So we set off on our journey in search of the Orang-utans on Indonesia. We had stayed in a place called Kota Bhuru for 1 night after the Perhentian islands in the worst guesthouse yet called the Travellers Inn or the Travellers grim as we learnt to call it! It was just like a prison cell with brown damp stains all over the walls and a gated window at the side. The bathroom was a shared one with a hole in the floor with a sink outside next to a bowl of small turtles?! Anyway we survived the night wrapped up in our own silk sleeping bags and the next day we had a bus booked to Penang much to Ady's disappointment as he wanted to go the easy way by plane!

8 hours later we arrived at the ferry port were we had to catch the ferry to Penang. This only took 10 minutes so wasn't too bad. We then got a taxi to a hotel called the Mingood hotel which was a bit more expensive than others but it was worth it for a hot shower and clean bed!

We decided to just stay the night in Penang so we didn't get chance to see much of Penang, much to Ady's approval this time as I'm always dragging him around sightseeing!

We booked a flight to Medan in Indonesia for the next day which only took an hour but when we got to the airport we had a nightmare. Ourselves and some other travellers all thought that Indonesia gives you a free 30 day visa. This is not the case however as we found out when we arrived at immigration with no visa! We got told we could buy a visa for 7 or 30 days, however they wanted 25 USD for the 30 day visa or 10 USD for the 7 day visa. We decided we would get a 7 day visa as we weren't planning on staying too long in Indonesia anyway. We then carried on through to immigration again were they then said where is your proof of onward travel? When we explained we didn't have onward travel booked yet as we didn't know before we came how long we would be there for. They then marched us back to the visa people and said we couldn't enter the country without a valid proof of travel. By this point we were getting very annoyed, we had travelled through 5 countries without any hassle or proof of onward travel! We asked what our options were and basically it was go back to Malaysia, book a flight out of the country at the airport as proof of onward travel or pay the visa guys off with a bribe! We opted for the flight option! Having finally got through immigration some 2 hours later we ended up in a taxi outside Angel Hotel. It didn't look to bad from the outside but believe me it was a blue prison on the inside! It was also the noisiest hotel I've ever stayed in! We didn't sleep at all due to the owners being very loud all night then their child screaming and shouting from 5am! The city is called Medan and it was a hellhole! It's polluted, noisy and has people that just want to rip you off! The next day we got a bus and headed to Bukit Lawang which took around 4-5 hours. The roads are not the best here and the bus was a very old public bus which had open windows, we were filthy by the time we got there! We also met a guy on the bus called Erwin who coincidently turned out to be a trek guide. He showed us his book with the Orang-utan pictures and lots of letters from other travellers who had been on his treks.

When we got to Bukit Lawang we had to walk about a mile with our rucksacks which was tiring in the heat! But he helped us find a hotel to stay in so we decided to go ahead and book the trek with Erwin as he did seem genuine and had lived there all his life!

The hotel was called Sam's bungalows and our room was gorgeous. We had a big bed with canopy, balcony, bathroom with a big stone you stand on for the shower and another little room for our bags which had chairs in it. That evening we met a few of the locals in the restaurant/bar area and some of them told us about the flood that had happened there 4 years ago when the river dam gave away killing approximately 300 locals. This was devastating for them as not many people live here anyway and generations of families were wiped out. One lady from America who is married to a local guy (called Pete Tong!) said she was just sat like we were in the bar when the river just started making a weird sound then started coming into the bar but as it was dark she couldn't see what was happening down the river, next minute the bar collapsed around them and she had to cling on to a nearby tree but the river kept rising until it was round her mouth. She said the current was just too strong but she just held on for 15 minutes, when she thought "I can't hold on any longer" the water suddenly started to go down. She was found by some local men 10 minutes later who took her to a safe place, but at that point she didn't know where her husband or friends were. Later she was reunited with her husband but sadly lost many friends including some backpackers who were also in the bar that night with them playing cards. Bukit Lawang has started getting back to normal 4 years on with the help of government funding to rebuild businesses and homes and tourists are given a very friendly welcome as tourism was nonexistent after the flood and is still not back to the numbers that they once seen there.

On the second day we went on our own little trek to the bat cave! It took us 30 minutes to get there and it was so hot I was knackered after just 30 minutes; I could only imagine what 7 hours was going to be like!

Later on we waited for the electricity to come on as it only runs from 6 till 12 at night, but it didn't come on. The people at our hotel said that sometimes they have to send guys off to the nearest town to get gas, so we decided to have a game of scrabble with one of the ladies from our guest house. The game was going well and we had a few locals watching the game too. Half way through the game it was my go and I was stuck. After 10 minutes everyone said let's see your letters then and try and help you, so I turned my pieces around and said "I've just got too many blanks" having 4 blanks out of my 7 letters. Then Ady said "well there's only 2 blanks in the whole game have you tried looking on the other side of the blank?" So I looked on the other side and yes - on all the blanks there was letters on the other side! Then to make matters worse for me when they looked on the scrabble board I had already used two blanks but when they turned them over there were actually letters! Well everyone in the bar was laughing at me I felt such an idiot-I had cheated already without even knowing it ha! The lady we were playing with couldn't stop laughing about it all night!

