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Hello there, well I am now back home in England but the blog below talks of my memorable time in Indonesia, well Sumatra for now....I have left it until now as time availability meant it would be impossible to do Indonesia justice....I can't write about everything we experienced even now (I'm sure you're all pleased).
The blog is slightly more formal, I'm trying an alternative writing style and I guess the experiences we had in Sumatra reflect what was a truly humbling experience rather than throwing a series of funny stories to entertain you all with...anyway without further a do....
Our desire to see as much of this mammoth archipelago as possible meant quite a vigorous schedule that saw us cover Sumatra, Java and Bali in our 30 day visa permitting stay. On arrival by ferry from Malaysia, we then headed off on a 14 hour overnight bus journey to Bukitinngi (Sumatra), we had read of interesting bus escapades prior to arrival and they lived up to their reputation, stopping frequently for our bus driver to grab a bite to eat, speak with friends or catch up with one of his en route ladies.
Arriving in Bukitinngi we had 3 days to fill and on reflection we did pretty well. We rented motorbikes and explored the local surroundings, making our way to Lake Manijau, a sizeable crater filled with volcanic heated water.
The following day we reserved our energy levels for our volcano night trek. We were advised to go on a Saturday as we would be guided for free by the local Indonesian people, for what is to them, a weekend activity. So we did and at the base we were greeted by a dozen or so Indonesian students that were eager to take us under their wings and practice their English.
The ascent began badly with Tom falling out the back of the pick up truck we were taking to the start of the trekking track, the truck proceeded to drag him for a further 20 metres along rugged rocked dirt road. Miraculously he came away unscathed (as always!) but our cameras fate was less well off and it no longer worked. Luckily there was someone on hand to 'still capture' events for us.
We began our 2500 metre upward struggle at around 22:30pm, the 1st 5 hours was through jungle like terrain, clambering at rocks, vines and tree branches, resting every 30minutes or so to snack and regain our energy. We reached our prolonged resting place as the jungle ended and volcanic rock began, rising again at around 04:30am for the final 1 and 1/2 hour onslaught to the summit, arriving just in time for sunrise. The only problem with this leg of the journey was that both torches of Tom and I had run out of battery and we were now alone so we improvised and used our iPod lights to guide us the final stretch-interesting technique.
We were greeted by a smouldering sulphuric crater and magnificent views of the valleys and lakes we had shared ground level with just 8 hours previously. We sought out shelter from the cold winds and had to wait just 15 minutes to thaw out as the sun rose and with it a much needed source of heat! We ate, walked around for a while, posed for photos with various Indonesian hiking groups (a common occurrence throughout Sumatra & Java) and then realised that we had to endure a further 6 hours trekking downwards. Bed beckoned and we arrived safely (just) at 13:00pm a full 15hours after we originally set off.
It was time to relax and although it incurred a further hard fought overnight bus, I had read of a more than suitable location named 'Danau (Lake) Toba' which surrounded the largest island within an island in the world 'Pulau Samosir'. Historically a well travelled area which once held the original Asian full moon parties before Ko Phanang of Thailand took on the reigns. Now it resembled a ghost town with far too many services to cater for the very few tourists that were there. It once again showed that unless maintained, tourism can be a negative thing. We, however, revelled in the fact that there were such few tourists and the attention we received from the locals was positively overwhelming (as was the case throughout Sumatra/Java).
We explored with motorbikes / bicycles and took daily swims in the luke warm lake to pass our time there. Our next destination was Bukit Lawang, somewhere we hadn't previously considered until the day before departing Lake Toba. That decision ended up providing some of my most memorable travelling experiences thus far.
We had read that it was possible to jungle trek with an opportunity of seeing Orang-utans in their natural habitat, we thought this to be an offer we couldn't refuse. We took the decision of a 1 night 2 day jungle trek which included arriving back at our starting point by rubber tyre rafting. We couldn't have anticipated the luck that awaited us, just 1 hour into the trek our guide spotted a family of gibbon in the high rise canopy, which we were informed was very rare, we could tell this was a sincere statement by the excitement levels of our guide!
We continued for a few more hours deeper into the 2nd largest jungle in South East Asia and come across a few more varieties of monkey but the main attraction, the Orang-utans, still eluded us but not for too much longer....within the space of 1/2 hour we were greeted by at least 1/2 dozen of the Orange creatures of all shapes and sizes, being semi wild (once guests of the rehabilitation program of Bukit Lawang) they were accustomed to human contact and came within touching distance!
More were to follow but no encounter would match that of our Mother & Baby at camp side....for almost 1 hour the intrigued and clearly hungry Mother decided that our riverside dwelling was as good a place as any to hang out and relax in...and so she did. At one stage it seemed she would be there for the night but I guess her cosy jungle nest was more appealing than our unfurnished tent! Our night out in the Indonesian jungle was an amusing affair as we were entertained by our guides who also fed us some amazing Indonesian cuisine.
The following day we did some further trekking but this time we unfortunately didn't encounter any wildlife, not that we were complaining considering our luck the day before. We returned to camp side where we set off on our 45 minute rafting journey back to civilisation and a shower.....on route the banks were overflowing with 100's of locals taking advantage of the public holiday and their reactions to seeing 6 white people floating down the river on big rubber tyres was as euphoric as if we had seen 6 Orang-utans doing the same thing, absolutely crazy!
Our Sumatra exploits had come to an unwelcomed end but a flight from Medan took us to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia and the base location to continue our Asian adventures..... The End........(for now)
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