Jungle fever

A long bus ride a few days ago brought me, after three times a bus change and sitting in a bus of which I thought: no idea if it really goes the way that I want... But finally I made it to Lake Toba. We crossed by ferry and it was a superb view over a huge lake, with high mountain walls rising from it. That and nice weather gave me a real paradise-holiday feeling. I came in a quite nice hotel, with a small beach for swimming in the lake! This was the first thing I did next morning, because you have to be able to tell that you swom in one of the biggest lakes of South East Asia... As I was waiting to meet Anton and Kirsten, friends from forestry university, and Emma who I met in the plane on my way to Indonesia, I kept my cell phone on (they both had delay) but went on a bike trip up to the island of Samosir. This has had the animist religion, and until 1860 there were cannibals.

Great Lake Toba and an ancient Batak house.

After visiting some ancient villages, I tried to cycle up the mountains, but this was very hard. I climbed for two hours at first or second gear, wondering how on earth the Tour the France cyclists manage this with more than 5 kmh, and then I returned, because I was exhausted and hungry... But very nice it was, and great views over the lake!

The night before, I finally managed to buy an English written book, after weeks of not being able to read anytning, simply because there was not anything to buy in English. So that was great relaxing, but I also met a nice couple who lived next door in my hotel. Roy was constructor, building another hotel, and his wife Analisa and little boy were visiting him. Analisa was glad to be able to practice some English and we had nice contact, but they hardly had money to eat something, so I bought them a drink and a breakfast. It keeps hard, those difference between you being a rich tourist and them being extremely poor (it must be hard for them too...).

The next day I visited Anton and Kirsten and this was very nice, we talked for hours. And in the evening, I had a nice dinner and chat with Emma, which was very nice too. It were very relaxed days on Samosir, but then it was time to move on to the final and most exciting part of my trip! With Anton and Kirsten, we decided to go to the jungle together and travelled all day to Medan and on to Bukitt Lawang. This is a small village which was heavily damaged by a major flood a few years ago, which killed over 400 people! So almost everyone in this village has lost relatives, but they go on, they live from ecotourists who come for a trekking in the rain forest. We had a nice evening with our guide Dony, who had acompanied us from Medan already, and we played some music together (I had been carrying my harmonica for almost a month and finally could use it now!).

Anton and Kirsten on the ferry from Samosir

The next morning, we went trekking, the three of us, acompanied by two guides! We hiked in silence, because the goal was to see as much animals as possible. It was very hard work, because it was warm and very humid, so you kept on sweating, but great, amazing! We saw meranti, jati (teak), merbau and danbar trees, the ones we (ab)use to build windows etc. And here they were protected and huge! Illegal logging in this Gunung Leuser National Park is stopped because they involved the loggers into guiding, which works great - everyone is convicted about the inportance of the forest and the environment, so you hardly find any rubbish on the streets, and not at all in the forest (in contradiction with the rest of Indonesia...). Therefore they burn their rubbish...

We hiked with just a little gear, I had my big back pack but they told my to leave my jacket and fleece blanket, because I was carrying too much (I'm used to hiking in European circumstances...) The first day we saw one orang utan, white gibbons, "funky monkeys" (Thomas Leave Monkey) and Macaques, that was great! Then, after following a river for a while (I had to change shoes and stocking because of getting wet, which is really a handicap now and then) we came at the camp site: a great spot next to a small river, cascade which could be used for bathing and a tent made from bamboo and " agricultural" (?) thin black plastic. We had a swim and then dinner was ready: fish from the big river barbecued on camp fire, and rice, great flavoured sauces etc! Then a tea and night instruction: if you want to go peeing, wake up a guide so they know you're gone and don't leave your flash light too close while peeing, because a very poisonous and rapid Fire snake might come to the light and bite you! And don't sleep next to your mattress, because there are some scorpion-like insects who might bite... A nice thought to go sleeping. But sleeping didn't happen until 1 am, when the heavy rain stopped again, which started at sunset. Very heavy rain meant the river rising very quickly, and other rivers starting to exist, which was quite anxious, because we needed to cross the river the next morning and our tent was not build that high above the river! The tent wasn't really waterproof as well, we used my hiking poles and some mugs to improve it, but still Kirsten and Antons mattress went wet a bit. So it was a tense evening but in the end it went okay and we went to sleep.

Our shelter and our cook preparing dinner

The next day it was perfect weather again and we hade a great breakfast: our cook made toast and scramled eggs in a wok with palm oil on camp fire! Then we started hiking again, starting with crossing the river which went down as fast as it had came up. That morning after hiking in silence again, we saw some hornbills (tukans) flying! Because Dony could imitate their sound, he had directed them towards us, this was great and very special! He also showed us many healing plants, like e.g. against malaria and fever. And then we saw the second Orang utan, eating and hanging at a liane, and we had plenty of time to make photographs! It was amazing! After that, we rafted downriver on tractor tubes, a great trip through a deep, rocky and forested valley.

Find the Orang Utan!

After drying everything and washing in the river, we ate together and played music again, with a big group of people but no one really knew lyrics of songs... I said goodbye to Anton and Kirsten, because they would go home the day after. It had been very nice trekking with them.

The next day I hired a guide who would bring me to elephants! With three guides, two motorbikes (quite a big escort...) we had to drive 30km on unpaved rocky/muddy forest roads (the real Camel Trophy feeling...) to ride to Tangahan. There were the small Sumatra elephants, which were great. I could ride on them for two hours, I even was allowed to sit on it's neck, where the driver usually sits! Quite hard to keep sitting because of the movement of the elephant's shoulders, but I managed. Then we had to drive back the 30 km. We started at 16h but we had three flat tires and heavy rain. So my shoes were wet (the water came from above and from the front wheel) and we took a break at the place of a friend of one of the guides. We were all soaked so we got hot tea, which was great. In than village, the muslim prayer was sung by a kid and spread through the village by megaphones (like everywhere in Indonesia, even at 5am...). Then we could drive home, in the dark, on the unpaved, hilly and muddy roads/ruck tracks, sometimes running behind the motorcycle and pushing it. Finally we were home at 20h! It had been exhausting but great!

Elephant ride and the first repair break of a flat tire...

Today I'm relaxing, sitting bare feet in the internet cafe because of the wet shoes, and preparing for my trip back to Medan tomorrow, and my flight back to Duesseldorf, where my parents will pick me up again. It has been a great experience, a month goes so fast than! Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! When I'm home, I hope to post some movies I made - this takes too long in the internet cafes...

Bye, Jeroen