Johnnymac at a typical Batak Wedding [Photo Album] (valleyboyabroad.blog-city.com)

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Jon Latimer

Renowned military historian and regular contributor to this site

Valleyboyabroad:

Scribbles from the Edge

[Photo Album] Johnnymac at a typical Batak Wedding

« H » Travel - Malaysia & Indonesia :: john mchugh :: email link

I was privileged enough to be invited to a Batak wedding on Samosir Island, Lake Toba, North Sumatra.

The poor girl in the blurred (apologies) photograph was very unhappy indeed. Although she was happy to be married, she was marrying outside her village, a tradition. She kept dwelling on the fact that she would not be able to see her friends and family as much as she would like, something that mitigated the otherwise joyful occasion.

It's a colourful, raucous affair, with a calypso type traditional band yodelling away with gusto, plenty of food, palm wine and of course dancing.

For more information on the Batak people of North Sumnatra, see the previous entry.

yechydda,

posted Wednesday, 20 October 2004Go on! - Why not leave a comment here? (5)

A visitor made this comment,

Not so typical... after all... you're there! ;o)

Mab

comment added :: 23rd October 2004, 01:20 GMT

A visitor made this comment,

Hey! I can post!!!!

Mab

comment added :: 23rd October 2004, 01:30 GMT

A visitor made this comment,

Mabs,

What happened? How come you can post now? May'be your right, perhaps I ruined the whole occasion with my presence!

Nah, had a great time, I've got recordings of the music and stuff, but haven't yet figured how to get them up onto the website.

That'll piss Kanga off, he was crowing about the fact that you couldn't leave messages here!

yechydda,

VBA

comment added :: 23rd October 2004, 12:35 GMT

A visitor made this comment,

Palm wine? You drink it from a cupped hand?

It was probably you yodeling.

He was crowing because I couldn't leave a message? *sob*

Mab

comment added :: 24th October 2004, 04:47 GMT

john mchugh made this comment,

Mabs,

They tap palm trees to get the juice out of it, and then ferment it. It's a sort of milky white drink, about 20% proof, and doesn't taste too bad, but it's always warm and therefore disgusting in the heat. The Batak boys like to mix it with beer, but can't afford beer, so when the spot a foreigner with a beer they always try and cadge some to mix with their palm wine.

As a comparison, a bag of palm wine can get four people royally drunk for the price of a beer or two. That with the local maryjane and you can see why the males are lazy, parasitical bastards while the women do all the work!

yechydda,

comment added :: 24th October 2004, 13:38 GMT

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