Long and Terrifying Road

Day 280

I woke up early and chatted with the Swedish girls a bit over breakfast. If I get to Bali by New Years we are going to try and get together. I then headed across the river and got a jungle taxi. At the bus station I ran into one of the guides and said goodbye.

I think that the mini bus driver had his hand on the horn for the entire ride. He really might as well have taped the thing down. I don't know if it was to alert possible passengers or to warn people to get out of the way, mad man enroute. Possibly both. For unknown reasons each additional passenger insisted on squeezing in the same seat. I did get the most room though, well, that was only because my ass t akes up the most space.

The first part of the road was even more terrifying than on the way to Bukit Lawang. This time I managed to have my camera out though so that I could document the worst of it. Eventually I did manage to fall asleep and I got a bit sunburned too.

When I was the last passenger I was told to get out and get a cab. I knew I was in Medan but I had no idea where I was in the city or how far I needed to go to get to my hotel. The first trishaw driver I spoke to tried to compeletly rip me off. He wanted 50,000 for the ride. I had cost me 17,000 for my three hour ride so there was no way that I was giving him that. He would let any of the other drivers near me so I ended up having to walk a ways down the road to get away. There I found a guy who charged me 30,000, or about $2.75. It was about a 45 minute ride so I didn't feel like I had paid too much. The ride was scary though, there is nothing to protect you from the weaving traffic often just inches away.

I went back to the hotel that I had stayed at before, luckily they had some space for me.

Right away I headed to an internet cafe. I had been disconnected for far too long. I tried to book some internal flights to get me back on schedule, but none of the websites would take forigen credit cards. I ended up leaving so that I could find a travel a gent. This didn't take long and soon I was on my way back to my hotel.

At the hotel I found out what the cost of a trishaw should be to get me to the mall. I couldn't walk much and I needed a few things that might be hard to find outside of a big city. At first the guy tried to rip me off but I was able to bargain him down to a fair price.

After getting a movie ticket I headed to the mega mart for a few supplies. For dinner I headed to Pizza Hut. I needed some western food after all of that time in the jungle. After I had finished eating a few girls approached me and told me that they had an assignment for their English class to interview a native English speaker. They then asked me a few questions and recorded it on thier phones, as well as taking a picture with me. They didn't speak English very well and kept giggling, so I don't know how great it actually was.

Just as I was getting to the elevator to go to the theater another group of kids approached me for the same thing. They spoke much better English and actually had preparred questions before hand. They mostly asked about the States while the other girls had asked if I was married.

I just made it to my movie in time. I went to see Twilight again. It's bad, I know, but I liked it. When the movie was over I headed past the trishaw guys at the main entrance and found a guy around the corner who didn't even try and rip me off. It was nice to not have to bargain for something.

Back at the hotel I had an orange juice and wrote for a bit, but I was pretty tired and soon went to bed.

Jungle Fever

Day 279
I was up at a normal hour and my stomach was growling. I had a really yummy omelet and French toast for breakfast. Ali showed up before I was finished. I made another massage appointment with Citee and then headed back to my room to read.

Citee came just a couple of hours later and we sat outside on the porch. I didn't have electricity in my room for the time being. Apparently there are things in the jungle that just don't work quite right. By the time the massage was done I moved back inside so that I could nap while the herbal medicine that Citee had made for me could help get the swelling down. Ali showed up again, but I told him that I was going to sleep.

After my nap I headed out to pick up some provisions for my bus ride the next morning. I ended up meeting a group of 6 Swedish girls and a couple of Finns. I spent most of the evening chatting with them. Around midnight everyone decided to head to another bar and I decided to call it a night. 1. I had to be up early and 2. to get to the bar I would have to get on a motorbike, not only do these frighten me, but getting on one after everyone had been drinking didn't sound like a good idea. I decided to call it a night. Ali insisted on walking me to my room. At my door I thanked him and went inside.

After putting on my pj's I heard a noise outside. I looked out at my porch and saw that Ali was there. I opened the door and asked him if there was a problem. He told me that he was just calling his friends to say he wasn't coming because he wanted to spend time with me. I replied that I was going to sleep and that he should go with his friends. Ali replied that he wanted to go to sleep to. I told him that I would be going to sleep alone, this got him to leave. I had a feeling he wasn't just being nice.

