Bungus to Medan around there a bit, leaving friends making new ones, meeting old ones, on and on I travel along.

From Sumatra with friends to Java alone, and then onto Bali with family. As usual I have been covering ground whilst changing company, this type of living creates the most wonderful memories, segmented by the places I have been and by the company I kept. I figured it was about time I digitised some of these memories once again.

Bungus is a seaside town, nothing like Blackpool or Southport. Bungus is a village really, im sure its very overlooked by most travelers, we didn’t see many at all. In our guesthouse there were a few groups from around the world, we had a french couple, our good friend Albert from Spain who we met in Bukutingi, an Australian guy who was currently driving around the world (he started in England and his car was with an English registration), there was a friend of his, and a small group of Australian guys not affiliated with the world driver. The guesthouse was called Losmen Carlos, everyone there was very happy, guests and staff alike. I was kept very content there by two kittens, and a beautiful male gibbon called Mona, there are pictures of Mona on a previous post. I would take Mona fruit and nuts somedays. Bungus was really just a road that followed the coast, any attempt to head inland mainly just ended up in ricefields, the road followed the coast all the way to the next town, there were none of the usual tourist touts you see in the more touristy places, the nearest ATM was some distance away in the city of Padang, always a good indication of how remote you are, its important to know these things beforehand for a traveler!

As I mentioned on a previous post we went on a boat trip around the islands just off the coast, where we saw real tropical paradise, immaculate wildlife yet with the more and more common sight of smashed coral.

The boat we took around the islands, and me and Nina sat under and beautiful jungle waterfall.

Photos taken from the boat as we were returning and the sun was setting.

Nina and Johanna smiling! And that guy in the other picture is Michael, one of the guys that worked at Losmen Carlos, a very chirpy happy chappy!

Nina taking some pictures on one of the small islands.

some more scenes from the boat.

Boats from our boat!

Towards the end of our time in Bungus things got a little sad, as Nina and Johanna were due to leave, we had been traveling with them for only two weeks, but as with a lot of relationships you make whilst traveling we had all gotten quite close, so it was sad to be leaving them, it was going to feel a bit strange without them. On their last day me Nina and Johanna walked through the jungle up to a waterfall and took a beautiful bath in the pool underneath it, and as you can see in the photo above, we sat under the fall itself and felt the full power of the water falling.

A giant woodlouse, or slater as my Australian friends call them

So they left, they got a lift to the airport with Christoff, the Australian guy who was driving around the world, and they were gone! Also Christoff left and took Albert with him to go and treck up a nearby volcano. So it was just me and Jules, since Jules arrived we had always had other company, so it was nice to just travel with Jules even though it was sad to say goodbye to friends.

Thats Albert juggling in the town centre in Bukuttinggi, he did this quite a bit and the local people even gave him money for doing it! And the next picture is Jules, Nina and Johanna on our guesthouse roof in Bukuttinggi.

So me and Jules were alone together, we kinda realised that the only place to be next was the north of Sumatra, we had two options to get there, take a 20 hour bus, or fly for a very similar price! So we flew! Bought a ticket the day before we left and we were away, changing the whole scene of things. We flew into the city of Medan in the north, first thing for me was I needed to hunt down some new sandals, my had bust one to many times, there’s only so much super glue repairing you can do. It took me ages to find some sandals, cos of my foot size. When I did find some after a day of wearing them I was left with blisters and slices inbetween my toes, nice (now though they are well broken in, my feet being much tougher for this).

We decided to head to a village called Bukit Lawang, this village was famous for its Orangutang rehabilitation centre, they would rescue Orangutangs and reintroduce them into the wild, giving them food whenever they wanted it, eventually they would learn how to live in the jungle from the other all wild Orangutangs. The name Bukit Lawang means something along the lines of Jungle river exit, because Bukit Lawang is situated in an idelic place, around a river as it leaves an incredibly lush jungle. This is the jungle that the orangutangs are reintroducted to, its a beautiful place. The road quickly fades out as the village goes towards the jungle, the village carries on roadless with small paths trailing along it till the village gives up to the jungle itself.

