Volcanos & Orangutans

With the beginning of the new month, we left the sanctuary of Serapuh. As much as it was a haven of peace and a true home unlike anything we have seen on this journey so far, we are plagued by restless spirits and the urge to finish our quest. Therefore we packed our scattered belongings and set out once more.

Luck is shining in Serapuh as brightly as the blossoming flowers in the garden, so we had the forturne to travel to Lake Toba with someone who lives there and River, who had her own dealings in that area on this partikular day. But we did not set out in that small of a group, to the first stop we were acoompanied by Jefris and his brother. Their businesses in Siantar, the next town from Serapuh, were one of kindness and one of utmost importance. The latter one was to buy coffee. The real reason for Jefris to travel all the way to Siantar was his kind soul. He secured us two beds on a ship setting sail from Medan and was now helping us getting the passes. Without him it would not have been possible to aquire these very important documents and we are forever grateful. The rest of the ride to Parapat went very smoothly.

Parapat is a small village on the shore of Lake Toba. Lake Toba is not just any old lake. It is an ancient waterway made by an enormous eruption of a fire mountain. The earth has not spit fire on Toba for many years, so the crater nowadays holds liquid H2O instead of liquid stone and earth. To this day it is still the biggest vulcanic lake that can be found on the planet that humanity calls home and is the residence of the Toba Supervulcano (at least according to maps.me). It's sheer size can't be glimped from it's shores as a big part of it is taken up by a massive island. We travelled from Parapat to Tuktuk the famous place on Samosir Island by ferry. We arrived on the ferry docs just in time to buy a kilo of mini mangos, say our goodbyes to River and jump abord the ship. On both sides of the boat we could see the lake streaching far to the horizon, it's northern end could only be guessed by the faint outline of far distant mountains silouhetted against the blue sky. The wind was sweeping through our hair and cooling our skin, for the sun was trying its best once more to burn us alive. A war that we are raging ever since entering the southern part of Asia. A war that we can not hope to win, as our enemy is not only far older than we are but also outgrew us in size long before we stared to walk on this earth. At least it is two against one. Our only hope is that we one day retreat into regions where the influence of our enemy has not yet grown so strong. Until then we fight on and try to burn as little as possible. Do I write this with a severe sunburn? Possibly.

We left the ferry right at the doorstep of our small guesthouse. Our room was simple and right next to the lake. The reach the street we only had to walk up several steps through what looked like a half build house. In the entrancehall of the establishment we met two other travellers. The first one from Finland, who was very interested in our adventures in Kazakhstan. The second a man from Russia, who was under the impression that all the news coming from Iran is western propaganda and it is as safe as Kazakhstan. Our next quest consisted of getting money and food. We meandered through the small streets of Tuktuk, past several restaurants until we found one that felt right. We ate a humble yet delicous meal of noodle soup. On the way back to our guesthouse we stumbled across a Kebab stand with a very interesting menu, that tempted us. Therefore we treated ourselves to a durian kebab, with no real vision what that could be. It turned out to be frozen durian with a hole lot of nutella inside a flat bread / wrap. We spend the afternoon swimming. The dark blue-green water was clear enough to see a couple of fish swim past us but the bottom of the lake remained elusive to us. Disturbed only by passing motorboats and a few jetskis we happily paddled and biked in the warm water. The shower in our room could only be discribed in detail in an overture sung in a minor key in a tragic opera. I am fully aware that I could just write a minor key overture about this shower, but I am not really sure how to write sheet musik on a Laptop and I currently lack the Wifi and motivation to find out. In short we used the bucket to shower. We really warmed up to this way of showering. For dinner we walked to a small inn and had delicous fried rice noodles before relaxing and working on a few todos before going to bed.

