Amazing Indonesia - Part 1

North Sumatra was very high on our to do list as we both really wanted to see our furry ginger cousins the Orangutans (along with Borneo is the only place in the world you can see wild Orangutans!). It was surprisingly only an hour flight to Sumatra from Kuala Lumpur. Before we knew it we where through and waiting for our beasts of backpacks. We got chatting to Laura and Si, a lovely newly married couple from London who had arranged to be picked up by a tour company in Bukit Lawang. We joined them on a 100km journey which took 5½ hours – the roads were quite special!

Outside our room...

Bukit Lawang...

We eventually got there and what an arrival it was, we where greeted by the pouring rain, a few stray dogs and cats and a rickety rusting rope bridge with gaping holes that would take us over the rapids of the river below. The place we would be staying was the Wisma Family Guesthouse. The four of us dumped the bags in our rooms and headed for a few well deserved Bintangs.  We decided on the 2 day, 1 night jungle trek with our guide Donny (who said he was a junior guide when David Attenborough filmed there?). This would mean a higher chance of catching a glimpse of our furry ginger friends that we had travelled so far to see. We were so excited!

The next morning, the start of the trek was really easy and a well-trodden path led us into the jungle. ‘This is going to be a waste of time or a really easy stroll through the jungle’. After 15 minutes though we hit the real jungle to see the first of the ‘semi wild’ Orangutans and an emotional time it was.  There were two, one female and her little baby swinging through the trees.  As Lee snapped away I could only stand with a tear in my eye and pinch myself that we were among these amazing animals that shared 96% of DNA with us!  Another 10 minutes later we met Mina an Orangutan known by the rangers as the naughty one so we had to stay quite far back as she had a habit of grabbing tourists bags and biting them.  Luckily she was too busy playing with a Thomas Leaf monkey to take any notice of us thank goodness.  The Gunung Leuser National Park is lots of really high jungle covered hills and river valleys so we started the first climb of many to get deeper and deeper into the jungle in search of some wild Orangutans.  It was not easy but the worst was getting down the hills, it was so slippery and all fears of the creatures that live in the jungle soon left us.  We had to fall onto trees to stop us from slipping, abseil using random branches, dodge the termite trails and keep looking for signs of blood on our legs because of the abundance of leeches!!  
Wild Orangutans are pretty rare to find especially on a 2 day trek but coming to the end of the day we saw 4 wild Orangutans, mainly thanks to the fruit trails they leave behind – amazing! It was the toughest trek we have ever done especially in the humidity of the jungle and Laura beat me too it having a massive strop, which we all laugh at now! 
We finally arrived (mostly on our arses) to the most beautiful campsite, welcomed into the camp by jungle juice cocktails on the riverside and we had a gorgeous swim before a feast of a meal and even a couple of beers.  Si’s guitar-lele had joined us so Donny picked it up and sang us Jungle Trek to the tune of Jingle bells! – we will post it on YouTube! Surprisingly we slept so well under the stars with only a thin sleeping bag between the jungle life and us!  
The next day we had the choice of having an even harder day trekking back over the hills to the village or a stroll in the shallow river back.  We were there to see the wild Orangutans and surely it couldn’t be worse that the previous day!!! so we opted for the trek.  Well, it wasn’t quite so similar as the guide (Donny) lost our trail and his assistant (Denny) had to create a new one using a machete.  He headed down a pretty much vertical hill, slipping and sliding down the bank to the river and we ended up having to do the rest of it by water, waist deep – one could say it was quite refreshing and quite practical to remove the leeches from our bodies.  Simon even managed to get one on his back!

We arrived back safely and completely chuffed that we did it and even saw wild Orangutans, White-Handed Gibbons and a loving pair of huge Hornbills in their nest as well as lots of other monkeys and jungle wildlife. It only took a bit of blood, sweat and tears! (Literally)

Before and after the strop :)...

