How exciting, after a month in the Indonesian forest fire haze, we can finally see some blue sky and sunshine again.
We left KL yesterday after saying a sad goodbye to Paul, and came to the Cameron Highlands (which are closed for renovations…) to escape the heat for a bit
Unfortunately it’s all closed here so we’re off to Penang today.
A bigger update to come soon.
Dm
So we found a way out of Indonesia without the famed Mr Lim’s Onion Boat, using the soon to be famous Mr Ade’s high speed ferry!
I’m still not sure what Ade really does, but I think he’s at least a part time fixer, that is someone who matches needs and solutions for a fee.
In this case the fee was aud$300 for us and the bike plus aud$50 (he wanted $100!) for loading and unloading services.
He’s one of these shifty guys who carries a bum bag everywhere, he knows everyone, and works out of nowhere and everywhere.
We’re not in Malaysia yet so there may still be more costs, I’m expecting an argument when we arrive for extra money to unload the bike… We’ll see.
The ferry we’re on is quite small, 25 rows of 6 people, and by Indo standards quite luxurious. It’s non smoking and came with meals and water, and the toilet doesn’t make me want to vomit when I go in there. From the inside it looks a bit like an aeroplane, reclining seats, domed roof and narrow centre aisle.
Betsy wouldn’t fit inside so they put her on the front, where she’s currently being jet blasted with salt water. Hopefully not much goes in the exhaust pipe or we’ll have a long afternoon getting going again!
To get her into the bow of the boat, they used a rickety old ramp, half of which was on the Jetty, and the other half in the boat (with a gap between rhe boat and jetty just wide enougb to swalliw a bike).
Betsy was wheeled onto the first half while being held onto by about 8 guys, then the ramp was tilted like a seasaw with Betsy in the middle, skidding along the oily railing of the boat, and she was then wheeled down into the boat, lifted up and the seasaw was extracted. The reverse should be interesting (scary).
Last night we stayed in a very small room above the office of the ferry company, just big enough for a bed with no windows or bathroom (public mandi downstairs), but for $3/night we couldn’t complain… not much anyway.
For all the time we’ve been here I still expect things to happen just because someone told me they would, like a man coming this morning at 7am to drain my full fuel tank. I waited until almost 8 before the guys in the ferry office eventually helped me. The tank is supposed to be completely empty before liading on a boat (“safety first”) – I’d forgotten this rule yesterday and filled up with cheap Indo fuel (73c/lt), so was a bit miffed about having to empty it again, knowing we’d get nowhere near full price for it.
Anyway, the siphon hose they had was quite short so we only got about 8lt out (it takes 33) which they seemed happy with, leaving me with an almost still full tank 🙂 Fortunately no one checked at the harbour.
It’s such a huge relief to be on our way, if this hadn’t worked out we may have needed to ride back to Jakarta and crate the bike to send by container, with the obligatory days of waiting and total screw around that pervades trying to get something accomplished here.
So it’s good, now we have a couple of days to look around southern Malaysia before heading to Sepang for the Motogp.
Looking forward to seeing my bro there too !!
Tira Valentino!!
Holy cow we’re on the boat, Betsy is tied to the front and we’re moving, what a relief!!
We just processed customs, waiting for the ferry now. Apparently it’s quite small so we probably won’t get onto it.
Bigger boat tomorrow they tell us. In the meantime we’re good staring material for the locals.
So why are we even here if today’s boat is too small? Very good question, we don’t know, sometimes you just have to go with it.
The Punk Monkey, (otherwise known as a Thomas Leaf Monkey).
We’re sitting by the side of the river in Bukit Lawang, Sal is writing her journal and I’m writing this, there’s half a bag of unshelled roasted peanuts between us, a cold bintang and the smell of insect repellant in the air.
The beer is terrible, but the scenery, peanuts and company make it quite nice, and we’ve just had an unforgettable couple of days walking in the Taman Glucier National Park, one of only two places remaining in the world where you can see an orange orangutan.