Me and Jules kicked back here for a few days, eating giant wonderful river fish, looking at also giant insects that were fresh from the jungle. One day we took a short walk to what was constantly refered to as the bat cave! Exciting or what! We didn’t really expect Bruce wayne, but still i had a glimmer of hope for this. It was a great cave even though it was sans Bruce. To get into the cave we had to traverse some crazy questionable crevice, we were near the bottom but the path was still kinda high and perilous. Once we were in the cave the ground became more expansive, yet still the word jutting comes to mind. Venturing into the cave rewarded us with a ceiling full of bats! Which were swathed in darkness unsurprisingly, I tried to get pictures, but since they required long exposure and they were moving, all I got was dark blobs on a static ceiling. I did however come across a couple of cave insects.

The aforementioned cave insects, wild things hey!

This cobweb was at the mouth of the cave, looking outwards. And this is the surrounding junlge.

The bats were beautiful, the insects suitably creapy and exciting, the cave amazing (despite no Bruce), Bukit Lawang was a rich place, rich in wonderful wildlife, one of the greatest riches, money can’t buy that richness, you can guy single animals and things, but no one can own such diversity.

As done many times before, I left the town, well, me and Jules left, same thing. We caught the bus back to Medan, and got a bus right away out of there to a town called Berestagi. Since I’ve been so slack with updating my site and the photos have built up like crazy, in gonna leave the photos of Berestagi and what we did there to another post…coming soon!!!

Leaving Berestagi we went to Lake Toba, and the island of Samosir on this lake. The island of Samosir is a similar size to Singapore, so the lake as you can imagine is a very very big lake! And like a lake I went to in the south (Lake Meningau) this one is also in a long ago exploded volcano. We got to the town of Parapet in the evening as it was going dark, and from here all that was left for us to catch was the ferry to Samosir, the quicker and more often passanger boats had finished earlier in the afternoon.

Parapet fish sellers.

So we waited and waited, ate some food and waited some more, and then the ferry turned up. It filled up with cars, motorbikes, trucks and us. It slowely ferried us to the island of Samosir, where we caught a bus to a randomly selected guesthouse we found in our trusty guide book. Its always funny arriving at night to a place, you have no idea what it looks like where you are, gives you a feeling of mystery as you look out into the darkness. From our room in the guesthouse, which was more like a spanish holiday apartment complex, we could hear the waters of the river lapping at the shores of Samosir island. So when there was sunlight I found out what was outside, it was a beautiful village called Tuk Tuk, situated on a small protrusion off Samosir island. The roads were windy and up and down in a charming way, what was obvious was the whole area was geared up for many tourists, yet there wern’t many tourists, and the people trying to make a living off the tourists had a desperate air about them.

These are looking out from Samosir island to the edge of Lake Toba.

After a few days in the apartment complext guesthouse we decided to move, on one of our excursions out we came across a beautiful guesthouse called Tuk Tuk Timble, it was down a crazy hill to the waters edge, like a really crazy hill, so so steep. We organised to be picked up on motorbikes by the people at the new guesthouse, they were more than happy to do this for free. Tuk Tuk Timble was ran by a nice Dutch lady, quite a surprise really, there were a few other guests including a couple of middle aged french guys, one who I think lived there permanently, I think he had married an Indonesian. Anyway, we moved to the new guesthouse, originally we had arranged to move into a apartment with one room and a bathroom, very clean and nice, but when we got there she offered us a traditional Batak house, Batak being the name of the people that lived in this area. The Batak house was amazing! Two floors and the same price as the other apartment, so we took it, very happy to do so.

The Batak house on the left is the one we lived in, the one on the right is another one on Samosir.

The Batak people were poached by Christians many years ago, before the Muslims poached the other people in the area, and they remained Christian when everyone else abandoned their anamistic views on the world for Islam. So there were churches all over, and a pleasant lack of the Muslim call to prayer at 5am. They seemed to be more party inclined as well, enjoying a drink now and then, and also dining on some very special mushrooms for special occasions, these mushrooms were sold completely legally all over the place on this island. These are the very same mushrooms that England made illegal with the same penalties as heroin in 2006, there were no signs of social degradation on the island of Samosir, or anything negative that could be associated with the consumption of funny mushrooms, so its a mystery why England banned them, in fact, as is the case in most of Asia, the people there seemed much happier than the people in England.