We loved Bukit Lawang so much we stayed an extra night and decided to go to the feeding station.  This is what most people do when they come to Bukit Lawang.  It truly is a wonderful experience but in no way can it be compared to the seeing them wild in the deep jungle.  These Orangutans are semi wild and are reliant on the fruit and medicines the rangers provide.  The short trek up you can see the old cages where the rescued Orangutans used to live and it was so nice to see them not in use today.

These are some of our best shots of them in the wild and at the feeding station.

All in all we saw about 8 Orangutans, our friend Mina was back who was well be behaved although we did have to run a few times.   The feeding station is great as you get so up close to them and you can study there behaviors and personalities as they munch and spit out their bananas, protect their babies and scratch themselves – it was so frightening to see the similarities to humans.

During our visit we just so happened to be staying at the same place of a very inspiring lady, Dr Fracine Neago.  As she put it she is a very young 86 year old! 

She has done many unbelievable things in her life, spent 6 months in a cage with Orangutans to study behavior, set up sanctuary’s in Sumatra and Borneo and the first person to teach sign language to an Orangutan!  We had to google her to believe it – don’t you love her url www.noahandhisark.com!  Can you believe it, at 86 she was there to sett up another sanctuary in Sumatra. She is at the stage of raising funds and staffing.  Any travellers out there that have time for a bit of volunteering I suggest you get in touch francinengapp@yahoo.com.

Our next stop in Sumatra was Lake Toba 200km away/10 hours by car.  It is one of the deepest lakes in the world set in the collapsed caldera of an extinct volcano surrounded by huge mountains (Lonely Planet!). We stayed in Tuk Tuk the most developed part of the island in the middle of it.  As the sun set we got a ferry from the harbour or Parapat.  It took us about an hour and on request it leaves you off right outside your hotel.  We had done no online research so we had to pick one from the lonely planet and we got a cracker!  

Our home in Tuk Tuk...

Hariara has around 8 lake side bungalows with a private garden at 100,000Rp (£5) per night, air con and hot water.  It being low season we had the whole place to ourselves for 4 nights.  The only downfall being that there was no internet.  We had a 12km morning excursion to find an internet/games shop so we could check in on our next fight and print our boarding passes.  That’s all we pretty much did for the 4 days, walked, ate at Jennys restaurant and the one next door, swam in ‘our’ lake, played pool at Mamma Saza’s, hand washed about 6kg of clothes and read our books, bliss! The Batak people are really friendly too and no one bothered you as you walked the streets. Unfortunately we just missed Simon and Laura on the island but we are looking forward to catching up for a drink when we get home – enjoy Oz!

We had to stay the last night in the harbour town of Parapat back on the mainland as we were getting a car to the airport at 5am.  It is such a dump – if you can help it do not stay here, rooms are double the price and disgusting.  There was one café/kids toyshop that had wifi so we spent most of the evening there drinking beer to avoid going back to the room. Lee bought even more fake DVD’s for our collection!  The highlight of Parapat was receiving a text from Kendra and Gwill with news of the arrival of a beautiful baby girl, Seren.  Congratulations to you both!

We only had 10 days in Sumatra and it was wonderful. We would have loved to spend some more time here but we had flights to catch. Next stop Bali for some surfing action.

Bali

There are no flights direct from North Sumatra to Bali so we got the 2 cheapest possible via Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia.  Our cheapskate planning backfired as we got lumbered with buying another tw visas at $25 each! Damn it, more research is required on entering new countries!

We stayed on Kuta beach which is essentially Benidorm for the Aussies. It was funny to hear the street vendors shouting ‘g’day mate’.  We stayed just off one of the backpacker streets Poppies Lane 1, in a hotel called New Arena Hotel. It had a gorgeous swimming pool, basic rooms but cheap enough and only 5 minutes to the beach. 

We found a great restaurant called Bamboo Inn with a great menu and really cheap – highly recommended.  Poppies lane 1 and 2 are quite nice too with bars, restaurants and you can buy pretty much anything you want.

