The Great Jungle Trek

I spent my birthday in the jungle!

We had two guides who were amazing- one of whom carried Addi the entire way- both of whom made us work to keep up. They led us up and down steep slippery jungle trails for about 5 hours- in which time we saw several orangutans (including the feared and infamous Mina) several Thomas Leif monkeys (the grey one in the attached photos) and macaw (which I think I am spelling wrong). We climbed over trees, waded through waterfalls, slipped on mud, and tried to embrace the thigh burn. They taught us a bit about the medicinal plants we passed and pulled a leech off of Jim's leg...which was a bloody ordeal. I had brushed the 50 ants off of him earlier in the day all by myself- no help from the guides there! (Some trees were coated with ants and if you didn't notice before you grabbed an ant tree for support, you were also coated with ants- instantly).

Speaking of ants, our guide made us smell a giant ant that orangutans and humans eat to settle diarrhea. I was hesitant...but we all sniffed it. This ant smelled like ammonia! The scent was so strong it literally made our eyes water.

At the end of the trek, our guides and we jumped onto three inner tubes tied together and white water rafted back to town. The cool water was a welcome reward. It was amazing fun and fearless Addi loved it.

I can tell that I am too tired to do this day justice in a blog, and I know my photos don't do it...but it was an amazing experience. One I would highly recommend...but suggest you are in good shape for! I can say now that I'm glad we didn't do the two day trek!....our soft-ish bed is much a needed reward!

I trekked the jungle. I did not turn old today! :-)

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6.5 Hours Later...

After 6.5 hours, we found an ATM that would allow us to withdraw money with a Bank of America debit card. I'm not exaggerating. I am actually rounding down. As I mentioned yesterday, the closest ATM was 25 miles away...but as it turns out, that one doesn't take visa debit (which is what BOA is) so we drove and tried and drove and tried and drove and tried until we were almost back to Medan (the city we flew into...three hours away). OMG. We can't possibly be the first people to arrive in Bukit Lawang without a ton of cash...but no one made sure we left the airport prepared for a cash-only-experience, so maybe we are?! Our driver was a great sport and we got to see some of the countryside, so cup half full.

This part of the adventure gives me a chance to describe the driving here. It is like nothing on Earth. Let's see....roads are paved and in decent condition. The vehicles are: some cars, some huge trucks, some pedestrians, but primarily mopeds carrying anywhere from 1 to 5 people or anything from 1500 eggs to 15 rolled up carpets- no lie. Technically one should drive on the left, and technically there is one lane for each direction. Technically. The entire drive was complete mayhem. We spent as almost as much time on the right as on the left. There was usually a swarm of bikes coming at us and zipping around us and swirling around each other. It got really interesting when we passed a car or a truck or became three cars wide on this two lane street packed with crazies. It was exhausting. I may try to capture it on film, but don't think it can be done.

Now with that story out of the way, I should say we had a great Valentines Day. We woke up to the sound of the waterfall, took a short walk in the jungle and had breakfast outdoors with the monkeys. Jim and Addi gave me some pretty earrings from Malaysia ...and then we had our 6.5 hour adventure.

We hope you had a great Valentines Day too!

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Bukit Lawang, Sumatra. THIS Is The Place We Have Been Looking For.

Imagine if you will....We were dangling our feet on the edge of the tropical white water river, watching the locals float by on tubes, giggling at the grey monkeys swinging on jungle vines and bouncing from rock to rock when out of the deep green jungle, less than 50 feet away, appeared a big orange orangutan. He walked slowly along the bank across the river for about 3 minutes before he disappeared back into the vegetation. THIS is the place we have been looking for.

For US$50/ night we have the"Honeymoon Suite" at the Jungle Inn. It is a huge and quirky freestanding room with a hammock overlooking a private waterfall, a warning to close doors and windows to keep out cheeky monkeys, no A/C and no hot water. It is only accessible by foot and requires a sweaty 15 minute trek through a small village. No mosquitoes to speak of. THIS is the place we have been looking for.

