Sumatra, the adventure begins

20th February 2018
Brown Bamboo Lodge, Bukit Lawang
A very pleasant 30c, with a breeze
Exchange rate 19,000 IDR = £1

Sumatra is turning out to be an interesting choice.  A nearby volcano (Sinabung) erupted yesterday morning, spewing ash 7kms into the atmosphere and depositing a fine layer over our little world.  It was dormant till 2010 and since then has been having a merry old time getting lively again.  Our host, also the victim of the 2003 flood in Bukit Lawang that wiped out the whole village, yesterday just raised his eyes and shrugged his shoulders saying 'ugh, the volcano is making trouble again' and carried on sweeping the floor.  Life goes on.

The ferry from Melaka was very straightforward, it cost an extra 20MYR for each bike and they were safely stowed inside the boat, unlike the other passengers' bags and boxes that were stashed outside on the pointy bit.  Dumai is by no means a destination of choice but it's not that bad either.  We were totally convinced that despite everything we read on the internet we would be able to find a bus or minivan to take us to Medan during daylight hours.  This is what happens when you've spent a long time in countries which have good infrastructure and transport systems.  It's a bit like trying to imagine you will need to take a fleece and a flask of hot tea with you, when at the point of leaving it's 35c, it's difficult to perceive how and when the change will come.  There was NOTHING to Medan apart from the night bus, leaving at 7pm, 10 hrs, 554 kms.  We asked everyone we came across about transportation to Medan, blank stares were usually followed by a light bulb moment of 'ah Medan, night bus'. 

Just off the boat

A very large, well utilised, exercise area in the centre of Medan

Because we were so foolishly convinced of the transport situation we spent the night in Dumai in the City Hotel, although this did give us an opportunity to get an Indonesian SIM.  The only shop selling them was run by a Chinese family, who were packing up for the New Year but they very kindly opened up for us.  We paid 100,000 INR (about £5) for, we think, 2 gb, over 30 days, but we can't be sure because the language barrier kicked in and we cannot for the life of us find out how to check our balance.  When it runs out, it runs out.  Later on we discovered we didn't have the SD card but lucky for us, again, the owner was still in the shop so we were able to retrieve it and ALL our photos, phew.
City Hotel wanted a whole day's rate for a 4 hr late check out, which we politely declined, deciding instead to sit in their air conditioned lobby and use their excellent wifi.  We had eaten at a small warung the day before and the effects were being felt by both of us so we were glad of some clean facilities.  There is a type of food/restaurant here in Sumatra (named after a city in the south) called Padang.  The shop front displays the dishes on offer, the bigger the warung, the more dishes.  When you sit down all the dishes are put in front of you, you pay for the ones you eat.  Spotted the problem with this yet?  Cooked dishes are sitting in a glass window, they go to a table, don't get eaten (or maybe they get prodded a bit) and they go back to the glass window for the next customer.  Since then we've stuck to cooked dishes but we can see, as we move around, a LOT of places only do Padang food.  Thank goodness we have a cooker now, we could be eating a lot of noodles in Sumatra.

On the way to the bus station Dave was propositioned by a man on a motorbike.  We've read at least two other accounts of this happening, in and around the same area, so is it one person who is very prolific, or, are their lots of very frustrated men in Dumai?  Since then there have been a couple of conversations that make me think that Dave is going to be more of a target for getting hit on than I ever will be.  As I said, Sumatra is turning out to be very interesting.

As well as the unwanted sexual attention Dave is also the lucky person who now has to deal with all the bureacracy.  Women tend to stay in the background and the men all want to talk to Dave so, for a while anyway, I can just exist in the background and not have to deal with all the day to day rubbish, welcome at the moment, but I'm sure it won't last.  We've already worked out some 'safe' words/phrases to get him out of sticky situations. 

After the usual malarky with buying bus tickets, tout takes us (despite protestations) to the bus station (a ticket office just outside) but I don't believe him so hike off to the bus station itself around the corner only to find the prices are very similar (shame on me for doubting).  The bus turned out to be as comfy as a night bus can be, not too cold, we had blankets and some water and a food stop (50,000 for 2 bowls of soup, rip off, that won't happen again).

