Ever heard of Barus? It is one of the oldest ports in the archipelago. Located two hours from Sibolga, North Sumatra, facing the Indian Ocean, Barus is Indonesia's only city whose name was first mentioned in the literature of ancient Greece, Armenia, Arabia, India and China.

Famous as an exporter of camphor, Barus can be found on a secondcentury Greek map, as a port where travelers came in from as far as China, Arabia and Ceylon. In more contempora