Blogs from Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia - page 51

Pete: Where do they have Orang-Utans? Ang: Not in this part of Malaysia, but they do in Sumatra, Indonesia. 1 Hour later bargain Air Asia tickets had been bought to Medan in Sumatra and we had formed a new plan for the next couple days. Feeding time in Bukit Lawang About 30 years ago a couple set up a rehabilitation centre in Bukit Lawang to reintroduce orang-utans into the wild. Although they seemed to have stopped their work and moved away the locals keep the feeding programme going, offering fruit twice-daily to supplement the semi-wild orangutans' diets and to make some money from the tourists watching. We went to see an afternoon feeding sessions. After waiting 40 minutes, a mother and baby orangutan arrived for some bananas. The baby was really playful. We had our photo ... read more

The ferry ride from Melaka to Sumatra was pretty uneventful which was just fine. When we got off the ferry we went through the most laidback customs and immigration I've encountered so far. The inspector came to find us as we got off the boat and was all smiles and jokes. There were pictures of two wanted terrorists on a pinboard behind his desk so I think as long as we didn't look like them he was happy enough to let us and anyone else into the country. He told us how much we should pay for a taxi and a few bits of helpful info. We found an English couple and a Japanese guy who were also headed to Bukittinggi on the far side of the island. We hired a minibus and prepared for what ... read more

It's been a while, in fact it's been a month. But here are finally my indonesia blogs. Left Melaka, malaysia, on the 5th of december by ferry. I was waved of by literally hundreds of those fish with legs, sunbathing on the mudbanks. After about 5 hours, i arrived in Dumai, wich basically is a very ugly industrial city. Got hold of a minibus that left 2 hours later then announced, and shared it with 2 english guys and a couple of very grumpy local lady's. At about 1:30 am we reached bukittinggi, and although the town seemed to be sleeping, managed to get a room in an old dutch colonial builiding. A huge room including mandi for less then 5 euro's. Visited the local zoo, wich made me close to tears (example, an orang oetan ... read more

The only challenging part about our stay in Indonesia was getting to where we were trying to go. When we left Sydney we first flew to Singapore. In Singapore we had to switch airlines which meant we had to go through customs, pick up our bags, take the train to the other terminal and then board our flight. That flight got us into Jakarta around 10pm and our flight to Pekanbaru, Sumatra was not until 7am. When we were buying our tourist visas there the officials noticed I was from Texas. They got very excited and asked me about Walker Texas Ranger and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yep, those are the two things us Texans, especially those of us from Austin, are most proud of. Anyway, after customs there we got a room at a close hotel ... read more

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 ... read more