Internet cafe, Medan, Sumatra

We spent 2 great days in the Gunung Leuser National Park, close to Bukit Lawang. The trekking was not that hard, although we only went up and down the hills, as the paths do not run in the valleys. It was very hot and humid, so we were soaked in sweat after only 5 minutes. The surface was quite slippery and the tracks run often very steep, sometimes we had to climb by holding on to the roots of the trees.

There were very frequent stops, because the jungle seemed to be full of orangutans. On the first day, we bumped into one every 10 minutes or so. Most of them were semi-wild that were released from the rehabilitation center in the village. Once we met a group of 9 (normally orangutans are solitary...)!! The guides could recognize many of them by their names. We even met the famous "Mina" who has bitten already 60 people. It actually does not come as a big surprise, because often the poor creatures are surrounded by tourists with no escape route and their bags are smelling so good of bananas, that they used to get from the humans. I would also get aggressive with so many people around me, only wanting my photo without payment... Anyhow, wild or semi-wild, it was cool to watch the orangutans. Especially the babies were very funny, making different noises and doing some acrobatics on the trees. Interestingly as we got farther from the village on the second day, we did not see any orangutans during the whole day. Actually we did not see any mammal other than a black squirrel. No tiger, no rhino, no elephant... :o( So that was more like real jungle trekking. But on the first day we saw the Thomas leaf monkey, that has a Mohawk hairdo and a few long-tailed macaques. There were giant ants too, much bigger than what we saw in the Amazon region. One even bit our guide and he could hardly pull it off his finger. The other blood thirsty animals were the leeches that sucked themselves to our skin very fast, so it was very difficult to remove them. But at least their bite did not burn, unlike the ones of the mosquitoes...
The night in the jungle was quite uneventful, we had a very nice dinner with 5 different dishes and went to sleep in our bamboo tents. Only monitor lizards came close to the camp to clean up the leftovers. They swallowed the big chicken bones very quickly.
At the end of the second day we took a raft (inflated car tires bound together) back to the village. It took us almost an hour to get back and went through small rapids, luckily no grade 5...

Today we took a minivan to Medan with 17 people distributed over 12 seats. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Georgetown in Malaysia and with that begin our continental Asia tour.

Wisma Leuser Sibayak, BL

Rafted back from jungle, 1h along the Bohorok. Terrain today harder: steep ascents/descents on slippery clay. Giant ant bit guide.

N3.54, E98.1

Jungle orange with orangutans, saw +/- 10 of them, mostly semiwild, some with babies. Now nasi goreng telur for lunch. Rain forcast for night.

Kindertehuis, Bukit Lawang

In the morning visited the local market. Lots of fruits, clothes, fish. When coming back saw a caged Slow Loris. In the afternoon visited the Bat Cave. Saw some bats and an orangutan. Now using donation-based wireless at a local Dutch-run orphanage for the victims of the year 2003 flood.

Tomorrow plan to go on a 2-day jungle trip to see the rest of the big 8 (elephant, rhino, tiger, asian wild dog, clouded leopard, two types of gibbon).

Donation based internet centre, Bukit Lawang, Sumatra

HOT, HOT, HOT!! It is really not the good weather here for us. Too humid. Too hot. But i guess there is no jungle experience without that... We are on the border of the Gunung Leuser National Park in Northern Sumatra in a small village. It IS very touristy, even some students come here from the main town Medan to celebrate. So last night instead of sleeping we had to listen to a techno party, followed by an Indonesian karaoke that finished only early in the morning. We were quite tired yesterday after the long bus trip under this climate so now we are really exhausted after a sleepless night. Today we looked around in the village, talked to a few locals who organize jungle trekking. One only can enter the Park with a guide, but then it is OK to camp there. So we are now about to book a few days trekking to get a glimpse at wild or semi wild orangutans, siamangs, macaques, hornbills, monitor lizards and turtles. Seeing a Sumatran tiger or a Sumatran rhino is very elusive, although there are a few living in the National Park here. Still it will be fun to give a try!!

Wisma Leuser Sibayak, Bukit Lawang

Jungle. Arrived 30min before sunset and massive rain that is still going on. Was a long travel day, tomorrow will rest.

Losmen Sibayak, Berastagi

Will go to Bukit Lawang today to visit the Gunung Leuser National Park to see some orang-utans, tigers, rhinoceroses. It will be a 7-hour journey as we have to go back to Medan to switch buses.

Losmen Sibayak, Berastagi, Sumatra

Traveled all day, by plane, walking and 3 types of minibuses. Now at the pleasant 1330m. Tomorrow visit the Karo villages.

New Cahaya Hotel, Surabaya

Every ten minutes an aeroplane is flying over our hotel making a horrible noise as if about to crash into the hotel.

This morning woke up at 3 o'clock and was taken by a jeep to the Mount Penanjakan (2,770m) viewing platform to witness the sunrise over the Tengger caldera. There were some 300 other jeeps, each carrying 6 people, so the viewing platform got quite crowded. (According to our driver it's usually not that crowded, but people seem to have holidays now.) The view was otherwise breathtaking just like Wikitravel promised.


