sumatra

to get from malaysia to indonesia, i opted for a ferry from the malaysian island of penang to the indonesian island of sumatra...it's a fast ferry boat, but still takes 5-6 hours to do the crossing...(the body of water is called the malaysian straits, for those of you who care about such things)...it wasn't bumpy at all, thank goodness, as we were inside, there was no open deck on this ferry...
upon arriving at the port (i can't remember the specific name of the port, but it's just a few kilometers from the city of medan) we were greeted by lots of wanna-be porters, taxi drivers, etc...and this was all before going through immigration...coming out of immigration there were even more people waiting! we hopped on a bus filled with everyone else from the ferry, (ignoring all the touts) and it dropped us off just a couple hundred meters from where we wanted to be in medan...i should mention that on the ferry i met a dutch girl, who ended up being my travel buddy for the next 5-6 days...on the bus a local guy chatted up me and the dutch girl, as well as a couple british boys, we all ended up following him to a succession of guesthouses, and we all ended up staying in the cheapest place on the planet...(well, maybe not that cheap, but it was the cheapest place i've stayed in a long long time)...i went with the dutch girl and british boys to dinner in a nearby mall, it was the first time i'd been out past dark since the mugging!!
the next morning marije and i got up and made our way to the bus station, to catch a bus to bukit lawang...we got there quickly enough, but then had to wait 40 minutes for the bus to leave...when it left, it pulled out onto the street, drove a few blocks forward, and parked on the street, to wait for more passengers...and by wait, i mean WAIT...buses in indonesia often don't leave until they are full, regardless of any schedule that might or might not be posted...we ended up waiting over another hour on the street, and the british boys ended up on the same bus!! anywho, around 3 hours after we finally got going, we all arrived in bukit lawang...it's a small village at the entrance of a national park...people come to this national park to go trekking, in hopes of seeing orangutans...it's one of the few places in the world where you can still see them in the wild...i decided not to afford the trek, though it did sound interesting...(and later, i got mixed reviews...a canadian i talked to wasn't very fussed about his trek, but the dutch girl and brit boys had been chased by orangutans during their trek, and therefore loved it)...i went to a feeding at the orangutan rehabilitation center, but no orangutans showed up...definitely a disappointment, though i enjoyed the two monkeys that were there...we're so close to monkeys and orangutans genetically that i find it fascinating to watch them, and see similarities in our movements, and looks...there was howeva an orangutan at the entrance to the park who was clearly domesticated, and never likely to go back into the wild...i watched him (or her?) eating from the hands of a local, again, fascinated...
from bukit lawang i made my way to parapat, on the edge of danau (lake) toba...a huge lake in the middle of sumatra...it's supposed to be the biggest lake in southeast asia...one of the largest volcanic crater lakes in the world...it's supposed to be 450m deep!...anywho, from parapat i took a ferry to an "island" in the middle, called samosir...it's not really an island, as it is connected by a small causeway, but since people get to and from there mostly by ferry, it essentially functions as an island...one village, called tuk tuk has most of the accomodation, and the ferry stops as requested at each place...i ended up in a room with a western toilet, shower, two beds, and my own porch!!...all for $5...most of the accomodation in tuk tuk has a swimming area, mine did as well...mine even had a diving board set up...the diving board was high enough above the water and bouncy enough that i could actually get some height and distance...and the water underneath was deep enough that i wasn't worried about cracking my head...(even though with my hard head that would be quite a feat)...the temperature was slightly cool, and just PERFECT for playing around...i had a great few hours each day, praticing back and front flips, just enjoying the water...the dutch girl and i hired mountain bikes one day to go to a couple other villages and see a couple sights...stone chairs, traditional batak houses, a mausoleum...they weren't exciting, but we liked the riding and scenery as well...while huffing and puffing my way up various small hills (samosir is NOT FLAT) i realized that i'm not very fit at the mo...i can walk and walk and walk, all day long, but i have no aerobic capacity...eeeek!!
from danau toba i made my way to bukittingi...this involved a 15 hour overnight bus ride...the bus was all right, and even the road was all right...except that it was NEVER a straight road...i could actually see the bus sway from side to side as it went around each corner...when you see a name like trans sumatran highway, you'd think it would be a good HIGHWAY...but it's just a 2 lane road, not much different from any other sealed road in indonesia...in SLIGHTLY better condition, i suppose...this bus did drive over the equator en route, and i saw it coming slightly ahead of time...so i stood up, and danced a little, and danced my way over the equator...the russian couple sitting next to me thought i was crazy, but then again, what's new about that? hee hee...we were at the back of the bus, so the locals didn't even see me...i am a dork, i know...
anywho, bukittingi is another hill station, with great views over the surrounding area....my first day i just wandered, and my second day i got up early to take local buses to a nearby rafflesia sanctuary...rafflesia are the world's largest flowers...(actually a parasite, but that's beside the point)...when they bloom, the flower can be 1m across, with petals an inch thick...it also emits an awful odor...i'm told it's similar to that of decaying animals...EEWWWW!!...i got off the bus and ended up walking to a house, thinking it was a ticket office of some kind...but it wasn't...the lady told me the rafflesia had bloomed a couple weeks earlier and were now dead...which means the blooms were still there, but they were all black, and not very interesting...but i still wanted to see them, so the lady got her nephew/cousin to lead the way for me...5 other kids came along as well...none of them spoke any english...but it was still a LOT of fun...they kept fighting over who got to be walking right in front of me and right behind me...lots of "hati-hati" (be careful) as i kept them all entertained by stumbling over roots, logs and my own two feet...it ended up taking over an hour to get to the dead blooms, climbing some steep hills through the jungle!!! after arrivign back at the house, the girls and i played with the coffee beans that were drying out front, spelling our names with the beans...a great day, just one of those great days...i got back to bukittingi, walked around a bit more, got rained on, and hung out at my hotel...
from bukittingi, i started to make my way to jakarta, on the next island of indonesia, java...