Keen to get away from the trouble in Thailand, arrived in Medan (capital of Sumatra) on 14th April via KL pretty late at night. Was tired and should really have booked accomodation in advance and arranged an airport pick up to avoid the usual taxi drivers/touts badgering on exiting the airport.
My accomodation was just behind a black domed mosque which apprently is one of only two sights to see in Medan. Room was pokey and lacked any atmosphere but didnt get to sleep in it for long as was soon woken up (at around 4am) by the mosque rearing up with morning prayers being read out over loud speaker across the city!!
Medan itself doesnt have much to offer and i was quite concerned as i hadnt seen any other tourists. Sumatra in the past has had more than its fair share of civil unrest and natural disasters including that Tsunami and i was wondering whether i had come at a bad time (even though i had checked the weather and foreign and commonwealth office website a few days before which gave the all clear) so i soon headed off to Bukit Lawang which was 6/7 hour (horrid) bus journey away.
En route i met 3 lovely young australians from Adelaide and eventually ended up travelling with them for the next 4/5 nights. Bukit Lawang was put on the map basically because it has an Orangutan viewing centre in the nearby jungle (a national park) which used to draw in tourists. That was before a flood devastated the village in around 03 and since then tourists have been trickling back. Luckily, we checked into our accomodation just in time as about a minute after we the heavens opened and we were soon amidst a glorious tropical rainstorm. It was so hot and humid by then that i just couldnt wait to have a shower but instead i decided to stand in the rain for a while to cool. i soon got drenched but it was an amazing moment.
It was just ajw dropping to see the orangs gliding through the jungle, playing or just lazing around. The centre was a lot better than i had anticipated. It rehabs organgs that have been mistreated by humans and gradually releases them back into the wild. As some may never have seen a jungle before (ie born in captivity) they still need to be fed until they can learn to find food themselves. One organg just walks around as she doesnt know how to swing through the trees having been a house pet all her life. We had to get a canoe to cross the river to the centre. The ranger then took us deep into the jungle and had with him a bucket of milk and bananas to feed the semi wild orangs who must have in built clocks as some where there waiting for him. We saw about 5 orangs including a mother and baby feeding and it was just an amazing experience to see them up close and then to return back to the wild after they'd had their fill. Apparently there was even a full wild orang amongst those that rocked up. Although we were only allowed to spend about half an hour in the park, it was well worth the visit to Sumatra. The short time at the centre wasnt any bother though really as i had a superb view of the jungle from my room and so i saw plenty more wild orangs in the trees and just walking along the river bank - i am certainly living the dream!
After 2 nights, we headed to Dana Toba which is the largest volcanic lake in Indonesia. The climate was a lot cooler and the view of the crater lake was just amazing. We stayed on an "island" called Tuc Tuc (the indonesians call it an island but its not - you can walk to the mainland!!) which was very relaxed and laid back. Whilst most of indonesia is muslim, the people in this area are christians and so there were lots of churches and no mosques waking me up at 4 am thankfully. The people were lovely and friendly and they all seemed into their music as of an evening you couldnt walk past more than 4 houses/shops without someone strumming their guitar and locals singing. We didnt really do much in Dana Toba but i think its more a place to chill rather than do. As i have less than 2 weeks in indonesia i wasnt able to see much more in Sumatra to do it justice but its definately a place i would love to come back to explore with more time. Sumatra has the thumbs up.
Now in Java and will update asap.x