When I had shut the door I got in bed and quickly was asleep.

The Mighty Jungle

Day 278
I was woken up pretty early by Ali banging on my door. I could see him through the tinted windows, but he was not able to see me. He was persistent and I told him through the glass that I was asleep and that I would talk to him later.

I did try to sleep a bit, but it was too late, I was up. My foot was still sore and very swollen, but at least I had a flat surface to walk on. I got to work washing my muddy clothes. I had set them to soak the night before and that made the work a bit easier. I had already washed my shoes figuring that they would need the most amount of time to dry. By the time I was finished I was famished and ready for breakfast.

Ali was waiting for me. I found this to be a bit weird. He just wanted to talk me into getting a foot massage from one of the women in the village who also happened to work in the kitchen. I really don't like having my feet touched and tried to put him off. However, I knew that it would be cheap and figured that it couldn't make things worse so I said ok. We tried to make conversation a bit, but we had nothing in comon. In the end I went to my room to r ead.

I had been reading for some time when Citee came to give me my foot massage. She was interesting to talk to and if it hadn't hurt so much I might have enjoyed it. Ali showed up after a bit to watch. After the massage I could actually walk a bit better.

When Citee left Ali stayed. I made sure to leave the door open, I couldn't quite figure out his attentiveness. I didn't know if he was just nice, or maybe felt guilty that I hut myself on his watch so to say. Conversation was again strained and then it bordered on the inappropriate so I told him that I wanted to read for a bit. He said that he would stay and I told him that I wanted some privacy so he left.

I actually ended up napping for a bit before dinner. Just as I was about finished Ali showed up. I ended up spending a couple of hours playing card games with him and a couple of the other guides for a few hours. It seems that all the tourists were in the jungle and it was just me.

I wanted to try and sleep at a decent hour, but ended up reading until late into the night.

Have a nice Trip

Day 277 Everyone was up pretty early and I was hopeful that we would get an early move on it. I had no idea how I was actually going to get out of the jungle, I just felt like the sooner I started on it the sooner the whole ordeal would be over with.

I was able to slowly go to the bathroom on my own and make it around the campsite a bit. I had to be very careful though about where I stepped. If I put weight on my foot the wrong way it was very painful and I typically would fall over. Breakfast was quite good though.

There were some rather cheeky monkeys hanging around the campsite. They wanted bananas and kept trying to steal our food. Some of the others took turns feeding them, but I couldn't because there is no way that I could get on on the rock to do so. I told the group to just leave me and that the monkeys would adopt me and next time they came there I would be the one hanging from trees getting bananas from tourists.

Ali decided that the quickest and flattest way for me was to walk about half of the way along the river bed and the rest of the way through a rubber plantation. At first I thought that I was going to be on my on but Kieron hung back a bit to give me a hand. Eventually both of the porters ended up helping me out. They ended up holding each of my arms in case I fell. I also had a walking stick. The first part wasn't yet in the river and it was all uphill and awful.

When we got to the river it was much flatter, but also much more difficult to see what type of step I was taking. Whenever I stepped awkwardly my food would refuse to hold my weight and if it wasn't for the porters catching me I would have floated away. Walking over the rapids was the worst, except for when it began to rain. That part was the worst. I was in quite a bit of pain, my foot was throbbing badly at this point. I really wanted to just give up. I also hadn't seen the rest of the group for some time. Suddenly Ali showed up with my rain jacket and told me that it was only about another ten minutes until I would be out of the river and walking in the rubber plantation. He said that it would get easier from there.

The first ten minutes or so out of the river were pretty painful and hairy. At one point we had to go down a really steep hill and into a small stream. Ali and the two porters basically carried me down it.

