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Published: September 21st 2007
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After a quick visa run through Malaysia we entered Sumatra for our final Indonesian stint. Twisty roads and crazy driving; 15 hrs later we arrived Gampong Chot and the Yasyan Bumi Sehat in meulaboh. info at http://www.bumisehatbali.org
Meluboh was ground zero for the Tsunami, the whole area was flattened and an estimated 120,000 people lost their lives. The clinic is a maternity clinic run by an Indonesian NGO with an Australian midwife and about 15 idonesian staff. The work they do is vital to the well being of the mothers and babies in the local community.
Originally we were coming to the clinc to help replant fruit trees and a medicinal garden. On arriving though it turned out that the land earmarked as a growing area was ontop of a small local landfill which in turn was on top of the local drinking water source. We found that before we could begin to plant anything the waste would have to go and so we helped to organise a clean up of approx 2 tons of waste and found a UNDP waste sorting and recycling site in meulaboh to take the rubbish to. Also while we were there we built
Hindu cave temple
Near KL, Malaysia a fence, planted fruit trees, made tree protectors to stop the invading cows eating the fruit tree saplings and helped started a small garden. Most importantly were the friendships we made there, the stories about the Tsunami that we were told and witnessing how the spirit of a community has coped and is managing to move on.
After the clinic we headed to the Island of Pulau Weh. Quite a little paradise; clear blue waters and rocky beaches. We spent the next 10 days here diving and snorkelling and relaxing in our little wooden hut. Tourism is very low in Indonesia on the whole, in Aceh it is vitually non existent. Maybe 15 tourists were on the islands and the local NGO's filled the place up on their weekends away from Banda Aceh.
Moving on to Gunung Leuser national park the usual 6 hr minibus ride turned into a 10 hr drag. It took another 2 days to reach the village of Ketambe (only 1 other tourist there and about 10 guest houses ) from here setting off on a 5 day trek up Gunung Kemiri (3314m). This was a great jungle trek which we shared with Flo
(The other tourist) The trek consisted of 3 days climbing up and 2 days slipping and falling down. Jungle trecking is hard graft, not huge distances but pretty harsh terrain.
At our first Camp we arrived drenched as it had rained most of the day, I only had one leech on my hip but our boots were covered in the little critters. The reward though was to be greeted by a mother and baby orangutan, they stayed for about 15 minutes at a distance of about 12m. It was a highlight of the trip.
The next 2 days up were steep and slippy with a really diverse range of flora and fauna.The guides and cook we took with us were excellent its the first time I have had chips done on a camp fire!!!
The summit was shrouded in cloud on arrival, we did manage about 10 minutes of view which was well worth the effort though. A slippy 2day knee bending decent was great though pretty dangerous due to drops and huge thorny bushes to fall into, but we all made it down without too much damage to knees and hands.
Another 12 hours on a bus
found us on Samosir Island on Lake Toba. Toba is a huge 26mile long volcanic lake apparently when this fella blew it caused an ice age due to all the debris in the air. Now its a lot more peaceful- a great place to chill out after a trek. On the Island the people are mainly all Batak and were converted to Christianity in the 1860's. There are unique pointy roofed houses here which are like nothing else we have seen it was a really great place to hire a bike, explore for a day and lunch out on puppy curry.
On one of the days peter teamed up with 2 lads who were pilots for the local air line and ended up doing a mission across the top of the Island on mopeds. The locals said there was no road all the way over the island and it started a little bumpy then got swampy then hilly and then it was all 3 at once. A lot of pushing, swearing and laughing went on. The locals were nearly right.
3 days later we found ourselves with the orangutans again this was at the rehabilitation centre at Bukit
Gunung kemiri crew
L_R) Flo,Sari (cook),Subri (guide), Caroline,Mansar, Pete taking photo Lawang. Seeing the semi wild Orangutans from about 2 m was a great end to our Indonesian Odyssey.
Bye for now
Cambodia awaits....
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Alex
non-member comment
Junglists!
Sumatra rocks! Though Pete, I can't believe you ate puppies! Hope the good work in Meluboh balanced your karma out - sounds like you guys did an excellent job there, must have been quite an eye opener, total respect to you. You both look and sound so so well - really enjoyed reading your blog and can't wait for the next. Much love xx