Orangutan is an Indonesian word, which literally translates as person of the forest, or jungle people, and seeing them up close it’s really clear how closely we’re related.
We set off yesterday morning on a 2 day trek as they call it, really it’s just a walk in the forest with an overnight camp and then a raft trip back. Based on the experience I had here last time, along with the persistent sales pitches from the annoying guides we’d met, I didnt have high expectations. As we were setting off, with Sal asking how we so often get ourselves into these situations, I regretted suggesting the whole thing.
But about an hour into the walk, the guides quickly ushered us along the forest paths in a new direction while making strange noises and muttering things between them in bahasa, and there was Sandra, one of the Ornagutangs that lives close to the Bukit Lawang village.
She was quite tame, obviously accustomed to having people nearby, and the guides gave her some small pieces of banana and sugar cane while we took some pictures. High in the forest canopy there was another shaking and we were showered with leaves and bits of tree as another adolescent orangutang approached playing with Sandra’s baby, a tiny male. He then came over and hung off Sandra as she chewed some food and passed it into his mouth from hers. Pretty amazing to see from a few metres away. She eventually retreated back into the canopy and we continued on our walk.
Up very steep tracks in single file, and then down the next ravine, up and down all day. Holding onto vines as we lost our footing, left dangling in mid air a couple of times, once I looked up hearing Sal screaming, to see her swinging from a vine like Tarzan, a few metres off the path and about 5m off the ground!
We frequently spotted Orangutangs, Pig Tailed Macacs, Thomas Leaf Monkeys, Long Tailed Macacs, Baboons, and many others I don’t remember the names of, but it was the last encounter with an orangutang that we won’t forget.
Jackie is a rescued Orangutang, reintroduced into the forest about 7 years ago, who likes to hold hands with other girls. She came down from the canopy quite late in the day to see us, and as the guides tried to make us run away towards the next clearing, she took hold of Sally’s arm and walked with her to sit down on a fallen tree, together with her tiny baby hanging onto her back.
Jackie held Sal’s wrist with her left hand, while eating bits of potato and banana with the right. Her baby then followed suit and grapped one of Sal’s fingers while trying to suckle on Sal’s elbow!! I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen such a broad smile on Sal’s face, she was in heaven!
We were in a group of 6 people though, so after a while Sal tried to get Jackie to let go so someone else could sit next to her, but Jackie didn’t want a bar of it. She just held on tighter and kept munching away while her baby swung around her head and shoulders.
Once the food ran out, Jackie took Sal’s fingers into her mouth and started to bite at her finger nails! It was priceless. The guides seemed a little concerned, after all, an orangutang is a wild animal, and an incredibly strong one at that, so they put a little pile of food about ten metres away to try to distract Jackie.
Which it did, but she tried to drag Sal over there with her, and got quite agitated when the guides tried to stop her, I was having visions of Jackie swinging in the trees, a banana in one foot, her baby holding on tight and Sal still held by the wrist screaming in the air!
“how am I going to explain this to Keith and Jules?!” I was wondering
“first the grizzly bear with Katie, and now Sal gets taken by an orangutang…”
There was quite a commotion, and the guides were all making monkey type noises and then one produced a slingshot, which made Jackie let go and Sal made her escape.
Apparently when she was captive, her kidnappers used a slingshot to hurt her, so just seeing one now is enough to scare poor Jackie. Jungle Book style ending averted, we continued along the path towards our camp for the night…
They dont call it a rain forest for no reason, so when the drops started to fall the guides were prepared with big plastic bags to put our packs into, and on we went, completely saturated within seconds.
“Wear sturdy walking shoes, with long pants tucked into your socks” the guidelines stated… so of course Sally was wearing shorts and flip flops. Which she’d been doing amazingly well with all day (not wanting to ruin a pair of new Sketchers we had packed), but when the rain started it all got a bit too slippery and the new shoes came out, much to her dislike.
