Cirebon: Nothing to see here. Very cheap as we paid only 40,000 Rp for a room (cheapest in Indonesia) and the people are very nice.
Semarang: Probably our favourite city in Java. It has super nice people who will all leave you alone as they will think you are expats as no tourists go there. They have some great Dutch colonial architecture and its comfortably the prettiest city in Java, with the old railway headquarters and the canal, which is dirty but atmospheric. There is only enough to keep you busy for a day, but there is not much traffic, its clean and its just a pleasant place to take a break. If Java is breaking you like it did to us, then I'd recommend a couple of nights here to unwind.
Solo: Underwhelming. We didn't even visit anything here. We just kind of hung around. Its a poor man's Yogya and we didn't even like Yogya that much. We met Ash and Reli here though, which was cool as we would travel with them to Bromo and had a really cool time hanging out with them, although they have managed to hook us on Game of Thrones lol.
Probolinggo: Didn't see much outside of the bus station and hotels. The third hotel from the bus station is the best value for money we had in Java. Everyone around the bus station is a total bastard. They wanted to charge us 25,000 for a mie goreng and lie and lie and lie. I hate the people of this town. They tried to force us into taking private transport to go to Bromo for 4 hours before we could get the local bus and even then they were fighting each other. They had done the same in Surabaya when we usually get local prices because we speak some Bahasa. When one guy had said that in Surabaya another guy punched him because he was letting us take local transport. They have some serious problems here. Also when we left they lied about the bus price and then threw us off the bus when we refused to pay the new inflated price and we had to walk 4km back to the bus station before we got a new one. Really make sure you fight hard here and if you have to get a bus wait for it round the corner outside the station where the touts can't find you.
Bromo: Yet more hassle. We were getting worn down in Java now. The public bus eventually took us for 25,000 up to Cemara Lawang, where they ambushed us for a 75,000 Rp entrance. Shit. Ash and Reli said they didn't have enough money and they eventually let us go for 25,000 each. Nice. They then dropped us at a homestay where we paid 200,000 for one room before we realised there were alternatives. There are a lot of homestays at the top, so if you take public transport have a look around and see which ones you prefer. Everyone wanted us to take a jeep and some kid was selling hats and gloves. He wanted 15,000 from a local for both, but then asked me for 20,000 for just a hat. No shame. We paid 25,000 for two hats in the end as he was a nice kid. We opted not to climb up the side mountain for sunrise as the weather had been super cloudy. We were lucky as it was cloudy that morning and we didn't miss anything. We decided to walk the 3km across the plain to Bromo, where we were hassled by motorbike people for half the way before they gave up. The 'tours' take you to sand dunes across the plain. This is laughable because if you walk across the middle you see the same sand dunes, but the jeeps skirt them to the right so you think you have seen something extra and then drop you off 1km from the volcano anyway, so you aren't walking much less by crossing yourself and its so much more scenic. I'd recommend walking across if you want the place to yourself a bit. It was scenic and therapeutic walking across the middle. We walked up the few steps to the top and looked down on Bromo. Its really pretty and well worth the visit. At last something world class to offset the growing dislike of Java we were experiencing. Java probably became the worst place overall on our trip for hassle, while Sumatra was the place we had the least hassle. If they flipped Way Kambas and Ujung Kulon onto the opposite islands it would be complete. Ash walked the whole perimeter of the volcano and has one of those action cams that look amazing. Apparently they work underwater as well and given that our cameras two biggest weaknesses are capturing scenery and being useless underwater, I think an action cam will be our first purchase for our next trip. Bromo is amazing. Just be prepared for the hassle.
Bondowoso: Nice little town and because Cannelle was sick we spent a few days here in a hotel with a swimming pool. We tried to sort out accommodation up Ijen but the hotels were super rude and apparently keep themselves free only for tour groups. Fuckers. I would have gone up in the afternoon and walked the full distance (9km from the last town) and back down for free, but Cannelle was too sick. So we had no option but to take private transport. If you intend to take private transport then I recommend going from Banyuwangi. I reckon you can get a car there for 250,000 or 300,000 to get up for the blue fire. We met someone who took an ojek for 150,000 return from Banyuwangi. We met an idiot in the street who wanted 700,000 and said the cheapest he could do was 650,000. We told him 400,000 or nothing. He said no. So we went with the hotel for 600,000 and get the security at least. Then the idiot came back to us saying ok for 400,000 3 hours before we left. He said we had an agreement with him. I told him that he'd said no. Fucking idiot. So you can get a car for 400,000 or 450,000 in Bondowoso if you stick to your guns, but I still reckon its easier in Banyuwangi and I like the people in both towns, but Banyuwangi is nicer and their bus station people are not arseholes like Bondowoso. Again we were thrown off a bus and had to walk back 2km. Fucking bastards. I was tired of Java. The next one agreed a fee of 16,000 to Banyuwangi and then insisted it was now 25,000. I told him I was too big for him to throw me off, he would get only 16,000 and I would only pay him in Banyuwangi bus station. Arsehole. I was tired of these games. He tried every trick to get money off me. He claimed the other guy didn't speak English so had got the price wrong. We spoke in Bahasa so no go. Next he said he was just a passenger, even though he clearly worked there. Then he told me he had to clear security outside. I said ok when they come on and they never did. Just a fat fuck who wanted more money. Even at the end he begged for 25,000. Bastard.
Ijen: Its cold at the top so take some warm clothes. You do not need a guide under any circusmstances. Not even to go down to the blue fire, no matter what they say. You could take a jeep up the trail. Its that obvious. Also there are about 100 other people making the climb at least so you can just follow them. The blue fire was not as impressive as some photos and its touch and go whether it is worth the effort to go up early and freeze your balls off to see it. It was raining though, so maybe that affected it a bit. Cannelle was scared to go down until I pushed her and it is slippery, but I don't think its that dangerous if you don't take stupid risks and we were both ok vertigo wise. The hike down is nice, though the rain was making us damp and super cold. The blue fire is supposed to be natural, but seemed to be artificial as they were stoking fires. I guess it could be due to the rain. Maybe it put out the fire and they had to stoke it again, because it had looked more blue from up top before the rain came. The sulphur is not as bad as everyone says and you don't need one of their stupid masks. You just need a material you can breathe through. I used the sleeve of my jumper and it was fine, though my throat was burning a little by the time we got back up to the rim. The slow reveal of the lake as the sun comes up is stunning and it was probably the most uniquely beautiful of all the volcanos we had been to so far. Beautiful turquoise waters. Little bit of cloud from the sulphur, but it was undoubtedly a highlight. Its a must see and along with Bromo and Ujung Kulon they are the three highlights of Java. We met a French woman at the top and chatted with her on the way down (which is also a beautiful walk). Its a lot of hassle to do Bromo and Ijen on your own, but I'd still recommend it over the tours between Bali and Yogya, because most of the tourists had to leave before the lake was clear and at its most beautiful.
Banyuwangi: Nice town. Nicest people in Java and a nice antidote to all the shit we had to put up with on that island. Go to Ijen from here as its a nice place to base yourself. They have bullshit prices to the port for Bali but we paid 5,000 for each angkot, even though you could just find the 6 in downtown and go straight there for 5,000. Goodbye Java and thank fuck its over. We saw a lot of nice things but we were so tired of all the bullshit in Java. We left Sumatra feeling very sad, we left Java with a sigh of relief. No question for me which is better. We just had Lombok and Bali left now and then it was off to Sydney to earn some money back lol.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Indonesia (Java Part 2: Depok, Cipanas, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Borobodur and Prambanan)
Depok: We arrived in Depok and stayed with Julie and her family for 10 days. It was one of the highlights of our time in Indonesia. We spent time chatting about everything and nothing as well as sampling a vast array of Indonesian dishes. The town itself has nothing to recommend it except that everyone just leaves you alone in a good way. We had to get our visa sorted here as well and because we only paid the 250,000 for a first extension of a 60 day visa we would have to wait a long time. We put it in on tuesday and they wanted us to come back on friday to pay and the wednesday after to collect it. They expected us to pay more to speed up the process, but given that we were going to Cipanas and Bandung for 2 days and would be back friday before going to Yogyakarta for 3 days over the weekend and back for wednesday, we actually thought it was perfect timing wise and we agreed much to their surprise and disappointment.
Cipanas: The drive over the fabled Puncak to get to Cipanas took us 5 hours to go about 50km or so. The traffic is abysmal and you have to pay backhanders to random dudes on the street to send you round some back alleys, like some random touring car race, in order to beat the traffic. I still think they create the traffic jams to make sure that people pay for the 'help' but Cannelle thinks I am too cynical. Cipanas itself is a rather nondescript town, but the gardens were really beautiful. They were everything we had been expecting in Bogor and had been disappointed not to find. Lots of beautifully landscaped gardens, a maze (bit too easy) and even mock Balinese and Japanese gardens. It was a very pleasant distraction, but I'd advise visiting it from Bandung side as Puncak is not that amazing and it appears to be just a giant town for prostitution and shitty getaways.
Bandung: We just passed through Bandung and can only say it looks nice enough, though far short of its 'Paris' nickname. It also has a lot of outlet stores where you can buy a lot of cheap clothes if you want some retail therapy. We went to the famous upturned boat volcano, that doesn't look anything like an upturned boat. It is however quite pretty. Its surrounded by touts and I recommended that Andy (Julie's husband) charge for photos and they could make a bule profit lol. These places are both nice and both worth a visit on your way to Yogyakarta if you want to break up your journey.
Yogyakarta: Ah the great divisive city. Half of it is excellent, half of it is shit. Lets start with the shit. The tourist area around the main street is fucking horrible, with so many people vying for your attention and business. Not pleasant people. They also fuck locals as much as they fuck tourists, so don't worry, you're not receiving 'special' treatment. One guy even said 'oh white people, you are always so difficult' in Bahasa when we said no to his extortionate bus tour. Fucker. We wouldn't be difficult if you weren't being lying sacks of shits. Borobodur and Prambanan are also thoroughly underwhelming. If you haven't seen many temples before then Borobodur is nice if hideously overpriced, but Prambanan is so crappy its not worth visiting unless you are a hardcore temple lover and even then you want to think twice considering the price. Prambanan is 171,000 Rp and Borobodur is 190,000 Rp. Locals pay only 30,000 Rp. We asked about the difference and they said we get free tea or coffee. Indeed. Well worth the money. I have to say my two $16 cups of coffee were exquisite and well worth the higher than Norwegian prices for them. Arseholes. Anyway. Borobodur is probably worth the 30,000 Rp but considering its one temple and you get Bagan (for 3 days for $10) and Angkor Wat ($30 for all the temples), its far too expensive. So suffice to say that after the first day we didn't really see what all the fuss was about with Yogya. Yeah its a little funky (but only a little) and it is really cheap (which seems to be the number one thing Indonesians say when you ask them why they like Yogya). Being cheap doesn't cut it alone. Oh well, disappointing. We even went to a Gamelan performance, which seems to be a lot of noise at one time with some random whacking together of two puppets. I am not sure where the skill is needed and I couldn't decide if the all round assault of the senses was something I liked or something I detested. I was only sure that 30 minutes is enough for one lifetime. Why so many foreigners want to stay ages in this place, God alone knows. Then I have thought that of a lot of places in Indonesia. The places all the foreigners hang out in are shitty and everywhere else is really cool. Weird, huh? On day two we went wandering south of the Kraton (the Kraton itself is nice) through areas Julie knew as a student. There are some beautiful lanes down here and they end at the swimming baths, which have a distinctly Roman slant. This part of Yogya is great. We then went to Kota Gede (silver district) and again it had a very European bent to it and was really pleasant to walk around in. These areas of Yogya were almost magical and there were almost no tourists. Where the fuck do the idiot tourists go in Indonesia. Just around the touristy parts. Fuck them. They will miss the beauty of the country. I can see the appeal of these area, but as almost no tourists go there I don't see what the appeal is for the tourists who stay there, unless they like shitty puppet shows and flowery dresses. Java was not appealing to us in the same way as Sumatra, as it was always a hassle, a fight and so many people. I would recommend Sumatra over Java without hesitation every time.
Cipanas: The drive over the fabled Puncak to get to Cipanas took us 5 hours to go about 50km or so. The traffic is abysmal and you have to pay backhanders to random dudes on the street to send you round some back alleys, like some random touring car race, in order to beat the traffic. I still think they create the traffic jams to make sure that people pay for the 'help' but Cannelle thinks I am too cynical. Cipanas itself is a rather nondescript town, but the gardens were really beautiful. They were everything we had been expecting in Bogor and had been disappointed not to find. Lots of beautifully landscaped gardens, a maze (bit too easy) and even mock Balinese and Japanese gardens. It was a very pleasant distraction, but I'd advise visiting it from Bandung side as Puncak is not that amazing and it appears to be just a giant town for prostitution and shitty getaways.
Bandung: We just passed through Bandung and can only say it looks nice enough, though far short of its 'Paris' nickname. It also has a lot of outlet stores where you can buy a lot of cheap clothes if you want some retail therapy. We went to the famous upturned boat volcano, that doesn't look anything like an upturned boat. It is however quite pretty. Its surrounded by touts and I recommended that Andy (Julie's husband) charge for photos and they could make a bule profit lol. These places are both nice and both worth a visit on your way to Yogyakarta if you want to break up your journey.
