From the category archives:
The jungle town of Bukit Lawang has a rocky river flowing through it. Not so long ago, a flash flood in the river wiped away most of the town. But now, on the weekends, locals flock from Medan to cool off in this tropical rainforest river.
And one more pic of Bukit Lawang village over the jump…
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I’m getting behind on blog… so much to write about. We’ll get back to Aceh soon, but now I’m backtracking to writing about Bukit Lawang in North Sumatra, where I went searching for Sumatran orangutans in the wild.
It’s easy to arrange a hike in Bukit Lawang… people start trying to coerce you into one the minute you arrive in the little jungle town because its one of the main ways for locals to make money. Everyone who comes to Bukit Lawang comes for one reason alone — to see orangutans. Anything else, like the relaxed charms of the little place, are just a bonus.
Photos of orangutans after the jump…
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Zen Inn, Padangbai, Bali
I’ve been backpacking around Indonesia and Malaysia for 2.5 months now, so I’ve stayed in my fair share of cheap but clean guesthouses, dirty losmen, flashpacker hostels and wherever else one can rest your head for (ideally) less than $10 a night (no airports or train stations though, like I did on my Europe trip in 2006).
Most of them are very basic affairs. Bare walls, creaky old beds, a mandi or cold shower in the bathroom and a Western-style toilet if I’m lucky. However, some of them have a fair bit more colour or panache than others.
So here’s some recommendations and photos of some of the cooler places I have stayed so far on this journey…
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I was on one of my walks through Tuk-Tuk, the town on the peninsula of the island in the middle of North Sumatra’s majestic Lake Toba, when I decided to stop for some lunch.
There are so many cafes in the little town and during quiet season most of them are empty. Nearly every house has a cafe at the front and guestrooms at the back. I wandered and wandered until I found a little place called Alyssa Cafe, which only had five solid wood tables and was manned by a woman feeding her baby. I decided to stop there and take a seat.
While we waited for the little boy to finish getting his rice porridge from mum, his older sister, only about 6 or 7, bought me over a menu and a cold bottle of water from the fridge. I asked her mum what she recommended and she said the curry. So I chose pork curry.
By then, the little boy, who was in a walker and was less than a year old, had finished eating, and as his mum cleaned his face, I noticed he had a raw gash on his face right across his mouth that made him cry when it was cleaned. I asked his mother what had happened. She said that she was making breakfast for some customers that morning and left the boy next door with his dad, who carves traditional Batak wood sculptures to sell to tourists. While dad was working, the little boy had inadvertently picked up one of his sharp tools to have a play and stuck it in his mouth. Thankfully he hadn’t done any more damage, but his face was still raw. She hadn’t been able to go buy any medicine for it yet, she said.
Kids in tow, the mother went into the kitchen to cook my curry. The little boy was upset and irritable and was crying to be picked up and held the whole time, but mum was busy cooking. I almost felt bad for coming there and ordering food when she was so busy with the kids, but then I figured my custom would help pay for the medicine.
My pork curry arrived and smelled delicious.
It tasted brilliant as well. The curry had a strong lemongrass kick to it, as well as some local leaves in the sauce which really made it special. It was also novel for me to eat pork curry… because the Batak people are primarily Christian, unlike the Muslim majority in Indonesia, pork was on the menu at many spots around Lake Toba. It’s usually hard to find.
But as soon as the dish had been put down in front of me, all of a sudden this little fellow jumps on to my table, protesting loudly with hungry meows.
The mother rushed out of the kitchen and grabbed the kitten off the table saying: “Angry cat! Now I have to feed him!”
There’s always too many mouths to feed, right?
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I’ve just returned to Medan from spending three days at Danau Toba (Lake Toba) in North Sumatra, which is a five hour car trip from the city. Wow. It’s the world’s largest volcanic lake, set 900m above sea level, and in the middle of the lake is an island the size of Singapore. So I stayed in the town of Tuk-Tuk, set on a peninsula on this island-within-an-island, and spent my days swimming, relaxing and walking around the village, spying the pointy curvy roofs and traditional Christian churches of the local Batak people.
You’d never guess that the erupting volcano that created this stunning, peaceful lake some 70,000 years ago apparently changed the world’s climate and, according to some scientists, killed most of the humans alive at that time.
The Bataks are extremely hospitable and friendly, and are very happy when tourists come to see the place they call home. Not just to get money out of them (though of course there are many people trying to make a living out of not-enough tourists here, like in many parts of Indonesia), but also because it broadens the range of hearty conversations had in the cafes and bars in the little towns on the edge of this huge lake. Batak men seem to be permanently attached to their guitars, so in the evenings, it is possible to hear acoustic music floating on the breeze off the lake, down the streets and through the village, from boats, piers or shops. At one warung I went past, a large group of men sat singing together, two on guitars, the others singing in absolutely beautiful harmonies. I asked one if they were in a choir and he said (impeccable English is spoken by so many here too) “nah, we just like to hang out and sing.”
Many of the Batak boys are bold and cheeky, and rather flirty, so for groups of women or solo women travelers they might seem a bit forward, especially compared to the manners in some other parts of Indonesia, but I didn’t have any problems at all and found them very respectful, even in their cheeky way.
I got so much into the chilled vibe in Tuk-Tuk that I forgot to take my camera out with me most days (also because I swam a lot). So I was a bad photographer. But it is a beautiful place (as well as very affordable) and I’d highly recommend it as a very relaxing holiday destination.
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I'm Ashlee, an Australian journalist-type obsessed with travel, food and photography. After spending 21 months living and working in Indonesia, I'm back in Australia for a while. From August, I will be a graduate student at American University's School of International Service in Washington D.C.
Sometimes I do serious work, but not usually on this blog.
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