Our flight from Bali to Yogyakarta was with a different airline - Mandala Air. We arrived at the airport in good time to check in and confirm it was on schedule: we settled in to await departure.However, strangely our flight was the only one that didn't have a check in gate number and one by one other flights leap-frogged ours and left for new horizons and still no sign of our plane! This looked ominous, but just as we were beginning to think there might be a rea...

Our plane landed in Jakarta on time - unfortunately because it meant we had a wait of at least 5 hours before our onward flight (provided it was on time). It was even more unfortunate because E was beginning to feel unwell (upset tummy). Jakarta airport is better than many we've passed through but the domestic terminal waiting area is essentially outdoors where locals and travellers, like us, were thronging about waiting to check in for flights later in the day. ...

After another overnight stop in Medan we had yet another long taxi ride to the bus rerminal (this one 6.5 kms out of town) from where we took the public bus on the four hour, and sometimes hair raising, journey to Parapat on the shore of Danau (Lake) Toba. Yet again our bus was a rattley old tub which was 80% polyfilla and the remainder held together with string and sellotape!! But it did only cost us 36,000 Rupiah (less than £2) - for the two of us. We were...

The only way to get to Bukit Lawang - about 96kms from Medan - is by road.Now that doesn't sound so far, does it?But the guide books all warn that the road is in very poor condition.Lonely Planet said, 'What should be a quick trip into the country is a four-hour rover mission on the surface of the moon.The road has crater-sized potholes and buses have to yield to heavy vehicles overloaded with palm oil bundles from the local plantations'.It didn't exaggerate one ...

The previous day in Melaka we'd asked a taxi driver how much it would be for the 2 hour drive to KL airport. Pleasantly pleased at 130 ringit (about £20) we instantly agreed as it was much cheaper than the hotel's courtesy coach (350 ringit) and more convenient than the complex and long route to central KL then on to the airport by taxi/bus/taxi/bus.Thank goodness the taxi was on time and we were off, arrived at the airport 2 hours later, and were checked in...