Two types of wasp I found on Samosir island.

Some crazy warrior cat on Samosir, he was alive and looked big, and healthy, despite the tore lip. And this bug was beautiful! It was so fast, this is the best picture I got, better than nothing though hey.

A few times on the island of Samosir me and Jules hired a motorbike and took a ride around, one of the days we both needed to find an ATM so we took a ride to the biggest town on the island to go to the ATM. We got there and it was bust, so cash was running low for both of us, but worse case scenario would be just go the Parapet, the coastal town, and then come back, no big deal. It was nice to ride on Samosir, the roads were good and there wasn’t a lot of traffic at all.

Some scenes from the town with the bust ATM.

Jules eventually had to leave, she had to go home, after one month traveling it was all over for her, for me as you know one month is not enough, so again I say goodbye, I went across on the boat with her to Parapet, where we both used the ATM filling our wallets with millions again. Luckily a friend of mine had just arrived on Samosir, a girl I was with in the Cameron highlands in Malaysia, her name is AC and she’s from Canada, the french area. She had hooked up with a great guy called James, from England. So we were three, we hired motorbikes and went for another ride around Samosir, this time planning something a bit more adventurous. We road right across the middle, the road went pretty off-roadish at times, but we were going in the direction we were pointed in so were weren’t worried (yeah right, to turn back or carry on, this type of anxiety is a killer, but we pressed on!). The road went right through jungle, worrying me quite a bit, but eventually it came to villages, nicer roads, and such scenic beauty it was totally all worth it. After a few hours we could see Lake Toba again, such relief as I knew we would get through the day alive! (I joke, it was never that bad). I had never rode a bike for such a long time on such crazy roads, so when we got to a town and decided to stop and eat, I took stock of my aches and pains, and sheesh, my wrists were sore from keeping the wheel pointing forward in mud, and my ass was so sore, but still I wasn’t tired of riding, I really love to ride a motorbike!

Some people we met in Medan and Jules’s toe, after a small motorbike mishap (nothing to do with me! All Johanna the Norwegians fault! sorry if your reading this Johanna).

A scene from Samosir to the shore again, and a closeup of lake Toba, such beautiful smooth water.

I can’t really recall how long I stayed on Samosir island, it was nearing two weeks im sure, so I was ready to leave, and so was AC and James. It was back to Bukuttingi for all of us! Which meant a 20 hour bus journey, not that it was far, its just Sumatra is a wild land where nature takes precidence over wide roads. So we did it, 20 hours, pfff it felt like no more than 10! Easy peasy for this wanderer. And then I was back in Bukuttingi.

Some beautiful scenery surrounding Bukuttingi.

Some kind of giant bee, I saw quite a few of these in Sumatra.

From a small village near Bukuttingi

Dentist art in Bukuttingi

So, back in Bukuttingi, it was nice to see it again, we took a room but decided to move the next day, keeping one room to store our bags, since we decided to go to a nearby valley for a few days. The valley is called Harrau valley and its another paradise in Sumatra.

This is Harau valley, both sides had amazing cliff faces like this. And the small river (or large stream) was right in front of the guesthosue we stayed in.

And steamy Harau, everyday presented us with kick ass scenes like this ^_^

AC left us by this point, she went to experience life with an Indonesian family, staying in their house, and me and James shared a room at Echo home stay in Harau valley. And as soon as we arrived who should come along but Albert! My Spanish friend who I last saw in Bungus, it was great to see him again, he had been in Harau valley for 5 days or so, really enjoying it. Our first evening there we went to the nearby town to eat. It was the month or Ramadan, which means muslims don’t eat when the sun is up, eating a big breakfast before it gets light, and a big meal when it gets dark, so the local market was selling food for people to break the fast, such amazing food! We went with the guy that ran our guesthouse to buy food, so he showed us around the market, we all bought a lot of food and took it to our new friends parents house to dig in. There was already a lot of food there! So we ate loads! Even though we didn’t fast all day with the muslism we were still ready for a big feed, was great food!

A couple of stalls from the market we went to.

