Blogs from Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia - page 19

Indonesia is the tenth country we have visited on our current escapade. Sometimes, while I think that we are spoiling ourselves rotten and visiting country after country, without respite or returning to “real life,” I wonder if maybe we are becoming unappreciative of our experiences or desensitised to certain cultural differences. For example, when we first arrived in Asia in February 2010 we must have visited every temple within a ten mile radius, now we’re temple fatigued. Whereas I previously counted down to our ultimate our embarkation, every day for two months or more, now I hardly ever know what day it is or how many days I’ve been in a country, let alone how many until our next destination. Before we would get giddy over passport stamps, being asked to pose for photographs, squat toilets ... read more

I've managed to break down tired into 2 rough categories. The first is the biproduct of sleep deprivation and is what we felt following 36 hours of non-stop travel and transit stops enroute to a wee little surf camp deep in the Mentawai Islands off Sumatra's west coast. Travelling is not an exact science and to paraphrase Steinbeck: "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". Such was the case initially with our 12 day package to Pitstop Hill. The entire process looked watertight on paper until Steinbeck's line began ringing in my ears as our flight out of Sydney was delayed 5 hours, which in turn negated connecting flights and reservations that evening. Frantic phone calls, emails, the cool runnings of Pitstop Hill management and liberal dobs of smiling co-operation from Garuda ... read more

Well, following on from my last blog, yes, I had an excellent week in fantasy football, thank you for noticing! That aside we have had quite a week! As expected we didn't end up going to Singapore, just about everyone we spoke to said it was very nice but that we'd be much better off visiting when we don't have such a tight budget, so it waits for another time. We spent a few more days in KL, getting on top of our washing, catching up on some sleep and enjoying the city without much to report, and then headed over to a small city called Melaka on the West coast of Malaysia for a change of scene. Melaka was for a while one of the trading capitals of the Dutch East India Trading Company and ... read more

Flew on super cheap Air Asia flight from KL to Banda Aceh for a Valentine's Day getaway. Found Aceh province to be much more developed than I expected - good roads, clean, lot of building activity but one major disappointment- though not unexpected - no alcohol. The only place I could get a beer in Banda was upstairs at Tropicana Seafood Restaurant - expensive though at 30,000 rupiah a can. You have to try Mee Aceh when in this part of Indonesia - yummy. There are 3 traveler hotels in a row near centre of town - the Hotel Medan is the pick but dearest, though definitely worth the extra for aircon and hot water + breakfast One night in Banda and then becak to port for ferry to Pulau Wei. There were a number of ... read more

8 septembre 2011, On prend notre petit-dejeuner puis on part en jeep, direction Tangakahan, un petit village de jungle encore plus recule. On nous annonce 39 km de route en 3 heures... hein??? Ca semble louche... et en effet, ce l est! La route n est pas pavee, toute defoncee, pleine de cotes en glaise... sans parler de toute la menagerie du coin qui passe sur la route... et des ponts en bois avec pleins de trous... au point que nos ponts a Montreal nous semblent bien solides tout a coup! Vive les Gravol, sinon on aurait pas survecu au voyage! On arrive a Tangakahan, a l office du tourisme. Notre guide nous prend en charge et on traverse la riviere dans un bateau pour le moins rustique... des planches sur des bidons... On arrive au ... read more