Wednesday 30 May 2012

Sumatra 2 - paradise at the end of the road


Day 161 - 13th May
We left Bukit Lawang on the morning tourist bus to the town of Parapat on the shore of Lake Toba. It wasn't so much a bus as an air-conditioned people carrier, which was great. We had to go via Medan to drop someone off so the whole journey took 8 hours with a couple of stops. Danau (lake) Toba is the largest lake in Southeast Asia, at 1707sq km and is ringed by tree-covered mountains and volcanoes. The lake itself fills a massive crater formed during a huge volcanic eruption, which also created the island of Samosir, in the middle of the lake. The area around Danau Toba, including Samosir, is home to the Batak people, a warlike tribe, discovered by the west in 1783, and who continued to engage in ritualistic cannibalism until 1816. The Bataks were converted to Christianity by missionaries, and the 6million Bataks who live in the area today and a very friendly, music-loving people, 95% Christian but their faith still contains many elements of their pre-Christian animist beliefs. I had researched the area 3 years ago, when we came to Indonesia for our honeymoon and am very excited to finally be here.
From Parapat we took the ferry to Samosir, which is about the size of Singapore and used to be a big traveller destination in the 90s. Now, like in the rest of Sumatra, tourist numbers are very low and barely any of the 50 guesthouses in the small town of Tuk-Tuk ever receive many guests. On the ferry we met up with Kyle and Lisa, the American couple from Bukit Lawang, and their friend Ben. Having made no plans and been beset by countless hopeful Indonesians trying to convince us to stay at their guesthouse, we decided to join up with them and went to the first one they'd been recommended. We caught the last ferry of the day, at 6pm, and were treated to a spectacular sunset as we crossed the lake. The boat took about 40 minutes to reach Tuk-Tuk and then very helpfully wound its way round the coastline, stopping at each hotel to let people off at their chosen destination. We had picked Reggae guesthouse, a very simple collection of budget rooms at bargain prices (again we paid £4 but this time with hot water!) We had the place virtually to ourselves and the best thing was the rooms were right on the lake shore, with fantastic swimming just outside our rooms. There was even a diving board and some tyre swings to add to the fun. Once we had chosen our rooms we got changed and had a wonderfully refreshing evening swim in the still-warm waters of the lake in the dark, watching beautiful flashes of lightening over the volcanoes in the distance. Once we'd dried off we all had dinner together, then went to a bar to watch the last game of the Premiership with some locals, all of whom turned out to be City fans!

Danau Toba

Parapat Harbour


Day 162 - 14th May
After a great night's sleep, we had a lovely lazy morning with delicious banana pancakes for breakfast. We spent lots of time sitting by the lake reading our books and enjoying the tranquillity of the island. Jon and I went for a walk around Tuk-Tuk, which mostly consist of hotels, cafes, souvenir shops and other amenities to serve the hoards of tourists who used to visit. We also stopped in at some carving workshops, where local Batak men were making beautiful wooden items, mostly for tourists but some still for the locals. The carvings were very intricate and beautiful and ranged from small figurines and wall plaques to musical instruments and staffs over 6 feet tall. We fell in love with these staffs, which we learnt are used as magic sticks to bring luck and for praying with. The only questions now is, can we possible find room for a 6 foot tall staff in our backpacks, or even in a London flat? We went for lunch with Lisa, Kyle and Ben, and were also joined by Susu and Quentin, and Austrian-French couple currently living in Beijing Lunch took over an hour and a half to arrive (slow even by Indonesian standards), which essentially put paid to everyone's afternoon plans. Instead we all went back to our guesthouse for a fun couple of hours of swimming, diving and ever more elaborate jumps onto the tyre swings. We met an English guy called Jonathan, who was also staying at Reggae and he joined us for the rest of the day. In the evening Jon and I took off for a while to an internet cafe to try and get some Olympic tickets, but the website had blocked access to anyone outside the UK so we weren't able to get through. We also failed to book a flight on an Indonesian website and eventually gave up and went back to join the others. We drowned our sorrows with some beers and went out for a very tasty dinner with Ben and Jonathan. Ben had the fantastic idea of having gin and tonics by the lake and, amazingly, we were able to get all the requisite ingredients, so we rounded off the evening sipping G&Ts on the balcony, chatting with our new friends.

Having fun in the lake

Waiting for lunch with Ben, Kyle and Lisa

Samosir Island



Samosir



Day 163 - 15th May
This morning Lisa, Kyle and Jonathan left Samosir, and were replaced by another friendly English couple, Ali and Andy. Unfortunately I woke up with a cold (yes, only I could get a cold in the tropics!) so we decided to have another relaxing day. We hired a scooter in the village and drove up to the tip of the island, where there was a very picturesque port, with more stunning views across the lake to hazy mountains. As we drove we passed rice paddies, palm trees, small settlements and local people out ploughing the fields or drying their rice grains in the sun. We also passed many traditional buildings and small villages with their distinctive Batak houses arranged around a small square, in which women were weaving palm leaves or preparing food, while children played. The Batak style of architecture is very unique, consisting of long wooden houses on stilts, covered by a huge curving roof with a sweeping curved peak at the front. Traditionally the houses were made with no nails and the roofs were covered with reeds, but now most roofs are made of tin. This doesn't detract at all from their beauty, and the vista of rusting roofs lends the whole place a charming, slightly dilapidated Indonesian air. We stopped off to see some ancient stone carvings of figures, presumably old Batak Gods, although there was no information to accompany them. We also went to see some 300-year-old carved stone chairs, that were used as a sort of council and court in pre-colonial times. We drove back towards Tuk-Tuk and a little further south to see the King's tomb, which wasn't signposted and easily missed, and didn't seem that impressive anyway. We went back to Reggae, dropped off the bike and then I had a sleep to try and convince my cold to stay away. In the afternoon we did some more swimming and Ben and I tried to help Jon perfect his diving technique. We went out with Ben, Ali and Andy for dinner and met up with Susu, Quentin and one of their friends so it was a nice jolly evening to end our stay on Samosir. We topped it off with another round on G&Ts by the lakeside before packing our bags ready to leave tomorrow.