Some random meals from other places to go with the foody tone of what im going on about.

After the meal we sat down with the family, which was 3 brothers, mother and father and grandma. Some knew some English, and some could speak it well, but all wanted to learn more and gladily stumbled through conversations, it was great, everyone was very happy. And they gave us Coco fruit to eat, id never eaten this before. Inside the big coco pod was a cluster of beans surrounded by a sweet soft thin layer of flesh, which you suck off, then spit the bean out, which was then sold for chocolate production. Chocolate isn’t native to Indonesia but the government encourages the farming of it as its sought after on the world market, so many people grow it, enjoy the soft fruit around the beans and then sell whats left. So this led me to realise that all chocolate beans that go to making all the chocolate we ate has been sucked beforehand! It made me smile.

As the evening went on we grew tired and decided to hop on our bikes and leave, our new friend showed us the way back to the valley via back streets past many happy muslims smoking away after having big feeds to end the fast for the day. We drove past rice fields in the dark for some time, winding around and around, eventually coming to the familiar entrance to Harau valley. We got home safely and slept very soundly in the peaceful surroundings.

The next morning we drove to a nearby waterfall to take a bath in the pool underneath, amazing to be able to do this. The pool was cold at first but grew beautiful after paddling around somewhat. It was exhilerating to swim under the fall itself, totally took my breath away and made he whoop in shock, wish I could bathe in it every morning.

This is the pool and waterfall we took a morning bath in.

This is another one, equally as beautiful and with a rainbow for added lovelyness.

A family of gibbons we spotted on the road to the waterfall. The spider on the lilly was spotted at night in the grounds of our guesthouse, I used a flash to make the drops stand out like this.

A monkey working its way up the steep walls of the valley, he just kept on going up and up and up.

We stayed for 2 nights in Harau Valley, I really would have stayed longer, and I think James would have too, but we had to leave, James had a flight, and both of us had rented motorbikes which needed to be taken back to Bukuttingi. So we hit the road, cutting it fine for James as he had his flight the day we left, kinda crazy, but he totally made it. Albert did stay, for another few days, it was that kind of place.

And then I was alone again. In Bukuttingi, I didn’t have much desire to see things in Bukuttingi, since I’d seen many many things, so mainly I stayed in my room and edited photo’s, watched movies and played on my Nintendo, it was nice to have all the time to myself again, it had been ages since id had that.

Some happy local people.

Jules and Albert talking and walking, and local children.


These are some shots from the zoo in Bukuttingi, it was sad to see this Orangutang, it was such a drab cage as well, poor beast. We fed him nuts and gave him fruit juice to drink.

A beautiful spread of food in Bukuttingi, and a rather strange collection of stickers from a market in Bukuttingi. I questioned the guy selling them about the dubious one, I don’t really think the people in this area know exactly what it means, if they did they would realise they are supporting a regime that would have them up against the wall and killed. I think some sick people are planting things like this into the area to turn them against a certain country in the middle east, but I just don’t know.

So I was all alone, and the next appointment I had was in Bali with my brother. I decided to fly first to Jakarta, I was going to travel to the south of Sumatra and then get the boat, but with flights so cheap nowadays, it was much much cheaper to fly than to get several buses, spend nights in halfway towns and then get a ferry. I was in Jakarta within two hours of taking off. Jakarta was just like I remember it, very hot, very very busy and hiding its charm in areas I obviously missed. I think if I had company I would have enjoyed it a bit more, but as it was it wore me down, and I quickly left.

A firework market in Jakarta. And a bridge over filthy water.

Some special monument thats meaning slipped by me, in Jakarta. And a Meningkabau house in Sumatra that needed to be put somewhere.

silly horse nasty monkey
Some silly horse and a nasty monkey.

So I left for Jogjakarta in the middle of Java, Jogjakarta is the cultural capital of Java, id been there before but I was looking forward to seeing it again.

And thats it, im done with writing for now, it wont be long before I post again as i quite enjoyed writing this, and I have lots of free time this next week, whilst waiting for my Indian visa here in Kuala Lumpur, and I have free wifi in my guesthouse! Super stuff!

Look forward to hearing from everyone.