“I dont want to wear long pants and shoes. Stupid”
We arrived at the camp around dusk, with just enough light left for a swim and a wash in the river. The camp guides Ollo and Ali produced a feast for dinner and kept us entertained until late in the night with games and singing.
What an amazing day 🙂
And right on cue, it’s 6:30pm and the thunder and lightning has started and the rain is pouring again. Welcome to the rainy season!
Sally here…I’ve just read Deans entry and I just want to add that I was so excited to be held by Jackie and Dean is right…I smiled so much, it was like a dream come true 🙂
The jungle experience has left our Indonesia trip on a high as we ride tomorrow to the port where we will get a boat to Malaysia.
Aftér a couple of months here we’ll miss the smiling faces, the lush scenery and most of all the sambal.
We won’t miss the trucks, the traffic or the bintang beer, (although some of the traffic did still put a smile on our faces!)
DCIM100DRIFT
Cleaning the bike can only mean one thing…
Yes we’re shipping to Malaysia!
After another long day battling the traffic on the trans Sumateran highway, we arrived in Tanjung Balai and went to see the ferry company.
Many phone calls later we followed someone to see customs at the port, who told us that tomorrow’s boat is too small and we’d have to wait another day… maybe.
Much pleasing and promises to make the bike smaller by removing luggage and possibly the wheels too (what the?!), and we’re back on tomorrow’s boat. Probably.
The boat is a passenger ferry so it should be interesting getting it through the door 🙂
They’re almost done, gotta go, more on the blog soon about the amazing time we had in the rainforest at Bukit Lawang.
xo
We’re having a down day today to rest our sore bums before the longish ride to Bukit Lawang, looking into going to the Sepang MotoGP and organising the onward bike shipping to Penang.
It turns out that the boat we had planned to use for the shipping has been seized by Indonesian customs, and they have no idea how long it will be before it’s released.
AWESOME. Well at least the bike wasn’t on the boat when it was seized!!
Not sure how we are going to get it to Malaysia now 🙁
After a few well deserved beers Dean becomes at one with nature and investigates the local fauna…
Well here we are in shitsville again, camped out in a filthy hotel on the road between Bukkitingi and Lake Toba.
the view from the bed.
I don’t use the word filthy lightly, and am not usually fond of particularly nice hotels, but in this case the word filth is justified. Nothing in this place has been cleaned for years, except possibly the floor, although that could be just that the parts that are walked on cant grow mould.
I won’t go into it too much, except to say that I had to drag Sal over to reception to see for herself, a dark brown patch on the (once) white wall caused by the owner leaning his dirty head against it over the years.
Sal has her t shirt wrapped around the pillow so she doesnt need to actually touch it, and the wall next to the bed looks like someone has been bouncing a mud soaked ball against it for hours.
“see babe, stick with me and I’ll take you to all the fancy places…”
Enough about that, the last few days have actually been a drastic improvement over Eastern Sumatra and Java, we’ve been riding in the jungle on windy roads leading to Padang, then onto Bukkitingi and the Harau valley, and today towards lake Toba. The only shame, and it’s a big one, has been the constant smoke in the air from the fires in east Sumatra, it’s been gorgeous, but really hard to see anything.
What else…?
As I said, the ride today was really pretty, with the only hiccup being a flat tyre quite late in the day. The end of a broken pair of scissors went into the rear tyre and cut a slice about 2cm long in the tube. We arent carrying a spare rear tube, so I patched it and hopefully it holds until I can find another one.
The state of this room is quite distracting, I might add another picture…
this is the wall I was talking about, that’s the bed in the lower lhs corner.
and this is the bathroom…
“but where’s the shower?” I hear you ask. Well let me explain.
That little trough in the corner is filled with water, and you use the filthy green plastic scooper that’s resting on it to pour water onto yourself to wash and rinse.