Batak houses

Off on our scooter


Stone carvings
The view from the top of the island

Rice paddies


Day 164 - 16th May
We were up early for the 8:30 ferry back to Parapat and bade a sad farewell to beautiful Lake Toba. We had pre-booked our car to Medan and night bus on to Banda Aceh, in the far north of Sumatra, from a tour office in Parapat before we went to Samosir so we hoped everything would run smoothly. Of course, this is Indonesia and you have to allow for the extraordinary amount of faff and convoluted plans they seem to manage to fit into even the most simple journey. We arrived at the tour office at 9:30 as instructed, to be told we'd been booked on the 8:00 night bus, not the 6:00, which would leave things tight in Banda Aceh for picking up the morning ferry to Pulau Weh. The man in the office managed to change our booking for the 7:00 bus, which was better, but we were then told we'd have to wait there til 12:00 before getting our car to Medan. If we'd known that we'd have had a more relaxing morning in Tuk-Tuk rather than rushing for the first ferry. We sat around in the office until 12:30, when Ricky appeared and told us we were to get into a minivan and go to his company's restaurant, where the car would pick us up. At the restaurant it seemed there was still time for us to have some lunch, which we did, and the driver eventually arrived a little before 1:00. The he had to have his lunch, so we didn't end up leaving Parapat until gone 1:30. The journey to Medan usually takes 4 hours, which would still have been ok, but today is a public holiday and the traffic in Medan was like nothing I've ever seen before. It took us several hours to get through the city to the bus area, having first had to drop some people off at the airport, and we didn't get there until 7:30, half an hour after our bus was due to leave. It was raining heavily when we arrived and the driver stopped, got our bags out and pointed to an office, which turned out to have nothing whatsoever to do with our bus! Luckily some local people were able to point us in the right direction and we eventually found the right office. Fortunately our seats on the 8:00 bus were still booked in our names (I wonder if we were ever booked on the 7:00 at all) so we waited at the bus station for a while. At 8:30 a small minibus appeared and we were shepherded on, hoping to God that this wasn't our 12-hour night bus. We drove through the city a bit more and finally found ourselves in a depot where we were ushered onto a large bus bound for Banda Aceh. We had been promised a tourist class bus by Ricky, with air-con and toilet, and while this bus had those things it was all definitely in an Indonesian style. The seats were terribly uncomfortable, but at least we had seats, unlike the poor souls who found themselves sitting on plastic stools in the aisle for 12 hours! The toilet was at the back of the bus, in the smoking room, but there were so many people sleeping in front of the door it was impossible to use. At least we were finally on our way. The bus did have blankets and a pillow and there was even a film, albeit one we'd seen before. At about 5am the bus stopped by the side of the road, initially we assumed it was a toilet stop but it turned out to be for morning prayers at a roadside mosque, along with about 7 other buses. We both managed to grab a few hours sleep over the course of the night, thanks to the miracle of ear-plugs and inflatable pillows, so it definitely could have been worse.