The next day started early for us. Something that we would continue in the next days. The air smelled of adventure, for many league's lay between us and our destination for the day. Before we could embark on this we needed to leave the island. We coordinated with our host that the ferry could pick us up at 7 am, for our bus would set out at 8:30 from Parapat. We stepped on the ferry on 7:30 and it circled Tuktuk twice before redirecting its course to the mainland, therefor we left the ferry at 8:35, 45 min later than expected. But it did not matter for the bus ended up departing at 10 am. We spend our newly won time by drinking juice and buying a new notebook. Paper is scarce in our travelbundles and it is nice to be able to sort some thoughts without being depended on energy. The bus does not really deserve that name. It was just an ordinary bigger car. Filled up to maximum capacity, we sat squeezed in the back between other travellers and their animal companions. Time swepped past us just like the green landscape outside our metal block that confined us. We ventured through massive palm oil forests and rubber plantations. The first retrieve was went the other travellers started departing one by one once we reached the busteling city of Medan. A place of traffic and street vendours. A place we would return to on a later day. As our journey continued further inland, we spend our time planning our ideal festival, with three stages (Dragon-, Met- and Lost-Stage), 80 bands and a well structured timetable. We haven't really decided on the name yet maybe Lost in the Woods. It was only clear that we would die on that weekend, if it were to happen.

As the daylight started to fade and the first stars appeared we reached our destination: Bukit Lawang, the door to the mountain. Instead of being comfortably dropped of in front of the inn we stopped next to the market. Just like the old days it is still the meeting place of strangers and wanderes. We met a few young men who were send to help us on the last stretch of road we had to overcome that day. It is well known that the road goes on, ever, ever on, but the part of the road that led to our sleeping place dwindled down to a path, impossible to follow for someone with four wheels. Therefore, we left Pascal and Meeko with two people and their two-wheeled speeder while the two of us each got on another one. At this point of our travels we have crossed many leages driving these devices, but I must say, that it would have been impossible for me to follow the path. I would have for sure ended up in the Jungle or the wheels stuck in mud (nothing that has not happeded before). The path winded it's way into the Jungle. Crossing roaring rivers, through several waterholes, underneath low hanging branches and up steep hills. It was delightful! The house we stayed in during our time in the Jungle was filled with laughter and bright flowers. Before nurishing ourselves we wanted to give our trusted animal companions a chance to rest. Following the innkeeper past several doors and up a hidden staircase we stopped in front of a door, very far of the beaten paths of this lodge. We did not expect anything else, we had booked an exceptionally cheap accommodation, as long as we had a place to sleep we didn't really care. Considering how low our expecations were, we were blown away by the grandeur of the room. A small private entryway, past our large bathroom led to a room with a high ceiling, a canopy bed and our very own balcony, that was larger than some rooms we had stayed in during our trip, overlooking the gardens and the surrounding jungle covered mountains. After spending a bit of time overjoyed exploring our room, we ventured back to the restaurant in search of food. There we talked to a very nice elderly British couple and dined on vegetable curry, Remy the Rat coudn't have prepared better. The evening ended with music. A minstrel group consisting of the always smiling owner of the establishment and a couple of others, making exquisite noise with a guitar to accompany their Jungle Songs. The most memorable went to the tune of "Jingle Bells": Jungle Trek! Jungle Trek! In Bukit Lawang. See the monkeys, see the birds, see orangutans!

With the song still continuing in our head and a heart ready to see some monkey the following day, we went to bed.

The next morning dawn broke and as the sun rose so did we. Our hearts filled with the lust for adventure. After breaking our fast with delicious vegetable omlettes, we met our guides for the day. As we can definitely be considered a hazard for our environment is was only suitable that the two of us were accompanied by two guides. The first leg of our tour led us into the far distant and mythical land of the backyard. The big benefit of sleeping in the jungle is that the wild animals are not far of. Climbing in a tall tree we spotted four orangutans. Orangutan means man of the jungle in the local tongue. They are big, redhaired monkeys (can easily be distinguished from Artey, as they usually sit on top of a tree). The group consisted out of two females and their two babys.

