Sumatran Trek Photo Montage

Tags

apes, hiking, indonesia, jungle, orangutans, photography, photos, sumatra, travel, travel planning, treking, wildlife

I was originally going to write a whole post about the trek, but based on the number of posts I already have just about getting to the trek in the first place…I think I’d be better off just showing photos. I’ll tell some stories and special memories in the next post…but for now! (And FYI-It took us 3 days to see the orangutans. I wish I could upload videos so you could have a better idea of what we saw. It goes in my book as the top 5 things I’ve seen so far in my life.)

On the way to the huts

Millipede

Tiny Mushrooms

The view from a campsite

Farmer’s Field

A farmer

Drying Tobacco

Mr. Jally sharpening a knife

Orangutan nests

Hiking

Mr. Happy Happy

Coffee Break #8329479

Dinner or breakfast

Boiling water

Hiking

Lizard

Bizarre Flower

First Great Ape! A Black Gibbon! – Not very clear…but he was the first!

First Orangutan! With a baby!

Orangutan

Me crossing a river

Benny Mac

Black Gibbon

The guides

Orangutan

Guide #3

An orangutan who followed us for a bit

Centipede

Gunung Leuser National Park – The Beginning

Tags

hiking, indonesia, jungle, malaria, sumatra, travel, travel planning, trek

The next morning Benny Mac and I must have woken up with a bee in our trousers considering the way we were carrying on about getting ready. We were pumped. Were we going to see orangutans today?? Where were we going to sleep??? Were we fit enough to even do this?!!

Well, we slowed down pretty quick when we realized we had some waiting to do as Patima was making us breakfast. So we packed and waited for Mr. Happy Happy. After breakfast, Patima sat with me to chat the best we could, and she shared this bizarre drug that I had never seen before. (Later, a friend from PNG would inform me that it was betel nut and kaffir lime leaf. Also common in PNG, but they use it in a different fashion) She gave me some to try and I quickly regretted it. Basically, it was what looked like chewing tobacco but red with grey paste wrapped in a leaf. You place this package between your cheek and teeth, and it dyes your mouth bright orange. Patima thought my spitting and gagging was just delightful. I’ve never had something so bitter in my life, and was left with the taste till lunch. Ew.

Betel Nut before I ate it

Mr. H came and collected us, singing and dancing to the music we couldn’t hear. We made our way through Kedah, past the school with the Muslim girls peering at us behind their hijabs and into the jungle. Benny Mac was struggling from the get-go as we had packed a silly amount of beer for the trip, per suggestion by Ramadan. It took us an hour to get to the lodges which were nestled into a jungle laden valley.

Rainforest Lodges in Kedah

We unloaded our bags and minutes later Mr. Jally showed up to take us on our first jungle trek. We found out later that Mr. Jally never takes tourists into the jungle to camp the first night as he likes to see how they handle the terrain before dedicating us to a destination. Good thinking, because it was not easy. There was no trail, just trees and mud and noise. So much noise. We could hear gibbon calls and large hornbills taking off from the trees within a half an hour of being under the canopy. There was a sensory overload on the first day; there was no way to focus on just one sound while trying to catch sight of the birds Mr. Jally was pointing to at the same time. Absolutely phenomenal.

The first day we saw squirrels (huh?!) and two different kinds of long-tailed monkeys. No apes, no gibbon or orangutans. We were not even a little disheartened though. If we would have seen them, there is no doubt we would have passed out from too much diversity and excitement.

The guides were amazing to watch all on their own. They were constantly calling and stopping to listen for different animals. Both Mr. Jally and Mr. H had small statures, which was hilarious next Benny Mac (who soon became Mr. Heavy Heavy…by me anyway), but very beneficial to moving quickly through the forest. Mr. Jally said what takes typical tourist 2 days, he could do easily in 4 hours!

Mr. Heavy Heavy, Mr. Jally, and Mr. Happy Happy. Also my favorite photo from the entire trip

We ate dinner and slept at the lodges that night. It was great because Mr. Jally  told us a bit about himself and some of the other types of tourists that had come through.  Some are there just to get drunk in the jungle every night, others there for the most extreme experience they could muster. He told us a bit about Sigi, the expat who makes all reservations and connected us with Maulida in the beginning. He came to forest and was so inspired by the jungle that he helped Mr. Jally build the lodges. Each lodge was built from timber in the jungle by Mr. Jally. We saw the trees that he used to take planks from and they were are ~2 hours into the forest (Well, for us anyway). We couldn’t believe it! Carrying those heavy planks down those steep embankments could not have been easy.