The boat to Parapat


Day 165 - 17th May
We arrived in Banda Aceh at 7:30, feeling sleepy and a little sore from the uncomfortable chairs. We were beset by becak drivers as soon as we stepped off the bus and took one to the ferry port. Along the way we passed the Mesjid Raya, the beautiful main mosque, and the Tsunami museum. Banda Aceh was the worst hit area when the Boxing Day tsunami struck in 2006, much of the town was destroyed and over 170,000 Indonesians were killed, most of them in Aceh. Since then most of the town has been rebuilt, some say better than before, and the disaster served to bring about peace to an area previously troubled by civil war. It is a very devoutly Muslim region, and Sharia Law in in force here, although apparently most people allow tourists to do pretty much as they please as long as they are respectful to local customs and traditions. We're hoping to have more time to explore Banda Aceh when we return from Pulau Weh, if the flights work out in our favour. There are two boats to Pulau Weh, the remote tropical island we're heading to, which lies off the north coast of Aceh, a fast ferry and a slow ferry. The difference in price is quite large and most people we've met have taken the slow boat and raved about it, so we decided that's what we'd try and do. We had been given many conflicting reports of the ferry times to Sabang, the main town on Pulau Weh, and the ferry port itself was confusing and didn't seem to clear matters up. Eventually we managed to work out that the next slow boat wasn't until 2pm (it was 8:30am at this point) and I was feeling quite rotten with my cold so really didn't feel like sitting in the waiting room until then. Luckily the fast boat was leaving at 9:00, so we put aside our traveller credentials and took that, hoping the be able to get to bed soon. The boat ride only took 45 minutes, and once on Pulau Weh we got a car to Iboih, one of the two tourist areas on the island. Our travelling luck ran out and the car broke down by the side of the road, about 10 minutes out of the port. Eventually we were picked up by another car to finish the 40 minute drive. Iboih is a small settlement situated on a short stretch of beach, mainly consisting of a few cafes and small shops with some wooden houses scattered around. Some stone steps lead away from the beach to a path through the woods to the visitor accommodation – collections of wooden huts on stilts nestled into the trees and along side the water's edge. We had been recommended a place called Yulia's, which just happened to be the last place along the road and we arrived hot and sweaty, but the recommendation turned out to be a good one. Yulia's has a large collection of huts, some right on the water, all at very reasonable prices, and has the nicest looking restaurant and terrace area we've seen. We took a hut high up on stilts, with a somewhat rickety ladder to climb, but with a double bed, fan and a balcony with views out to the sea through the trees. Feeling exhausted and glad to finally be here, I took some paracetamol and slept for a while, while Jon read his book on the terrace and went for a refreshing swim in the amazingly clear turquoise water. Pulau Weh is a little slice of paradise, with a rocky shore that provides some of the best snorkelling and diving in the Indian Ocean, the clearest, warmest water I have ever seen and plenty of shady woodland to hide from the immense heat of the sun (well we are practically on the equator). I'm really looking forward to spending a few days relaxing here on this beautiful unspoilt island.

Yulia's cottages
Beautiful Pulau Weh

Day 166-168 - 18th-20th May
We spent three wonderful days on Pulau Weh doing pretty much nothing but enjoying our tropical island paradise. We slept well in our wooden hut, with the aid of a fan to keep the night-time temperatures somewhat bearable, and usually woke relatively early to a beautiful sunny morning. I managed some time each morning reading my book in the hammock on our balcony looking out over the sea as the sun warmed up the air and turned the water a deep turquoise. Yulia's served great food and we enjoyed fruit pancakes and banana porridge for breakfast, sipping tea and chatting to other guests. Once the sun was up it was incredibly hot so we were grateful for the shade of the terrace restaurant and the gentle breeze that always seems to blow here and helps to keep the temperature bearable. Our days mostly followed the same pattern of lounging on our balcony or in the restaurant, reading or eating and drinking, followed by a dip in the sea or some time snorkelling. The water here is the clearest, bluest and warmest I have ever been in and it feels wonderful to swim in. Yulia's hired snorkels for £1 a day so we were able to head into the water whenever we wanted to peer underwater at the amazing array of brightly coloured fish just swimming around the rocks close to the hotel. The variety of colourful coral and tropical fish was incredible as they flashed past us in vivid shades of blue, green, purple and yellow, and we also saw amazing sea slugs and a bright green and purple shrimp, as well as huge blue and red starfish. Further in towards the village and the jetties the coral had been quite badly damaged but as we swam away from the settlements towards the ocean the reefs were more intact and we were able to see huge formations in dazzling colours, full of fish and spiky sea anemones. One day we swam across from Yulia's to Rubiah Island, a small palm-fringed island 100m off the coast. The swim was easy and the water remained clear and blue even in the middle of the channel. Once on the island we walked over to a small beach on the other side, where there were vast fields of coral close to the beach, again teeming with life, although we felt that the snorkelling around our little patch of coast at the cottages was just as good as anything else we found here. Pulau Weh certainly had the best snorkelling I've ever done and we really enjoyed being able to dip into this incredible underwater world whenever the sun got too hot. One day we walked down to the little village and small white sand beach, where we were able to find a few cafes and an internet connection, so Pulau Weh is not as totally cut-off as it seems. Evenings were spent in a similar fashion, relaxing with tea and wandering to one of the simple restaurants along the road to the village for a tasty fish curry or nasi goreng. We had an amazing time here and it was the perfect way to spend our last few days of travelling, with a chance to truly unwind before beginning the long gruelling journey back to London. As with the rest of Sumatra, we struggle to understand why there aren't more tourists – the island is as beautiful as anything Bali or even the Caribbean could muster up, and a fraction of the price – but for now we're not complaining, as it meant we got to have a little slice of paradise almost to ourselves.

Monitor lizard
Crab near the cottages



Iboih Beach


Day 169 - 21st May
Today we sadly had to leave the incredible beauty and calm of Pulau Weh to begin our journey home. We were up early for a 6:30 car to the ferry back to Banda Aceh. We had become used to the relaxed way of life on Weh, where, although the population is devoutly Muslim, they seem more than happy to let the tourists do what they want. As soon as we set foot back on the mainland, however, I felt many disapproving eyes on my bare shoulders and thighs in my vest and shorts, and so swiftly covered up using my trusty sarong. Our flight to Kuala Lumpur was quick and painless, although having flown with Air Asia we landed in the Low Cost Centre terminal instead of the luxury of the main airport. Our next flight wasn't until 6:00 the next morning, a wait of more than 17 hours, and we decided that we simply couldn't spend that long in McDonalds, so we booked ourselves into an airport hotel for the night to try and get a bit of sleep before the next leg of the journey.