Then climbed Mount Bromo again (had done it already yesterday, but then without the mass of tourists, and the horses that carry them up).

Back at Hotel Yoschi, had breakfast and took a 15-seater minibus to Probolinggo. A few minutes into the journey 7 more tourists were stuck into our bus as theirs had broken down. We were now 19 people + the driver. The caller guy had to travel outside the bus hanging onto the door while the bus was speeding downhill towards Probolinggo.

In Probolinggo we immediately hopped on a bus to Surabaya. The traffic was crazy, Csilla was in panic throughout the whole journey. The food vendors and bus musicians were around all the time, but as Surabaya is not that far the torture did not last that long. During the journey it turned out that the bus would make the final stop at the main Surabaya bus station which is far from the city centre but quite close to the airport. So we decided to go straight to the airport and try to get a flight to Sumatra in the same evening.

At the Surabaya bus station switched immediately to an airport bus. At the airport tried to buy a flight to Medan, but today's flights were already sold out.

So will spend the night in a hotel near the airport (under the landing path, it seems) and will fly to Sumatra tomorrow morning. This will be our final planned equator crossing, taking us to the northern hemisphere.

Yoschi's Hotel, Bromo

Pleasant 1750m und die besten Kartoffelgerichte (incl Roestis Istimewa). Today hike up to Mt Bromo. Tomorrow sunrise from Penanjakan.

Hotel Merbabu, Yogyakarta

Having breakfast (omelete sandwich + coffee) at the roof terrace of Hotel Merbabu. Will leave Jogja in 1h on a shuttle bus to the Cemoro Lawang (10h journey). From there we visit the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park (desert + many volcanoes, some inside other volcanoes). Looking forward to the cooler highland temperatures.

So what have we been doing in Jogja:

• Visited the Sultan's Palace (includes a gamelan+puppet show). Didn't learn much as all the descriptions in Indonesian (and Javanese?). Sultan likes to wear elvish ears, why?
  
• Visited a puppet factory. Similar flat shadow puppets as we saw in the Wayang Museum in Jakarta, but now saw closely how they are produced.
  
• Visited several batik studios. It's hard to avoid these as all the locals insist that one buys a batik. Learned a bit about the batik-technique.
  
• Visited the Maliboro Mall and played Dance Dance Revolution (I've always wanted to play this game)
  
• Visited the Pakualaman Palace. Pakualaman is a smaller kind of sultan (also wears elvish ears). Need to research its function more on Wikipedia, the adjacent museum had all the descriptions in local languages.
  
• Visited the Biology Museum (many stuffed local animals, incl. Malaysian Flying Lemur + skeleton of a dugong)
  
• Visited the Bird Market (in addition to birds, many caged gekos, bats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, cats, dogs, crickets, snakes, worms). The bats are the most impressive, in Australia and PNG they always flew too high to be easily observed.
  
• Saw the open air ballet of the Ramayana story at the Prambanan temples. Beautiful costumes and excellent arrow shooting skills of the central actors. Fortunately didn't rain.
  

Simple @ Net, Yogyakarta

Sweating like a pig... all day... the climate is really way too hot and humid here. It should be the dry season by now, but the daily rain would not stop. Got lucky this morning and had no precipitation during our early morning visit to Borobudur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur), the largest Buddhist temple in South-East Asia.

Got there for the opening of the gates at 6 am. Was a good idea as there were hardly any tourists and only a few early bird stalkers. The temple was very impressive! Really big! It takes almost 5 km to circle around all the 10 floors, during which one can admire 504 Buddha statues. The setting is also beautiful with many volcanoes around, one was even smoking! We had a guide for an hour who explained us a lot about the Buddhist symbolism that is everywhere in the temple.
On the top floor there were many kids from a local English language school, wanting to practice their language skills with foreigners under the watchful eyes of their teachers, as it was also a part of their final exam. Of course they also wanted to get their pictures taken with us. People are just crazy here for photos with muzungus... Later today Kaarel even got a baby pushed into his hands... just for a pic.. Now he would not take off his "funny hat" as he thinks that it is what gives the locals the kick. Most of the kids said they would put the photos to their facebook.

After Borobudur, we visited a Hindu temple complex Prambanan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan).


It was also quite impressive and again we were accompanied by students, keen on practicing their English. This time they were some sort of trainees, and knew quite a lot about the temples, so they escorted us during our whole visit. It is quite interesting that even though their speaking skills are quite good, their listening comprehension is quite bad, as they could hardly understand any of our questions.

In Yogya otherwise many people speak quite ok English. It is much smaller and more touristy than Jakarta, so it is not so surprising after all. It has also the negative effects of the stalkers who are also more aggressive, almost as much as in Africa.

Tomorrow we will probably visit the city and think about which volcano to climb. Javanese ballet is also on schedule, but maybe only the day after tomorrow.