Yogyakarta: Ah the great divisive city. Half of it is excellent, half of it is shit. Lets start with the shit. The tourist area around the main street is fucking horrible, with so many people vying for your attention and business. Not pleasant people. They also fuck locals as much as they fuck tourists, so don't worry, you're not receiving 'special' treatment. One guy even said 'oh white people, you are always so difficult' in Bahasa when we said no to his extortionate bus tour. Fucker. We wouldn't be difficult if you weren't being lying sacks of shits. Borobodur and Prambanan are also thoroughly underwhelming. If you haven't seen many temples before then Borobodur is nice if hideously overpriced, but Prambanan is so crappy its not worth visiting unless you are a hardcore temple lover and even then you want to think twice considering the price. Prambanan is 171,000 Rp and Borobodur is 190,000 Rp. Locals pay only 30,000 Rp. We asked about the difference and they said we get free tea or coffee. Indeed. Well worth the money. I have to say my two $16 cups of coffee were exquisite and well worth the higher than Norwegian prices for them. Arseholes. Anyway. Borobodur is probably worth the 30,000 Rp but considering its one temple and you get Bagan (for 3 days for $10) and Angkor Wat ($30 for all the temples), its far too expensive. So suffice to say that after the first day we didn't really see what all the fuss was about with Yogya. Yeah its a little funky (but only a little) and it is really cheap (which seems to be the number one thing Indonesians say when you ask them why they like Yogya). Being cheap doesn't cut it alone. Oh well, disappointing. We even went to a Gamelan performance, which seems to be a lot of noise at one time with some random whacking together of two puppets. I am not sure where the skill is needed and I couldn't decide if the all round assault of the senses was something I liked or something I detested. I was only sure that 30 minutes is enough for one lifetime. Why so many foreigners want to stay ages in this place, God alone knows. Then I have thought that of a lot of places in Indonesia. The places all the foreigners hang out in are shitty and everywhere else is really cool. Weird, huh? On day two we went wandering south of the Kraton (the Kraton itself is nice) through areas Julie knew as a student. There are some beautiful lanes down here and they end at the swimming baths, which have a distinctly Roman slant. This part of Yogya is great. We then went to Kota Gede (silver district) and again it had a very European bent to it and was really pleasant to walk around in. These areas of Yogya were almost magical and there were almost no tourists. Where the fuck do the idiot tourists go in Indonesia. Just around the touristy parts. Fuck them. They will miss the beauty of the country. I can see the appeal of these area, but as almost no tourists go there I don't see what the appeal is for the tourists who stay there, unless they like shitty puppet shows and flowery dresses. Java was not appealing to us in the same way as Sumatra, as it was always a hassle, a fight and so many people. I would recommend Sumatra over Java without hesitation every time.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Indonesia (Java Part 1: Cilegon, Ujung Kulon National Park, Bogor and Jakarta)
After negotiating the ferry we realised we weren't going to get any further than Cilegon so we spent the night there. They initially lied to us about having a cheap room, but then changed their mind when we started to leave. The next day we took two connecting buses to Ujung Kulon. They wanted 50,000 for the second bus but we paid the 30,000 we should have done in the end (I suspect it might have been cheaper).
Ujung Kulon National Park: Beautiful place. The little village of Tamanjaya is very pleasant and it has a very Sumatran feel to it. We stayed in the place recommended by LP and I have to say that I dont agree with their assessment that the owner is an expert on local knowledge. I am beginning to think that LP is getting very sloppy and there is certainly room for a real backpacker guidebook. Oh well just have to carve our own route. He was not an expert and seemed instead intent on selling us his tour. I guess most tourists just accept the local advice, but I want to see what I want and not what I am told to. He wanted us to trek for 3 or 4 days to Peucang Island (guide is 100,000 a day) and then take a boat back (1.5 million). I guess the boat is where they make their money. Peucang Island looks nice enough, but the boat is too expensive and we were here for wildlife. Its famous for rhinos (Almost impossible to see and the guide had seen them once only when kayaking near the island beginning with H). So that wasn't worth the money. Peucang Island has macaques, wild boar and deer (woohoo as exciting as Way Kambas). We were here for gibbons and Javan leaf monkeys. These are within a day trip walk of the village, so we agreed to take a guide for 100,000 and take a day trip. The food here is good if overpriced and we paid 100,000 for the room. Still well under budget for the days we stayed here. The park permit is valid for 7 days. We went on the initial trek skeptical of seeing monkeys, but we saw gibbons (briefly after a chase), javan black leaf monkeys and crab eating macaques. I have no idea where the silver leaf monkeys are and neither do the guides seemingly. We saw hornbills (that sounded like pterodactyls over our heads) and loads of giant fruit bats, including around the hotel. Amazing. The park itself is very beautiful. We saw lizards and crabs and beautiful butterflies. This is why we came here. Its a 30km round trip walk to the ranger post and you can make it a triangle with a right hook at the beach (but its only worth walking 2km in this direction as we saw gibbons there once and beyond that the path is too muddy). No need to stay in the park. No need to spend loads for the boat. We enjoyed it so much we repeated the trip the following day for another 100,000 and this time saw nothing in the morning, but groups of gibbons 3 times after lunch on the way back (again proving that animals love the trails when people are not usually on them). We saw loads more macaques and more black leaf monkeys (Much faster than their cousins). Well worth the visit and one of the highlights of the trip. We also took a visit to the hot spring (which is more a trickle, but the walk across the rice fields to get there is really nice). Its a nice end to a day when you have finished monkey watching. This park is great and along with Gunung Leuser and Kerinci have been highlights of our trip. To get out was taxing as they wanted more money, but most of the other buses were fine until we got to the last town before Bogor. They wanted 25,000 and sent everyone and his dog to convince me that was the price. I had a feeling it was 20,000 and stuck to my guns. I was proved right when I saw everyone else paying. They really try their luck here in Java. It gets exhausting after some time.
Bogor: Overrated. Really overrated. We were anticipating some mountain town, but its over 1 million people and a suburb of Jakarta. Can't say anything notable happened here apart from getting a haircut. The 'gardens' are a joke for the price. More like a public park and really badly taken care of. If you haven't seen green for a while, its an ok escape, but otherwise its quite forgettable like the town.
Jakarta: We were afraid for Jakarta before we went there as people had told us it was super polluted and I feared yet another Manila. Thankfully it proved unfounded apart from the canal (which stinks like shit and is even worse when the rain comes). I found Jakarta a pleasant city (caveat is I like big cities) and the Transjakarta is a useful transport system, like the Transmillenio I was used to in Bogota. We stayed in a great hotel right next to Harmoni bus station down a side alley. Will be really good when fully renovated. The city has some really modern buildings, cinemas and restaurants with nothing standout. Kota old town is quite cute with the main square, although the port is totally rundown and swarming with naked beggar children sliding in the rain. Very disturbing. It doesn't have a lot of charm but its worth a day. The view from Monas is really nice, even if you run the risk of dying of boredom waiting in the queue for the lift. The carrefour has baguettes and camembert and brie so we could have a nice picnic in the room. I was helping Bee prepare for her IELTS exam in the evening and she came close, but hopefully they let her in. We met up with Jessica, who can't travel with me due to my overbearing personality. That happens with a lot of people. I am an acquired taste and you have to be a strong character. We saw her friend sing in a nice little cafe that did a weird interpretation of Philly Cheesesteaks. Then I got very, very sick and had gastroentiritis for 2 days. That meant I didn't do much. Cannelle went to see Jessica and eventually when I was well enough we headed off to Depok to stay with Julie who we had met in Bukittinggi and sort out the nightmare visa situation. Jakarta is a nice city to just kick back with some urban life for a bit, but we were soon to discover that Java is just one giant urban monster.
Ujung Kulon National Park: Beautiful place. The little village of Tamanjaya is very pleasant and it has a very Sumatran feel to it. We stayed in the place recommended by LP and I have to say that I dont agree with their assessment that the owner is an expert on local knowledge. I am beginning to think that LP is getting very sloppy and there is certainly room for a real backpacker guidebook. Oh well just have to carve our own route. He was not an expert and seemed instead intent on selling us his tour. I guess most tourists just accept the local advice, but I want to see what I want and not what I am told to. He wanted us to trek for 3 or 4 days to Peucang Island (guide is 100,000 a day) and then take a boat back (1.5 million). I guess the boat is where they make their money. Peucang Island looks nice enough, but the boat is too expensive and we were here for wildlife. Its famous for rhinos (Almost impossible to see and the guide had seen them once only when kayaking near the island beginning with H). So that wasn't worth the money. Peucang Island has macaques, wild boar and deer (woohoo as exciting as Way Kambas). We were here for gibbons and Javan leaf monkeys. These are within a day trip walk of the village, so we agreed to take a guide for 100,000 and take a day trip. The food here is good if overpriced and we paid 100,000 for the room. Still well under budget for the days we stayed here. The park permit is valid for 7 days. We went on the initial trek skeptical of seeing monkeys, but we saw gibbons (briefly after a chase), javan black leaf monkeys and crab eating macaques. I have no idea where the silver leaf monkeys are and neither do the guides seemingly. We saw hornbills (that sounded like pterodactyls over our heads) and loads of giant fruit bats, including around the hotel. Amazing. The park itself is very beautiful. We saw lizards and crabs and beautiful butterflies. This is why we came here. Its a 30km round trip walk to the ranger post and you can make it a triangle with a right hook at the beach (but its only worth walking 2km in this direction as we saw gibbons there once and beyond that the path is too muddy). No need to stay in the park. No need to spend loads for the boat. We enjoyed it so much we repeated the trip the following day for another 100,000 and this time saw nothing in the morning, but groups of gibbons 3 times after lunch on the way back (again proving that animals love the trails when people are not usually on them). We saw loads more macaques and more black leaf monkeys (Much faster than their cousins). Well worth the visit and one of the highlights of the trip. We also took a visit to the hot spring (which is more a trickle, but the walk across the rice fields to get there is really nice). Its a nice end to a day when you have finished monkey watching. This park is great and along with Gunung Leuser and Kerinci have been highlights of our trip. To get out was taxing as they wanted more money, but most of the other buses were fine until we got to the last town before Bogor. They wanted 25,000 and sent everyone and his dog to convince me that was the price. I had a feeling it was 20,000 and stuck to my guns. I was proved right when I saw everyone else paying. They really try their luck here in Java. It gets exhausting after some time.
Bogor: Overrated. Really overrated. We were anticipating some mountain town, but its over 1 million people and a suburb of Jakarta. Can't say anything notable happened here apart from getting a haircut. The 'gardens' are a joke for the price. More like a public park and really badly taken care of. If you haven't seen green for a while, its an ok escape, but otherwise its quite forgettable like the town.
Jakarta: We were afraid for Jakarta before we went there as people had told us it was super polluted and I feared yet another Manila. Thankfully it proved unfounded apart from the canal (which stinks like shit and is even worse when the rain comes). I found Jakarta a pleasant city (caveat is I like big cities) and the Transjakarta is a useful transport system, like the Transmillenio I was used to in Bogota. We stayed in a great hotel right next to Harmoni bus station down a side alley. Will be really good when fully renovated. The city has some really modern buildings, cinemas and restaurants with nothing standout. Kota old town is quite cute with the main square, although the port is totally rundown and swarming with naked beggar children sliding in the rain. Very disturbing. It doesn't have a lot of charm but its worth a day. The view from Monas is really nice, even if you run the risk of dying of boredom waiting in the queue for the lift. The carrefour has baguettes and camembert and brie so we could have a nice picnic in the room. I was helping Bee prepare for her IELTS exam in the evening and she came close, but hopefully they let her in. We met up with Jessica, who can't travel with me due to my overbearing personality. That happens with a lot of people. I am an acquired taste and you have to be a strong character. We saw her friend sing in a nice little cafe that did a weird interpretation of Philly Cheesesteaks. Then I got very, very sick and had gastroentiritis for 2 days. That meant I didn't do much. Cannelle went to see Jessica and eventually when I was well enough we headed off to Depok to stay with Julie who we had met in Bukittinggi and sort out the nightmare visa situation. Jakarta is a nice city to just kick back with some urban life for a bit, but we were soon to discover that Java is just one giant urban monster.
Indonesia (Sumatra Part 6: Banderlampung, Jepara and Way Kambas National Park)
Banderlampung: Pleasant big town. Nothing to do here, but they have a very nice modern hotel and its a good place to kick back for a couple of days if you are missing the comforts of home. Be wary of the becak driver who will stalk you all over town. We really enjoyed it, but its nondescript.
Jepara: We were forced to stay here due to problems with the park, but there is a nice hotel with karaoke for 250,000 if you really want to torture yourself by visiting Way Kambas.