Day 170 - 22nd May
We were up early for our 6am flight to Singapore, which again was swift and comfortable. Our flight out to Heathrow wasn't until 11:00 tonight so we decided to spend the day in Singapore. We caught the metro into Chinatown, which was bustling and full of character, with narrow streets and tall colonial buildings. We spent some time shopping in the market and picked up a few souvenirs before heading off to a couple of temples. First stop was the Sri Mariamman Hindu temple, the oldest in Singapore and full of colourful carvings. Next up was the huge Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, opened in 2008, and full of gold Buddha statues with a tranquil roof garden on the 5th floor, which was a real oasis in the heart of Chinatown. Once we'd had our fill of Chinese culture we spent a good few hours wandering around the centre of Singapore. We walked along the river, where we stopped for a beer to escape the intense heat and sweltering humidity. The centre of the city, along the river, is crammed full of old merchants' cottages, nestled in amongst shining glass skyscrapers, which creates a really vibrant feel, at once modern and western and yet distinctly Asian. We walked down to Marina Bay, with it's famous Merlion statue (half lion, half fish squirting water into the harbour) and yet more skyscrapers, including one fantastic hotel with a cruise ship set atop three tall glass towers. Our last stop was Raffles Hotel, where sadly we couldn’t afford the Singapore Slings in the courtyard bar – not that they'd have been impressed with our super-casual attire! Feeling pretty exhausted by all that walking, but loving Singapore's East meets West vibe, we headed back to the airport. By now we've been to lots of airports but Singapore has to be the best in the world. It's more theme park than departure lounge, with a roof-top swimming pool, free calf massage chairs, indoor and outdoor themed gardens and even a helter skelter. We easily whiled away three hours just exploring the departure lounges of the three terminals before boarding our final flight. Jon was excited by the fact that we were flying on an A380, and it was absolutely massive and felt very luxurious, even for economy. We had mixed emotions as we took off at the end of what has been the most incredible journey, on the one hand we were very sad that it's all over, after so much planning, but also we're now looking forward to seeing everyone when we get home tomorrow. Goodnight and wish us a comfortable flight!

Sri Mariamman Temple
Chinatown

Marlion Park

Raffles

Singapore CBD

Friday 18 May 2012

Sumatra - into the jungle


Day 156 - 8th May
After a restless and uncomfortable night on a bench in Singapore airport, we boarded our 9:15 flight to Medan, the largest city on Sumatra. Medan has a reputation for being big, dirty and unpleasant, but we found it to be much like most other large Asian cities. We had decided to stay 2 nights to give us time to catch up on sleep and come up with a plan for our time on Sumatra. At the airport we met Udin, a guide from Bukit Lawang, which is in the jungle and is the most popular place to see Orang-utans. He seemed nice and friendly so we agreed to take a tour with him in a few days time. Udin says that tourist numbers in Sumatra dropped off significantly after the tsunami and bombings in Bali and Jakarta and have never really recovered. Apparently it can still get a little busy in the peak tourist areas in July and August, but other than that there is very little work for guides, guesthouse owners and shop-keepers. We were the first tourists Udin had seen that day. Because we wanted to spend some time recuperating after our flights, we booked into a fancy hotel, although this being Sumatra, it only cost £20 a night! We spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep, and trying to plan our itinerary. The weather was better than we had hoped for, around 30 degrees and quite humid but not unbearable. At around 6:00pm the rain started and their was a huge storm, with incredible thunder and lightening, which knocked out power to the area around our hotel. Luckily it only lasted an hour or so. If this is the pattern of rain, we'll be absolutely fine.

cool cloud rainbow before the storm


Day 157 - 9th May
We spent a bit of time exploring Medan today, which although big and a little dirty, seems very friendly. Because of the relatively small numbers of tourists, we appeared to be something of a curiosity for the locals. People on the streets watched us with mild interest but in a very friendly, non-threatening kind of way, always with a cheery smile and a wave and a “hello, how are you?” We started with a short walk in the area around our hotel but it very difficult without a map, so we took a becak instead. In Java and Bali becacks were cycle rickshaws, but here they are a motorbike and side-car, and still a very convenient way of getting around. Our first stop was the royal palace, Istana Maimoon, the official home of the Sultan of Deli. The current Sultan in 14 years old and lives on Sulawesi with his mother, although the people of Medan hope he will return to the city when he is an adult. The throne room is open to the public and you can see the opulent throne as well as some of the Sultan's furniture and family photos. The palace was vaguely interesting, but it seemed that we were the main attraction. We were interviewed by 30 school kids for a homework task, something which also happened to us a lot when we were on Java three years ago, although things have changed a bit since then – instead of taking notes in pads, the kids recorded our interview on their smartphones! Other people at the palace also wanted to talk to us and have their photo taken with us, and we happily obliged, albeit feeling a little silly. Our next stop was the the Mesjid Raya, the principle Mosque in Medan, where we were shown round by Edy, a friendly and knowledgeable local. The Mosque was built by the Dutch at the start of the 20th century, and Edy gave us a very interesting history of the building, as well as a lesson in Muslim culture and how the mosque is used today. We also walked round the fruit-filled garden and saw the graves of the Sultans. Having exhausted Medan's attractions, we went back to our hotel. The rain came at the same time as yesterday, hopefully this indicates a predictable pattern. For dinner we went to Tip Top restaurant, a Medan institution, which has been serving wealthy Sumatrans, Dutch colonials and tourists since the 1920s. The restaurant has lost some of its colonial era splendour but the food was very tasty, and there was one other set of tourists there.