There isn’t much to do there other than eat, drink and surf.  So that is exactly what we did.  We also visited a Carrefour for a toiletries restock and a freshly baked baguette with ham and cheese – heaven. It would have been rude not to hit a MacDonald’s which we haven’t seen in a while!  We also had a lot of planning to do as we are booked for the Gili islands at Xmas and there was so much we wanted to fit in until then.

Surfing was fab, I ended up getting a body-board as I knew I would just get frustrated not being able to stay up!  I could remember the lesson we all had for Bennet’s Hen in Newquay so I was surfing those waves.  Lee had a surfboard and I was pretty impressed that he managed to get up pretty easily and stay up sometimes!  A great morning which abruptly ended when Lee came up to me with a snapped board.  This was going to cost big!!! our hearts sank. There must have been something wrong with it in the first place so I got a bit ratty and was sent away.  Lee as always, calmly negotiated a fair price for the damage which fortunately happened to be all the wet money he had in his back pocket (around 20 quid). This was our budget for the day gone so we spent the rest of the day by the pool planning.

There is too much to write in one go for our Indonesian adventures, this is Part 1 of Indonesia, Part 2 will follow soon.

To be continued…

Malaysia truly Asia...

China town KL...

It was time for our first AirAsia experience! To our surprise everything ran really smoothly and the plane was nice too. We got to KL in no time at all and found our way to Chinatown. After fighting our way through the crowds on Jalan Petalling Street we found our Hotel. ‘The Oasis Guesthouse’ think of a luxury hotel with beautiful plants and water features. Well it was nothing like that at all. More like a wet cardboard box just big enough for a double bed with a shared bathroom 100m away. Susi was not happy particularly being right next-door to reception. You could hear everything including the night market activities and the 'Malaysia Truly Asia' advert blaring out repetitively every 2 minutes

We decided to give it a go and rough it for once and headed out for a wander around and with some sunlight remaining we found yet another Reggae bar just round the corner and soon found out how much pricier Malaysia was going to be. “£2 for a half pint, you must be joking”. In Malaysia most prices are given as the price++ meaning you have to add on government tax. So a drink might be advertised as 10 ringgit++ but really its closer to 13. It caught us out a few times before we learned to ask for net price!

Techie heaven, Low Yat Plaza...

The next few days where spent exploring what KL had to offer. We found Low Yat Plaza, it is KL’s biggest electronic goods mall. Both in gadget heaven we spent a couple wandering around. I came out with an iPad Mini (to replace the iPhone and Kindle that was stolen a few days earlier) and Susi thinking she was being left out bought herself the new iPod Nano!!! To celebrate we had a couple of drinks and headed up to Little India for a curry. We found a place down a backstreet and it was full of locals and what a fine choice it was, not only was it delicious but it only cost us 22 Ringgit (about £4.10), at least the food was going to cheap in Malaysia.

Sunset over the mosque in KL...

The cool architecture of KL...

Our next day was an action packed tour of KL highlights including a hop on hop off bus ride all around the city. It was an open topped bus with English speaking tour guide and it was a really good way to see the city if you’re on a tight schedule (recommended to us by Susi’s Mum and Dad). The bus takes you all around the city past some amazing architecture, loads of shopping malls, parks, the palace, temples, the national Mosque, museums and of course the impressive Petronas Towers. 

What the hell is that!!!

KL Bird Park...

We even went past the Medical Centre where Susi would be having a check-up. After a couple of hours we decided to finish the day by heading back over to the Park to go and see the Bird Sanctuary. Apparently it is the largest covered free flight bird sanctuary in the world with over 3000 varieties of bird species. It is definitely worth a visit. We thought it would take us an hour to walk around but instead we spent about three hours there in total just before it closed. It is an impressive space and really nice to see the birds walking and flying around you instead of in cages, for obvious reasons the birds of prey are kept in separate enclosures but it is still really cool.

Susi getting festive in Times Square KL...

We had another couple of days in KL exploring the impressive sights and shops including one afternoon in Times Square Shopping Mall which had a 12 screen cinema and a theme park inside! As the weather was pretty rubbish we decided to hit the Cinema and go and watch Hunger Games 2, which was really good. It was strange sitting watching it in English in another country when all the locals where laughing at random bits of the film???