I have no problem at all with this system as a concept, it’s kinda fun to splash water all over the place and yourself, makes you feel like a little kid again. However in this case the plastic scooper also gets used to flush the toilet.
Which is also not a problem. So long as you stay a little distance away from it so any splash back doesnt get back to your hands or the scooper.
It’s the third use for the plastic scooper that leaves me feeling a little disconcerted. If you’re particularly astute you may have seen that there’s no toilet paper, not even a dispenser.
“so how do you wipe your bum?” I hear you asking…
Well let me explain 🙂
Using your RIGHT hand, you take a scoop full of water with the (multipurpose) filthy green plastic thingy, you stand with your legs apart and lean forwards from the toilet, holding the scooper in front of you roughly between your knees, and place your LEFT hand behind you, and under the scooper. Then pour some water from the scooper into your cupped LEFT hand and use that water to wash your bum. Pour more water, splash some more, pour more, splash more and so on, until the scooper is empty or you’re satisfied that you’ve got all the poo off (sorry Mum).
Then still using your RIGHT hand get a few more scoops of water to flush the toilet, and return the filthy green thingy to the top of the filthy trough, ready to be used to wash the rest of yourself later on.
You have to try it before you knock it, and having tried it myself I can testify that it’s very effective, and actually leaves you feeling quite fresh! It also keeps your right hand away from any hot spots so you can safely use it to eat with later in the day… (insert vomiting noise here).
EXCEPT THAT YOU INEVITABLY SPLASH SOME OF YOUR POO ALL OVER THE PLACE, INCLUDING ON THE PLASTIC SCOOPER.
If there were a different scooper for washing and toileting (genius?!), it might not be so bad, or if the scooper got a wash (or was replaced!) everytime the room was changed that might also be ok.
However using a scooper that’s covered in other peoples shit, to wash myself – is not cool.
Did I mention that the water in the trough has insects breeding in it?
Enough about that.
Another curious thing about indonesia is the numeber of Mosques. They are everywhere, every kilometer of a built up area will have at least one Mosque, with as many load speakers as the local electricity supply can drive screaming out verses from the Koran at levels of distortion that defy my literary ability to describe.
And even where there are already so many mosques, they are building more mosques, built using the kind donations from passing traffic to pay for the construction.
Imagine this.
People lay lengths of thick rope across a road approximately 30m apart. The rope is so thick that you really need to slow down for it. Then this section of road is lined with people holding butterfly catchers in one hand, and a bucket full of money in the other. Cars slow down, throw notes or coins out the window, and the people swoop it up with the butterfly catchers. Of course they have already invested in loudspeakers set at maximum distortion, so loud that you cant understand anything they’re saying, and anyway no one else can either because it’s in Arabic of course, and most Indonesians can only speak Bahasa. Brilliant.
I’ve started riding directly at the people who come towards us asking for money, it’s hilarious 😉
The last curiosity I’ll go into today is the holes in the sidewalk. I call it a sidewalk because technically that’s what it’s there for, but no one here actually walks anywhere… Anyhow, there seems to be a nationwide project to install or improve the stormwater removal drains, that until recently were open drains, about a 2 feet wide and 3 feet deep along every bit of road in the country.
I guess it’s for health and sanitary reasons, but they’re putting tops on all the open drains, and just like magic you now have a sidewalk. Which would be great, except that at irregular intervals, usually on poorly lit streets, the top is missing for a short section, which creates a pretty big hole to fall into.
So big, that Sal and I have taken to warning eachother about them by yelling “HOLE!!” We’re both still here, so far so good.
We’re both looking forward to reaching lake Toba tomorrow, (where there will be cold beer and possibly even wine!), site of the worlds largest known volcanic eruption. It’s very interesting for geeks like me, see this if you’re interested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
I think that will do for tonight, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite, which is a real possibility tonight 🙁
Selamat Malam!