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Published: September 25th 2008
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A Bathing Ape
Bathed in sweat ! Jungle terrain Hi all, we hope you're all well. There's quite a lot to get through so we'll crack on.
From Singapore we took a short flight to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The less said about KL the better. From there, another short flight to Medan on the northern edge of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. On arrival we caught a jeep for the 3 hour drive north to Bukit Lawang in the heart of the jungle. This area is very close to Bandah Aceh which bore the brunt of the 2004 Tsunami so the roads in places were impassable to cars hence the need for a jeep. The area and people seem to have recovered quite well from the disaster but with such a low basic standard of living it was hard to say for sure.
Bukit Lawang is a small village on the edge of a national park which is home to some of the last remaining Indonesian Orang utan and this was our reason for visiting Sumatra. Following an afternoon and night of torrential rainfall and incessant booming thunder we set off with our guide 'Udin' for a days jungle trek with the promise that we'd
Orang utan
Sandra the friendly one definitely see some Orang utan. 'Trek" probably wasn't the most apposite of words to describe the 8 hours of climbing vertiginous valley walls and slithering down slopes the other side, grabbing hold of trees and roots to prevent ourselves from falling to almost certain death (maybe). The heat and humidity from the previous night's rain making it slippery under foot and energy sapping work.
After a couple of hours the only things we'd seen of interest were the tapping of some rubber trees and and some cocoa pods and we began to wonder if the previous night's storms had frightened the apes away. Udin our guide had a simpler explanation; As it was Ramadan and Orang utan are obviously Muslim they would be sleeping in. Sure enough, within an hour we spotted our first one. It was quite unnerving as this great ape swung through the jungle canopy to within a couple of metres of us in order to get a good look at what we were up to but Udin informd us that "Sandra" had been hand-reared and was therefore semi-wild and unlikely to attack. However, we were to encounter a truly wild one later in the day.
Thoms Leaf
"you can never have too many photos of monkeys" Lunch was a bizarre affair with a selection of Thoms Leaf Monkeys and a troupe of aggressive Macaque's watching our every move in a role reversal of the normal chimp's tea party.
As we trudged on through the afternoon heat we saw several more Orang-utan and then came face to face with 'Mina' an aggressive female (!) with a reputation for biting people and stealing thier rucksacks. She obviously wasn't after these as fashion accessories but in the hope that they'd contain food. We'd been warned to run if we came across an aggressive Orang-utan and my last glimpses of Mina were of her trundling through the undergrowth scooping up the fruit that Udin was frantically throwing her as a distraction.
We'd been offered the chance to spend the night in the jungle but on reaching the 'luxury' camp site we were glad we'd declined. Instead we enjoyed the opportunity to float down the river and over some rapids on rafts made from tyre inner-tubes. We arrived back at our Eco-lodge, tired, blistered and cut, with Tina sporting puncture wounds from 3 leeches. Despite all this it was a great day and a truly unforgettable experience.
Rice Terraces
Javanese scenery Then it was back to Medan and a flight to Jakarta on the island of Java. With over 20 million inhabitants it's a huge city and after our experiences with the Orang utans we found this concrete jungle a bit more daunting. Our main reason for stopping here was so that we could buy tickets for a train journey across Java to Yogyakarta.
Travelling by train is usually a slow and uncomfortable experience but on the plus side you get to see more of the country that you are travelling through and converse with some locals. The train took us through an ever changing tableau of emerald green rice terraces, fields of ripening chillies and bananas, tobacco plants being harvested by farmers in coolie hats and laid out in the sun to dry, gangs of laughing children washing and swimming in the streams and all of this under a backdrop of conical volcanoes. Very picturesque. Our fellow passengers were keen to practice their English on us and to teach us a few useful Indonesian phrases. One interesting conversation centred around the eating of live bats to cure asthma, which they considered much less peculiar than our own liking for
City Transport
Bekak driver Jogyakarta pork.
Yogyakarta is a much smaller and more traditional city than Jakarta. At its heart lies the Sultan's palace within the walled Kraton that houses the old city. The heat and constant pestering by taxi drivers/touts/street traders means that it's a good idea to arrange some transport. A beck is a cycle rickshaw and it's possible to hire one with a driver for IR25,000 per day (about 1.75 british pounds). Using this means of transport we were able to visit most of Yogy's main sites; The Sultan's Palace, Water Gardens, an under ground Mosque, the bird market, Malioboro street which is a street market selling leather goods, batik and all sorts of tourist tat. We also visited a Batik workshop and learnt about the process and bought some pieces at a very reasonable price.
Yogya is also the base for visiting 2 of the greatest pieces of classical architecture in the southern hemisphere; Borobudur and Prambanam.
Borobudur is an 8th century Budhist stup. Basically a multi-tiered pyramid built from 1.6 million blocks of volcanic rock which represents a journey from the squalor of the real world at its base to Nirvana at its summit. Each of the
Sphere of Formlessness
The top levels at Borobudur ten levels is ringed by bas relief carvings telling the story of the budhas own journey to enlightenment and if you follow the story for the whole of the first 9 levels you would walk 5 km's. Once you reach the top level the walls fall away to give a view of the surrounding volcanoes as you stand amongst 72 stupas, each containing a carved Budha, in the sphere of formlessness. Even if that sounds like a load of old mystical mumbo-jumbo you can't help but be awed by the sheer scale and intricacy of the place. The amount of work that went into it is astounding and even more surprising is the fact that it was abondoned less than 100 years after completion and remained 'un-discovered' until 1815.
Prambanam and its temples are the Hindu's response to Borobudur and the main complex consists of 6 tower like temples which house Hindu deities. Unfortunately an earthquake in 2006 has de-stabilised the foundations and we were only able to enter a couple of the smaller temples.
So, after our fill of temples and touts we boarded the train again for a 2 day journey to the East Java port
of Banyuwangi where we caught a ferry across to Bali.
Ahhh, Bali. Including our honeymoon, this is our third time to Bali and we love it. It is the cultural and artistic heart of Indonesia and in many ways different to the rest of the country. We could write a whole blog just on Bali but we are aware how long this one is already so will leave it as just the highlights and a few photos to tell the story.
First stop was Lovina a small coastal resort on the north of the island. Great snorkelling and watching Balinese dancers on the beach at sunset. We also spent a day doing an Indonesian cookery course, helping to buy the ingredients at the local market and then turning it into a traditional 4 course meal.
After a very relaxing week there we headed around the coast to Amed. Here we stayed in a very beautiful traditonal villa with 180 degree views over the ocean to Lombok. Here Daren also did 2 dives on the shipwreck of the USS Liberty which was sunk by the Japanese in 1942. Amazing scenery inside and outside the wreck and great snorkelling
Bedshaped
Early morning view from our Amed room for Tina from above.
From there we headed to Ubud in the centre of Bali which is its cultural and artistic heart. We have a couple of days here looking around the shops before heading for 2 nights in Jimbaran. That will be the end of Indonesia for us as we fly first back to KL on Monday then Singapore (again) before touching down in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday for 3 weeks in Vietnam & Cambodia.
Until next time, take care everyone
D&T
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