When we turned in for the night, we expected to get a solid nights sleep. It didn’t happen for me. I had my first bad reaction to the malaria pills we were taking. Nightmares. Awful nightmares. Benny Mac didn’t start suffering from them for a couple more nights, but once he started getting them too, we stopped taking them all together. Stupid or not, I’m not sure. I don’t know how to explain how realistic these dreams were, though. Mine revolved around fire, and it was a fire I could smell and heat I could feel. I’m sure symptoms of malaria are significantly worse, and the decision to cut them out was not taken lightly.

The next day was when we started the real hikes; we weren’t being critiqued anymore! Camping, animals, food, and plants…all for another post.

First Expat Post – Holidays in a warm place

Tags

Australia, Christmas, expat, New Years, Seasons

I promise to finish the Indonesia trip, but I want to write about being an expat too! And this Christmas, it was all too clear that I wasn’t in the USA anymore.

It’s hot. Really, really hot. I sang about dreaming of a white Christmas, while being fully aware that I may as well dream about getting a unicorn full wrapped under the tree in gold spun by Rumpelstiltskin. (Benny Mac? Are you reading this? Stocking stuffer for next year perhaps?) I’ve spent the past 10 Christmas’ in the tropics but always in the northern hemisphere where I can put on a sweater and socks and not pass out from heat exhaustion. (I DID get a sweater for our trip to the states this year, though. I tried it on for less than five minutes before I was worried about sweat stains ruining the white knit.)

I should point out Australian homes, in general, do not have central air con. If they have air con, it is in the bedrooms and they use it at night only.

And heat seemed to be the theme for everything we did this year. No hot roast or mashed potatoes – would you want to sit in the house baking all day in 90% humidity? It was delish cold cuts and potato salads. And prawns! Yummy prawns! (Shrimp, America.) Served on ice, whole, so you have to peel them yourself. Being covered in legs and antennae is now a part of Christmas to me.

There was an inflatable pool. Not just for the kids, oh no. My friend Bel and I were thrown in by the kids. And then we sat there for longer than the kids expected because it was AMAZINGLY cooler.

I did bake, however. How could you not have sweets on Christmas? So…we made North Queensland Snowmen!

Melted Snowman

Candles? No. Mosquito coils? Absolutely.

Red wine? Nope. Ice cold beers? Done.

Santa in a big suit? Maybe in the air con. On the sleigh? Short footie shorts and a wife beater if the Aussie Christmas Cards are accurate.

New Years was no different. Ski trip to the mountains? No way. Playing cricket and camping on your own little bay saturated with coral reef? Don’t mind if I do.

Benny Mac fishing in Hydeaway Bay

I will not lie – Its hard getting in the spirit when it’s warm like this. But if you spend it with the right people, you develop a new holiday spirit. Its doesn’t feel cozy and you don’t smell chestnuts roasting on an open fire (…or wait…nope, bush fire), but it does feel sticky with prawn juice and slightly drunk from your last bourbon and coke on the rocks. I think I can handle this for a bit longer.

Travel…ing? Pt. 3 Medan to Kedah

Tags

indonesia, orangutans, palm oil, species diversity, travel

The rest of the drive brought us through more mountains and more small villages. Benny Mac was glued to the windows and asking question after question. This was his first time in a 3rd world country and had never seen poverty like we did here. Ramadan said that if they wanted to make a change, they could, but they don’t. I don’t know what to think about that comment. Is it true, Indonesians that are following me? Do you agree?

A lot of the area was also farmland. We saw coffee (But didn’t stop to explore. We had too far to go.) cauliflower, sugar cane, bananas, mangoes…everything. We also passed by enormous piles of palm fruit. If you haven’t heard of the issues palm oil production brings to an ecosystem, and the particular issue it plays in Indonesia, I suggest you educate yourself and take the initiative to eliminate products made with the stuff from your grocery list. I’m not going to preach about it here, because it will make this entry far too long. I am going to say, however, in your research on the subject, they’re going to talk a lot about orangutans and their plight. This isn’t the only animal affected by this issue. Think about it in terms of an ecosystem removal, and the diminution of the species diversity. Its a bigger problem than just one species. (That said, if the coo-worthy photos of orangutans are what its going to take for you to save a rainforest and stop using palm oil, then SAVE THE ORANGUTANS!)

