indonesia and the rainforest

There is a lot to remind and a lot to tell. The last week has been completely different and exciting. But it was also stressful and i was not used to the Indonesian schedule, because there is none. You have to wait until the driver thinks it is time. Sometimes he leaves the car for a few minutes and you have to wait. Funny.

I left new Zealand in 12° and misty rain. It was hard to leave NZ and I am gonna miss it, although it didn't fill my expectations as it did the last time. But I think that is is a normal process. Anyway, I was looking forward to see Romy in Medan and was excited about a completely different culture and a country with the 3rd highest inhabitance. I had a 7 hours stopover in Kuala Lumpur, but I couldn't see the city 70km away. I was tired anyway and had just a 40 minutes flight ahead of me. As I arrived in Medan on Sumatra, the largest island of Indonesia, it was hot and the smell of burned waste and disposal was filling up my nose right away. Medan as I saw it, was very dirty and the streets are filled up with cars, little mini-busses and most of all motorcycles. The driving seemed to be pure chaos, but  with a strange order that somehow works out. They use the horn every 4 seconds and it tells others that you take over or they have to move. There are no rules at all and pretty much the strongest survives or makes his way through. But the most annoying thing was that I am white and was hunted by looks like a naked prostitute in a Marine’s submarine. But even worse is that Romy was even more an attraction. She is sometimes treated pretty bad and the people stare at her a lot. She and other white women are more an attraction and easy to catch. It took us a while to get through the busy streets and fortunately we left the following day to the rainforest 90km away. I didn’t mind to get out of Medan, it was too much for me on my first day. Indonesia is a tough culture to get thrown in and Medan is not like Bali and it is the real Indonesia without tourists and without western influence.

We went to Bukit Lawang, an idyllic and nice little semi-touristic orientated place in North Sumatra. On the weekend mostly Indonesians are the visitors. But during the week it gets really uncrowded and only a few foreigners find the way to the Orang-Utan natural reserve. We stayed in a very nice place close to the river in a fantastic bungalow. the people are friendly (speak englisch) and it is quiet, if you don’t mind the monkeys, geckos and birds and other animals making a really loud noise level at night.

 

 

the humidity and the heat made us pretty lazy. We haven't done that much besides being on holiday and away from the busy city of Medan. The food though was delicious and we were hangin out at the lounge talking to other people and our travelmates from Medan a lot. The highlight was the monkey feeding. You have to walk just about 20 minutes into the jungle and the guides fed a Orang-Utan mommy and its child. Unfortunately there are no picture talking allowed or just for payment. the second highlight was a self guided Raftingtour. actually you can't call it Rafting, it was more sliding on an old tractor-tire. it was fun until you fall into the water or some rocks hit your bottom from below. The trip and Indonesia has flashed me and I am happy to make that kind of experience and having a guide like Romy is just the icing on the cake :)

Being in the jungle is an amazing experience and was worth it. It was cheap too and you can really feel the tropical weatherfronts changing through out the day from heat to storm in the afternoon. we left the village to prepare our stay in Kuala Lumpur and Bali later on.