our hobbit hearts: rice with green aubergine, curried tofu and spicy dip which name I forgot. I firmly believe that someone obliviated me so I would not research the recipe, make it myself and poison all my western friends with it. The evening formed the fitting end of this magnificent day: it was one of Jefris brothers birthday. Consequently, we all sang some songs (or pretended to sing along to batak songs of which we could not understand a word) and had three slices of chocolate cake (ok not all had three slices of chocolate cake, there was also a green cake). Contently in food coma we watched some people playing sardines in the house and played Yan eve with some family members, before retiring into our fort.

28.2.

We would remember this day as the day of culinary delights: we started the day with a coconut curry with noodles which was a feast for our tastebuds. After this we had to tear down our fort as the living room was to be prepared for a traditional Batak party which would take place the following day. So, we sadly gathered our few belongings and moved Pascal and Meeko upstairs. The time until lunch past quite uneventful: we planned our next couple of stops and helped further cleaning the house. Lunch turned out to be even better than breakfast: someone went into the village to get Pecal. This is a culinary masterpiece made of vegetables with tofu in fresh spicy peanut sauce. I officially nominate this as one of the best foods we had on this whole trip. The afternoon was filled with party preparation. Similarly to Bilbo’s 111 birthday party, food would be an important aspect of the upcoming feast. For this, some local women came by to help prepare the vegetables and spices and we joined. The next couple of hours we peeled and cut onions, took the stem of chillies and sorted pepper. Obviously, we were doing it all wrong in some sort of way according to the locals. Sorting pepper is as rewarding as trying to chase Peeves out of Hogwarts by the way or at least if you do it as we did it and put far too much effort into it (I will never look at pepper the same way). You have to take the stems off and take the thorns out. After we had gotten through roughly half the bag of pepper with five people in three hours one local finally took pity and finished the second half within ten minutes. After this we decided to get some magic potion for everyone. We had discovered an unknown fruit the day before at the potion stand and really wanted to try it again (Amarillo). Loli (friend of Meli), Meli and the two of us left to get ten potions and returned with our hands full and our moods lightened by our purchase. Dinner was a bit simpler than the previous meals, just some rice with veggies, but still nice. Restlessness plagued us in the evening, so we went on a quest into the village for some frozen spell of happiness and a walk. We returned to the house successfully and joined a group of settlers battling for the lands of Catan.

29.2.

During breakfast the next day River convinced us to be part of an English choir for the party later that day. Very unlike most hobbits, we can sing about as well as Hagrid can cook, but River didn’t know that at this time. As our performance would be part of a Christian ceremony, we spend the next twenty minutes learning a Christian song from River together with Meli, Loli and Tessi (Jefris’ sister in law). Until the beginning of the party at 11 there was still much to do however, we had no idea what and how to do it. Consequently, apart from helping setting up some mats, we were as useful as Hermione during a quidditch match. To at least not be in the way we ended up sitting on a bench in the hallway upstairs with cups of coffee. Our theory was that here everyone could see us and could entrust us a task anytime. Apparently, there were none or they didn’t trust us to do any of them (I tell myself it was the former). Around half past 10 the guest started to arrive, and all sat in the living room for the Christian ceremony. We had a sheet of paper with all the lyrics of the songs and some texts of the prayers which were all in Batak. The two of us spend our fair time in churches during our youth and the melodies were not that different from the ones we knew, so obviously we sang along… Did we know what we were singing? No. Did we know how to pronounce any of it? No. Did we always get the melody right? No. But at least they use the Latin alphabet, so we had better chances than if we had done this in some of the previous lands we visited. Also, they repeat the same words a lot and after the third time you get an idea how they are pronounced. Before it was our time to sing our song, there were two other choirs: the local women sung first, followed by the men of the village. Their singing reminded us of a lot of the choir in the town our grandparents live, so full of tradition. Then it was our turn. Don’t know if it was any good, was busy remembering the words I was supposed to sing. But they clapped in the end and Jefris’ mum said thank you, so I’m sure it was better than merpeople singing above water.