Way Kambas National Park: OOOhhhh this will be fun. Haven't had this much of a rant since Ecuador. You may want to try Bukit Berasan Selatan (we never had time) as its part of the triumvirate of UNESCO Sumatra parks along with Gunung Leuser and Kerinci (which we loved), but for the love of God stay away from this park. Unless you have private transport to and from the park and are willing to burn through at least $500 and love birds then this park is not for you (If you answer yes to the above three you will probably have a nice if overpriced stay). Lets start at the beginning. They let us have a bus to Metro and then there they lied and said there was no bus to Rajabasa and wanted us to charter a van. This went on for 4 hours before they eventually gave us a fucking bus. Only the old people were honest. Then we found out there were no hotels or homestays in Rajabasa and the park is actually 7km from the village. Shit. It was late so we went to Jepara to stay. Luckily they agreed to look after our big bags and are subsequently the best option for visiting the park independently. We then took an angkot to the village again and walked the 7km to the park. Ojeks want around 30,000 so not too bad. Once we got to the park the troubles really began. They invent fees to pay (we ignored these), but they won't let you walk in due to tigers (rubbish) and we had to pay 150,000 for 2 ojeks for the 13km to the park hq. Here you are veritable prisoner, because you are not allowed to walk anywhere. When we tried, they sent us back like babies. They want 300,000 for a 3 hour walk and anything from 500,000 to 1.5 million for a 2 hour boat trip. Insanely expensive. No backpacker can afford this. When we told them it was expensive they just laughed and said not for us. The shit shack in the middle of the jungle was 300,000 (still our most expensive hotel and more than the plasma screen, hot water, super comfortable bed place in Banderlampung). They tried to screw us out of more money in the park, but it was beyond us. Hence what I said about $500. They watched our every movement like inmates and we told them the next day we would walk out of the park as we couldn't afford anything (Bear in mind at Ujung Kulon accommodation is 100,000 and a whole day guide is 100,000. In Gunung Leuser accommodation is 50,000 and a whole day guide is 300,000. Kerinci accommodation is 100,000 and a whole day guide is 300,000). All those parks are many, many times better than Way Kambas. You have to be lucky to see wildlife here. In the others its almost given. They said we couldn't walk without an escort for 100,000 (It was 300,000 on the way in). They said they would have a gun to protect from tigers. Come the morning they had no gun and we told them no gun, no money. We didn't need their stupid protection. What were they going to do to a tiger with just a scooter. Idiots. The guy passed us twice on our walk out of 13km (we saw squirrels, macaques, wild boar and 3 types of deer so nothing outstanding). They have silver leaf monkeys on the river, but we couldn't afford the boat. When we got to the gate the other guy came and demanded 100,000 for the protection. What protection. He passed us twice in 3 hours. Ridiculous. The park guards just want to screw you as much as possible. This is a super unpleasant place. We got into a slanging match and he said I was crazy after I verbally abused him. Yeah I am. Crazy for coming here. We were toying with the idea of not coming due to the bad reviews. We should have listened to our instinct. Just don't go. Yet it gets worse. We eventually got out and collected our bags to go. We went back to Rajabasa and the locals told us all afternoon that a bus would be coming. Eventually it turned out they were lying so we would be forced to take their friends ojek to Metro. What kind of people are these people. We were forced to stay the night in Jepara again. The next day they lied to us about the bus again and Cannelle was getting hysterical. We thought we would be trapped here. She didn't believe people could be like this. The ojek drivers were preventing the buses from picking us up and they were trying to force us into taking ojeks. One guy said it was the crisis and they need money. I told him he shouldn't treat tourists like this and its the reason why noone visits the park. I told him I'd tell everyone I met how they treated us. Prisoners in a town for 2 days. Eventually when he realised how upset we were a bus mysteriously appeared and the driver paid a backhander to the guy on the street of 8000. The bus price is 10,000 from Jepara to Metro, but he wanted 30,000 to cover his backhander even after saying he was doing nothing when I asked him why he paid the other guy. I watched everyone else pay 10000 each and gave 20,000 for the two of us. He complained and I said everyone paid that. He then talked in Bahasa about how we had only paid 12,000. No we hadn't. We had paid 20,000. He just paid a stupid backhander. We are not ATMs. They then didn't want us to take a bus to Banderlampung, but we did and our ordeal was finally over. This is without doubt the worst I have ever been treated by people and under no circumstances should you entertain the idea of visiting this shithole of a park.
We took the public bus to the port for Java for around 17,000 or so and met a cool priest there on the way. For some reason they played Titanic on the boat crossing. Interesting choice of film. We absolutely loved Sumatra and its a shame we had to end on such a bad note at Way Kambas. Onwards to Java.
Jepara: We were forced to stay here due to problems with the park, but there is a nice hotel with karaoke for 250,000 if you really want to torture yourself by visiting Way Kambas.
Way Kambas National Park: OOOhhhh this will be fun. Haven't had this much of a rant since Ecuador. You may want to try Bukit Berasan Selatan (we never had time) as its part of the triumvirate of UNESCO Sumatra parks along with Gunung Leuser and Kerinci (which we loved), but for the love of God stay away from this park. Unless you have private transport to and from the park and are willing to burn through at least $500 and love birds then this park is not for you (If you answer yes to the above three you will probably have a nice if overpriced stay). Lets start at the beginning. They let us have a bus to Metro and then there they lied and said there was no bus to Rajabasa and wanted us to charter a van. This went on for 4 hours before they eventually gave us a fucking bus. Only the old people were honest. Then we found out there were no hotels or homestays in Rajabasa and the park is actually 7km from the village. Shit. It was late so we went to Jepara to stay. Luckily they agreed to look after our big bags and are subsequently the best option for visiting the park independently. We then took an angkot to the village again and walked the 7km to the park. Ojeks want around 30,000 so not too bad. Once we got to the park the troubles really began. They invent fees to pay (we ignored these), but they won't let you walk in due to tigers (rubbish) and we had to pay 150,000 for 2 ojeks for the 13km to the park hq. Here you are veritable prisoner, because you are not allowed to walk anywhere. When we tried, they sent us back like babies. They want 300,000 for a 3 hour walk and anything from 500,000 to 1.5 million for a 2 hour boat trip. Insanely expensive. No backpacker can afford this. When we told them it was expensive they just laughed and said not for us. The shit shack in the middle of the jungle was 300,000 (still our most expensive hotel and more than the plasma screen, hot water, super comfortable bed place in Banderlampung). They tried to screw us out of more money in the park, but it was beyond us. Hence what I said about $500. They watched our every movement like inmates and we told them the next day we would walk out of the park as we couldn't afford anything (Bear in mind at Ujung Kulon accommodation is 100,000 and a whole day guide is 100,000. In Gunung Leuser accommodation is 50,000 and a whole day guide is 300,000. Kerinci accommodation is 100,000 and a whole day guide is 300,000). All those parks are many, many times better than Way Kambas. You have to be lucky to see wildlife here. In the others its almost given. They said we couldn't walk without an escort for 100,000 (It was 300,000 on the way in). They said they would have a gun to protect from tigers. Come the morning they had no gun and we told them no gun, no money. We didn't need their stupid protection. What were they going to do to a tiger with just a scooter. Idiots. The guy passed us twice on our walk out of 13km (we saw squirrels, macaques, wild boar and 3 types of deer so nothing outstanding). They have silver leaf monkeys on the river, but we couldn't afford the boat. When we got to the gate the other guy came and demanded 100,000 for the protection. What protection. He passed us twice in 3 hours. Ridiculous. The park guards just want to screw you as much as possible. This is a super unpleasant place. We got into a slanging match and he said I was crazy after I verbally abused him. Yeah I am. Crazy for coming here. We were toying with the idea of not coming due to the bad reviews. We should have listened to our instinct. Just don't go. Yet it gets worse. We eventually got out and collected our bags to go. We went back to Rajabasa and the locals told us all afternoon that a bus would be coming. Eventually it turned out they were lying so we would be forced to take their friends ojek to Metro. What kind of people are these people. We were forced to stay the night in Jepara again. The next day they lied to us about the bus again and Cannelle was getting hysterical. We thought we would be trapped here. She didn't believe people could be like this. The ojek drivers were preventing the buses from picking us up and they were trying to force us into taking ojeks. One guy said it was the crisis and they need money. I told him he shouldn't treat tourists like this and its the reason why noone visits the park. I told him I'd tell everyone I met how they treated us. Prisoners in a town for 2 days. Eventually when he realised how upset we were a bus mysteriously appeared and the driver paid a backhander to the guy on the street of 8000. The bus price is 10,000 from Jepara to Metro, but he wanted 30,000 to cover his backhander even after saying he was doing nothing when I asked him why he paid the other guy. I watched everyone else pay 10000 each and gave 20,000 for the two of us. He complained and I said everyone paid that. He then talked in Bahasa about how we had only paid 12,000. No we hadn't. We had paid 20,000. He just paid a stupid backhander. We are not ATMs. They then didn't want us to take a bus to Banderlampung, but we did and our ordeal was finally over. This is without doubt the worst I have ever been treated by people and under no circumstances should you entertain the idea of visiting this shithole of a park.
We took the public bus to the port for Java for around 17,000 or so and met a cool priest there on the way. For some reason they played Titanic on the boat crossing. Interesting choice of film. We absolutely loved Sumatra and its a shame we had to end on such a bad note at Way Kambas. Onwards to Java.
Indonesia (Sumatra Part 5: Kerinci Valley, Sungai Penuh, Gunung Kerinci and Bengkulu)
We took the bus down to Sungai Penuh from Padang for 80,000. If you plan on climbing Gunung Kerinci you may as well jump down in Kersik Tua, where you can sort out supplies. We went to Sungai Penuh first.
Sungai Penuh: Nondescript mountain town but a nice little base. We went to Danau Kerinci for the day, which is nice but not essential viewing. Here we got stalked by a local motorcycle driver all the way round the lake, his super loud engine blending effortlessly with the tranquility of the lake. Arsehole. We couldn't shake him off. He told me he was wanted by international police, he knew Jimmy Carter and his uncle was Chuck Norris. Or at least that's what it sounded like. His claims just got more and more ridiculous. He was head of an international bank, he had lived in France and England, but doesn't speak any English or French. I concluded that he was either crazy, dangerous or a bit of both. By the end I had figured that he was just crazy. Anyway he ruined our hike. We got the public bus both ways to the lake. That evening we met Luke Mackin from the LP guide. He was cool and told us a lot of useful things about the local area, including how the LP guy had come through for one night, done nothing and just took his information second hand. Good to see LP is as well researched as we suspected. You should definitely contact him if you are in the area, as he is trying to grow tourism in the region.
Gunung Kerinci: We then went up to Kersik Tua and stayed with a local homestay though we had arranged to climb the mountain with a guide friend of Lukes. This caused a little bit of a problem in the homestay and we had agreed to 1.2 million to climb it including equipment, food, porter and guide. We don't carry any of our own equipment and Cannelle was concerned about the tigers. Firstly we went to the local waterfall (forget the name), but its just off the main road and is impressively powerful. It made a nice day trip diversion. The homestay agreed to take us to the trailhead for 20000 which I thought wa steep but agreed. We decided to set off at 7am, which later changed to 8am. Then in the morning the homestay decided that they wanted 100,000. Fuck that. I was unhappy with the first price, so we decided to walk the 4km to the start of the walk. Its not that bad and fairly flat. It just added 300m to the climb. The guide and porter were not used to walking this additional part and I don't think they were too happy initially. The trail is very easy to follow and once you find the start you could hike to the top on your own very easily. I think that if you have your own equipment and you are at least 2 (probably better 3) then I would say you wouldn't need to hire anyone. We ended up walking ahead of our guide for a lot of it and even did the summit to campsite 2 on our own as the guide and porter went off ahead. As with all the mountains we have done in Indonesia so far, they are all very easy to find the route up. Being more than one protects against accidents and the possible but unlikely tiger encounter as the altitude is too high. We got on the trail about 9am (quite late), but as a bonus on the way up we started to hear siamangs. They were loud. They were close. We followed the sound and headed off the trail to the right for 100m. Awesome. Two siamangs including a baby were in the trees above us. It was a real bonus. We watched them for around half an hour and then set off climbing again. The trail is fairly easy until the first campsite and then it gets steep and muddy. It rained on our way up and that made it a little slippery. In the rainy season it would be challenging. We made it from the base to campsite 2 in around 4-5 hours. We decided we wanted to stay there as we had read that the wind was really strong higher up. It meant an earlier start the next morning, but a better night's sleep. There is some nice birdlife on the way up, but we never saw the yellow langur monkey. Shame as we really love collecting monkeys. I was having problems with altitude in the morning on the hike to the top. It took us around 1.5-2 hours to reach the summit. The sulphur was thick at the top and we had some trouble breathing but we had made it. About 100m down from the summit we had a beautiful view over what seemed like half of Sumatra. You can see the sea, we could see Danau Gunung Tujuh (stunning and you don't need to visit it if you climb here as you won't get a better view). Overall we felt like Gods on Olympus. Volcanos feel so much higher because unlike mountains they don't have any other volcanos around them. It was Cannelle's new highest peak as well. Her vertigo kicked in on the way down and it is a little intimidating, but we overcame it and got down quite tired. Our legs would also be sore for the next two days which shows its a little tough as we are in shape.
Kerinci National Park: When we got back we headed back to Sungai Penuh and decided to take a night drive with Luke, our guide Dhiey and a friend of theres. It cost us 400,000 including petrol from 2pm until 10pm. We went for a drive along the main road of the park (which the buses to Bengkulu also pass through) looking for monkeys. Still no luck. Luke says he often sees them in the morning. When the light fell we went looking for tigers but had no luck. Luke reckons he saw one up here briefly before. We were hoping to see a slow loris. On the ride we saw a civet cat, giant fruit bats, a suspected bear cat (as it was big but not enormous) and a giant flying squirrel. It was a cool experience and its fun sweeping the shadows with torches in pursuit of animals. I reckon if you went a few times you could see quite a lot. The following day we figured we'd take the bus to Bengkulu down the same road and maybe see monkeys. No luck again. Still we had climbed Gunung Kerinci, seen siamangs and the view of danau gunung tujuh was amazing. Well worth the visit. You also have a chance of seeing the Titanium flower, but none were in bloom when we were there.
