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Published: February 20th 2006
We've been spoilt rotten on this trip. From the Jensens in New Zealand, to Lena & Ewan in Sydney and Chris in Brisbane ... we owe a lot of people a lot of favours!
Our last 'homestay' of our honeymoon was with my very great friend, Rachel, and her husband, Greg. Rach has been apologising in advance for many, many weeks that Medan (on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia) was not the most exciting of places.
Admittedly, Medan is not the PRETTIEST of places - in fact, there are no photos of it on this blog, because we didn't take any! Also the local taxi drivers don't make it the most WELCOMING of places, with some ripping you off by driving round in circles with the meter running, others racing against each other through the busy streets of Medan, and
all of them driving like maniacs!
That's the negatives out of the way. We had a wonderful time with Rachel and Greg. Their home in Medan is beautiful and our air-conditioned ensuite double bedroom was by far the poshest place we've stayed so far! Rach showed us the (limited!) sights of the city which included Starbucks, Sun
Plaza Shopping Mall, the crazily busy Carrefour, the pools and gyms of Hotel Tiara and the Garuda Plaza. She also cooked us some delicious meals-TV chef style, by diligently chopping everything into bowls before starting cooking!
We did venture out of Medan, to Bukit Lawang. We went with Annabet & Richard, friends who arrived at Rachel & Greg's soon after we got there. Bukit Lawang is an orangutan Rehabilatation Centre. It is also one of Sumatra's biggest tourist attractions, with one of Sumatra's worst roads leading to it. The first two hours in the car are fine, with comments being banded around such as: 'I don't know what they mean by the road being bad' and 'we'll be there soon'. Suddenly and inexpliciably the road decides that it no longer wants to be a road, and would rather be a selection of potholes, interdispersed with 100 metre sections of 'real' road (where the driver sees how fast he can go, before having to slam on the brakes for the next crater)!
And then after covering the final 14km in a record breaking 90 minutes, we arrive. Luckily for us there are eight 'guides' all waiting for us
as we get out of the car. Two of them have been in hot pursuit of the car for the last hour on their moped! Much to the 'guides' disappointment, we don't enlist any of their services, but opt for the Nasi Goreng option in the nearest restaurant. Nasi Goreng is a yummy indonesian dish of fried rice with vegetables, Krupok (prawn crackers), garlic, chilli, soya sauce, all finished off with a fried egg plonked on top.
The one place we can go to without a guide is the 'feeding station'. The Bukit Lawang Centre takes in orangutangs that have been mistreated and abused. Many are pets when they are young, and are forced to wear clothes and/or make-up. Sick really! Then, when they grow up, they are no longer wanted. The centre tries to teach the orangutangs to learn to climb, swing, juggle (joke), find food and to fend for themselves. When they are ready they are released into the wild. The feeding session we attended is for those in the wild who can not find their own food. They are fed bananas and milk, boring foods, in order to try and encourage them to find food for
A wobbly bridge crossing
The only way to get to the toilet and the restaurant.themselves. Luckily for them, unluckily for us, Durian (smelly) fruit is in season and only one pregnant female, swings in for the food. But it was worth it just for that. We got back in our car and some random man tries to charge us for 'parking'. We tell him NO!! and head back on the bumpy road...
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