We are so remote that people not only asked for Addi's photo but also for Jim's. With my brown hair and brown eyes, no one asked to take a picture with me...but someone did ask if I was Mexican. We are so remote that there is no cable television, locals travel 2 hours to shop, credit cards are not an option and the closest ATM is 25 miles away. I wish we knew that before arriving...but we didn't...so I have a 1 hour road trip ahead of me to go to an ATM. Lesson learned, but I can't even complain because THIS is the place we have been looking for.

Jim's latest caper was man versus monkey. He made eye contact with a grey monkey and swears he was engaged in a stare down. Next thing I know, Jim is running away. The other thing I know is that that monkey didn't move an inch. Jim is convinced, however, that the little monkey was after him. Hysterical! THIS is the place we have been looking for!

US$112 is worth 1,000,000 Indonesian Rupiah. That makes us mega millionaires...maybe even billionaires! THIS is the place we have been looking for!

Jim and I agreed that there is no reason to rush out of here for an 8 hour drive to Danau Toba...so we won't. We extended our stay here to 4 nights to really soak it in. We didn't capture the orangutan on film because we weren't expecting it. Next time. Even so, photos don't do it justice. A few initial shots are attached. Our front door, the river, our private waterfall, the thick jungle surrounding us, and Jim's monkey foe.

(Despite all of the 'remoteness' there is great 3G in the village- a quick hike away! Woohoo!)

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Off to Indonesia

We will trade the concrete jungle for the real one in Sumatra, Indonesia. I don't believe we will have internet for a while, so here is the general itinerary:
-Bukit Lawang, Sumatra for a few days. Deep tropical jungle. Orangutan sanctuary, waterfalls and jungle treks.
-Danau Toba, Sumatra for a few days. A 1,700 km sq lake, steamy volcanic peaks, mountain treks, rice paddies, Batak villages. Not exactly sure how we will get there or where we will stay but we will figure it out.
-Someplace to relax and snorkel for a few days, TBD. Sabah, Bali, Krabi...not sure.
This open-endedness is pushing my comfort zones big time, but it seems to be the only way to do it and is part of the adventure. Right?!. (Mantra: embrace the personal growth. Embrace the personal growth. Repeat.)

After much thought and deliberation, I decided against Banda Aceh, which lost 170,000 people along 800 km of coastline in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Sharia Law was implemented in Aceh in 2009 and although all of the books, bloggers, and official websites say that it is an amazing spot and religious police leave tourists alone, I couldn't get comfortable with the possibility of 40 lashes for alcohol consumption. I can't decide if I am disappointed in myself for this decision or not. I think I am.

Anyways....I will write entries along the way, but won't likely be able to post them for several days (possibly not until 2/21 from Cambodia). So- happy Valentines Day and talk soon!

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Melaka- Malaysia's History

We hired a taxi for the day and headed 2 hours south to Malaysia's first capitol- Melaka. It was a gorgeous drive through dense palm forests and rolling hills. Monsoon season is just ending here so everything is beautifully lush and green. Melaka is twice the size of KL with 3 million but definitely has more of a small town feel.

Midway between China and India, Melaka was the first major trade port in SE Asia. With the prime location, came several brutal invasions and conquests first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, the Japanese and probably someone else that I am forgetting. The city holds SE Asia's oldest Christian church and Malaysia's oldest Muslim mosque and Hindu temple. We toured all of these as well as a history museum and replica of the Portuguese ship that held all of the city's stolen treasures. It promptly sank en route to Portugal and has never been recovered. We saw dozens of insanely decorated modified bikes called trishaws...but they were expensive and we already had a cab, so...we just ogled.

We finished up a hot but educational day with a visit to a traditional Malaysian home. There is an entire neighborhood filled with these little wood houses- it was very charming. The owner of the house we visited dragged Jim around to tell him how old everything was, what he bought it for 'back when', and what it is worth now. And let me tell you...well...Bonnye, Nina and any other antique fans...perhaps you should start looking at Malaysian antiques! :-).