Bengkulu: Much better than we anticipated. Nice little town. Hotel was a shithole and I can't say its a must see, but if you are heading this way then its worth a stop. You get a chance to drive through the park and the fort is cute as well as them having a weird hotel that looks like a crazy man's jenga set. We saw a captured siamang here, which was heartbreaking after seeing them in the wild a few days earlier. Cannelle reported it to the local authorities. We decided to head to Banderlampung next.
Sungai Penuh: Nondescript mountain town but a nice little base. We went to Danau Kerinci for the day, which is nice but not essential viewing. Here we got stalked by a local motorcycle driver all the way round the lake, his super loud engine blending effortlessly with the tranquility of the lake. Arsehole. We couldn't shake him off. He told me he was wanted by international police, he knew Jimmy Carter and his uncle was Chuck Norris. Or at least that's what it sounded like. His claims just got more and more ridiculous. He was head of an international bank, he had lived in France and England, but doesn't speak any English or French. I concluded that he was either crazy, dangerous or a bit of both. By the end I had figured that he was just crazy. Anyway he ruined our hike. We got the public bus both ways to the lake. That evening we met Luke Mackin from the LP guide. He was cool and told us a lot of useful things about the local area, including how the LP guy had come through for one night, done nothing and just took his information second hand. Good to see LP is as well researched as we suspected. You should definitely contact him if you are in the area, as he is trying to grow tourism in the region.
Gunung Kerinci: We then went up to Kersik Tua and stayed with a local homestay though we had arranged to climb the mountain with a guide friend of Lukes. This caused a little bit of a problem in the homestay and we had agreed to 1.2 million to climb it including equipment, food, porter and guide. We don't carry any of our own equipment and Cannelle was concerned about the tigers. Firstly we went to the local waterfall (forget the name), but its just off the main road and is impressively powerful. It made a nice day trip diversion. The homestay agreed to take us to the trailhead for 20000 which I thought wa steep but agreed. We decided to set off at 7am, which later changed to 8am. Then in the morning the homestay decided that they wanted 100,000. Fuck that. I was unhappy with the first price, so we decided to walk the 4km to the start of the walk. Its not that bad and fairly flat. It just added 300m to the climb. The guide and porter were not used to walking this additional part and I don't think they were too happy initially. The trail is very easy to follow and once you find the start you could hike to the top on your own very easily. I think that if you have your own equipment and you are at least 2 (probably better 3) then I would say you wouldn't need to hire anyone. We ended up walking ahead of our guide for a lot of it and even did the summit to campsite 2 on our own as the guide and porter went off ahead. As with all the mountains we have done in Indonesia so far, they are all very easy to find the route up. Being more than one protects against accidents and the possible but unlikely tiger encounter as the altitude is too high. We got on the trail about 9am (quite late), but as a bonus on the way up we started to hear siamangs. They were loud. They were close. We followed the sound and headed off the trail to the right for 100m. Awesome. Two siamangs including a baby were in the trees above us. It was a real bonus. We watched them for around half an hour and then set off climbing again. The trail is fairly easy until the first campsite and then it gets steep and muddy. It rained on our way up and that made it a little slippery. In the rainy season it would be challenging. We made it from the base to campsite 2 in around 4-5 hours. We decided we wanted to stay there as we had read that the wind was really strong higher up. It meant an earlier start the next morning, but a better night's sleep. There is some nice birdlife on the way up, but we never saw the yellow langur monkey. Shame as we really love collecting monkeys. I was having problems with altitude in the morning on the hike to the top. It took us around 1.5-2 hours to reach the summit. The sulphur was thick at the top and we had some trouble breathing but we had made it. About 100m down from the summit we had a beautiful view over what seemed like half of Sumatra. You can see the sea, we could see Danau Gunung Tujuh (stunning and you don't need to visit it if you climb here as you won't get a better view). Overall we felt like Gods on Olympus. Volcanos feel so much higher because unlike mountains they don't have any other volcanos around them. It was Cannelle's new highest peak as well. Her vertigo kicked in on the way down and it is a little intimidating, but we overcame it and got down quite tired. Our legs would also be sore for the next two days which shows its a little tough as we are in shape.
Kerinci National Park: When we got back we headed back to Sungai Penuh and decided to take a night drive with Luke, our guide Dhiey and a friend of theres. It cost us 400,000 including petrol from 2pm until 10pm. We went for a drive along the main road of the park (which the buses to Bengkulu also pass through) looking for monkeys. Still no luck. Luke says he often sees them in the morning. When the light fell we went looking for tigers but had no luck. Luke reckons he saw one up here briefly before. We were hoping to see a slow loris. On the ride we saw a civet cat, giant fruit bats, a suspected bear cat (as it was big but not enormous) and a giant flying squirrel. It was a cool experience and its fun sweeping the shadows with torches in pursuit of animals. I reckon if you went a few times you could see quite a lot. The following day we figured we'd take the bus to Bengkulu down the same road and maybe see monkeys. No luck again. Still we had climbed Gunung Kerinci, seen siamangs and the view of danau gunung tujuh was amazing. Well worth the visit. You also have a chance of seeing the Titanium flower, but none were in bloom when we were there.
Bengkulu: Much better than we anticipated. Nice little town. Hotel was a shithole and I can't say its a must see, but if you are heading this way then its worth a stop. You get a chance to drive through the park and the fort is cute as well as them having a weird hotel that looks like a crazy man's jenga set. We saw a captured siamang here, which was heartbreaking after seeing them in the wild a few days earlier. Cannelle reported it to the local authorities. We decided to head to Banderlampung next.
Indonesia (Sumatra Part 4): Bukittinggi, Danau Maninjau, Harau Valley, Padang)
I've decided to switch up the style of the blog as it needed a little tweaking and I am way behind where we actually are on this trip. If I like it I'll keep the style. I'm going to comment in general on places and what we did there.
Bukittinggi: What a great little town. I'd say its the highlight of Indonesian cities for us and possibly one of the top 5 cities on this trip (Not that South East Asia has a lot of great cities). Its much prettier than most of the other cities and the distinctive cow horn shaped roofs on the house are impressive. We were also back in a place where people were just happy to see us. The first night we stayed in an overpriced hotel so that I could watch the end of the Premiership season. We won, but so did Arsenal and we finished 5th (Cue speculation on Bale's future, but he seems to be staying with us for at least one more season). I also dropped the computer and broke the edges, but there's nothing you can't fix with a little bit of celotape. The rest of the days we stayed in Hello Hostel which is a really nice place and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone in the city as its cheap and there seems to be a cool collection of travellers there. The first day we wandered around the city and then set off for Lake Maninjau or more precisely to Puncak Lawang which is the viewpoint over the lake. You only really need to come here. It was 6000 Rp by local bus and then you have to walk the last 4km or you can take an ojek. The walk is fairly easy, though there were some kids asking us for money. At the top you have a breathtaking view over the lake, which in my opinion is far more stunning than Lake Toba and Cannelle thinks it is the prettiest lake she has ever seen. Bring a picnic. Its really nice. Some locals offered to guide us on a walk to the lake, but I didn't see the point. We were not going to get a better view than from up here and we just decided to chill out and enjoy it. Well worth the trip.
Inside the city itself they have a little canyon marked on the LP map. We thought why not check it out. Might be nice. Little did we expect an enormous canyon cleaving through the South of the city. Really impressive and beautiful. Sumatra was constantly exceeding out expectations and was becoming a firm favourite of the trip. We got ambushed by a lot of locals looking for photos but it was another highlight in this city of highlights.
That night we met an English couple (who had retired and decided to travel all over despite being nearly 60. Very cool. We also met a German girl and a French guy). They told us that a rafflesia flower was in bloom up at the coffee luwak plantation. At fucking last. A fucking rafflesia. Cannelle would get one of her two wishes. We all set off together and ended up paying 10,000Rp each to some random guy who said he knew where it was. He wasn't an official guide but the price was cheap. We told us it was black as we were discussing in Bahasa, but I insisted it was red and new. In the end he got lost as he only knew the one that was dying. So he had to call his friend while we waited in the the jungle, until he came along and showed us where the flower was. His friend was a real guide and a little disappointed that we were a group of six seeing the flower for such a small fee. Oh well we promised not to tell the others. We were then invited to try the famous Luwak coffee. We were not the best group for this as I don't like coffee that much, Cannelle hates it, the German girl hates it and Camille is French so he likes strong coffee. We all try this super expensive world famous coffee (though we bought only 4 between 6) and you can tell noone likes it. Romaine tried to be diplomatic by saying how nice it was. The rest of us thought it was really silty as they don't filter their coffee, but it did have no aftertaste. I certainly wouldn't pay the ridiculous price for what is effectively overrated coffee. Never mind. We met some locals in a restaurant that evening and they took us to try durian at last and some local puddings. They invited us to join them in Jakarta when we got there eventually.
The following day we set off for the Harau Valley. We wanted to do it by public transport as we were worried about corruption in the police force. A guy wanted to rent us a motorbike for 60,000 a day in the main square but with no international driving license I didn't fancy paying fines. We got a bus out to the nearest big town for 7000 and there the problems started. We arrived and an angkot said 2000 to Harau Valley. I thought cheap, but ok. Instead he took us to an angkot terminal where they wanted us to charter an angkot for 60,000. Fuck that. We refused to pay either angkot driver as we had asked for Harau Valley and not vans to go there. I have just decided not to pay people if they fuck with us. Some locals also thought they were being stupid and we went back to the main road and got an angkot for 3000 to the entrance to the valley. Its only a 4km walk to the valley, but Cannelle was not sure of the distance and wanted to take a sidecar ojek. We negotiated 10,000 for the 4km and rode in. Its a really picturesque place. Towering canyon walls, carved with striations. We spent the afternoon walking around and Cannelle got scared by a macaque who was bearing his teeth at us. We were surrounded at one point, but they were as scared of us as we were of them. Its a nice day trip and if you have to stay at one of the two, I'd choose Harau Valley to stay in for one night. The way back was a little easier, but involved a few changes of bus and some bullshit expenses. Still it worked out cheap enough. We even walked out of the valley to the entrance on the way back and its a nice walk. Lots of dogs on bikes though. Not sure where they were taking them and what for.
The next day we moved on to Padang. Its an ok city. Not much to see there. We just bummed around and finally tried the famous Padang food. Its awesome. Chicken, fish and meat (including the famous rendang). Vegetables, eggs and rice. Many different types of sauce. They just put all the plates down in front of you and you take whatever you want. You pay for what you take. Its perfect as you always eat what you feel like and the perfect amount to feel satisfied. Never too much and never too little. Its by far my favourite food in South East Asia and probably the only one I would look for in Australia (along with biryani and bicol food). The others left in the morning and we set off for the Kerinci Valley.
Bukittinggi: What a great little town. I'd say its the highlight of Indonesian cities for us and possibly one of the top 5 cities on this trip (Not that South East Asia has a lot of great cities). Its much prettier than most of the other cities and the distinctive cow horn shaped roofs on the house are impressive. We were also back in a place where people were just happy to see us. The first night we stayed in an overpriced hotel so that I could watch the end of the Premiership season. We won, but so did Arsenal and we finished 5th (Cue speculation on Bale's future, but he seems to be staying with us for at least one more season). I also dropped the computer and broke the edges, but there's nothing you can't fix with a little bit of celotape. The rest of the days we stayed in Hello Hostel which is a really nice place and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone in the city as its cheap and there seems to be a cool collection of travellers there. The first day we wandered around the city and then set off for Lake Maninjau or more precisely to Puncak Lawang which is the viewpoint over the lake. You only really need to come here. It was 6000 Rp by local bus and then you have to walk the last 4km or you can take an ojek. The walk is fairly easy, though there were some kids asking us for money. At the top you have a breathtaking view over the lake, which in my opinion is far more stunning than Lake Toba and Cannelle thinks it is the prettiest lake she has ever seen. Bring a picnic. Its really nice. Some locals offered to guide us on a walk to the lake, but I didn't see the point. We were not going to get a better view than from up here and we just decided to chill out and enjoy it. Well worth the trip.
Inside the city itself they have a little canyon marked on the LP map. We thought why not check it out. Might be nice. Little did we expect an enormous canyon cleaving through the South of the city. Really impressive and beautiful. Sumatra was constantly exceeding out expectations and was becoming a firm favourite of the trip. We got ambushed by a lot of locals looking for photos but it was another highlight in this city of highlights.
That night we met an English couple (who had retired and decided to travel all over despite being nearly 60. Very cool. We also met a German girl and a French guy). They told us that a rafflesia flower was in bloom up at the coffee luwak plantation. At fucking last. A fucking rafflesia. Cannelle would get one of her two wishes. We all set off together and ended up paying 10,000Rp each to some random guy who said he knew where it was. He wasn't an official guide but the price was cheap. We told us it was black as we were discussing in Bahasa, but I insisted it was red and new. In the end he got lost as he only knew the one that was dying. So he had to call his friend while we waited in the the jungle, until he came along and showed us where the flower was. His friend was a real guide and a little disappointed that we were a group of six seeing the flower for such a small fee. Oh well we promised not to tell the others. We were then invited to try the famous Luwak coffee. We were not the best group for this as I don't like coffee that much, Cannelle hates it, the German girl hates it and Camille is French so he likes strong coffee. We all try this super expensive world famous coffee (though we bought only 4 between 6) and you can tell noone likes it. Romaine tried to be diplomatic by saying how nice it was. The rest of us thought it was really silty as they don't filter their coffee, but it did have no aftertaste. I certainly wouldn't pay the ridiculous price for what is effectively overrated coffee. Never mind. We met some locals in a restaurant that evening and they took us to try durian at last and some local puddings. They invited us to join them in Jakarta when we got there eventually.