We stopped for lunch at a small hut. It was good to finally get to sit for a bit and take a break. I could tell how swollen my foot was just from how much the tongue of my shoe protruded.
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The last 40 minutes or so weren't that bad. Most of it was flat, but quite a bit of it was rather slick. If I was careful I could walk on my own. I much preferred this and I am sure that the porters did as well. I'm sure that all this help wasn't easy on them. They had all of the camp supplies to carry as well. Now that I wasn't in so much pain I felt bad for being such an annoyance to everyone else. I really appreciate what everyone did for me. Whenever there was a slightly slippery or difficult spot both porters would grab my arms and help me through it. Sometimes they argued a bit over which way was the best to take me. Or I think that's what they were saying, they didn't really speak English. The final bit of the trip was over some nicly paved paths. I can't believe that the porters walked the whole way barefoot!

After about 3 hours I was finally out of the jungle. I would have jumped for joy if I could have. I said goodbye to the porters, but I don't think I thanked them properly. I was just so happy to be done with the whole ordeal. The rest of the group was waiting for me at the bar. I grabbed a beer with them, but all I could think of was taking a shower.

I took a room close to the restaurant with a western toilet. It was a bit more expensive, but I felt that I deserved it. Plus, I knew that I would be stuck there for a few days and I didn't want to have to walk that far. It took me forever to get all of the dirt off of me. This might have been the best shower of my life, despite the lack of hot water!

When I was finished I headed out to the restaurant. Ali was there and let me use his cell phone to call my parents. I had been off the grid for several days already and I knew that there would be another few no internet days and I didn't want them to worry. I just didn't realize that it was 6 am at home. Sorry Mom.

When I was done with the call I thanked Ali for everything and asked him to pass along my thanks to the two porters who all but carried me out of the jungle. I also gave him a nice tip and asked him to share with his friends.

Shortly afterwards the rest of the showed up for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening celebrating getting out of the jungle. Well, that's what I was celebrating, I think everyone else had a really good time.

One of the people on the trek asked me if I was proud of accomplishing something that I wouldn't normally do. I told him that I wasn't proud of myself at all, that I just felt stupid about the whole thing. I knew from the beginning that I wouldn't enjoy it and I knew that my foot was already injured to some extent. Choosing to go into the jungle knowing20these things was just plan stupid, yet I did it anyway. Even a few days later I don't feel any pride, just gratefulness that its all over.

Have a nice Fall

Day 276
When I woke up I decided to not go on the tour. It was quite odd though that despite this decision I still packed my small backpack as if I were going. I guess I was going.

Shortly after breakfast our things were put into storage and I was following everyone into the jungle. After about five minutes I wanted to head back, but I still went forward. I quickly fell several minutes behind everyone. It was probably for the best though, this way I would have no one but myself to whine to.

Soon we were walking through a rubber tree plantation. I didn't hear much of the explanation though, I was panting through it all.

After about 45 minutes we saw our first orangutan. The guides got it out of the trees by feeding it bananas. I don't know if I quite agreed with this, but it did mean that we would get to see them. He was very docile and moved almost as if he was posing for us. After a while he grew board of us and wandered away through the trees.

Soon we found another kind of monkey, I don't remember the name, just the nick name, funky monkey, due to it's mohawk like hair do. This seemed to make the first orangutan jealous because he came back to pose for some more shots.

There is one aggressive orangutan named Mina. The goal is to stay away from her. When the porter told us to change directions as she was headed towards us we tried to move quietly away, but she was too fast with us. To our surprise she also had a baby with her. Mina proceeded to sit in a tree and stare at us for some time with a very angry look, but never made a move to do anything. Her baby played in the branches over her head. In case you were wondering she is very recognizable by a large scar on her forehead, some years ago someone tried to kill her.

About 40 minutes later we found a male sulking around a hut. When we went in the hut to get a better look we found that a female was in the ceiling. Apparently the male moves around the female in circles as his mating dance. As we were interrupting we quickly moved on.

Not an hour later we found another orangutan. This one was super friendly and let some people in the group feed it and even touch its hand. My left over fear from the Batu Cave monkeys caused me to stay away.

I was very tired at this point and my prior foot injury was getting worse. I also had a pretty bad attitude. I kept falling way behind everyone, and this just added to it. I don't think I was ever really alone though. The porter was in the jungle (off the trail) looking for monkeys, every time there was a fork in the trail or I wanted some water (he was kind enough to carry mine for me) he seemed to pop out of no where before I could even ask.