The mass amount of palm oil in a grocery store in Medan

I have to say though, without a doubt, there is a stronger sense of community and family in Indonesia when compared to home. For example, Ramadan told us there were heavy rains the past few nights, and one particular road was going to be an issue. Sure enough, when we got there, it was. There was a bridge crossing a smallish river that was flowing level with the barricades on the side. Around 50 people were using a huge log to smash through the barricade to allow the river to cross the road. We asked Ramadan the purpose of this, as it seemed counter-intuitive. He explained that one man in the village’s home was on the bank of the river, and because the river had to flow around the barricades at the moment, it was at risk of being washed away. As we watched, the water level kept rising and the villagers kept plowing into the barricade. Finally, it crumbled and the river flow crossed the road at almost a leisurely pace now that it had plenty of room to spread out. Cheers all around! The point though, is how amazing it was that the whole village came out to help. We couldn’t believe it. As we drove by, Ramadan rolled down the windows and high-fived the men as we drove past. It was incredible.

We stopped in Ketambe for lunch. If you haven’t read the previous post about how we decided on Kedah for our trek, Ketambe was another option with the Rainforest Lodges. Both places are within Gunung Leuser National Park, a large rainforest ecosystem located in the norther province of Aceh. The locations are run by the same group and Ketembe is the easier of the two. Johan is the main guide in Ketambe, and he does mostly day hikes into the jungle that take you back to the lodges at the end of the day. We wanted to get more camping into our treks, and as such, we decided with Kedah. I can tell you now-I’m glad we went with our choice. Ketambe was beautiful, but the lodges themselves were in a village. Kedah, on the other hand, had the lodges as well and were our home base for our treks (I’ll explain how in a later blog), but Kedah’s lodges were an hour’s hike out of the village.

Ketambe

A few hours later we arrived in Kedah and met our guide, Mr. Jally, and his wife Patima at their house in the village. Patima immediately brought us coffee with sugar and cookies. If I had to pick  my favorite person on this entire trip, three people spring to mind instantly. Patima is the first. She had no reservations about being interested in us, and I am not clouded to the fact that Mr. Jally has tourists come through on a regular basis, but her interest was genuine. She also had no reservations on criticizing me, but that comes later, and actually adds to her appeal.

Mr. Jally, on the other hand, didn’t really seem to be all that interested in us on this first night. As a matter of fact, for the first hour we concluded that he didn’t speak English because he had yet to say one word to us. It came time for the formalities, like passport copies and consent forms, and even then, Mr. Jally sat back with his coffee and cigarette and let Ramadan do all the talking in the same way a translator would. It was not until the next day that we realized his English was quite good, and he did take an interest to us, but it was just when he felt he had something to say. In the jungle, his silence was imperative as he needed to hear animal movement and calls.

The first of a million coffees, with Mr. Jally in the background

In the middle of this meeting, we started hearing odd noises outside and flashing lights coming into the house. Benny Mac looked perplexed, but the Indonesians in the room were indifferent. Suddenly a short little man came in with a head lamp he was flashing and singing “ooooh!!! oooooh!!” And such is the likes of Mr. Happy happy, guide number 2 and number 2 on my list of favorite people. He laughed at our silly faces, lit a cigarette and heaped sugar into his coffee all the while singing his tune.

After the formalities, we were told Mr. Happy Happy would bring us to the lodges in the morning and then Mr. Jally would meet us there to start the hike. Patima showed us our room, a small square with a million blankets on the floor, and despite the unusual surrounds we crash landed into sleep.

Benny Mac in our room for the night

Travel…ing? Pt. 2 Jakarta and Sumatra

Tags

indonesia, transportation, travel, travel planning

Last plane ride for the day! Hurrah! We get to go into the city! Hurrah! We’re going to Sumatra tomorrow! Hurrah!

