So here we go Indonesia. I've been looking forward to travelling Indonesia for about 2 years after a good friend said it was the best in the world. I think he maybe right.

I took the boat from Melaka to a little port town called Dumai, Sumatra everyone including the people who live there said it wasn't a place to stop. They were right. If your wandering where Sumatra is as many do, it's the island that was hit by the Tsunami, then an earthquake 2008 and this year a volcano.So as you can imagine tourism has died a little.

Having lost my lonely planet to the incident in Bangkok I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go. So I just ask the customs guy who seemed happy to help as his job seemed to be standing around smoking. He said go to Bukkit Tinggie and I have to say I had no idea what was at Bukkit Tinggie.The minibus ride was probably the worst journey I've ever had, it was 12 hours and although that is bad, it's nothing to how bad the roads were. But the worst part was that the drivers pulled over every hour for 15 mins to have a break.I could have done it in 7, I tell you.

Eventually we got there it was 4am, I had no hotel booked and didn't even know where on the island I was. Great planning hey!!! But finally after waking half the town up, I found a place run by some crazy German guy, who looked like he had been living abroad a bit too long. It worked out at £4.50 a night. Squat toilet; no shower just a bucket and the smell of a sewer. I was in a paradise ha-ha.

So when I woke the next morning I went to find out what I could do, I could have kissed the customs guy, this place was amazing. There was so much here, Trekking volcano, walking down a canyon, some gorgeous lakes and an old railway that runs once a week.

I knew I would be staying here a while. Firstly I decided to take a motor tour down to the lake. Wow what a place, I think most of the best postcard picture in the world are from Lake Manijau. Have a look at the photos u will see what I mean.I decided that would I would spend Xmas and New Year here for two reasons, firstly everywhere in bukkit was booked up and the place was so peaceful, it's been a long trip and I need a good rest before Australia. On that note I've booked my flight and got my working visa for Oz so it's going to be a gorgeous year in the sun. I've been looking into after 6 months in Oz, doing a trip to the Middle East for 5 weeks and doing Iran, Syria and Jordan. Of course it depends on how much I save in Oz but I'll try and make it happen.

The motorbike guy who gave me the tour, took me to a coffee plantation. It's where they grow and make the Luwak coffee the most expensive in the world. Its $4-600 a kilo in the west, (news to me too) it's obviously cheaper here but they still wanted £50 a bag. On my budget I wasn't buying lol. I'd never seen how coffee grows before and it was the same for a lot of stuff. I saw coca pods, lemon grass, nutmeg and cinnamon. You have all these products that you buy back home but no idea how they grow or what the trees look like.

That afternoon we went through little villages and the people were so friendly, the only place that comes close was Jamaica, where getting anywhere is hard as everyone wants to stop and talk to you. Tourism up to 2004 was booming here and it's such a shame that they have stopped coming. Indonesia is now I think by far the cheapest country in South East Asia and has the most to offer without all the hassle of the locals trying to sell you stuff all the time. If I had taken all the homestay offers I've have I could have free accommodation for a year.

The next day I met one 2 ozzie, 1 NZ guy and an American. We decide to do this canyon walk down the river and catch the views. It was mid-afternoon so I took a torch. When it gets dark here, you can't see anything. We were given direction and in theory we shouldn't have got lost but as we dropped into the canyon we did. You couldn't get back up the way we got down as it was too steep and we couldn't find a way out. Luckily the river wasn't that deep an d we ended up wading and walking about 5km down river. There was a bit of doggie paddling involved and by the time we got back it was about dark. It was quite an adventure, but the American impressed me the most as he did the whole trek in flip-flops.

The mosquitoes are something else here, when they bite they leave a big bite, worst I've ever seen, so the mozzie net is out and I'm armed with 2 bottles of cream.

So here I am now in Lake Manijaiu. I've just been sun-bathe, drinking, reading, making plans for oz and generally not doing a lot. I go to Lake Toba on the 2nd Jan, it's a mere 18 hour bus ride L. From there I'm going to climb a volcano and see Oran tangs I hope. Then it's a visa run to Malaysia and then down to Bali before heading to Oz. The focus at the moment is finding work in Australia and saving money for more travels, I'm looking forward to it as I'm going to take up surfing. It's cheap and will take up a lot of my free time, plus I'll get fit for the ladies ha-ha.

I'm missing everyone back home, but the adventure is just getting start so no plans to come home just yet. I've heard the snow is really bad in England, I'm wearing sunglasses whilst typing this so I'm ruffing it too ha-ha

I may add some more to this blog, so check back.