After the Christian ceremony came the Batak family which was the core part of the party: The family feeding their mother to celebrate that she is healthy again (she was stricken down by a disease last year). They had butchered a pig that morning for this purpose and had prepared fresh pork blood curry. All her children, grandchildren, and children in law fed her some of the curry with rice and hugged her. Then everyone else was handed some food. There was rice, the spicy pork blood curry, some veggies, beef and fish (it was koi). I have never tasted koi before, but it is surprisingly good. The pork curry was quite heavy in the heat but at least we are proud to say that we can eat the local spice level now. Then the party started. As you might have noticed, singing is as important in this culture as it is in the Shire. A DJ is thus completely unnecessary. They just started singing karaoke. I am a firm believer that karaoke is about singing badly. But not in this village. We might have not been able to understand a word they were singing but it still sounded good. One thing that should be adapted into Western culture is that as soon as the music starts, people start dancing. We had already experienced that in Kazakhstan and we are a big supporter of this instead of standing next to the dance floor for the first hour of music. After retreating upstairs for a bit, we joined the party which was already in full swing. It was like 1pm. Can we please start doing that too? Who invented this thing that parties must start late so that no one can get a proper night’s sleep? It will always remain a mystery to me. The only downside of starting your party shortly after noon is the heat. To survive this, we skipped the tuac (the local version of mead) that everyone was drinking and stuck to water.

At some point, Jefris waved us over where he was sitting with one of the local folks. This wizard has a shelf in the accessible magical library of moving pictures. He had followed the adventures of Jefris and River closely and has transfigured the recordings of Jefris into multiple books in his shelf. He had recognised us from one of these recordings and was really excited about this. We still have not looked at these books as at the time of writing we are stuck on the ocean for three days without access to the invisible library of pictures but will do so when we arrive on the next island.

Meli and Loli who are both good at singing and know songs that actually fit in a setting like this started joining karaoke together with River. Eventually we joined. For reasons that remain a mystery to me, the locals seemed to enjoy our singing (I’m sure Meli and Loli just sang a lot louder than we did) and asked for more songs. Gratefully, we all agreed that Britney Spears does not lay within our vocal range. Around five it was time for more food. Instead of afternoon tea fried noodles were served and all the dancers enthusiastically tucked in. People were slowly starting to leave and we used the time before the cleaning up started to pack our stuff as we would continue our journey towards Mordor the following day. The sun set and it got quieter. Someone started playing guitar and the remaining folks sang along. Meanwhile we were eating small dinner of rice with veggies in the living room when Jefris mum came in and said that she would like to give us something (was translated by River). She thanked Loli, Meli and the two of us for being there, for helping and for singing and then gave us each a traditional Batak scarf. It was just so kind! We in turn thanked her for the hospitality and for allowing us to be there.

A bit later we ended up with Loli and Meli in the kitchen to look for a snack. Loli enthusiastically spooned herself some of the blood curry on a plate when Jefris entered the kitchen and told us that this was not pork but dog curry. Eating dog is quite common in that region of Sumatra and they had ordered it for their mum as it was her favourite meat. We all reacted differently: Meli as a vegan looked a bit horrified. Sesy and Artey had not planned to eat any blood curry, but out of sheer curiosity we had to try one bite. Loli who had already a plate full of it went with the principle it should morally not make a difference what kind of meat you eat. This started an existential crisis for her, because she actually really liked the dog meat (we have to agree that it is much better than pork). The problem: Loli has a dog. To describe it with her own words “I love it more than my parents”.

We ended the day with some games of shithead on the balcony before going to bed early.

We will always cherish the memories we made in those few days in Serapuh. We loved our time in this enchanted village in the home of this lovely family and we are so grateful for the time we were allowed to be there.