Author: busker

With our guide at 10:00 we began to walk past rice fields, where Emma and Alex scared the birds away by rattling old cans and plastic bottles attached to lines.

We also passed pumpkins, tomatoes, sugarcane, cocoa, lemon trees and rubber trees where they were collecting the rubber in coconut shells with dry leaves. Soon we came to a beach where there was a hot spring and a rock to jump off. We were told the heat was caused by a volcano. within 2 minutes Alex found a small dog who was afraid of water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn-mRmrPB_o?rel=0

After about an hour swimming we walked to a bigger part of the river where we tubed down. The dog overcame its fear of water just to follow us as far as it could but soon the current took us far away from the dog. Alex was very sad when he had to say good bye to him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owCe0gejNtk?rel=0

Emma gets stuck once and we soon land near a little stream.  We walk up it and lunch is waiting for us in a little pond area with a waterfall.  Lunch includes heart of the banana plant stewed in coconut milk which is delectable.

The rocks here are really soft and you can write on them or rub them together to make them stick.  You can stand under the waterfall and have a shower.  We all get our hair washed with simpur fruit (this is the local name).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNzzBRZJ4-k?rel=0

There are little fish as well and the guide makes Alex and Emma a crown.  Alex thinks he is King Julian the 1st.

 

We continue tubing through some fast bits of the river and finally park next to the plantation.  Jane and Alex got stuck somewhere up river, and turn up a few minutes later.  Gerd runs aground a few times.

The tubes are stored on a big pile and will be picked up by motorbike later.  We walk back through the palm plantation after many offers of motorbike transport.  This plantation is village owned.  We saw loads of chickens, goats and Laurie said there were some pigs as well, since the village is half christian – half muslim.  Just after we arrive in the village it starts raining and we spot a snake in the bamboo!

The restaurant is basically a tiled floor with a roof, a bar and lighting.  The lighting will turn off occasionally, especially when there is thunder and lighting or when it rains hard.  The standard cry when the power fails is “Welcome to the Jungle!”.  Sometimes repeated many times on a night.

The staff are super friendly and Alex seems to be very popular.  Alex spends quite some time stroking the cat.  The staff do card tricks and spend a lot of time playing old songs on the guitar.

 

There are families from the Netherlands, England, Spain and Germany.  Most people started in Sumatra and will continue to the Lake Toba.

Elephants

After pancakes and omelet for breakfast, with Laurie as our guide we drove ‘Indonesian style’ (on a motor bike) to the elephants. When we got there the keepers rode the elephants, holding trunks to tails, to the river and we all followed close behind.

At the river the elephants had a swim before we scrubbed them all clean. The baby elephants tried to steel sugarcane from the keepers. The elephants were hairy but their skin was quite soft and delicate not very hard.

 

When the elephants were clean they decided that we needed a shower to so they sprayed water all over us. After all that work giving people showers they were hungry so we gave them bananas and sugarcane. The youngest elephants trunk wasn’t big enough to hold the food and when she did manage to hold a small banana she held her trunk out as if there was nothing in it.

  

Once the elephants had eaten all the food we shook hands/trunks with them before they had a short rest and ate some porridge. After they had had their break we got to ride them. Two people on each elephant. To get to the jungle the elephants had to cross a river 6 times and we hoped that they didn’t decide to roll over and have a swim because then we would get very wet.

 

Jungle Walk

Next, at 12:00 we went on a jungle walk with Laurie as our guide. Before the walk we put on leech cream however, on the way we still had to remove a few leeches from our trousers. During the journey we had to wade trough several rivers and Laurie pointed out many orangutang  nests.

 

Eventually, we came to a stoney beach were there was a beautiful shrine of flowers to hold our lunch. After a short swim, lunch was fresh, juicy pineapple as a starter and chicken goreng with rice, prawn crackers and fried aubergine.

  

Then we swam to a waterfall were there was a rock which Alex jumped off. Emma somehow kept a flower in her hair the whole time. Laurie did a flip off the rock. After swimming we walked back crossing between beaches and wadding through the water to the house.

At 5:00am the taxi is waiting to ferry us to Changi airport. It’s Singapore’s 51st birthday so there will be lots of celebration later. At the airport, there is a ornamental pond with live fish in it next to the coffee shop. Alex has drawn the fish and discovered it is an archer fish which can spit up to 15.3cm of water to knock down passing flies (lunch).

 

The flight ,with Silk air, departed at 7:40 with a very cautious pilot and arrived at 8:00 at Kuala Namu where a car is waiting with Eddie, our driver. It took at least an hour to get out of Medan.  Briefly the road was clear and flat, but soon the potholes started and shortly after that we were into rough track.  The track got progressively narrower and rockier.  After driving 140km in 5 hours, Mega Inn, Tangkahan is finally in reach.

The house at Mega Inn had a thatched roof and lots of Geckos living in the light shade eating all the mosquitoes there was a terrace and over all the house was nice. To get to the house however a swaying, rickety bridge had to be crossed. To cool down after the drive we swam in the river. Alex went the furthest but the monkeys stayed in the trees and relaxed in the hammock until dinner.