We'd read such a lot about Medan being a sh*thole, but really, it's not that bad, once you find the green spaces it's OK.  We found a mall just down the road from our GH with a Carrefour Supermarket so stocked up on essentials.  We were very pleasantly surprised to find cold beer at our GH (35,000 for a large bottle, only a 1000 markup on shop prices).

I have absolutely no idea

Cycling the roads in Malaysia had introduced us to the notion of bad drivers and we didn't feel very safe there.  Here, the roads are generally in worse condition, there are more belching trucks but the drivers aren't that bad.  The road to Bukit Lawang at times disintegrated into a potholed mess, usually around the villages.  As usual, the most difficult thing about the ride was the heat (my new pants seem to be working, fingers crossed) therefore plenty of shade and drink stops were required.

One of the things we weren't ready for were the full on, in-your-face touts, who began accosting us on their motorbikes about 2 kms from the village.  Most people arrive by bus, so I'm sure it's worse for them.  Dave ended up telling them to f**k off and leave us alone, but they just looked incredulous, they don't really understand people getting angry.  The reason for the aggressive touting is the very lucrative Trekking industry that exists in Bukit Lawang.  The touts know that if they can befriend you first, arrange a guesthouse (and claim commission) and get you to go on a trek with them, they will be quids in.

We visited Bukit Lawang in 1989 when there was an Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre here. After the Orangs were 'rehabilitated' (physical ailments etc) they were released into the jungle but fed twice daily, a deliberately boring diet of milk and bananas. For about tuppence you could buy a pass and that entitled you to 3 days' worth of trekking (twice a day) with the rangers, to the feeding platform.   Some Orangs would feed for a day or two and never be seen again, others wouldn't leave.  The ones that didn't leave are the ones that you will see now.  This feeding programme continued until 2015.  Unfortunately, now if you want to see Orangs 'in the wild' in Sumatra you will pay between £40 and £50 for a half day, depending on your haggling skills.  We've read and heard horror stories of terrible guides, some of which border on putting lives in danger others are just inexperienced or immature, but the common denominator seems to be that they all still feed the Orangs, which is good for business because the Orangs want food so they will come, that's what tourists want to see.

It's a tricky one, but we decided not to partake, despite our host trying incredibly hard to persuade us to go with his guide.   Had we not already seen Orangs previously we may have had a different attitude.  £40/50 is not a lot of money to someone from Western Europe, goodness, my neices and nephews think nothing of spending  £120+ on a night out but here it's a lot.  I've asked myself what the difference is between the feeding programme and the trekking business now and it's all about the money.  The feeding programme wasn't a money-making venture, but in all other respects, it's the same, so maybe we were no better back then.  We couldn't bring ourselves to pay so much money, to watch a guide feed Orangutans so we could take photos.  I talked to a guy in Medan who said that he had had an awful experience when a guide had fed a mother with her baby, there were about 30 people all snapping photos, he likened it to the papparazzi!  In fairness, he did say that the Orangs didn't seem to be bothered by any of the attention they were getting, but still, I think a similar experience would have made me uncomfortable.  I just hope that some of the money that is being made on the backs of the Orangs is being channelled back into their conservation, and into Bukit Lawang, but I'm skeptical.  We have had a fab few days in Bukit Lawang.  Don't be put off coming here if you don't want to trek, it's a very chilled out place to be, once you shake off the touts that is.

One of several footbridges across the Bohorok River, Bukit Lawang 

Anyway, you don't need to go on a trek to see wildlife, yesterday we saw a Thomas Leaf Monkey having a nosh down by the river.  Fabulous.

Thomas Leaf Monkey

Volcano permitting, we are heading towards Berestagi, not far from the volcano and then onto Lake Toba, we'll be checking the news regularly for updates, I don't fancy being fried alive in Sumatra.


Laters

PS  if the volcano doesn't get us the passive smoking will!