The following day we set off for the Harau Valley. We wanted to do it by public transport as we were worried about corruption in the police force. A guy wanted to rent us a motorbike for 60,000 a day in the main square but with no international driving license I didn't fancy paying fines. We got a bus out to the nearest big town for 7000 and there the problems started. We arrived and an angkot said 2000 to Harau Valley. I thought cheap, but ok. Instead he took us to an angkot terminal where they wanted us to charter an angkot for 60,000. Fuck that. We refused to pay either angkot driver as we had asked for Harau Valley and not vans to go there. I have just decided not to pay people if they fuck with us. Some locals also thought they were being stupid and we went back to the main road and got an angkot for 3000 to the entrance to the valley. Its only a 4km walk to the valley, but Cannelle was not sure of the distance and wanted to take a sidecar ojek. We negotiated 10,000 for the 4km and rode in. Its a really picturesque place. Towering canyon walls, carved with striations. We spent the afternoon walking around and Cannelle got scared by a macaque who was bearing his teeth at us. We were surrounded at one point, but they were as scared of us as we were of them. Its a nice day trip and if you have to stay at one of the two, I'd choose Harau Valley to stay in for one night. The way back was a little easier, but involved a few changes of bus and some bullshit expenses. Still it worked out cheap enough. We even walked out of the valley to the entrance on the way back and its a nice walk. Lots of dogs on bikes though. Not sure where they were taking them and what for.
The next day we moved on to Padang. Its an ok city. Not much to see there. We just bummed around and finally tried the famous Padang food. Its awesome. Chicken, fish and meat (including the famous rendang). Vegetables, eggs and rice. Many different types of sauce. They just put all the plates down in front of you and you take whatever you want. You pay for what you take. Its perfect as you always eat what you feel like and the perfect amount to feel satisfied. Never too much and never too little. Its by far my favourite food in South East Asia and probably the only one I would look for in Australia (along with biryani and bicol food). The others left in the morning and we set off for the Kerinci Valley.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Indonesia (Sumatra Part 3): Banda Aceh, Pulau Weh, Medan and Danau Toba
We arrived half dead in Banda Aceh following the shitty night minivan from Takengon. Again we had a problem due to it being the weekend. There were no free hostels available. Everyone told us they were full and wanted us to stay at the most expensive places. The first hotel we asked had one room, but we went everywhere else to be met with rejection. Only then did it dawn on us that we should have asked if they had a room for four people. Hindsight is often neglected. We got a room for 150,000 rp for the four of us and all three girls decided to have a rest. In the end Cannelle joined me for breakfast at Tower Cafe where we had our first experience of sort of Padang food where they plonk down a bunch of plates and you just eat whatever you fancy and pay for those items. It was the first time we had Rizol (spring roll thing, really nice), andal andal (coconut covered caramel thing. The girls loved it) and Pulut (sticky rice). Every piece was 1000 rp and the Indonesian bakeries are a godsend for us and so, so cheap. We went to visit the mosque which is really something and then for a walk down the memorial gardens to the old artificial hill built by an old sultan for his Malaysian wife (Gunongan). So far, so pleasant. Its a nice city to go for a stroll around and you can see that they have taken care with the cleanup. We then met a motorcycle driver who invited us for tea with him. It was short as we had to meet the German girls to visit the Tsunami Museum, which was the primary reason we had stopped here. It really is an impressive museum and totally free. Be careful though as they want money for the cloakroom if you leave any items there which is mandatory. I refused to pay on the way out as they didn't mention this when we deposited the items. They have an interesting museum, showing the power and speed of the water, as well as some more technical explanations. The people must have been hit hard and its weird walking around a city in which you know almost everyone must have lost at least one relative in the tsunami. Afterwards the girls went back and I went on to see the giant 4,500 tonne boat that was deposited 4km inland. Its an impressive site and again its entrance by donation only. I toured around the site for an hour or so and there were a lot of visitors in Banda Aceh for the weekend for a maths conference so they were not used to foreigners and I had to pose for a lot of photos. Most of it is harmless enough though. Just don't leave home in a rush as you will have a hard time making it anywhere on time. I decided not to visit the boat on a roof until the following day and on the way back I was accosted by a tricycle driver who had met the German girls earlier and been offering to take us around town for free. I invited him to join us for dinner that evening. This was our one and only bad experience with the locals of Aceh. He arrived and said he would take us to a vegetarian Chinese restaurant that was cheap. It was not cheap and it wasn't vegetarian. Three of us ordered chicken nuggets as it was the only cheap thing on the menu. Bad choice. It was meager and shit. We told him it was more expensive than street food and he said it wasn't. It was. He then proceeded to try to get us to hire him to take us to the port or the airport. We told him we would just take local buses and he said that he had never heard of a tourist taking a local bus. Well now he had. Not sure who he was mixing with. Its illegal for locals to drink alcohol in Aceh and they can only drink it with tourists. He ordered a beer even though none of us were drinking and then said it was expensive. I reckon he wanted us to pay for it, but after the awkward sales pitch, none of us were inclined to pick up his tab. It was a horrible experience and we believed we were heading out to dinner for a genuine chat with a local. Shame really. Even worse was to follow when first Cannelle and then I came down with food poisoning. We decided to rest in Banda Aceh, while the others went to Pulau Weh. Manu would later be struck down on the way to the island as well. Insult compounded by illness from the chicken nuggets.
We didn't do much as we were both sick and spent all day in bed feeling incredibly weak. I just about made it to watch Spurs win 2-1. The pressure was on Arsenal now when they played Wigan on Tuesday.
The next day we took the labi labi to the port, but not before the locals tried to make us take a charter. They love their charter transport in Asia. Shame I don't or we'd get on famously. We had been told the boat was at 10am, but only at weekends. In the week it goes at 2pm so we were four hours early and left twiddling our thumbs. Excellent. We chatted with a load of tuk tuk drivers who set us up with a friend of ours on the other side. They were also setting us up for the return journey, but on this side there are labi labis and they were going to be disappointed. There were no seats in economy class on the slow boat so we rested it out and grabbed a tuk tuk to Iboih on the other side. It cost us 60,000 rp even though the price is supposed to be 80,000 rp. We haggled them down and only later realised its like 40km or so, so maybe the price is not as steep as I first thought. We saw the same Dutch girl from Berastagi which was surprising as she wasn't supposed to come North so we found a cheap place to stay and met up with Manu and Brechje (Dutch girl for dinner) as Mimi was busy taking magic mushrooms with the owner of her guesthouse. We went to the Italian place at the start of the village which does really nice food (including home made pasta that you can watch the guy make). We decided to go snorkelling together the following day, as neither Manu or Bee can dive.
We went to the dive shop to enquire about their dive sites for the next few days, but they said they would know by the end of the day. The dive shop gave us a lift over to Rubiah Island and we hiked to the far side to go snorkelling. There were some jellyfish but not as many as in Moalboal. Bee had a shitty snorkel and it limited her ability to snorkel, so Cannelle lent her hers and we went snorkelling together. There are some strong currents out there, but again they are nothing to worry about if you are a strong swimmer. Make sure you don't get too tired though. I think I saw an eagle ray glide off in the blue and we saw some trigger fish. The fish life is nice, but the coral is totally destroyed. Its much worse on the near side of the island and the snorkelling there was quite boring. I was also half drowning having taken Bee's mask for her. A dive shop should not be renting out snorkels like that. Having seen the snorkelling I figured the diving would be ok, but not amazing, especially as we were out of season for rays. Shitty again. Then came the really crappy news. There was a festival/environmental thing/something noone really understands that would mean noone could go in the water on the diving side of the water for 3 days. No diving, no snorkelling, no swimming. Shit. That's what we came for. I asked a dive master (not realising he was a dive master) if there was anything truly exceptional to dive out there. He said not really if you aren't a fan of sharks, though the morays would have been cool. I would have dived if we didn't have to kill three days, but his answer persuaded me that it wouldn't be worth losing three days of the holiday to dive there. They suggested we could visit the beaches and waterfall. Thankyou very much, but after 2 months in the Philippines, the lures of Pulau Weh island were not very appealing. Its a pretty enough place if you haven't just spent 2 months in paradise. Oh well. Our hotel owner was pissed as we would be checking out early. Manu played some beach volleyball and then we all met for dinner at the Italian after some more snorkelling (quite nice) in front of the Iboih beach. We met some Germans who seemed a little lost on their travels and two Finnish guys (with some serious gambling problems) who had spent 6 weeks on Danau Toba. Cool. Maybe its a good place, even if Manu hadn't liked it and Bee thought it was just ok. We said goodbye to Manu and we were actually starting to travel with people here, like in South America.
The next morning we met Bee (carrying the most ridiculous sized rucksack ever) and got a ride to the port with one of the dive instructors. We took the boat across and thought we would have a really boring day in Banda Aceh. Instead the time flew and we had a great time just shooting the breeze in Banda Aceh. We went back to Tower Cafe and indulged in some more small snacks. Cannelle started to get a little jealous of Bee even while really liking her, because she thought she was so pretty and that me and her got on well. I think she reminded both of us of Cannelle. She has the same fidgety niceness that's really endearing. We really enjoyed travelling with her and it was cool to spend time with someone who was really like us. We ended up getting the most ridiculous night bus ever to Medan. For 120,000 rp you will never see a bus more luxurious. It was almost like you had your own armchair to sleep in and thick blankets. I think its no exaggeration if I say that I slept better on that bus than any bed in Sumatra until now in Banderlampung. Bee told us about the shit experience she had had in Bali with a volunteering organisation and I told her that maybe she should go into setting up her own NGO for a job in the future.
In the morning we said goodbye to Bee. Cannelle was enjoying travelling with different people and we'd slowed the travel down to the pace that it will be on the next trip. We are also starting to narrow it down to three more trips, but big ones fuelled by big budgets. Pacific/Asia, Western Europe/Americas, Middle East/Africa. Should be a good three trips, possibly funded out of London. We managed to get on a bus across town after some ojek hassle and then another bus to Parapat for only 25,000 rp. We asked to be dropped in the bus station to check for buses to Bukittingi first, but they dropped us there and there is just one office. There is no bus station here. You have to chance it on the road or pay 180,000 rp here. If you know when you are going to leave stop here and book it. If not then you may have to use a place in Tuk Tuk. We paid 205,000 rp, but a German guy paid 230,000 rp. Shop around. We walked down to the harbour (don't bother just take an opelet for 2,000 rp) as we ended up in the wrong harbour and had to pay for an opelet to the other one anyway. The boat to Tuk Tuk is 10,000 rp (be prepared for touts), though the other harbour has a boat for 5,000 rp to a town 3km from Tuk Tuk. Not worth it unless you love walking or pack light. We beat off the touts to get dropped off near Bagus Bay Homestay. We got a place for 40,000 rp and booked for 2 nights assuming we would want at least that long on the premier tourist attraction of Sumatra. Well you would think so. We had been to Sipiso-Piso and seen the beautiful lake from there. The lake looks stunning from Parapat (personally I would just stay there or even better in the town 5km from Sipiso-Piso as at least you can get local cheap food and avoid the bullshit of Tuk Tuk). From Tuk Tuk the lake just looks very meh. Tuk Tuk is overdeveloped and very meh. There is nothing local or authentic about the place. They have surrendered it to tourists in much the same way the Dutch have surrendered the centre of Amsterdam. Ghost town like as there aren't enough tourists here anymore. How the hell did the Finnish guy spend 6 weeks here? How could you even spend 6 days here? I figure 6 hours may be too much. Even when you ask the guy what to do here he says meh. Well where is the best place to see the lake. It all looks the same. Its just a lake. Wow you could feel the enthusiasm. There really is nothing to do. Shit why did we book in for 2 nights. Bugger. Don't get me wrong. Its a pleasant place to relax (as that's all you can do). You really have no choice. Accommodation is cheap. Food is expensive but affordable due to cheap accommodation. The lake is not that special, especially compared to somewhere like Maninjau. The German bakery place was the saviour as they had fresh cheese (5,000rp for 2 slices, 5000rp for a home made roll and 4000rp for mayonaise). I just ate porridge and cheese sandwiches for 2 days, which was heavenly but hardly the Asian experience. If you need to step off the tourist trail and recuperate this place is perfect. If you don't then its hardly worth coming. Until the last week it was the only place we visited in Sumatra that was not a highlight.