Day 158 - 10th May
We were met by Udin in our hotel at 8:00 and took a taxi to the bus station, which is on the other side of Medan and took us over an hour, thanks to the crazy Indonesian traffic. Unfortunately Jon was sick this morning so we decided to take the taxi all the way to Bukit Lawang so we could travel in air-conditioned comfort rather than being trapped on a hot bus and unable to get off! We arrived in Bukit Lawang, a small town nestled in the jungle, at around 11am, and walked to our guesthouse, which was owned by Udin's friendly uncle and aunt. The hostel and gardens were beautiful, right by the river with tropical fruits and hammocks hung outside each room. The rooms basic but had a double bed and a bathroom and only cost £4 a night, so we were definitely happy. Once Jon was feeling better we walked over the river and around the town, which is set up for peak season, with tons of hostels and restaurants, most of which were empty at this time of year. The buildings, including the local houses, were simple and mainly made of wood with reef roofs, and there were bamboo shelters all along the river banks, where the locals gathered to pray and share meals. We stopped for lunch in a cafe overlooking the river, then carried on up to the top of the town. We had a beer in a riverside bar and watched a huge group of macaques making their way back up the river bank to the safety of the jungle for the night. We headed back to the guesthouse for dinner and to prepare for our jungle trek tomorrow. We spent the evening chatting to a friendly American couple called Lisa and Kyle, who had got back from the jungle that day and gave us helpful tips about what to bring.

Bukit Lawang

Macaques along the river bank


Day 159 - 11th May
We were met after breakfast by Udin to start our two-day jungle trek. On our way into Gunung Leuser National Park we met up with three other tourists who were to join our group – a Swiss girl called Barbara, and American called Simon and a Japanese guy called Tomako. We walked into Gunung Leuser National Park, which is home to many rare species of bird, plant and animal life, including the Orang-utan, Sumatran tiger and Sumatran rhino. These last two are incredibly rare and our guide told us that in 16 years of working in the jungle he has only seen one tiger and no rhinos. Still, orang-utan sightings are virtually guaranteed, and indeed, we hadn't been walking for more than half an hour when we came across Mina, one of the orang-utans who had been looked after at the rehabilitation centre. The centre is now closed but since the 1970s has released more than 200 captive orang-utans back into the jungle. Mina has a reputation for attacking and biting guides and tourists so we kept our distance. We saw one more former captive orang-utan called Jackie, who was with her baby. She was happily eating a banana when things took an unexpected turn – she took hold of the arm or a girl from one of the other tour groups and would not let her go, taking her with her into the jungle. At first everyone thought this was a great laugh, until it became clear that Jackie didn't want to be parted from her human pet. We left the guides from that group trying to trick Jackie into letting go by offering her bananas! As we walked further into the jungle we saw more orang-utans, these ones were wilder and stayed up in the trees rather than coming down to play with the tourists. It was fantastic to see so many wild orang-utans and we found that, despite having seen them in Borneo three years ago, we were still totally captivated by these beautiful apes. 

Mina enjoying a banana
A wild orang-utan

Thomas Leaf Monkey
The walk through the jungle wasn't long but it was hard going as the trees grow on steep slopes alongside rivers and we spent a lot of time hauling ourselves up cliffs, muddy with the recent rains, hanging on to trees and creepers. Going up was exhausting work but going down was quite treacherous at times as the slopes were steep and slippery, often without any discernible path. Even though we didn't venture that far from Bukit Lawang, we really felt like we were in the thick of the jungle and miles from any civilisation. As we continued our walk we saw some macaques and Thomas Leaf monkeys, which are only found on Sumatra. The highlight, though, was seeing a mother black gibbon and her baby, who we stood and watched for about half an hour as he clambered around in the trees. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful waterfall, where our guide produced delicious bundles of nasi goreng wrapped up in banana leaves. Unfortunately the waterfall was swarming with bees so we didn't linger too long. After a bit more hiking we reached a river, which we had to cross to get to our camp. The water was high and the current strong and we had to wade waist-deep over slippery stones. Needless to say we got very wet, but it was a welcome relief from the heat of the day. Once safely across we walked a short way to the next river crossing. Our guides decided that the currents here were too strong to walk so we crossed on giant rubber rings made out of inflated inner tubes, that were thrown over to us by one of the guides, who then pulled us across on a rope. It was certainly a fun way to travel. Our camp consisted of a bamboo shelter covered with tarpaulins on a flat clearing right alongside the river. It was basic but kept us all dry when the rain came. We had a swim in the river and then spent some time reading our books and drinking tea, listening to the sounds of the jungle and the rushing of the river. There were about 6 Indonesians at the camp, including our guide, Udin, his 17-year-old son, Malu and another guide called Joseph, as well as various cooks and helpers. Somehow they managed to produce a feast for dinner of rice and three different curry dishes, seemingly all cooked on the one fire. After dinner we had a fun evening playing cards with the guides and Joseph taught us some card and matchstick tricks, before settling down on our roll mats for the night. The ground under the mats was hard and we were only given one thin blanket, but luckily the American couple we met yesterday had advised us of this so we came prepared with extra blankets and had a somewhat more comfortable nights sleep.