No, we were exhausted. The plane ride to Jakarta was the final straw on this very tired camel’s back. We sat next to tiny little girl, around 16 years old, who was on her first flight and she was terrified. She clutched a bible to her chest the entire flight, and prayed for the take-off and landing. She was gorgeous.

We arrived in Jakarta fairly late, I think it was close to 1030/11ish. Somehow, there were still 1,000 taxi drivers eager to take us wherever we wanted. It was clear Benny Mac’s exhaustion and eagerness to try his hand at bargaining were fighting inside him once we exited the airport. In the end we went with the first guy we spoke with, and spent 150,000 rph to get to our hotel.

And then our first experience with Indonesian traffic. INSANITY. Four cars pushing to get on a single lane on ramp. An entire family, no one with helmets, riding a scooter. (Mom, Dad, INFANT, and TODDLER) Lanes? What are lanes? It took us ~45-1hr to reach the hotel, at one point sitting right in front of it but surrounded by cars with scooters running between us so we couldn’t move. I pride myself in being an amazing, aggressive driver- raised in Colorado winters on mountain passes and acquisition of super city skills in Chicago, Newark, New York and Tampa – however, I would never go behind the wheel in Jakarta.

Driving in Jakarta-Picture is blurry, but in all honesty, that is what makes it accurate.

We stayed at the Hotel Ciptura, reccomended by Mau Ke Mana. It was a touch far from the airport, or so we thought on the way there. The next morning it took us ~15 min to get to the airport! So clearly, it wasn’t too far. The place is pretty snazzy, very comfortable, and that was very welcome after our long layover. I can’t remember what we did for food that night- and I’m pretty sure I could tell you every meal we ate on this entire trip from memory, so I’m thinking we didn’t have dinner because we were too exhausted. I had made an insane amount of highly transportable ANZAC cookies, which we had been nibbling on all day, so that was probably the “meal”.

Sitting in front of the Hotel Ciptura

Hotel Ciptura

The hotel also arranged our taxi so we could catch our early morning flight. Funny- Benny Mac cannot bargain. Remember the 150,000rph price to get to the hotel? Right. 60,000 to get back. Valuable lesson learned- walk away, no matter how tired you are, they’ll come back.

Early morning departure, breakfast at the airport, uneventful plane ride into Medan, Sumatra. We were a bit worried that our set up driver, Ramadan, wouldn’t able to find us or that his English would be so stunted that we won’t be able to communicate during the long drive to Kedah. We shouldn’t have worried. While we were waiting for our bags, our height worked to our advantage and as we gazed across the crowd, we could see a small man waving directly at us, smile when we made eye contact, and gesture wildly to come to him. Once our bags arrived we did just that and started our adventure into the middle of this beautiful island.

The drive was exciting, tons of busy streets, blind turns and flooded/beat up passes. Ramadan was fantastic- we had tons of questions and he had all the answers. Perhaps a bit over zealous with suggestions on things to do, but that was okay as well. The drive took ~10-12 hours, and we didn’t really notice the time going by as there was so much to see.

Part of the drive to Kedah, Sumatra

Half way through the trip we had lunch in a small village in the mountains. We tried all kinds of curries (not nearly as hot, in my opinion, as everyone warned) including fish head. I surprised our driver by actually being excited to try it and happily sucking the eye balls out if its head. If you haven’t tried it, do.

Lunch

While everyone was doing bathroom breaks, I wandered next door to buy some snacks for the road. A few men down the street yelled things and made gestures that were clearly rude. Sumatra, particularly the province of Aceh which follows sharia (Muslim law), is strongly conservative. I had been self conscience all day given my bare legs, and felt very visible with my exposed blonde hair. All day locals had been yelling words at the car, “Hey Mister!!” and something that meant tourist in a not-friendly sort of way. I had the impression that Ramadan was glazing over what they were saying and was uncomfortable discussing that we really weren’t wanted. Even the kids stared at us with venom.

My not-so-nice friends. Yes, I took a picture.

I slipped into the next door shop and grabbed some dried cassava and nori (seaweed) chips. Ramadan came in very suddenly asking what I wanted and where I had gone. He warned me that I shouldn’t wander by myself. As we walked out the men said nothing to me as Ramadan didn’t leave my side. I was embarrassed, like I should have known better, but Ramadan let it go the minute we got into the car.