So do we hire a motorbike or not? Bee had said its ok, the hostel worker says it all looks the same. Fuck it we just walked and took opelets. Cheap day. We witnessed a close shave between an opelet and a tourist on a motorbike, so be wary of the idiotic driving here. We went to the town with the tombs (the one with the other ferry) and proceeded to be underwhelmed. Nice, but hardly worth getting out of bed for. We have high standards for Sumatra. We could not find the stone chairs when we went to that town and given the nature of the tombs we weren't that bothered to try. The lake has not real clear views apart from Tuk Tuk. The view from the hill near Sipiso-Piso was still by far the best view of the lake we had had. We went back and played monopoly and ate cheese sandwiches. There was a huge group of morons on the lake all walking around an Islamic country in the shortest tops and shorts imaginable. It was land of the package tourist again and full of morons. I imagined Bukit Lawang to be the same as this was as far as the banana pancake trail people made it to in Indonesia. Christian place you see, so they can drink. Woohoo. That's what its all about, eh lol. I listened to some idiot saying how Bali was so much better than the rest of Indonesia because they were Muslim and Bali was Hindu and therefore respecting of all religions. You do get some bollocks on your travels. Even the French girls in Berastagi had been saying how all the women here were clearly subjugated and forced to wear the headscarf even though they hadn't bothered to actually interact with locals. Blind naivety is annoying. People take their views with them and they see what they want to see. I thought travelling was supposed to open the mind and your eyes not just reinforce what you left home with. May as well have stayed in their cocoon. I have found that the least hassle and nicest people I have met travelling have often been in Muslim places. We also met some locals who said that their husbands didn't want them to wear headscarves, but they wanted to anyway. As with Morocco, it doesn't strike me as a persecuted and suppressed people. Bali itself doesn't even look that impressive, but we will see when we get there. Anyway back to boring Toba.
The next day we did nothing, because there isn't anything to do and then we took the boat across to get the 5pm night bus to Bukittingi. We somehow had a super boring German guy latch onto us. He asked us a question, so we started talking. Well I did. I asked him questions and he barely responded, never asking anything in return. Does he not realise conversation is a two way thing. Oh well. Conclusions. Aceh is awesome and the people are great. Just if you meet a tuk tuk driver offering free rides, avoid him. Toba is so overrated its not even funny and everyone interesting we met travelling thinks the place is super boring. It was the first place in Indonesia where the locals had no interest in talking with us as well. They only wanted money or a business transaction of some kind. It is however a good place to unwind if you want to step off the tourist trail. Anyway onwards to Bukittingi, to cross the equator and for Cannelle to be in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. Something that I thought was a cool and big deal, but she doesn't seem to see the significance of this big thing. I thought it was cool when I did it in Ecuador.
We didn't do much as we were both sick and spent all day in bed feeling incredibly weak. I just about made it to watch Spurs win 2-1. The pressure was on Arsenal now when they played Wigan on Tuesday.
The next day we took the labi labi to the port, but not before the locals tried to make us take a charter. They love their charter transport in Asia. Shame I don't or we'd get on famously. We had been told the boat was at 10am, but only at weekends. In the week it goes at 2pm so we were four hours early and left twiddling our thumbs. Excellent. We chatted with a load of tuk tuk drivers who set us up with a friend of ours on the other side. They were also setting us up for the return journey, but on this side there are labi labis and they were going to be disappointed. There were no seats in economy class on the slow boat so we rested it out and grabbed a tuk tuk to Iboih on the other side. It cost us 60,000 rp even though the price is supposed to be 80,000 rp. We haggled them down and only later realised its like 40km or so, so maybe the price is not as steep as I first thought. We saw the same Dutch girl from Berastagi which was surprising as she wasn't supposed to come North so we found a cheap place to stay and met up with Manu and Brechje (Dutch girl for dinner) as Mimi was busy taking magic mushrooms with the owner of her guesthouse. We went to the Italian place at the start of the village which does really nice food (including home made pasta that you can watch the guy make). We decided to go snorkelling together the following day, as neither Manu or Bee can dive.
We went to the dive shop to enquire about their dive sites for the next few days, but they said they would know by the end of the day. The dive shop gave us a lift over to Rubiah Island and we hiked to the far side to go snorkelling. There were some jellyfish but not as many as in Moalboal. Bee had a shitty snorkel and it limited her ability to snorkel, so Cannelle lent her hers and we went snorkelling together. There are some strong currents out there, but again they are nothing to worry about if you are a strong swimmer. Make sure you don't get too tired though. I think I saw an eagle ray glide off in the blue and we saw some trigger fish. The fish life is nice, but the coral is totally destroyed. Its much worse on the near side of the island and the snorkelling there was quite boring. I was also half drowning having taken Bee's mask for her. A dive shop should not be renting out snorkels like that. Having seen the snorkelling I figured the diving would be ok, but not amazing, especially as we were out of season for rays. Shitty again. Then came the really crappy news. There was a festival/environmental thing/something noone really understands that would mean noone could go in the water on the diving side of the water for 3 days. No diving, no snorkelling, no swimming. Shit. That's what we came for. I asked a dive master (not realising he was a dive master) if there was anything truly exceptional to dive out there. He said not really if you aren't a fan of sharks, though the morays would have been cool. I would have dived if we didn't have to kill three days, but his answer persuaded me that it wouldn't be worth losing three days of the holiday to dive there. They suggested we could visit the beaches and waterfall. Thankyou very much, but after 2 months in the Philippines, the lures of Pulau Weh island were not very appealing. Its a pretty enough place if you haven't just spent 2 months in paradise. Oh well. Our hotel owner was pissed as we would be checking out early. Manu played some beach volleyball and then we all met for dinner at the Italian after some more snorkelling (quite nice) in front of the Iboih beach. We met some Germans who seemed a little lost on their travels and two Finnish guys (with some serious gambling problems) who had spent 6 weeks on Danau Toba. Cool. Maybe its a good place, even if Manu hadn't liked it and Bee thought it was just ok. We said goodbye to Manu and we were actually starting to travel with people here, like in South America.
The next morning we met Bee (carrying the most ridiculous sized rucksack ever) and got a ride to the port with one of the dive instructors. We took the boat across and thought we would have a really boring day in Banda Aceh. Instead the time flew and we had a great time just shooting the breeze in Banda Aceh. We went back to Tower Cafe and indulged in some more small snacks. Cannelle started to get a little jealous of Bee even while really liking her, because she thought she was so pretty and that me and her got on well. I think she reminded both of us of Cannelle. She has the same fidgety niceness that's really endearing. We really enjoyed travelling with her and it was cool to spend time with someone who was really like us. We ended up getting the most ridiculous night bus ever to Medan. For 120,000 rp you will never see a bus more luxurious. It was almost like you had your own armchair to sleep in and thick blankets. I think its no exaggeration if I say that I slept better on that bus than any bed in Sumatra until now in Banderlampung. Bee told us about the shit experience she had had in Bali with a volunteering organisation and I told her that maybe she should go into setting up her own NGO for a job in the future.
In the morning we said goodbye to Bee. Cannelle was enjoying travelling with different people and we'd slowed the travel down to the pace that it will be on the next trip. We are also starting to narrow it down to three more trips, but big ones fuelled by big budgets. Pacific/Asia, Western Europe/Americas, Middle East/Africa. Should be a good three trips, possibly funded out of London. We managed to get on a bus across town after some ojek hassle and then another bus to Parapat for only 25,000 rp. We asked to be dropped in the bus station to check for buses to Bukittingi first, but they dropped us there and there is just one office. There is no bus station here. You have to chance it on the road or pay 180,000 rp here. If you know when you are going to leave stop here and book it. If not then you may have to use a place in Tuk Tuk. We paid 205,000 rp, but a German guy paid 230,000 rp. Shop around. We walked down to the harbour (don't bother just take an opelet for 2,000 rp) as we ended up in the wrong harbour and had to pay for an opelet to the other one anyway. The boat to Tuk Tuk is 10,000 rp (be prepared for touts), though the other harbour has a boat for 5,000 rp to a town 3km from Tuk Tuk. Not worth it unless you love walking or pack light. We beat off the touts to get dropped off near Bagus Bay Homestay. We got a place for 40,000 rp and booked for 2 nights assuming we would want at least that long on the premier tourist attraction of Sumatra. Well you would think so. We had been to Sipiso-Piso and seen the beautiful lake from there. The lake looks stunning from Parapat (personally I would just stay there or even better in the town 5km from Sipiso-Piso as at least you can get local cheap food and avoid the bullshit of Tuk Tuk). From Tuk Tuk the lake just looks very meh. Tuk Tuk is overdeveloped and very meh. There is nothing local or authentic about the place. They have surrendered it to tourists in much the same way the Dutch have surrendered the centre of Amsterdam. Ghost town like as there aren't enough tourists here anymore. How the hell did the Finnish guy spend 6 weeks here? How could you even spend 6 days here? I figure 6 hours may be too much. Even when you ask the guy what to do here he says meh. Well where is the best place to see the lake. It all looks the same. Its just a lake. Wow you could feel the enthusiasm. There really is nothing to do. Shit why did we book in for 2 nights. Bugger. Don't get me wrong. Its a pleasant place to relax (as that's all you can do). You really have no choice. Accommodation is cheap. Food is expensive but affordable due to cheap accommodation. The lake is not that special, especially compared to somewhere like Maninjau. The German bakery place was the saviour as they had fresh cheese (5,000rp for 2 slices, 5000rp for a home made roll and 4000rp for mayonaise). I just ate porridge and cheese sandwiches for 2 days, which was heavenly but hardly the Asian experience. If you need to step off the tourist trail and recuperate this place is perfect. If you don't then its hardly worth coming. Until the last week it was the only place we visited in Sumatra that was not a highlight.
So do we hire a motorbike or not? Bee had said its ok, the hostel worker says it all looks the same. Fuck it we just walked and took opelets. Cheap day. We witnessed a close shave between an opelet and a tourist on a motorbike, so be wary of the idiotic driving here. We went to the town with the tombs (the one with the other ferry) and proceeded to be underwhelmed. Nice, but hardly worth getting out of bed for. We have high standards for Sumatra. We could not find the stone chairs when we went to that town and given the nature of the tombs we weren't that bothered to try. The lake has not real clear views apart from Tuk Tuk. The view from the hill near Sipiso-Piso was still by far the best view of the lake we had had. We went back and played monopoly and ate cheese sandwiches. There was a huge group of morons on the lake all walking around an Islamic country in the shortest tops and shorts imaginable. It was land of the package tourist again and full of morons. I imagined Bukit Lawang to be the same as this was as far as the banana pancake trail people made it to in Indonesia. Christian place you see, so they can drink. Woohoo. That's what its all about, eh lol. I listened to some idiot saying how Bali was so much better than the rest of Indonesia because they were Muslim and Bali was Hindu and therefore respecting of all religions. You do get some bollocks on your travels. Even the French girls in Berastagi had been saying how all the women here were clearly subjugated and forced to wear the headscarf even though they hadn't bothered to actually interact with locals. Blind naivety is annoying. People take their views with them and they see what they want to see. I thought travelling was supposed to open the mind and your eyes not just reinforce what you left home with. May as well have stayed in their cocoon. I have found that the least hassle and nicest people I have met travelling have often been in Muslim places. We also met some locals who said that their husbands didn't want them to wear headscarves, but they wanted to anyway. As with Morocco, it doesn't strike me as a persecuted and suppressed people. Bali itself doesn't even look that impressive, but we will see when we get there. Anyway back to boring Toba.
The next day we did nothing, because there isn't anything to do and then we took the boat across to get the 5pm night bus to Bukittingi. We somehow had a super boring German guy latch onto us. He asked us a question, so we started talking. Well I did. I asked him questions and he barely responded, never asking anything in return. Does he not realise conversation is a two way thing. Oh well. Conclusions. Aceh is awesome and the people are great. Just if you meet a tuk tuk driver offering free rides, avoid him. Toba is so overrated its not even funny and everyone interesting we met travelling thinks the place is super boring. It was the first place in Indonesia where the locals had no interest in talking with us as well. They only wanted money or a business transaction of some kind. It is however a good place to unwind if you want to step off the tourist trail. Anyway onwards to Bukittingi, to cross the equator and for Cannelle to be in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. Something that I thought was a cool and big deal, but she doesn't seem to see the significance of this big thing. I thought it was cool when I did it in Ecuador.
Indonesia (Sumatra Part 2): Ketambe, Gunung Leuser, Kedah and Tacloban)
We arrived in the tiny village of Ketambe and booked into a cheap lodge. Not friendship but the one next door, who are in LP and their name eludes me now. There were some Germans who wanted to stay for 18 days and had been hoping to see elephants, rhinos and tigers. The owner joked with us that we wanted to see tigers. We told him that we had a much more realistic aim for our time here. We wanted to see orangutans, thomas leaf monkeys and if we could siamangs and gibbons. We had decided against Bukit Lawang because I figured it would be like Semenggoh and we preferred it when we saw the wild orangutans in Kinabatangan (since then we have met people who went to Bukit Lawang and saw Siamang and gibbons as well, even if they are obviously acclimatised to people, I think it may well be worth visiting both if you have the time). They also do night treks where you have a reasonable chance of seeing civet cats, slow loris, porcupines and pangolins. I wish we had taken one now and its probably worth a look.
In the morning Mimi was still too sick to walk so they called for the local doctor who gave her some medication for her stomach. The other three of us decided to go rafting for the day. There is a surprising amount of white water on the river and its very, very fast. We actively had to aim to avoid some of the bigger rapids instead of hitting them. Its not amazing, but its really good and much better than I was expecting. On one bend we pulled over to the side and walk to the edge. Ouch. Shit. Something stung me in the back of the knee. Manu screams as something stung her on the finger. The guide told us not to move. Shit. What was it? A black wasp like creature that apparently attacks anything that moves. The more you move, the more of them come so you have to freeze. Great. Then one of the little bastards landed on my eyelid. Shit. I can't let it sting me in the eye so I blink and it stings me in the eyelid. Shit that hurt. My fucking eye. The guide tells me to move downriver slowly and my eye starts to swell up. The stings hurt like hell for 20 minutes and then they ease off. The trip was around 3-4 hours. When we got back some Italians had arrived so we chatted with them in the evening while the rain battered down. We had paid 900,000 rp for the three of us for the rafting. We organised a 2 day/1 night trek for 600,000 rp each for the 2 days all included. I think we could have got 250,000 rp as I heard of some people who did. I don't haggle much with people I like, but I will fuck anyone I don't like on price.
