We spent one night in Melaka and then got the boat across to Indonesia. This is where the troublesome few days started that nearly sent us over the edge!! It probably wasn't the cleverest of ideas to travel highly populated Muslim countries during Ramadhan but still, we were desperate to see these orang-utans! The boat journey was fine but took twice as long as it should have to get to Dumai. Once we got off we had to be escorted to the ATM as we had no money to pay for the visa we needed to enter Indonesia. Apart from getting a little bit ripped off for the taxi, everything was going OK and the tourist guide at the port was very helpful; we told him we wanted to get to Medan as soon as possible and he kindly sorted a taxi to the bus company, out in the sticks. It was coming towards the end of Ramadhan, a time when most Muslims are travelling to spend Hari Raya with their families (see we did listen to Mohammed in Penang!!) Anyway, bearing in mind it's about 40 something degrees, we haven't eaten since yesterday and didn't sleep well last night because of being eaten alive by mosquitos, we weren't in the best of moods. To then spend the next 6 hours on a very hard bench while local lads made comments about us in Indonesian for everyone to fall about laughing, we thought things couldn't get any worse. How wrong we were...a very kind man accidentally put my rucksack on the wrong bus so I had to charge after it on the back of a man's motorbike with no helmet. I did ask him for one as he was putting his on but his reply was "no, it's fine, you're OK"!! Thankfully I managed to get it back and we got onto the right bus to spend the next 12 hours couped up with the locals. At the last minute the guy we bought the ticket from told us it wasn't a direct bus and that we'd have to swap at some point...we had no idea when or where! Through broken English we managed to get onto the next bus that took us to Medan, if I was really moaning I'd mention the fact that my rucksack was soaking wet too when I got it back...hmmm, all part of the adventure we kept telling ourselves!It was at this point, again, starving of food, that we decided we definitely deserved some luxuries and checked into a nice hotel in the centre of Medan. We enjoyed a buffet breakfast and spent the rest of the day catching up on missed sleep. Today was the last day of Ramadhan...or so the local Muslim leader here was telling us, over the loud speaker! Forgot to mention, another very helpful person offered to get us bus tickets for first thing tomorrow morning to Bukit Lawang (where the National Park is) so we jumped at the chance, not wanting to get stuck in Medan and knowing that a lot of transport is fully booked because of Muslim celebrations. We paid him the 80,000 Rupiah (4.70) he said it costed and made sure we got a receipt, you can never be too careful. The next morning as promised he came and collected us and saw us onto the bus. He was so smiley as we moved off, I remember saying to Jen "ah, he's such a nice man"...FORGET THAT, he ripped us off! He hadn't bought us tickets at all and we had to then pay the bus conductor 30,000 for a ticket! The journey on what's called the 'chicken bus' was indescribable...we have never been on anything so horrendous in our lives! Not only were we crammed on with too many passengers, once again being stared at/laughed at we were being driven over the biggest pot holes at 100 miles an hour...uncomfortable is not the word! Just to make matters worse, towards the end of the journey a load of kids got on the bus and started firing their new toy pellet guns at kids on the street, who in turn shot back at us on the bus. At this point (as we covered our eyes and temples) we couldn't help but laugh at just how ridiculous our last few days had been.At last, we arrived at Bukit Lawang and enjoyed a calmer 2 days. Apart from hearing that we'd actually been ripped off once again on the bus, it's only 10,000 to get there from Medan, everything from then on went surprisingly OK! We did a one day trek in the jungle which was fantastic and well worth all the agro over the last few days. On a serious note, as several times we could have both got on the first plane home but now we just look back and laugh! The orang-utans were amazing, so so cute! We only got to see the semi wild ones, it didn't quite feel right when the guides teased them a little with bananas, but made for excellent photos! The one girl on our trip got too close and the female orang-utan pulled at her hair...it was VERY funny; she wasn't hurt!! We also saw Thomas Leaf monkeys, gibbons and a tortoise, had a great time! The food they cooked us for lunch (fried rice) was very tasty and we had to eat it with our fingers, as the locals do...it's surprisingly difficult eating rice with your fingers, especially as we're so lady like normally.When it was time to head back to Medan we knew there was no way we could face the local bus again so we paid for a private taxi..this cost less than what we'd paid to get there!! Checked back into the same hotel and booked flight to Penang, Malaysia, for the next day. Surprise surprise, just as we arrived early for our flight we found out we were delayed 5 hours! Our experience of Indonesia hasn't been that great, as you can tell. We've spoken to other people who have been and had a better time than us so we're just going to put it down to bad luck and one hell of an experience to remember...