Our next stop in Malaysia was the Island of Penang. 

Bev and the Beards...

This sleepy little place has some amazing street art and fantastic food. We stayed in a place just off Love Lane called Star Lodge, which was really nice and came complete with a bathroom! (It is quite common in touristy areas to have a shared bathroom). Just down the road we found a really cool little place that was essentially an off-license. On an evening the owners set up tables and chairs outside. It was here that we randomly bumped into one of our tubing buddies from Laos Bev and some new bearded friends. (Enjoy Sumatra Bev!) 

The weather was really nice the first couple of days so we took advantage of this and hopped on the local bus visited the national park on the western coastline. It was a good little trek climbing up and down banks and avoiding the monkeys and ants and had a bit of beach time too.

Trek through Penang national park...

We also walked around the city taking in some of the sights and looking at all the street art. One of the highlights of Penang though was the food, we found a little man selling bhaji’s and samosa’s that where a great starter. We found an Indian restaurant that’s open 24 hours a day that did the best chicken tandoori. On an evening the streets are lined with food stalls serving local delicacies.

Some of the fantastic street art of Penang.

Best food so far...

Nightlife in KL - Changkat Bukit Bintang

KL stop no.2, with a night spare we headed back to KL but this time avoiding the Oasis we opted for a room near Jalan Bukit Bintang. It was a place called Checkmate Guesthouse that had little rooms but they where clean and had a bathroom. We should have stayed in this area before as it is so convenient to get anywhere in KL. After Susi's routine checkup at a very posh medical centre we where ready to head to Melaka. We where pleased to learn that Melaka is another sleepy little town with a really nice little riverside feel. What we didn’t realise is that on a weekend Melaka becomes tourist destination no.1 for anyone with a bit of money in Malaysia and Singapore. Every guesthouse, hostel and hotel was full. We wandered around, lonely planet in hand trying every option they had. Luckily we found somewhere in little India that only had two rooms left.

Dodgy advertising...

Jonkers walk is in the middle of Chinatown in Melaka and is a big street market with some really cool stuff but also a lot of crap. It does however have a really good atmosphere and some really lovely street food. We found a place right at the end that had Karaoke for the Chinese over 70’s. We took our seats, had some really nice food and some cracking entertainment. Everyone was singing and clapping along so it must have been good. The stage had some really dodgy advertising though!

You really can't go anywhere...

The best way to see Melaka is to cycle it so for our last day we took a couple of bicycles and headed out to explore and to buy some bus tickets. Our bus station was located 5km away along a busy road and was located next to a huge Tesco’s (bigger than the one in Bangkok) so we bought our bus ticket and went over for a bite to eat and a photo opportunity. We had a good old ride around and along the nice riverside. We stopped off at a nice tandoori house and cycled as far as you could go up the river.

In a nutshell we had less than two weeks in Malaysia but think we got to see some really cool parts. Malaysia seems pretty laid back especially after Vietnam and it has some great things to see and do – the people are super lovely too! With a bit more time we would have liked to stop off in the Cameron Highlands and try to get to a few more islands in. Next time!

Now though its time for some jungle trekking with our ginger furry friends in North Sumatra, Indonesia…

The final days of Vietnam...

Awaiting the worst storm to hit Hoi An in 30 years we sat on the balcony of our hotel with some of the other hotel guests. With rations of baguettes, cheese and crisps and a few beverages waiting for the storm to hit. With only a drizzle of rain we eventually got tired and went to bed. We were very lucky in that the typhoon changed direction and headed north instead so a good nights sleep was had by all. Much to the relief to all having seen what happened in the Philippines. It did mean we had to spend an extra night as all the buses where cancelled that day. We did eventually get away from Hoi An though before Susi bought half the shops!