The following day we set off for our trek in the jungle. Its not as muddy as LP says, though there is mud. There aren't that many mosquitoes, but there are a lot of leeches. We were in dry season, but it was after heavy rain and we had maybe 30 each a day, though only one bit me through the hole in my trousers. On the second day in the jungle there were a lot less. Maybe 5-10 each. In the morning we walked for around 3-4 hours, but due to the rain we only saw 3 orangutans quite far away, but it was still cool. You stay in a campsite not that deep in the jungle and there we saw what we thought were long tailed mcaques (only when we zoomed in later on the photo did we realised they were thomas leaf monkeys). We had been worried about tigers but the guide told us some facts. They never attack groups of 3 or more and even 2 is unlikely. You should not enter the forest on your own though. The main cause of attacks is due to injury or farmer encroachment but these always happen on the periphery an not in the actual park. In the park there are three problems. If you see tiger claw marks, this is to mark where they have buried a kill. If you don't step near it they won't attack you. Secondly they pooh at the top of hills so animals smell the pooh and run the other way where the tiger is waiting for an ambush. They know you are not a natural prey so if you enter their territory they will growl three times. If you don't back away after three growls well then you are fair prey as you were warned. The final one is to do with babies. The babies have no fear of humans and will come to check you out. If they get close the mum will defend them. They said if you hear or see a baby tiger just run away. In the afternoon we went for another hike and this time we were rewarded with a troop of thomas leaf monkeys and a mother and baby orangutan at very close range (10m maybe). We followed them until the baby became a bit agitated and started to throw branches at us so we moved away. Both the guide and I were bitten once by a leech and we came back to the camp for some nice food. Having seen our main two objectives (both 99% guaranteed here) I wanted to focus on the siamang and gibbon in the morning.
We went on a search for gibbons in the morning, but had no luck as they weren't in the area that day. Shame. We did see three more orangutans at a distance including a male up in a tree. We saw plenty of varied insect life on the trek as well. Gunung Leuser looked like a nice park to hike in. At lunch the guide told us that there were more gibbons at Kedah, even though the owner had told us they had no wildlife up there. (It seems like Kedah is a good place to go to see gibbons and if I could do this part over again I would have gone there as well as it seems a better place for gibbons, who seem to like to hang out between 1500 and 1900m). Manu was stung by a yellow bee that leaves a nasty swelling for two days after the sting. In the afternoon we saw 2 more orangutans and then the big male, who was enormous, but I think smaller than Richie in Semenggoh. Overall we saw 11 orangutans and it was a really nice trek. I could have spent longer there and gone to Kedah but the others wanted to move on. It battered down with rain that evening so again we didn't have the opportunity to go on a night hike. Cannelle had injured her thigh but nothing serious. Back at the lodge we saw a rhinoceros beetle and we decided we had had enough of rain in the jungle. So far everywhere we had visited in Sumatra was a highlight. Hands down the best place of our trip so far.
The next day we took an early bus to Blankejeran where there were a lot of guides claiming there was no work in Kedah anymore. I think that's because everyone in Ketambe says there are no animals. The next bus to Takengon passes through some really nice scenery. Nothing jaw dropping, but sort of like a poor man's Ha Giang and that's a good compliment. Takengon has a beautiful mountain lake and we wanted to stay the night. The only problem was that it was the weekend and none of the hotels had any cheap rooms left. Shitty. I am not sure if they were telling the truth or just aiming to get us to pay more, but in absence of any proof I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. People were really nice here. Shame, but we had no choice. We signed up for the night bus to Banda Aceh. Manu fell in a hole in the street and cut and bruised herself. She wasn't having much luck. I don't wish this minibus ride on anyone. Its super uncomfortable as there is no real headrest if you are tall. They were stacking the bus, but they wanted to put more luggage on the back and Mimi got into a fierce argument with them, arguing it was against health and safety etc. I disagree. I think she wanted the space for herself and it became real awkward, because she got abusive with the locals and we felt ashamed to be associated as a tourist at this moment, because the people were really nice in Aceh. Needless to say the atmosphere was not great and noone slept much before they dropped us off in Banda Aceh at 4.30am. We dropped into a tea house and waited for the hotels to open. The rde and route through the mountains was impressive and so far everything we had done in Sumatra was a highlight of the trip.
In the morning Mimi was still too sick to walk so they called for the local doctor who gave her some medication for her stomach. The other three of us decided to go rafting for the day. There is a surprising amount of white water on the river and its very, very fast. We actively had to aim to avoid some of the bigger rapids instead of hitting them. Its not amazing, but its really good and much better than I was expecting. On one bend we pulled over to the side and walk to the edge. Ouch. Shit. Something stung me in the back of the knee. Manu screams as something stung her on the finger. The guide told us not to move. Shit. What was it? A black wasp like creature that apparently attacks anything that moves. The more you move, the more of them come so you have to freeze. Great. Then one of the little bastards landed on my eyelid. Shit. I can't let it sting me in the eye so I blink and it stings me in the eyelid. Shit that hurt. My fucking eye. The guide tells me to move downriver slowly and my eye starts to swell up. The stings hurt like hell for 20 minutes and then they ease off. The trip was around 3-4 hours. When we got back some Italians had arrived so we chatted with them in the evening while the rain battered down. We had paid 900,000 rp for the three of us for the rafting. We organised a 2 day/1 night trek for 600,000 rp each for the 2 days all included. I think we could have got 250,000 rp as I heard of some people who did. I don't haggle much with people I like, but I will fuck anyone I don't like on price.
The following day we set off for our trek in the jungle. Its not as muddy as LP says, though there is mud. There aren't that many mosquitoes, but there are a lot of leeches. We were in dry season, but it was after heavy rain and we had maybe 30 each a day, though only one bit me through the hole in my trousers. On the second day in the jungle there were a lot less. Maybe 5-10 each. In the morning we walked for around 3-4 hours, but due to the rain we only saw 3 orangutans quite far away, but it was still cool. You stay in a campsite not that deep in the jungle and there we saw what we thought were long tailed mcaques (only when we zoomed in later on the photo did we realised they were thomas leaf monkeys). We had been worried about tigers but the guide told us some facts. They never attack groups of 3 or more and even 2 is unlikely. You should not enter the forest on your own though. The main cause of attacks is due to injury or farmer encroachment but these always happen on the periphery an not in the actual park. In the park there are three problems. If you see tiger claw marks, this is to mark where they have buried a kill. If you don't step near it they won't attack you. Secondly they pooh at the top of hills so animals smell the pooh and run the other way where the tiger is waiting for an ambush. They know you are not a natural prey so if you enter their territory they will growl three times. If you don't back away after three growls well then you are fair prey as you were warned. The final one is to do with babies. The babies have no fear of humans and will come to check you out. If they get close the mum will defend them. They said if you hear or see a baby tiger just run away. In the afternoon we went for another hike and this time we were rewarded with a troop of thomas leaf monkeys and a mother and baby orangutan at very close range (10m maybe). We followed them until the baby became a bit agitated and started to throw branches at us so we moved away. Both the guide and I were bitten once by a leech and we came back to the camp for some nice food. Having seen our main two objectives (both 99% guaranteed here) I wanted to focus on the siamang and gibbon in the morning.
We went on a search for gibbons in the morning, but had no luck as they weren't in the area that day. Shame. We did see three more orangutans at a distance including a male up in a tree. We saw plenty of varied insect life on the trek as well. Gunung Leuser looked like a nice park to hike in. At lunch the guide told us that there were more gibbons at Kedah, even though the owner had told us they had no wildlife up there. (It seems like Kedah is a good place to go to see gibbons and if I could do this part over again I would have gone there as well as it seems a better place for gibbons, who seem to like to hang out between 1500 and 1900m). Manu was stung by a yellow bee that leaves a nasty swelling for two days after the sting. In the afternoon we saw 2 more orangutans and then the big male, who was enormous, but I think smaller than Richie in Semenggoh. Overall we saw 11 orangutans and it was a really nice trek. I could have spent longer there and gone to Kedah but the others wanted to move on. It battered down with rain that evening so again we didn't have the opportunity to go on a night hike. Cannelle had injured her thigh but nothing serious. Back at the lodge we saw a rhinoceros beetle and we decided we had had enough of rain in the jungle. So far everywhere we had visited in Sumatra was a highlight. Hands down the best place of our trip so far.
The next day we took an early bus to Blankejeran where there were a lot of guides claiming there was no work in Kedah anymore. I think that's because everyone in Ketambe says there are no animals. The next bus to Takengon passes through some really nice scenery. Nothing jaw dropping, but sort of like a poor man's Ha Giang and that's a good compliment. Takengon has a beautiful mountain lake and we wanted to stay the night. The only problem was that it was the weekend and none of the hotels had any cheap rooms left. Shitty. I am not sure if they were telling the truth or just aiming to get us to pay more, but in absence of any proof I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. People were really nice here. Shame, but we had no choice. We signed up for the night bus to Banda Aceh. Manu fell in a hole in the street and cut and bruised herself. She wasn't having much luck. I don't wish this minibus ride on anyone. Its super uncomfortable as there is no real headrest if you are tall. They were stacking the bus, but they wanted to put more luggage on the back and Mimi got into a fierce argument with them, arguing it was against health and safety etc. I disagree. I think she wanted the space for herself and it became real awkward, because she got abusive with the locals and we felt ashamed to be associated as a tourist at this moment, because the people were really nice in Aceh. Needless to say the atmosphere was not great and noone slept much before they dropped us off in Banda Aceh at 4.30am. We dropped into a tea house and waited for the hotels to open. The rde and route through the mountains was impressive and so far everything we had done in Sumatra was a highlight of the trip.
Indonesia (Sumatra Part 1): Langsa, Berastagi, Sibayak and Sipiso Piso
You know a place doesn't get many tourists when the immigration officials all want to have their photo taken with you. Welcome to Indonesia. A land of smiles. Nice people. Friendly people. Helpful people. Finally, thank fuck we had arrived. Given that we want to spend 6 months or so here over the course of 2 trips it was a relief to get off to a good start. Apart from one brief moment when the guard removed Cannelle's tampons and asked 'what's this?'. Erm. Another guard tried to get him to leave it but he persisted. Awkward moment as we try to explain how they are used with no language to help us. They told us how much to pay for a tricycle and it seemed reasonable. Cheap now with hindsight. We stupidly had some money so the tricycle driver took us to an ATM first, though he didn't have any change. He found it eventually when I just waited. One small problem in Indonesia is the no change problem. Still there was no 'special price' or 'my friend' bollocks. Just simple niceness. Oh how I missed it in lots of place in Indonesia. There is nothing to see here but driving out of the port we saw long tailed macaques in the mangrove swamps. Sumatra should be full of wildlife. We got a hotel for 150,000 and this was our first night here. Its a nice town to start with, but you soon realise how uncomfortable the life of a celebrity must be with all these constant requests for photos lol.
We got a bus the next day for 25 ringgit each to Medan. That's $2.5 for a 4 hour journey. This country is cheap. Well at least Sumatra is. From there we got a quick transfer to Berastagi for 10 ringgit even if they asked for 20. We checked into the best guesthouse we have stayed in alongside the ones in Dumaguete and Hue. Its right next to the giant cabbage. They have a lot of info on how to do lots of activities on your own. No pushing. No tours. Just advice. They do tours if you'd like one though. We had a chat with a guy on the bus there using our dictionary and its not hard to speak this language with help. No grammar means a dictionary can provide for a useful conversation and we tend to find speaking a little bahasa indonesian means that you get cheaper prices for public transport. In the evening we walked up the hill in town for a pretty view over the town and a good look at the two volcanos that overlook the town. We got chatting with a local woman who was out for a jog and it seems like the locals here like to practice their English. We had a nice feeling. Like the North of Vietnam and Philippines.
