Hello from Indonesia!

We are currently touring through Sumatra, which is the 6th largest island in the world and the most northerly part of Indonesia, the world's 4th largest country. After a rather uncomfortable night spent in KL airport, we arrived in Medan, the capital of the Sumatran province at around 8am. Our aim was to head straight through Medan to our eventual destination of Bukit Lawang in one day.

It was all relatively easy, much to my surprise! Katie had given me the impression based on her last trip that Medan was the worst place she had visited and the guide book tended to agree. However we sorted the visa without much hassle and then got a becak (a small motor bike with a side car) across to the bus station we wanted to get to. This was my first experience of Indonesian-Westerner bartering which goes something like this: you ask how much; they tell you a price (which is extortionate); you offer less than half that (sometimes just a quarter); this gets debated for a minute well even more people come and offer the same service; then the price gets accepted and you still end up paying more than double what a local would! But it's all good fun and we eventually got to the bus station.

The ride through town was fine and although it isn't a pretty place it appeared nice enough and Katie liked it much more than she had on her last visit. We will be spending a night there in a few days so our opinions may yet change.

Our bus journey from Medan to Bukit Lawang took just over 5 hours to travel not very far (96km), but travelling anywhere in Indonesia takes time as the infrastructure just isn't there. Once we got to the bus station in Bukit Lawang we decided to walk into town to the guesthouse we had booked. This proved to be slight error as it was still the middle of the day and the heat made for a pretty intense walk with our bags. The guest house we are staying at is lovely, located at the top end of the village (which made for a long walk); it's relatively new and looks very pretty. We only have electricity from dusk till dawn and we have to pour a bucket of water down the loo to flush it, but it has a hammock (again very happy) a lovely balcony and the river running past in front.

Bukit Lawang is famed for two main activities and attracts loads of foreign and local tourists alike. The first is that it is located next to the huge Gunung Leuser National Park, the largest national park in South-East Asia;the second is for 'Tubing' (floating down the river rapids on large rubber rings). We came to take advantage of both! Our first main task was to find a guide to take us on a trek through the national park. This was very easy as a most of the time someone on the bus from Medan to here is a guide or has brother/sister/cousin etc who is, which is exactly what happened to us. The reason a guide is required is that the treks cut through dense jungle and finding your way yourself would be impossible. They also are the best at tracking down the jungle wildlife that most visitors come to see.

On or first full day we got up early (half 6) and met our guide all prepared for our day in the jungle. We had a group of 6 which was nice as it made for a bit of company for our walk and our guide spoke really good English. The first part of the trek was quite hard going as we trekked uphill in the heat through the jungle, but once we got to the top it levelled out for the next hour or so. We are clearly not fit, but everyone else was struggling just as much as us which made me feel a bit better about being a sweaty mess. It took about an hour and a half before we spotted our first wild orang-utan but it was great to see. We had of course seen a few in the sanctuary in Borneo but this was an adult and clearly much bigger. Some of the wild ones are not a comfortable with humans so we let the guides suss them out first before we got close. In total throughout the walk we saw 7 fully grown orang-utan and 6 babies which is more than most people see (although a couple might have been the same one twice!). We got a lot closer than at the sanctuary and even got to shake the hand of one! After some more intense trekking we found ourselves down by a stream where our guide decided we should break for lunch. As part of the trip we got lunch included and just imagined having fruit etc but our guide cracked open his rucksack and pulled out 6 brown pieces of paper and 2 plastic bags full of fried eggs and prawn crackers. Inside the brown bags was fried rice on a palm leaf with some cucumber and then we added the egg and prawn crackers and just eat it with our fingers (a kind of Indonesia fish and chips I guess). This is a traditional dish that we have had a few times in restaurants but definitely not what we expected in the jungle!

As we were having lunch we had a visit from a small monkey which the guides gave a banana so he didn't try to steal some of the other food. We then set off trekking again, much to full to do so. Our guide assured us this next climb would be worth it as his friend had seen some good things at the top the day before. He was right, once we reached the top of the climb we came across 3 black gibbons. These are even rarer to see in this part of the jungle than the orang-utans and we couldn't believe how close we got. The best part about the gibbons was watching them walk around - they could clearly smell the bananas that the guide had in his bag so were chasing him around until he gave them some. Unlike most other monkeys, the gibbons run on their hind legs, waving their arms around to keep balance, rather like a toddler learning to walk!

From the top of the hill the trek became much easier as the rest was down hill to the river that cuts through the jungle. We had arranged as part of the trek price to 'tube' back down the river to Bukit Lawang, quite popular most treks as you get a longer ride down the river than if you hire a tube in the village. This was great fun, as there were a few of us we got several of the tubes tied together like a big raft and sailed back down the river getting quite wet through the rapids!

In the evening we went out for dinner while I had a failing attempt to try to watch the football; it turns out the premier league isn't broadcast live in the jungle! However we did manage to uncover a lovely place to eat called The Rainforest Cafe run by a lady called Nora, who cooks the most amazing Indonesian dishes. We have eaten there every night since.

The following day was a much more chilled affair as we rested our tried legs by the river in Bukit Lawang. We spent the middle of the day just lying by the river side watching all the children/adults go 'tubing' down the river. As it was Sunday the town was jumping with Indonesians who come for the day. We get a lot of attention here anyway but it felt like we were celebrities because of the amount of children who say hello or just stare then get really embarrassed when you say hello to them. I also developed a good game of taking a few photo's by the river of them tubing and getting them to wave, this usually resulted in them falling out or getting stuck much to our and their amusement. Managed to get a bit of sunbathing in (not burnt this time) and just made the most of soaking up the atmosphere. There is a great buzz around this place in the day time and it's great to watch all the kids enjoying themselves tubing down the river.

In the evening we paid our regular visit to Nora and had the pleasure of eating our dinner by candle/torch light as the town had a power cut. This made for an interesting walk home but now I'm thankful I dragged my torch all the way out here.

Tomorrow we are off to Brastagi to see and possibly climb a volcano the day after. We've unfortunately got to get a bus back to Medan first and then another bus to Brastagi so could be a long day for us.

Lots of love, Martin and Katie