We learned alot on this excursion but Addi was quickly bored and didn't much enjoy the weather approaching 100F and 100% humidity. Couldn't really blame her!

I regret that we are leaving Malaysia without getting out of the cities to see any of the central rural or coastal parts of the country. Our experience is kind of like visiting New York and Boston and saying you've seen the North East. We will be doing alot of hopping around in Indonesia and Cambodia though, so I thought base-camping was important for Addi.

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Petronas Towers and KLCC

The Petronas Towers were once the tallest skyscrapers in the world (now they place fifth) and are the classic symbol of the KL skyline. We made sure we got a good look today, but didn't bother to go in. Tickets are limited daily and you are only allowed to go as high as the sky-bridge. We had been more than 3x that high in the KL Tower two days prior so felt satisfied that we had seen the best view.

In the shadow of the Petronas Towers is a giant and beautiful park (the KLCC) with fountains, walking paths, a splash park and the most extensive playground/ jungle gym system I have ever seen (and we have seen alot of them!). We didn't go to the splash park because the fun police were there with whistles making sure no kid actually did anything fun...but we put some sweat equity into playground exploration and left after a couple of hours to cool off at the hotel pool (outdoors).

I guess I should report that we checked out the 6 story world-famous high-end Syria KLCC mall. We are not big shoppers, so left without having bought anything but one of those little merry-go round rides for Addi. This city is generally well known for high end shopping and is loaded with similarly fancy malls. Without us caring much about that type of attraction, we feel we have worn KL out (except for a zoo and an aquarium- both of which mommy needs a break from). Not to fear, we are hopping a bus to Melaka (2 hr down the coast) tomorrow to see something new.

PS: My Dad asked how we navigated public transportation with the language barrier, and I realized that I hadn't mentioned that almost everyone speaks English here (as their second language). Signs are generally in English as well so it's been pretty easy to get around, ask questions, negotiate, etc.

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Correction, Addi's Hijab and Batik Art.

Let me start with a correction. Yesterday I said that we were not finding Malaysia (more specifically, Kuala Lumpur) to be low cost. Now, two days in, I need to correct that. We made two cost saving errors in our first day that any well traveled person knows not to make when pinching pennies:
1. We went every where by taxi
2. We ate at the tourist attractions. Today, using public transport and eating local food made for locals, I found myself thinking 'wow! Everything is so cheap!'

Jim worked today, so Addi and I explored Little India, Merdeka Square, Central Market and Chinatown- all close enough together to walk.

Little India was crazy with Bollywood tunes blasting from windows, curry and incense smells filling the streets, gorgeous saris filling store windows, and amazing colored textiles billowing out of street vendor stalls. We stopped to look (I wanted to buy a head scarf for Indonesia) and Addi, the most photographed child in SE Asia, was swarmed by the 5 people in the stall. Before I knew it she had a bright red hijab (Muslim head wrap) on and everyone was cooing. They told me it was "free for her!" and asked if they could stitch it up to fit properly around the chin. Addi was having a blast and it was all in good fun so I said sure!

We went from there-hajib headed toddler and all-to Merdeka Square. Described as a colonial historical spot, it wasn't exceptionally interesting. We saw an old building or two and the flagpole where the first independent Malaysian flag was raised, but we didn't stay long.

Addi got hot in her new get-up and took it off before we made it to Central Market which is a huge indoor handicrafts center. We found a Batik artist who, for $3US, did a Batik painting with Addi. She had a blast, but I could tell that the imprecision of a three year old was making him uncomfortable. He kept trying to help/ take over and correcting her color choices. It was a riot! The painting came out great- pics attached!

Chinatown was like any other big Chinatown, so I wont write much. It is very very very very hot and humid here so we refreshed with an ice cream before heading home to Jim. The last photo on this blog is on more than a dozen Malaysian cell phone cameras as well. Maybe I should start charging?

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