Then we left our guesthouse, once more atop the two wheeled speeders. Scrossing over ditches and small streams we ended at the begining of a small, steep path snaking further into the heart of the forest. There we left the speeders behind and began the steady climb up the mountain. Around us the orchestra of the jungle was playing their song. A merry tune overshadowed every so often by the solo of a monkey. The first monkey-solo we heard was the tune of the Thomas-Monkeys. They are small creatures with exceedingly warrior-like facepaint made out of hair. But monkey were not the only interesting encounter we had. To our astonishment we came across a cinamon tree. I did not know cinamon grew in trees. Other interesting plants were lemongrass, incence and orangutan-soap.

After climibing up the mountain for the better part of three hour we took a well deserved break. There we rested, watched the beauty of the forest and dined on fresh fruits. It was truly a snack worthy of hobbits. The two of us ate a whole watermelon, 3/4 dragonfruit, 4 passionfruits, 2 bananas and three oranges in the company of a beautiful butterfly. We were still happily reminising about the fruits we had just consumed, when we were roused again by our guide. He had spotted a rare Siaman sitting in a tree close by. It turned out to be a black tall monkey who was not alone but travelling with a friend. Their song and a hole choir of siaman monkeys (only heard them) followed us for quite a while on our way downhill. On the foot of the mountain we ran into two more orangutans. These ones were only semi-wild, as they were part of a programm that released them back into the wild a couple of years ago. So, they were not really afraid of humans. The mothers walked past us, while her baby swung by two meters above ground.

For lunch we stopped next to a shallow river with a strong current. Before we ate we jumped into it and tried not to be carried of. Lunch was a delicious meal of rice, chicken-curry and cucumber. Just above our lunch spot a pigtail makka, another monkey lounged as well. The next point in our itinerary was to take the jungletaxi back to Bukit Lawang. There was some kind of misunderstanding about when and were we would be picked up, so we had more time to swim. Very sad story. In the end we walked a bit further up the river to meet up with our jungletaxi. We walked through the river over slippery rocks barefoot. Artey stumbled over one and three days later her toe is still an unhealthy shade of blue. On the way we saw two more orangutans!

For everyone who lacks knowledge about the north sumatrarian jungle taxi it consists out of a couple of air filled tubes that float downstream. To not end up like the dwarves in laketown, our taxi was pushed away from the biggest rocks by two professionals. They can be considered professionals, as only one fell into the water and that only once.

After changing into dry clothes we made our way past a creature that spits out valuable paper back to our guesthouse. It was truly a spectacular time in the rainforest. To end this great day we dined on vegetables curry and gado gado, an indonesian food made with loads of peanuts. While we got ready to sleep we could watch the lightshow of the sky from our balcony.

The last morning in Bukit Lawang dawned bright and we packed our scattered belongings once more before we broke our fast. A cup of coffee or tea and a big vegetable omlette later we took the speeders back to the town. This was the forth time we travelled the way, so we did not worry one bit. That might have changed as Arteys driver suddently stopped half way through. Even the incredible two-wheeled speeders need sustinance to work... A situation the young local drivers seemed very familiar with, so they started to search for an emtpy waterbottle to share the food the one speeder still stored with the other one. After all sharing is caring. I must confess I have never seen speeder sustinance before and I did not expected it to resemble dish soap. In the end we did make it to the town square of Bukit Lawang, were a small four wheeled roofed speeder waited for it. Artey squeezed in the back with the animal companions while Sesy was joined with a small French family. During the ride to Medan tales of past adventureres were swapped until we reached our hotel for the night. It can not claim the title clean, but it was fine for the night. We spend the afternoon preparing for the next jouney and wandered through the streets in the search for food. We found delicous Pecal for lunch and great fried noodles for dinner. The neighbourhood we stayed in was very simple and definitly not touristic, so we could find the same food as we found in Serapuh!

The next day we needed once more to leave early to venture to our next destination. Only this time we would spend a lot of time getting from one place to the next. But let's not get too far ahead, that afterall is a story for another time.