The next day we were up early to start the trek. Erwin met us at our apartment then we trekked down the river to start the trek. The first part of the trek wasn't too hard; Erwin was showing us different trees, plants and also herbs that they use for cooking different dishes. About an hour into the trek After Erwin did some Orang-utan calls we finally started to track down our first sighting of an Orang-utan. It was a female Orang-utan and was just chilling out in one of the trees. After taking some pictures and being joined by other people on treks we decided to go and see what we could find away from the other tours.

We soon came across another Orang-utan with her baby in the trees which was really cute but they were very high up. Then we came across Mena who is an orang-utan who has quite a reputation and has been named by the locals in Bukit Lawang. She has lived here many years and has apparently bitten up to 80 people including our guide! He said he had a Chinese couple on a tour and they started taking pictures of Mena. He told them to take 1 or 2 then keep moving as she can be unpredictable but typically they wouldn't leave and kept taking pictures until Mena ran over to the girl and picked her up! The guide had to rugby tackle the Orang-utan and get the girl free, and ended up with a nasty bite to his ankle! She got stabbed many years ago and now really hates humans! When we came across Mena we were joined by about 8 other people also on treks and I don't think she liked it as she started to come at us through the trees getting closer and closer until all the guides started panicking and shouting for us to walk very quickly but not to run in the opposite direction to Mena! She followed us for a good 15 minutes but luckily we managed to keep a safe distance!

We then stopped for lunch which consisted of rice wrapped in banana leaf and lots of fruit the guide had brought along like passion fruit and local fruit. We had to eat the rice with our hands which wasn't the best as we all had fairly mucky hands by this point but the rice was so good! Erwin said his mum had made it that morning for us!

Then we carried on with the trek which just got harder and harder! Ady's feet were still killing him as this was the first time he had been in trainers since his feet had been hurt and I was basically just sweating and getting tired with these little legs of mine! We were thinking of giving up at one point as Ady was in pain with his feet and he now had his heels rubbing too from the trainers but we decided to keep on going as the next day we knew there wouldn't be any trekking. We saw another couple of Orang-utans including a huge male who we managed to get up close too but the rest of the way which took another 3-4 hours we didn't really see any more monkeys or Orang-utans which was disappointing but meant we could concentrate on the trekking!

Some of the areas were very steep and very slippy as there had been a lot of rain the previous few nights; we even had to use trees and branches to haul ourselves up! We finally got to a river which was near to our camp. We had to wade through the side of the river in our bare feet which hurt! Then we had to get in a big tyre and be pushed across the river to where our camp was!

Our sleeping area consisted of two open tents with tarpaulin over the top but all the sides were open which meant it was cold at night and we had the giant ants in and out! We had a mat to sleep on like a yoga mat but it was so hard and uncomfortable we just couldn't get to sleep even though we were so tired! Before we went to sleep we had tea made for us on the fire which was spicy tofu curry (for the veggies) and rice with chicken in a sauce which was really nice for the non veggies!

It poured down all night long, and after a restless night sleep we all were up and about by 7:00am. We went to a waterfall to wash and brush our teeth then we washed our soaking wet clothes which had got wet overnight in the rain and put them out to dry. When I got my shorts off one of the poles inside the tent I couldn't believe it, there was a nest of ants that had decided overnight that my shorts seemed like a nice place to live! They were full of ants, I dropped them to the floor and hundreds of ants scurried away taking their food and eggs with them! I picked up the shorts with two fingers and took them to the river where I scrubbed them with the guides soap although the thought of all the ants still put me off wearing the shorts for a long time! I seem to have a bit of ant problem since we started travelling. Everyplace we stay we seem to get ants in the shower or the room or in my bag and even on bus journeys they appear nearby! They have especially taken a liking to my first aid bag which we discovered was due to the throat sweets we had inside which we had to throw away! I am now officially the ant lady!

We had our breakfast which was a great egg and tomato sandwich and our guide made us a food platter with leaves and flowers on the plate which looked great and the other trekkers were quite jealous!

To get back to the village the guides had tied 5 massive tyres together in a straight line and in our pairs we had to sit in them while a guide at the front and back steered! All our belongings were in plastic bags also tired to the tyres, which was a bit dangerous (for our belongings!) then we set off down the river. It was just like white water rafting without the raft! There were so many rocks and really fast parts and one of the guides who were steering even got thrown off the raft! By the time we got to the village we were all soaking wet!

We had to stay in a really cheap place when we got back as it was the weekend and really busy in the village. The room was awful compared to the other place, and that night we had Britney Spears songs till 1 in the morning blaring out of a local bar as it was Saturday night and some sort of creature's maybe rats scurrying across our room roof and scratching the wood, so again we got little sleep that night!

The next day we packed our things and left Bukit Lawang and the amazing Orang-utans behind. We decided to try out the minivan instead of the big local bus as it is supposed to be quicker but the minivan was so old and they managed to somehow pack around 20 people in and on the roof of the bus! They wanted to put another person in the front next to me and Ady but it would have been impossible unless Ady sat on the driver's knee! We got back to the hell hole of Medan 4 hours later and found a better hotel although the mosque still woke us up at 4 in the morning! The next day we caught a flight over to Kuala Lumpur back in Malaysia.