Sumatra

New country, new letter. I've spent the last 6 weeks in Sumatra, Indonesia. I originally intended to spend two or three weeks here but couldn't seem to tear myself away when the time came. Out of all the countries I've visited in SE Asia this has got to be my favourite. I arrived in Medan and followed all the tourists straight up to Bukit Lawang, which is a village on the edge of the jungle where they have an Orang Utan sanctuary. The cool thing was being able to see the Orang Utan but I was a little disillusioned by the tourism of it all. The animals live in the wild but get fed twice a day and you can go up to watch that. It seemed all very artificial, lots of westerners standing behind a barrier, all ready with cameras. It was nice to see them though - especially when they'd come down to the river (to check the tourists out!) and you could watch them play.

After Bukit Lawang I went up to an island off the north coast called Pulau We. It was really lovely there. I was staying on a beach that was totally undeveloped and only had a few bungalows and restaurants. There wasn't even electricity so all our evenings were lit up by candles. The coral was really good there too and it was fun to snorkel - especially as there were lots of big turtles there. I also went diving one day and that was fun. I ended up staying 10 days on Pulau We, enjoying the beach, the sea, the seafood and the company.

After Pulau We I spent a few days in Banda Aceh and then headed down the West Coast to a place I’d heard about from other travelers. Hassan's place was great. Very few bungalows so only a limited amount of tourists, most of whom stayed a while. Hassan's family was lovely and we'd eat our meals together etc. Unfortunately it rained for about 7 out of the 10 days we were there but it was a nice place, with nice people, to sit out the rain in.

It was Indonesia's Independence Day whilst we were there and Hassan took us to a place where they were commemorating it. We'd thought we'd just be spectators but were told to line up along with the rest of the people and be "inspected" by the area chief. Then we all had to salute as the flag was raised. It was all quite amusing really. 

Our next destination was Blang Pedie, still on the West Coast of Aceh. We'd been told by some other travelers about a journey inland you could take from there, through the jungle, in a four wheel drive jeep. It sounded interesting so we wanted to give it a try. The journey was great. It took 8 hours to cover 77 km - the roads were dirt roads all the way and at times the path had been washed away in storms. Sometimes we went through rivers and at others the road was so narrow I really thought one of the wheels would go over the edge (and the drop was far down!). We even turned a corner at one point to find our path blocked by three trees that had fallen down in a landslide. So, everyone had to pile out of the jeep and people took turns hacking at the trees with a very small axe or a knife. Eventually the trees were chopped and we could continue our journey. 

We arrived in Trangon absolutely exhausted but also exhilarated by our journey. The next day we went to Kedah, between Trangon and Blang Kejeren, were we stayed in bungalows in the middle of the jungle.   We decided to do a jungle trek there, in the hope of seeing some wildlife. We didn't actually see anything but did have a very strenuous, and nice, trek through dense jungle. It was all up and down continuously and due to rains the path (when there was one) was very slippery. Most of the time our guide had to cut away at branches and create our own path. By the end of the day (and for several days later) I was strongly reminded how unfit I am! 

Our next stop was Ketambe. Kudah had been an unexpected stop and we had planned to trek from Ketambe but weren't really into it when we got there. Whilst there we heard of an American guy who had been arrested for having a gram of marijuana and sentenced to 4 years in prison. The police had (allegedly) gotten onto him because the guest house he'd been staying at called them in when they got annoyed at the guy for not eating his meals at their restaurant but going next door!  I've been evicted before for not eating at my guesthouse but I thought this was a bit extreme. 

Our next stop was Berestagi. We had been out of the tourist areas for a good three weeks and felt we wanted to meet some more travelers and have a change from always rice or noodles to eat! Berestagi offered both. One day we tried to climb one of the volcanoes there but we were heavily rained on about two thirds of the way up and didn't see the point in continuing as the top was all in clouds anyway. The next day the guys tried it again but I didn't bother. They did make it to the top and weren't rained on but it was still in clouds so they didn't see much apparently.

From Berestagi I jumped on a bus to Bukittingi – my first stop south of the equator on this trip.  A few days there were nice before I made my way back to Malaysia and Singapore.  I had a couple of days to kill in Singapore and spent them with some people from Ferrero Singapore and then I flew to Darwin!