Lunch was quite good. It consisted of rice, an omelet and some chips in a banana leaf.

The last 1.5 hours were horrendous. It was either almost straight up or straight down mud slick hills. I fell down more times than I could count and I was covered in mud. My foot wasn't helping the matter any, I think it might have been why I was falling so often. The porter tried to help me, but I must have been twice his size and I was nervous about taking him down with me. For the last and worst bit of it our guide, Ali, backtracked and helped me down each step. I was close to panic at this point. We had been walking for about 7 hours now and the trail just kept getting worse. Seeing the orangutans had been nice, but was not worth the effort I had to go through. I tried to joke with Ali that it would be faster and quite possibly more fun to simply roll down the hill. Ali didn't seem to think this was funny.

When I finally got to the bottom I was sweating quite a bit and jumping in the river actually seemed like a good idea to me. As I was changing into my bathing suit I found that one of my socks was full of blood. My first thought was what else could I have done to myself, but it was actually just a leach bite. It did bleed forever though. After swimming, well sitting on a rock in the water, I changed into some mud free and dry clothes. I was feeling a bit better.

Dinner was quite good, there were some curries and rice. The tea was fabulous. I couldn't believe that the porters were able to cook something so good in the middle of the jungle when I can't even put anything half good together with a full kitchen. After eating I went to grab my head lamp as it was growing dark. On the way to the tent I slipped on a rock. Immediately pain went through my food. Whatever had been an annoyance before was an actual injury now. I stuck my foot in the river for a bit hoping to reduce the swelling.

With Ali's help (I couldn't put weight on my foot at all) I got up the hill to the tent. One of the porters wanted to give me a foot massage. I told Ali that all I wanted was an x-ray. He persisted. At least it didn't last long, although it seemed to do nothing but hurt. I was pretty much stuck in the same place for the rest of the night. Going to the bathroom was the worst. As I couldn't walk myself I worried that I wouldn't be able to balance. Somehow, after being helped to a secluded spot I managed to do it without peeing on myself.

The sleeping arrangements were terrible. There were 6 mats and 9 people on the hardly masked rocky ground. I was next to one of the porters and he kept rolling on me and waking me up, that was if I could even find a position sorta comfortable enough to fall asleep in. I spent most of the night awake. I did, however, dream that an orangutan came and chatted with us.

(Un)Welcome to the Jungle

Day 275

The next morning I woke up already regretting my decision. What could I have been thinking? I knew that I was in for two days of misery, but for some reason I didn't want to walk away from my spontaneous decision and my deposit. It wasn't peer pressure, but sheer stupidity.

The ride out of Medan took forever. We had to stop at several atm's because outside of cities they are very limited, if there are any at all. When we finally did get out of the rather dirty and depressing city the road turned frightening. I've heard of scary road, but I guess that this was my first real experience with one. There were huge pot holes and in some places there were more holes than actual road. Bits of it were not paved at all. I think that there may have been landslides recently in some areas.

The town I was headed to, Bukkit Lawang, had suffered a huge flood a few years ago. Tourism almost completly stopped and is still rather slow. About 300 people died, including a few tourists. The town was almost totally swept away. Indonesia has suffered from more than its fair share of disasters in the past few years. This has kept tourism way down.

Besides the jungle there is a large orangutan rehabilitation center. Several animals that had been rescued here have been released back into the wild. The town had been on an early itinerary of mine, but I cut it due to time constraints.

When I arrived the regret of my decision and the frightening road had me in a really sour mood. This was further aggravated because the promised internet cafe was not open. I really didn't think that I was great company, so I simply went to my room to shower and veg.

I could have turned back, but for unknown reasons I paid the rest of the bill. I think it had something to do with my need to follow thru with what I said I would do. I also sorta thought that this might work out like my other spontaneous decisions have. So far they have worked out for the best, so I don't know why this one had me so upset.

After dinner we all called it an early night. I stayed up late tossing and turning trying to decided what to do. On the one hand I didn't want to waste the money, on the other hand I didn't know if it was really worth being completely miserable over.