Udin preparing our fruit salad
Black gibbon

Sheltering from the rain in our camp


Day 160 - 12th May
We were woken up early by monkeys scampering over the roof of the shelter. We had a tasty breakfast of banana pancakes and tea sitting by the river. We played a few more card games with Udin and Joseph and were lucky enough to be joined by a huge monitor lizard, who came to sun himself on a nearby rock. We spent the rest of the morning relaxing at the camp, reading our books and enjoying being in such a beautiful setting. At around ten we were given a second breakfast of noodles, which was tasty if not exactly needed. Once we had packed up the tent we crossed back over the river on the rubber ring and then took a short walk to a deserted jungle hotel. Here we spent some time swimming in the river while the guides prepared our raft for the journey down river back to Bukit Lawang. The rafts consist of five inner tubes tied together, with two people in each and the bags tied on at various points. Luckily all of our possessions were safely wrapped in plastic bags – we were about to get soaked! One of the young guides sat at the front of the raft, with the rest of us all piled in the middle, and we pushed off into the river. The water was fast-flowing, with strong currents and a near-continuous stream of rapids as it passed over the rocks. Some parts of the river were wide and gentle but others were gushing with whitewater and we got well and truly wet as we raced down-stream with our driver pushing us off the rocks with a wooden pole. It was so much fun, rushing along in our makeshift raft, all screeching and laughing as the we splashed through the rapids, waving at local children as we went. All too soon we found ourselves back in Bukit Lawang, where it was time to say goodbye to our fellow trekkers and guides. We went back to our guesthouse, where we got cleaned up with a refreshing cold shower, followed by one of Auntie's tasty lunches. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the garden or reading our books in our. The usually predictable rain confused us this evening by not coming at all, despite the thunder and lightening show. After a lovely dinner we settled into our comfy bed for the night to catch up on sleep.

Our camp

Joseph, one of the guides

Crossing the river
Monitor lizard

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Travels with Bruce in Darwin and the Top End


Day 145 - 27th April
We got up and checked the van rental websites one last time but there were no relocation vans available at all, so we decided to call it quits and fly up. In a fit of efficiency, we booked ourselves on the 11:45am flight to Darwin and got ourselves up, dressed, washed, breakfasted and off to the airport in an hour and a half! In Darwin we caught the airport shuttle into town, ruled out the first hostel we tried, which obviously hadn't done any cleaning or maintenance since t got into the Lonely Planet and checked into YHA. We were in a 6-bed dorm, which is usually fine, but this time one of our room mates had strewn all his possessions across the floor and one was keeping a bike in the middle of the room. Feeling sleepy after our flight and the heat, we had a nice long nap, before making dinner and returning to bed.


Day 146 - 28th April
It is the start of the dry season in Darwin and today was glorious. We walked to Doctors Gully, as Jon remembered feeding the fish here last time he was in Darwin, but unfortunately it's now quite expensive so we decided to give it a miss. We took a nice relaxing walk through Darwin down the Esplanade, through Bicentennial Park to the harbour. The city has changed a lot since Jon was here, with loads of shiny new buildings and a swanky new harbour development including two salt water swimming pools, one of which has an amazing wave machine. We stopped near the harbour for brunch and then continued wandering through the shops and the rest of town. We spent the remainder of the afternoon by the pool in the hostel. As we're having such a lovely time in Australia we skyped STA and delayed our flights to Singapore by 5 days, then booked yet another campervan to drive around the Top End national parks for the next week. We celebrated our new plans by treating ourselves to a few evening drinks in a local bar.

Darwin Harbour


Day 147 - 29th April
This morning we picked up our new campervan, a very basic Backpacker Breezer van called Bruce. He's a bit smaller and more simple than the other vans we've had but we're only going to be living in him for a week and he's more than adequate for that. We set off from Darwin and drove to Mary River, the largest wetland area in the top end. The rainy season finished about two weeks ago and the waters have already receded around 2m, but the rivers and billabongs are still full and the floodplains are all still covered in pools and swamps, with a beautiful array of water lilies and other plants all over the countryside. We went to the Window on the Wetlands Centre, a very informative centre with displays about the environment and local flora and fauna. We also stopped off to look at some huge termite mounds by the side of the road. Mary River has the highest population density of salt-water crocodiles in Australia so we headed there to do a croc-spotting cruise. One of the more touristy options is a cruise on the Adelaide River where they entice the crocs to jump up near the boat by feeding them bits of meat dangling from a pole, but we opted to do the less tacky option of a gentle wetland wildlife cruise on the Cooroboree Billabong instead. The 1 hour cruise was excellent, we had a lovely small boat with only a few other people on board and our guide was entertaining and informative. We travelled along the billabong, learning about the two different croc species there (freshwater and saltwater) as well as spotting lots of beautiful wetland birds, including the amazingly coloured Jabiru and a large sea eagle. The highlight of the cruise, though, we the many crocodiles we spotted near the boat and along the bank, mostly the dangerous saltwater variety, so hands and arms stayed well and truly tucked within the safety of our boat! We spent the night at the Cooroboree Roadhouse campsite, which comes complete with an albino buffalo and two caged crocodiles – Fred the Freshy and the 4.5m Brutus the salty. Campsites without man-eating predators will now seem a little tame!

