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Published: November 10th 2006
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Lake Toba
The view from my balcony window in the morning. I go to pick up my visa for Indonesia at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, I hand in my visa slip and the women at the counter says 'ticket?'. I say 'no I don't have ticket yet cause I don't know when I'm going'. 'ticket' she says. 'In and out of Indonesia'. I tell her that 'I can probably get a ticket to Indonesia but I am crossing by land out of Indonesia so I can't have a ticket for that'. 'You must have ticket in and out' she repeats 'Buy return ticket but don't use'. 'Thats stupid' I say and she just stars at me, ''whats the point of that?'. 'Ticket' she says again. 'So you want me to waste my time and money for something that I'm not going to use and is no real use to you either'. 'Ticket!' she orders and walks away.
I realise that this is the most pointless requirement that has ever existed but also realise that there is no way I can get around it and if I want the visa then I will have to get the damn ticket. So I do, show it to her and at last I have
Orangutan!!!
This one is called one eye Willy cause he lost one of his eyes in a fight. Silly Willy. my 60 day visa. Woo woo!!
Off I go to Melaka the next day to the port and board a boat bound for Indonesia. Thankfully this one did not break down in the middle of the ocean so I made it in one go. Arrived and waited 7 hours for a night bus to Medan. 11 hours later I arrive in Medan at 6am. My goal is the jungle town of Bukit Luwang and it takes me 5 minutes to pronounce the name accurately so someone can understand where I want to go and direct me to the correct bus. So I board believing to the best of my knowledge that it is bound for Buket Lawang and to arrive in about 3 hours.
A few hours go by and I'm falling in and out of my sleep and I am ushered off the bus. I get off and look around. It doesn't look much like a jungle I thought. The bus drives off and I ask some people there 'Bukit Lawang?'. They star at me, I show them a map and repeat myself again. They shake their head and point to where I am on the map,
Lake Toba
A Batuk Grave somewhere much further north than I expected, in the region of Ache where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office say:
"We advise against all but essential travel to Aceh, which is emerging from a long-running internal conflict"
Interesting I thought. Better get out of here then. I used the little indonesian I knew to ask when the next bus was to Bukit Lawang and it was in 4 hours time so decided not to wait and got the next mini van back to Medan squashed in the back with my giant backpack on my lap next to a little fella who smelt so bad he must have done a poo poo in his pants. Board another bus that I made sure was going to Bukit Lawang.
So 32 hours from when I started my journey I end up at my destination Bukit Lawang!!! The Jungle!!! Saw some orangutans over breakfast swinging in the trees, that sounds like I was eating breakfast while I was swinging in the trees, I was sitting down the orangutan was in the tree.
Moved on to Branstagi a few days later and climbed a volcano, then moved down to Lake Tobo which
Lake Toba
Traditional Batuk house. I am about to move into one, just not this nice. also used to be a volcano but erupted a long time ago and clapsed in on itself to form a giant lake 450 metres deep and an island as big as Singapore. I am now staying in the town of Tuk Tuk and have only just realised that I haven't changed the time on my watch and have been an hour in front for the last week!
Anyway, I wish my brother a happy 27th birthday even though I am 3 days late. Have a good one little man!!!
Until next time, when I attempt the impossible, make it over the equator and back. I know that the water swirls in the oppossite direction when drained through a hole than it does on this side of the equator and on the equator line itself it runs directly down. I wonder what other crazy things go on down there, some guy told me that the people walk backwards and drive in reverse, even the clocks go backwards as well, I didn't believe him and realised this man was clearly a looney and stayed well away from him.
See ya
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