Our next stop was Hue where our plan was to visit Phong Na National Park. In particular the huge cave network they have there. We arrived in Hue and got off the bus to be accosted by hotel touts yet again thrusting leaflets in our faces. Being tired and hungry we took our chances and did look at one of them, Hoa Binh 3 Hotel (Smile Travel) which was great.  We did a bit of walking around that afternoon and tried to find out about the caves from some of the travel agents. None of which told us that the cave was actually closed the day we wanted to go! Good job Susi was on the ball. Hue did have some interesting points like the really cool market near the citadel where we bought a few more bargains. The citadel itself was nice and surrounded by moats and gardens however it was in need of some renovations. Our best purchases in Hue had to be a KitKat Chunky and a Chinese Chess travel set. Chinese Chess has similarities to normal chess but identifying which piece is which is described by a Chinese symbols - it is not easy!  A new challenge for us both and hopefully we will be playing with the locals in no time!

Susi was full of the Vietnamese cold and sot our evenings were spent eating Indian food and sitting in our room mastering Chinese Chess.  Our learning strategies were slightly different Susi associating the symbols to random objects and Lee trying to memorise the symbols.  Only to find out the symbols were slightly differently for each player! After a good few hours of practicing the competition is under way but far away from the street corners with the pro’s.

All raring after a couple of relaxing days we started on our trip up to the caves. Having missed out on the caves in Laos, Lee was getting quite excited about getting to see them and the reviews were awesome. 

We got a little boat ride up to the cave where the boat goes through the mouth of the cave into darkness. This was really cool. The boat docked up just inside and we got off for a wander around the cave system. Unfortunately the typhoon meant the caves where still flooded (although we were told this was not the case anymore when we booked!). We where supposed to go 2km into the cave but we where only in there for 15 minutes as the rest was apparently too dangerous! We where both very disappointed, Susi raging  about being miss-sold this tour. If they had only just told us that before we set off it would have been acceptable and we would have negotiated a better price for what we got. Anyway.

Instead of the return to Hue they dumped us off in Dong Hoi for a 6 hour wait on our sleeper bus to Hanoi.  As it turned out though this was quite a nice place to walk around with a nice riverside and harbor. We had a bite to eat in a place where not one person spoke a word of English. (Point at the menu time!) With just a few hours left we headed to our pickup point the camel café. We met the owner who in broken English told us he was deported from the UK not long before. If that wasn’t interesting enough, he got his deportation papers out for us to read! He used to live in Hackney, London. Arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry, got caught cultivating a cannabis farm in London and spent a period of time at her majesty’s pleasure whilst waiting to be deported. He found this very amusing. Even better he thinks the UK is a fantastic place and wants to go back!!! Saying goodbye to our new little friend we got on our bus and headed to Hanoi on another 14-hour bus journey really looking forward to our final activities in Vietnam, Ha Long Bay and Sa Pa.

We normally don’t book online but on recommendation on arriving to Hanoi we booked the Golden Spring Hotel in the Old Quarter in Hanoi.  Booking on line meant we got a 3 star hotel for $12 a night with a free ‘all you can eat’ breakfast instead of $25.  Susi was surprised to find a hair dryer for the first time in 3 months, free water and ‘Andrex’ quality toilet roll! We quite like the buzz of Hanoi even after only a couple of hours wandering around the city. We found the lake in the old quarter, some more market stalls and shops and the travel agency recommended by a couple of English girls we met a few times. DAO’s Travel agency is ran by a young American guy and his Vietnamese wife who were very helpful. They explained everything and talked us through our options with the time we had left. Very pleased with ourselves we negotiated a fair price and meant we would be able to do both activities.

Our Ha Long Bay tour was a 3 day, 2 night trip. We would have 1 night stay in a boat and 1 night stay on Monkey Island (Contrary to what a lot of travel agents said it was open!) We got picked up early in the morning leaving our big rucksacks in the travel agency and got a 3 hour bus ride to the port to get on our boat. We got on the bus with 9 other people and it didn’t take long for us all to get chatting. It was like the slow boat in Laos all over again!