Saltwater crocodile
Crocodile and Jabiru

Cooroboree Billabong
Sea Eagle
Brutus, the 4m croc from our campsite


Day 148 - 30th April
After a warm but comfy night in Bruce we drove into Kakadu National Park. Our first stop was Bowali visitors centre, near Jabiru, where we learnt about the ecosystems and aboriginal history of the area. We also discovered everything in the centre of the park was still closed following the rains as many of the roads had been washed away and lots of the tracks were still underwater. Also, when the water is high, saltwater crocodiles can move into creeks and waterholes inside the park, meaning that areas such as Jim Jim and Twin Falls, which are open in the dry season were currently full of crocs. It was a little disappointing that Jon wouldn't be able to take me to some of the places he visited last time he was here, but we knew that some area would be inaccessible and didn't feel much like being eaten as we swam, so we didn't waste too much time worrying about it. We drove on to Ubirr, an amazing Aboriginal rock art site, with a great view of Kakadu from a lookout at the top of one of the hills. The art here was fantastic, every surface of the rocks in this small area was covered in paintings. Most were of fish, apparently put there by fishermen proud of a big catch, although turtles, kangaroos and goanas were also to be found. One of the paintings is of a thylacine, an extinct tiger-like creature, which dates that drawing to over 4000 years old, and many are considered to be older, with some up to 15000 years old.. Most of the paintings were done in reds and oranges, giving the rocks a warm, rich colour, and some of the details were amazing. After we'd had our fill of admiring the paintings we drove to our campsite for the night, alongside a billabong near Nourlangie. This evening we have been savaged by the hungriest mosquitoes we've ever seen, which came out in droves in the early evening and show no sign of going to bed.

Barramundi, Ubirr

Ubirr rock art

Turtle, Ubirr
View of Kakadu from Ubirr


Day 149 - 1st May
This morning we went to our second rock art site at Nourlangie, where there were some really impressively detailed individual scenes depicting the creation beings and creation stories, as well as more pictures of animals and Aboriginal ways of life, but as a whole place we felt that Ubirr was more impressive. We left Kakadu and drove to Edith Falls in Nitmiluk National Park, hoping that we'd be able to have a swim to escape from the incredible heat, but sadly here too the plunge pool was closed due to the risk of crocs. Instead, we took a very hot walk up to a lookout and the upper pool of the waterfall, which was also closed but very beautiful. We had another incredibly hot night in Bruce and, unfortunately the water went off in the campsite in the evening and didn't come back on. At least we had managed to have cooling showers before it happened, some other campers weren't so lucky

Rock art, Nourlangie

Nourlangie

Edith Falls


Day 150 - 2nd May
This morning we drove to Katherine town, back into civilisation, where we booked some activities for the next day or so. We decided on an evening wildlife and croc spotting tour along a local billabong, and a gorge cruise for tomorrow morning. We stopped for a picnic lunch by Katherine River, and decided to give the free hot springs a miss as it was far too hot! We went to our campsite at Springvale Homestead, which is where our evening tour would be. The homestead is the oldest standing dwelling in the Northern Territory, at a mighty 133 years old, and is set by a beautiful billabong, covered in water lilies, and home to a semi-captive croc called Elvis. We spent some time cooling off in the pool before heading off on our evening crocodile cruise. It started to rain before we left, with one short, sharp downpour and scattered light showers for the rest of the evening, which, far from being annoying, was actually a relief from the heat and humidity. Our tour was led by Pat, a former traveller with a huge white beard, who gave us some brief information on the river and wildlife, although we were more impressed by his eccentric character rather than his somewhat limited knowledge. We cruised slowly up the river in a small boat shining torches along the banks to look for crocodiles There were some out but we were assured by Pat that we'd see many more later on. We had a tasty barbecue on the river bank with wine, while Pat called the crocs to the bank with a bucket of meat. While we enjoyed our food, an ageing freshwater croc, called Mouse, accompanied by a few other smaller crocodiles came up to the bank. Mouse sat still at the edge of the water while Pat threw a few small pieces of meat for him. The loud bang his jaws made as they crashed together around the meat was quite terrifying – and the freshwater crocs' jaws aren't strong enough to manage large mammals – imagine what a salty would sound like! Mouse and the others were also joined by two brave turtles, who sat right next to him, picking off the bits of meat he missed. One of them even swam through his open jaws to get a piece! After dinner we cruised back along the river, again shining our torches. This time there were loads of bright red croc eyes gleaming at us from the banks as we made our way back.

Wallaby and joey at our campsite
Springvale Billabong at sunset

Feeding Mouse and the turtle


Day 151 - 3rd May
We were up early this morning to drive to Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge for our 9am cruise, which took in the 1st and 2nd gorges out of the 13 gorges that make up the whole system. Nitmiluk National Park and the gorges are owned and managed by the Jawoyn people, the traditional Aboriginal custodians of the area and our cruise was led by a very knowledgeable and educational Jawoyn Aboriginal guide. As we travelled up the river he told us about the Jawoyn creation stories that tell how the gorge was formed, its significance to the people today and all about the uses for the plants that grow along the sides of the river. The gorges were really beautiful, with steep pink rocky sides and narrow passageways and pandanus palms growing out of the water. It was also amazingly quiet, as Nitmiluk is the only company to operate tours in the gorge and the water is currently still closed to kayakers, our small group were the only people around.
After yesterday's rain it was still cloudy in the morning, meaning it was a pleasant temperature as we enjoyed our cruise, although it got much hotter afterwards when we took a walk up to the lookout over the gorge. We were grateful to be able to get back into Bruce with the air con. After stocking up on supplies in Katherine, we drove north to Litchfield National Park, where we camped at Florence Falls for the night.

