In the morning we
got and up and, at Tony's suggestion, we went out for a look at the
so-called morning market. The girls' feet have been growing and they
could both do with a new pair of shoes. First, however, we had a
pretty dire but very cheap Western-style breakfast at a place around
the corner. We walked slowly through the market, but the stalls were
mostly selling food and we didn't see anything suitable.
When we got back to
the hotel we finished packing and Kate went to work trying to book
tonight's hotel in Sumatra. She had managed to narrow it down to a
couple of places, but the rooms we wanted had started to get booked
out. To complicate matters, we had decided to forego attempting to
get to our destination, the village of Bukit Lawang, which is located
on the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, using public transport
and had instead opted to get a van and a driver to pick us up and get
us there. As time began to run out, she was frantically sending
emails and awaiting replies – trying to book one place, cancelling
bookings at another then having to make the reservation again when an
email came back to say that the room she was trying to book was full.
When it was time to
check out, Tony very kindly offered to drive us to the bus station –
and told us which bus to get and where to get it from (and then
seemed to get quite emotional as he said goodbye, giving each of us a
little hug). A short wait later, we hopped onto bus 401e and headed
out to the airport. It was a long journey – more than an hour –
but when we got to the check-in counters we were pleased to see that
there wasn't any queue and we got through the formalities in no time
at all. We then headed over to McDonald's for lunch and then Kate and
I had a little pang of homesickness each as we took turns browsing in
a WH Smith. Then it was through security and immigration and to a
cool little coffee joint in view of our gate. And there we sat for
some time as our plane was delayed.
The flight to Medan
was very short – less than an hour – one of those flights where
it feels as though you're just getting settled in when they announce
that you're starting the descent. As always, we were a bit nervous
about the whole visa situation (it's slightly complex, with various
visa waivers for different nationalities that are only available at
certain airports), but we sailed through without a problem. When we
exited into the arrivals area there was a guy waiting for us with a
sign – always a welcome sight. We needed to get some money first,
however, as there aren't any ATMs in Bukit Lawang. Indonesia is
another of those countries with a seriously devalued currency, and I
ended up taking out seven lots of 1.5 million rupiah – all in 50s,
which amounted to a serious wad of cash. We then walked out into the
car park and jumped into the minivan, and drove straight into some
properly awful Medan traffic.
We stopped off to
buy some drinks and snacks (Tim Tams! Chips Ahoy!), and again for a
toilet break. On the way we drove through the town at which we were
planning to break the journey had we taken public transport. And boy,
did we dodge a bullet – we would have been arriving after dark and
as far as we could tell, all of the hotels were located some way
outside town along the main road. And it was raining.
We bounced around
the potholed road for a few more hours and then, finally, we arrived
in Bukit Lawang. It was dark and as we got out of the van, we were
surrounded by a crowd of men. They seemed very friendly and polite
and we were told that they would act as porters for us if we so
desired – but it was fine if we didn't (and we didn't). It turned
out that one of them was there to meet us, and he guided us down a
path in the dark and along the river to our hotel, Green Hill Guest
House.
When we got there we
dumped our bags, ordered some dinner and flicked through a photo
album of crappy pictures of the local wildlife while we waited for it
to arrive. One of the staff asked us if we wanted to see one of the
snakes that was illustrated in the album and led Sarah and I across
the little path to a small tree, where he pointed out a gorgeous
green juvenile viper draped over a branch a bit above head height. A
bit later, our food arrived. It wasn't very nice. When we were done,
we were shown to our room, which also wasn't very nice. The main room
had a double bed with some pretty unpleasant looking linen on it and
a mosquito net that had holes in it. A door led to a smaller room
with a low ceiling and a single bed with some even less appealing
linen and an equally holey mosquito net. A door from this room opened
to the open-air bathroom, which had a squat toilet that you flushed
with water from a big bucket in the corner and a shower that
consisted of a pipe protruding from the wall with a piece of bamboo
attached to the end. But no sink. Off the main bedroom was a balcony
with some chairs that looked as though they were on the brink of
collapse.
We all got undressed
and hopped into the beds – Kate and the girls in the double and me
in the single – and did our best to get to sleep, serenaded by the
staff downstairs (Indonesians obviously love a guitar-accompanied
singalong – it seems as though every restaurant we ate at, and many
of those we didn't, featured a bit of enthusiastic after-dinner
singing. Unsurprisingly, in the hot, still air, and on the nasty bed
linen, it took me a spectacularly long time to get to sleep. Just as
I was starting to drift off I was abruptly brought back to full
wakefulness by the initiation of a very noisy cat fight on the
corrugated-iron roof right beside my room.
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