Cafe Bento, Stasiun Gambir, Jakarta

Been exploring Jakarta for two days. Yesterday Monas (Monument Nasional) --- a huge tower in the middle of a huge square. After standing for an hour in a huge line, we could take a tiny lift (+/- 11 persons) to the top. Not much was visible (e.g. couldn't even see the sea properly) as there is too much smog. Then visited the largest mosque in South-East Asia (can hold up to 250,000 people during Ramadan). While we were there only a few people had come to take a nap escaping the hot/humid environment outside. Then observed a wedding in a Catholic church just across the street from the mosque. (Crossing this street took about 30 minutes, the traffic here is crazy and the city planners haven't done enough for the pedestrian, there are no sidewalks nor zebra crossings). Then took a tuk-tuk back to the Jalan Jaksa district where we currently stay, and fell asleep.

Today took a tuk-tuk to the Kota district. Hot and humid again. Ate an extremely spicy nasi ayam and drank a hot (!) orange juice. Was covered by sweat all over the body. Then visited the Wayang Museum (Javan puppetry) which was nicely air-conditioned. The Javan puppet tradition includes some 300 puppets which are all related in a complex genealogy. The puppets are flat, made of buffalo skin, full of holes to allow for a light-and-shadow play, painted on both sides in several bright colors, their hands can be manipulated by the puppeteer. The visit includes a puppet show which can be viewed from two sides, the shadow side and the "color" side. The performance is accompanied by an annoying percussion music.

Then walked to Sunda Kelapa (800-year old port) where a large number of large wooden ships were lined up by the quay. It started raining (it's been raining on and off all day). Wanted to take a tuk-tuk to a big Chinese temple (recommended to us by a puppet painter at the Wayang Museum) but failed to communicate this to our driver. So ended up at the Kota train station from where took a train to the Gambir station.

First impressions of Indonesia:

• very cheap (transportation, hotels, food);
• very good food, e.g. nasi goreng ayam (fried rice with chicken) which I learned to like already 4 years ago in Malaysia;
• people think that my hat is funny;
• people like to have their picture taken posing next to a tourist (they probably publish these photos on Facebook).

Tomorrow will take a 8h train to Yogyakarta.

Hotel Tator, Jakarta, Indonesia

Exhausted after 20h of traveling. First bits: many zeros on the money, many motobikes, cheap, Obama comes to visit soon.

Good Food Cafe, Cairns, Australia

Been relaxing in Cairns for a couple of days. We were here in 2006 when we took the scenic railway up to Kuranda and visited some nearby beaches (Trinity?). This time we just hung out by the pool of the hostel, went to movies once (Kickass), and to the free dinner (a simple pasta dish) at the Woolshed pub every evening. Tomorrow will fly all day, first to Sydney, and from there directly to Jakarta to start the last continent (Asia) on our trip.

Lutheran GH, Madang

Snorkled, fed eels and turtles in a sulphurus river, chewed buai, visited orchid gardens, ate taro and sweet potato. Tomorrow to Cairns.

Lutheran Gesthaus, Madang

Spent the day by the pool @ Madang Resort, and the evening drinking SP @ Coasties. Tomorrow snorkeling and Bilbil village visit.

Coasties restaurant, Madang

Ordered a jumbo pizza, too big, cannot finish. Earlier survived 7h in PMV. Road in the jungle barely passable. Tomorrow snorkle?

Computer shop, Goroka

Internet in PNG is very slow and expensive (10 USD per 1h), so we write shortly.

PNG is strikingly similar to East-Africa (that we visited in July and August last year). People speak English (the newspapers are all in English), there is no white man in sight (unless you go in to a fancier hotel, e.g. Bird of Paradise in Goroka), there are dala-dalas, market places look like a big pile of garbage, roadside produce stands feature fruits arranged in pyramid shape, people walk on the road, long distances, barefoot, to school or to work, men hold hands (sign of friendship?), roadside ads show the presence of cell phone networks, soap companies, Coca-Cola, and AIDS, people walk around in colorful clothing. The men look hostile with their beards and machetes (bush knife, as it is called here), and spitting red betelnut spit through their black teeth. But once you smile and wave and say "Abenun" ("Good Afternoon" in Tok Pisin), their respond by smiling and waving and saying "Abenun". The people are very welcoming in general.

At least this is the case in the Highlands. Tomorrow will go to Madang on the coast.

Lutheran Guesthouse, Goroka

Today 5h in a 25-seater PMV. Most passangers chew betelnut, otherwise like dala-dala. Road through green hills, many potholes.

Magic Mountain lodge

Today visited Paiya village: met chief, watched half-naked women dance, had mumu, saw caged cuscus. Tomorrow morning PMV to Goroka (4h).

Magic Mountain lodge, Western Highlands

Visited Pinta village, people welcoming. Saw a caged cassowary. Evening show: courting ritual: singing+face-rubbing.

Kumul lodge, Enga province

Alt 1800m. Cold and humid. Watching a brown sicklebill, some parrots, etc on the birdfeeder. Dinner in 1h. Rais bilong yumi?

Hotel Gateway, Pt Moresby

Our flight was cancelled. Next try tomorrow at 8.45am. Staying in a fancy hotel (with pool) paid by Air Niugini.