Nitmiluk Gorge
Enjoying our cruise

Jon at the gorge lookout


Me and Bruce relaxing at Florence Falls




Day 152 - 4th May
Today was mostly spent swimming in waterfalls. We started with an early morning dip at Florence Falls, which was totally deserted, cool and refreshing, with two cascades and a deep plunge pool set in a horseshoe of red rock. After a lazy breakfast, we walked up to Buley Rockholes, a series of small cascade pools a little upstream of Florence and swam around there for an hour or so – again on our own. We were having a lovely relaxing time until a large reptilian head popped out of the water a foot or so from my face and scared us half to death. Thankfully it turned out to be a large lizard and nothing more dangerous. After recovering our composure we drove to Tolmer falls, a tall single waterfall cascading into a deep dark plunge pool below. There is no access to Tolmer plunge pool as it is home to two rare species of bat. Next stop Wangi falls, the park's most popular destination, with its two large waterfalls and big, horseshoe shaped pool. Unfortunately it was closed for swimming as they hadn't finished their croc checks yet. We started to do the monsoon forest walk round the edge of the falls but had to turn back because of the very hungry mosquitoes – neither of us could face putting deet on in that much heat. Our last waterfall of the day was Curtain falls and the Cascades – a long walk through deep jungle, over rocks and across streams to get to the long, wide but shallow falls and its beautiful sandy plunge pool. We spent a while here, swimming and climbing behind the waterfall, before climbing up to the top of the falls and continuing our walk up the river, which was now quite dry but in the wet season must be a wide rocky rapid. Last swim in a small pool along the river, disturbed by finding a snake curled up by the water's edge so we got out of there very quickly. We walked back to the car and headed back to the campsite at Florence Falls for the night.

A morning dip at Florence Falls
Buley Rockholes

Tolmer Falls

Cascade walk
Huge termite mound


Day 153 - 5th May
Our last day in Bruce. After packing up the van and having breakfast we went for another morning swim in our exclusive plunge pool at Florence Falls. Once we'd dried off we drove Bruce back to Darwin and tried to find a hostel. This proved to be more difficult than the last time we were here as, during the last few days, the peak season had started, prices had been hiked and Darwin was suddenly full of people. At about the 6th place we tried we finally managed to get a room, and, what luxury, it was a double with air con! After a quick lunch we gave him back to his owners. Unfortunately we had to wait 45 minutes for the bus back to town in the midday heat. Once back at our hostel we spent the afternoon cooling off in the pool before heading out for pizza and a glass of wine.


Day 154 - 6th May
In our usual lack of organisation we suddenly found ourselves with a flight to Singapore tomorrow and no idea where we were going to go after that, so we spent most of today on the internet coming up with a plan for our last 2 weeks. Having decided a little while ago that our first option of Myanmar was just too much hassle to sort out from here, what with visas and the lack of internet, we set about researching the rest of Asia. It being the start on Monsoon season, most places were ruled out by 40 degree temperatures and torrential rain, so we decided to head back to our old faithful Indonesia, where the climate, although tropical, is somewhat less extreme. We spent a lot of time researching the possibility of going to Lombok and Komodo but the flights were quite expensive and we've now pretty much exhausted our budget. In the end we decided to book flights to Sumatra, as it's somewhere we've always wanted to go, the flights are cheap and it doesn't seem to be any more hot and wet than most of the area. We also managed to book a hostel for our first night, re-insure our car and skype our parents. Not a bad day at all, and now we at least have a plan!  This evening we walked down to Mindil Beach to check out the famous night markets.  The market is on every Thursday and Sunday night in the dry season and only started again last week.  There was a real carnival atmosphere with hundreds of stalls selling delicious food, clothes, jewellery and countless other things.  We enjoyed eating tasty food and wandering amongst the stalls in the crowds on a lovely warm evening.  A lovely way to spend our last night in Oz.

Mindil Beach market

Day 155 - 7th May
We checked out of our room at 10:00 and spent the rest of the morning relaxing in the garden of our hostel. We popped into town to pick up some new books and some lunch and then caught the bus to the airport. We had decided that we didn't fancy paying the exorbitant $15 each for the airport shuttle so we planned to take 2 buses there instead. It all started well but we couldn't find the bus stop for our second bus and missed it. Being a public holiday, the next one wasn't for 2 hours so we had to give in and call a taxi. It was still half the price of the shuttle though! Our 4-hour flight to Singapore on Jetstar was pretty good. Having been booked as part of our round the world ticket it unexpectedly included all the extras you normally have to pay for, including blankets, pillows, toiletries and a hot meal. With a view to keeping our budget down we had decided not to stay in a ferociously expensive Singapore airport hotel, but to spend the night in the airport instead, as our flight to Sumatra is at 9am tomorrow. We found a quiet area and a small bench and tried to settle down for some sleep if possible.