The boat was a lot nicer that we were expecting and as the only couple we were given the suite with a balcony, however this turned into a nightmare!  The first day was discovering more caves, visiting a floating village and kayaking around the some of the 6933? Islands and jumping of the boat for a swim before dinner.  Booze was expensive on the boat but as the sun set, rowing boats with cheap booze appeared knocking at our boat “you want to buy something?” and  were delivered by the use of a fishing net.  Before breakfast we were jumping off the boat again for that morning dip in the brilliance of Halong Bay.  Our first ‘horrid’ travelling experience came to reality and after breakfast as we were packing we realized that Lee’s phone and kindle had been stolen. ‘Bast**ds’  It had to be those balcony doors that the staff had gone through as they wouldn’t lock properly.  It had to be said that we were both very p*ssed off but we put it behind us as it could have been worse and we had a fantastic day ahead. (I think they must of thought the kindle was a mini ipad, unlucky!).

Monkey Island Resort...

Next stop, a bus through Cat Ba national park to Monkey island. A small, quiet resort with beach bungalows, a few vicious monkeys and free kayaking.

We decided with a few others to go kayaking for the day which was amazing and it got quite exciting as the waves started to get bigger and bigger. We found some cool caves to paddle though too.

Evening was spent with the group having beers, exchanging tips, sampling the local vodka, playing killer and ending in a midnight swim - as you do. (Enjoy the rest of your travels all...)

Next day was spent travelling by boat back to the port for our bus back to the city.  It was a fantastic 3 day trip with unbelievable scenery, some new friends and at long last we got exactly what we paid for.  Pity about the phone and kindle though.  Lee is now planning his next ‘entertainment system’ purchase in Kuala Kumpur. I am jealous!

If you look closely you can just about see the scenery...

Straight off the bus in Hanoi, we grabbed a couple of kebabs and we were on our next sleeper bus.  This time to the mountains of Sa Pa for a bit of trekking in the rice paddies. Again a 12 hour bus journey turned into 16 hours though we slept well and Susi experienced the first of many communal female toilet facilities that are in the Sa Pa region!  Arriving in our shorts and vests we quickly wrapped up warm as it was cold and wet.  First time since Killi we had put our fleeces and boots on.  We met our new group and it was straight out onto our trek.  Sa Pa town itself is very Swiss ski resort-ish with lots of cafes selling hot wine, outside seating with fluffy blankets to put round you and fake north face shops (guilty Susi bought a new waterproof jacket – well I hope it is!)  
The trek was through the rice paddies, passing little villages showing us how they us marijuana to make bags, dying clothes with the growing indigo plant and of course being approached by the local tribes “you buy something?”  The terrain was so muddy and slippery due to the amount of rain, but the local tribe where there to help you for a small fee at the end of course!

Look at the amazing view!!!

Part of the package was with a homestay which turned out to be a barn in one of the local villages were everyone had a mattress on the floor to sleep on.  Sitting around a big table, we had some local cuisine, sampled some rice wine and played a few games.  We had Malaysians, Kiwis, Ozzies, Germans and Spanish with us – great fun was had by all!

After a mammoth pancake breakfast off we headed for another slippery day – pretty stiff from the day before.  The weather was pretty rubbish and we didn’t have full visibility of the iconic rice fields you see in the books but you still see and feel the beauty of the landscape.  Back to Sa Pa town we had a quick dinner and it was time to head back to the Hanoi on the sleeper bus for the last couple of days in Vietnam.

Good fun was had by all, good luck guys...

We checked into Lucky Guest house 2 in the Old Quarter for the last 2 nights which we would recommend, it free breakfasts too! Do not book your trips through them – like all hotels they rip you off!  We spent the last couple of days, walking through the markets, enjoying the last of cheap beer for a while and enjoying the street food of Vietnam which along with the Vietnamese coffee we will both thoroughly miss. 

Vietnam has been an amazing adventure of crazy scooters, the most amazing scenery we have seen so far, fantastic food and the cheapest beer in the world?. We have had our run-ins with the rudeness of some of the locals but not enough to put us off this brilliant country. Early morning taxi to the airport and Malaysia awaits us!! First stop KL.  Happy days!