Our time in Indonesia

Greg:

I feel a bit silly trying to sum up our impressions of Indonesia. During the course of just under three weeks (Nov 24 -Dec 11) we spent time on three different islands. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with a bit less than a quarter of a billion people spread over 17,000 islands.

You can find in the map our three destinations: Bali, Lombok, and northern Sumatra.

Credit: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/asia/indonesia/

Bali and, to a lesser extent, Lombok have a well developed tourist vibe to them. Bali, you may recall is where we spent time with Cynthia's family, and Lombok is home to Mt Rinjani as documented by Tam and Elle (thanks again for your excellent guest post!).

Following our descent from the mountain, Max and I were reunited with Cynthia and Thomas and we soon settled into a well-run backpacker hangout situated on one of Lombok's many beaches. (http://www.santaibeachinn.com).

Bungalow for Cynthia & Greg

and a second floor bungalow for Max & Thomas!

Perhaps the most adventurous activity among our group was Max's foray into surfing. Not surprisingly, Max picked it up quickly.

With a bit of help from an instructor, Max caught on quickly.

Following Cynthia's detailed examination of our South-East Asia on a Shoestring, we set out for Bituk Lawang, a small village deep in the heart of northern Sumatra with hopes of seeing a wild orangutan or two.

Cynthia: and so our jungle adventure began...

We arrived into this riverside jungle town late on December 7th and the fun started enroute to our reserved inn named "On the Rocks". With packs on our backs we headed upstream in the dark and traversed a long skinny and wobbly suspension bridge via flashlight.

My relief upon seeing the sign of our guesthouse was short lived however, as the sign lay "below the rocks" as it were, at the bottom of a winding staircase of 263 steps. (counted by Max and Thomas several times during our 4 days here!)

Watch for broken planks! Seriously.

The sign indicates the beginning of a healthy climb.

Over the next days we enjoyed the scenic view of the rainforest right outside our thatch-roofed bungalows and even spotted the occasional clan of monkeys swinging from tree to tree.

A view of Bituk Lawang from the path up to our guesthouse.

Just after taking the previous picture above, a noticed a group of cheeky monkeys.

Needless to say, I liked staying at this guesthouse on the edge of the jungle.

The staff of good-natured young men engaged Max in daily games of Takrow (akin to hacky-sack on a badminton court) and arranged a few days of outdoor adventure for us including afternoon of tubing down the shallow but rushing river and a trek through the rain forest in the adjacent national park.

Boys writing in their journals under Cyn's supervision.

Picture by Thomas. The cat on the right was very pregnant.

While in Myanmar we played basic hacky sack using a takraw, the guys at On the Rocks made a court and played it competitively.

Naturally, we have come to expect that things on the backpacker tour of Southeast Asia are sometimes a little rough round the edges. We have become accustomed to a little, and sometimes more than a little, grime here and there. We are also used to taking on a bit more risk than things back home, eg: paucity of seatbelts in taxis, etc. It didn't completely surprise us that if we wanted life jackets for the boys for tubing it would cost extra. As Greg aptly stated at the start of our excursion, "this ain't no Disney ride, boys". This sentiment was reinforced several times along our tour of the river when we floated by a monkey carcass in the fallen tree along the bank and later floated under a bridge where a gang of frolicking, unsupervised, bucknaked, little boys were jumping off the bridge into the water. We smiled to ourselves and remarked that back in Winnipeg this scene might prompt a call to 911 on a few levels but here it seemed innocent and healthy, if only a little risky.

Our jungle trek through the rain forest the next day was eventful as well. We had just left the hotel ground property and were heading toward the park when a small pack of dogs surrounded our guide, Greg and Max (Thomas and I were trailing behind 30 meters or so). I heard barking and growling and saw one dog take a nip at Max's ankle. Needless to say, Indonesia has a much higher prevalence of rabies and we took this "nip" quite seriously. Thankfully we had all gone through the bother of several rabies vaccinations in preparation for the trip which makes post-bite treatment a lot less complicated and supposedly more readily available. But things are never simple here.

That's iodine, not blood, to be found on Max's ankle.

I'll try to make this long story short:

1. After coming back from the two local clinics/pharmacies empty handed, we considered treatment a three hour drive away.
2. According to the locals, we ought to just wait two weeks and if the dog dies from rabies then we should treat Max, besides--it really was just a little "nip".
3. The dog was owned by an apologetic and responsible French woman who was waiting for us upon our return to the hotel. It turned out she owned the rubber tree plantation through which our guide chose to cut across. The dogs are trained to guard the property and the owner, ready to show us the vet papers, stated that all her dogs get regular rabies shots annually. After speaking with her we were much relieved that Max was not at risk and did not require the treatment. Two hours later we departed once more on our jungle trek with an extra guide and sans the shortcut through the rubber tree plantation of course.

And what a rewarding trek it was. Within thirty minutes we spotted a mother and young orangutan high in the treetops.

Mother, high up in a tree.

This young orangutan followed us for awhile, but generally kept himself out of view.

Further on we saw many of another monkey species called "Thomas Leaf" monkeys and we caught a rare glimpse of a Great Hornbill.

A Great Hornbill.

The jungle vines were as thick and invasive as you could imagine and the air was moist and earthy. Up over the hilltops and down over the cool streams we trundled along, stopping for lunch and breaks of tropical fruit toted by the guides.

Thomas leaf monkey.

The rain came in the afternoon which was a welcome, but messy cool down. I must admit, I was glad we did not opt for the two day trek with a camp overnight and relished the cool shower and dry! soft bed with mosquito netting of our grassy wood planked hut. Enough green jungle adventure for now I thought, we're ready for Kuala Lumpur and the urban jungle....

View of Kuala Lumpur

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