The next day we got porridge for breakfast. Godsend. We took a local bus to Sibayak volcano. They say it takes 2.5 hours to reach the top, but we did it easily in 1.5 hours with little effort. Walking towards the volcano is easy and requires no guide, unless you are really clueless with directions or have no self confidence with hiking. Anyone with an iota of climbing experience will have no problems. You take the bus to the entrance gate and set off along the track. It is straight for around 4km and then there is a path to the left. Ignore that and carry on straight. We double checked if it was the way with some old tourists and their guide. 'Yes, but we have a guide', was the curt and dickish reply. I should have replied 'ah yes, but we don't need one as we are neither retarded nor pointlessly rich'. Bitch. A little further is a road to the right. That's the road to the hot springs if you go later. Just keep going straight and its a damn road so easy to follow. The only tricky bit is when you get a wall of white rock on your left. You will emerge into an open area and almost the end of the road. Just after that white wall on your left you will see some rocks piled up. Climb up them and you will see the steps that lead up to the top of the volcano. Its obvious if you know what you are looking for and you have hiked before. Very easy. We passed some Russian guys from our hostel on the way up and left them for dust. Don't think they liked being beaten by a woman, but Cannelle is now much better and faster than me when climbing. I still have the edge on down and flat, but I'm clearly getting older lol. Apparently lots of people have died up there. Its highly unlikely unless you do something stupid or go way beyond your comfort zone. The volcano is beautiful. Lots of purples and yellows with fumaroles and vents blasting out of the floor. The Russians went up to one of the vents and were throwing rocks on it. Cannelle said she always wondered how people got injured doing stupid things until she watched these two guys. We ate a picnic up there and admired the chiselled rock. Its very picturesque. We found both the trail down to the hot springs and the one into the jungle. You could get confused. Don't take the hotspring trail unless you are certain you have the right one. Even then you might want to think twice. Its the one that curves round to the right over the ridge 90 degrees to the right of the crater when you come up. We found it, but as we weren't 100% we took the easy way back down and walked the long road to the hot springs. Another group took the trail down and said it was slippery and hard work. Our way was easier. Your choice. We passed some crazy people and some geothermal plants until we reached the hot springs for just 4000 rp. What a bonus. We had the place to ourselves and just relaxed there. We walked back on the road till a group of pig tailed macaques persuaded Cannelle to take a bus. We had a little argument over price, which we won and then I got co-opted into chatting with some local kids who wanted to learn English. This was the only negative regarding the hostel. They were making kids pay 300,000 rp a month for conversational classes with English tourists. Only they don't tell the tourists that. They just ask people to help chat with the kids. Cheeky as we are unpaid. Yet they are worse for the kids as they are mostly elementary level so conversational classes are a waste of time and money for them. Scandalous rip off. At least I gave them some websites to help them learn, because they got lucky and had a class with an actual English language teacher.
The next day we took local buses to see Sipiso-Piso waterfall. The first bus cost 3000 and the second one to the turnoff to the waterfall cost 4000. Just 7000 rp in total. We had been told more, but I think our attempts at Bahasa helped us. The first bus saw us chatting with a farmer, the second with a local old guy who spoke no English. Great country. At the turn off we walked to the waterfall and got distracted by a sign that seemed to suggest the waterfall was off to the left. This resulted in a steep climb to a beautiful view over the lake but not the waterfall. Shit. Oh well at least the view is nice. The real route is to just walk straight down the road and you will arrive at the waterfall. Its so much more impressive than the photos and I think its a must see. Really stunning and its only enhanced by the viewpoint where one way is the waterfall and the opposite direction is a panorama over the lake. Impressive. There were so many school kids there and they all wanted to chat or take photos. We eventually scrambled down to the bottom of the waterfall which is worth it to walk through the chiselled valley, though I cut my knee on a rock. On the way up we stopped for some food and a policeman came and sat with us to chat for 20 minutes. Even the police are nice here. This was a good start to Indonesia. He told us how a German girl had been raped by an ojek driver on the way to the lake, but it was the only incident he could remember in 20 years. They caught the guy and imprisoned him, but it was a odd conversation topic. On the way back we decided to stop at Dokan for some traditional houses. We got some nice fruit for free on the road and then decided to walk there. Some kids asked for money. Unusual here. That should have been the first warning sign. When we got there we had to sign a donation book, where people had given ridiculous sums. Shit. We gave 20,000 as that was the best we could do. Then we went in. What an awful, hellhole of a voyeuristic place. Noone smiled, all the kids ran up to you begging for money and everyone wanted money, crowding around you. It was the most awkward, awful experience on our whole trip. We felt so uncomfortable taking photos of the admittedly beautiful architecture. We just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Hideous. We later asked people how that happened in such a nice country. They said old Dutch tourists had been visiting and handing out lots of money and presents to everyone, so they just associate us with money. Shit. Why do some tourists not realise the harm they do. If that persists then noone will go there. Avoid that place at all costs unless people crowding you and begging for money appeal.
In the morning I was too sick to leave. We had met a couple of German girls who wanted to go to Ketambe as well, but one of them was also sick so we decided to postpone for a day. This hostel is an excellent place to meet people. Finally a place that reminded me of Latin American hostels. In fact the travellers and travelling style in Sumatra is more reminiscent of Latin America. Apparently its not true of Java but we will see soon enough. Spurs and Arsenal both won so the race was still on for 4th place. We got chatting with three English people who had been travelling together for a long time even if they had totally contrasting personalities and didn't seem to click. I think a lot of travellers just stick with any old bunch of people not to be alone. Must be a lot of people who sacrifice an ideal itinerary for company. I would always go where you want and make friends on the way. One day was enough to recover.
In the morning we met a Dutch girl and a Canadian and I offered the Dutch girl help for the IELTS exam. Then we set off with Manu and Mimi (the Germans) to Ketambe. Mimi was sick and could barely move but she wanted to head off. We had to take separate buses because one was almost full. We took the bus to Kutacane and then jumped on a local bus to Ketambe. On that bus we got chatting with some locals again, including an English teacher and chatted all the way to Ketambe. Nice ride. Onwards to Gunung Leuser and the orangutans.
We got a bus the next day for 25 ringgit each to Medan. That's $2.5 for a 4 hour journey. This country is cheap. Well at least Sumatra is. From there we got a quick transfer to Berastagi for 10 ringgit even if they asked for 20. We checked into the best guesthouse we have stayed in alongside the ones in Dumaguete and Hue. Its right next to the giant cabbage. They have a lot of info on how to do lots of activities on your own. No pushing. No tours. Just advice. They do tours if you'd like one though. We had a chat with a guy on the bus there using our dictionary and its not hard to speak this language with help. No grammar means a dictionary can provide for a useful conversation and we tend to find speaking a little bahasa indonesian means that you get cheaper prices for public transport. In the evening we walked up the hill in town for a pretty view over the town and a good look at the two volcanos that overlook the town. We got chatting with a local woman who was out for a jog and it seems like the locals here like to practice their English. We had a nice feeling. Like the North of Vietnam and Philippines.
The next day we got porridge for breakfast. Godsend. We took a local bus to Sibayak volcano. They say it takes 2.5 hours to reach the top, but we did it easily in 1.5 hours with little effort. Walking towards the volcano is easy and requires no guide, unless you are really clueless with directions or have no self confidence with hiking. Anyone with an iota of climbing experience will have no problems. You take the bus to the entrance gate and set off along the track. It is straight for around 4km and then there is a path to the left. Ignore that and carry on straight. We double checked if it was the way with some old tourists and their guide. 'Yes, but we have a guide', was the curt and dickish reply. I should have replied 'ah yes, but we don't need one as we are neither retarded nor pointlessly rich'. Bitch. A little further is a road to the right. That's the road to the hot springs if you go later. Just keep going straight and its a damn road so easy to follow. The only tricky bit is when you get a wall of white rock on your left. You will emerge into an open area and almost the end of the road. Just after that white wall on your left you will see some rocks piled up. Climb up them and you will see the steps that lead up to the top of the volcano. Its obvious if you know what you are looking for and you have hiked before. Very easy. We passed some Russian guys from our hostel on the way up and left them for dust. Don't think they liked being beaten by a woman, but Cannelle is now much better and faster than me when climbing. I still have the edge on down and flat, but I'm clearly getting older lol. Apparently lots of people have died up there. Its highly unlikely unless you do something stupid or go way beyond your comfort zone. The volcano is beautiful. Lots of purples and yellows with fumaroles and vents blasting out of the floor. The Russians went up to one of the vents and were throwing rocks on it. Cannelle said she always wondered how people got injured doing stupid things until she watched these two guys. We ate a picnic up there and admired the chiselled rock. Its very picturesque. We found both the trail down to the hot springs and the one into the jungle. You could get confused. Don't take the hotspring trail unless you are certain you have the right one. Even then you might want to think twice. Its the one that curves round to the right over the ridge 90 degrees to the right of the crater when you come up. We found it, but as we weren't 100% we took the easy way back down and walked the long road to the hot springs. Another group took the trail down and said it was slippery and hard work. Our way was easier. Your choice. We passed some crazy people and some geothermal plants until we reached the hot springs for just 4000 rp. What a bonus. We had the place to ourselves and just relaxed there. We walked back on the road till a group of pig tailed macaques persuaded Cannelle to take a bus. We had a little argument over price, which we won and then I got co-opted into chatting with some local kids who wanted to learn English. This was the only negative regarding the hostel. They were making kids pay 300,000 rp a month for conversational classes with English tourists. Only they don't tell the tourists that. They just ask people to help chat with the kids. Cheeky as we are unpaid. Yet they are worse for the kids as they are mostly elementary level so conversational classes are a waste of time and money for them. Scandalous rip off. At least I gave them some websites to help them learn, because they got lucky and had a class with an actual English language teacher.
The next day we took local buses to see Sipiso-Piso waterfall. The first bus cost 3000 and the second one to the turnoff to the waterfall cost 4000. Just 7000 rp in total. We had been told more, but I think our attempts at Bahasa helped us. The first bus saw us chatting with a farmer, the second with a local old guy who spoke no English. Great country. At the turn off we walked to the waterfall and got distracted by a sign that seemed to suggest the waterfall was off to the left. This resulted in a steep climb to a beautiful view over the lake but not the waterfall. Shit. Oh well at least the view is nice. The real route is to just walk straight down the road and you will arrive at the waterfall. Its so much more impressive than the photos and I think its a must see. Really stunning and its only enhanced by the viewpoint where one way is the waterfall and the opposite direction is a panorama over the lake. Impressive. There were so many school kids there and they all wanted to chat or take photos. We eventually scrambled down to the bottom of the waterfall which is worth it to walk through the chiselled valley, though I cut my knee on a rock. On the way up we stopped for some food and a policeman came and sat with us to chat for 20 minutes. Even the police are nice here. This was a good start to Indonesia. He told us how a German girl had been raped by an ojek driver on the way to the lake, but it was the only incident he could remember in 20 years. They caught the guy and imprisoned him, but it was a odd conversation topic. On the way back we decided to stop at Dokan for some traditional houses. We got some nice fruit for free on the road and then decided to walk there. Some kids asked for money. Unusual here. That should have been the first warning sign. When we got there we had to sign a donation book, where people had given ridiculous sums. Shit. We gave 20,000 as that was the best we could do. Then we went in. What an awful, hellhole of a voyeuristic place. Noone smiled, all the kids ran up to you begging for money and everyone wanted money, crowding around you. It was the most awkward, awful experience on our whole trip. We felt so uncomfortable taking photos of the admittedly beautiful architecture. We just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Hideous. We later asked people how that happened in such a nice country. They said old Dutch tourists had been visiting and handing out lots of money and presents to everyone, so they just associate us with money. Shit. Why do some tourists not realise the harm they do. If that persists then noone will go there. Avoid that place at all costs unless people crowding you and begging for money appeal.
In the morning I was too sick to leave. We had met a couple of German girls who wanted to go to Ketambe as well, but one of them was also sick so we decided to postpone for a day. This hostel is an excellent place to meet people. Finally a place that reminded me of Latin American hostels. In fact the travellers and travelling style in Sumatra is more reminiscent of Latin America. Apparently its not true of Java but we will see soon enough. Spurs and Arsenal both won so the race was still on for 4th place. We got chatting with three English people who had been travelling together for a long time even if they had totally contrasting personalities and didn't seem to click. I think a lot of travellers just stick with any old bunch of people not to be alone. Must be a lot of people who sacrifice an ideal itinerary for company. I would always go where you want and make friends on the way. One day was enough to recover.
In the morning we met a Dutch girl and a Canadian and I offered the Dutch girl help for the IELTS exam. Then we set off with Manu and Mimi (the Germans) to Ketambe. Mimi was sick and could barely move but she wanted to head off. We had to take separate buses because one was almost full. We took the bus to Kutacane and then jumped on a local bus to Ketambe. On that bus we got chatting with some locals again, including an English teacher and chatted all the way to Ketambe. Nice ride. Onwards to Gunung Leuser and the orangutans.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Malaysia Part 7 (Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown and the Indonesia Visa via Padang-Langsa ferry)
More of a transit piece. We grabbed the cheap bus into KL from the airport and walked from there to our hostel for a couple mof nights. Nice place.
In the morning we walked to the Petronas Towers and picked up the new LP for Indonesia. We also enquired into the possibility of seeing the orchestra only to be told that we didn't meet the dress code because we weren't travelling with any suit shoes. Shitty. We ate at Nandos and both of us spoke with our families. Tottenham drew 2-2 with Wigan and that was the result that probably cost us the champions league. That and the Fulham loss.
We got up late, did a laundry and took a bus to Butterworth and grabbed the ferry to Georgetown again. We stayed in the same place as last time and got a good biryani. Arsenal drew with Man United and I realised Georgetown seemed a better place this time round.
We were stressed for Indonesia as the return boat trip to Langsa was only valid for 30 days and we were certain that they would not give us the 60 day visa we wanted. We also knew that if we went to Langsa on wednesday then we would need to stay 91 days and that was going to be awkward for the extension, but we would have to take it one step at a time. We didn't want to wait until the following monday. So we set off on the monday for the boat office as well dressed as we could manage. The tour agencies had told us our only option was to fly now that the Medan boat was finished until we told them of the Penang-Langsa ferry. The boat agency sold us a return ticket for 190 ringgit and we set off for the Indonesian embassy. You are going to need a copy of your boat ticket, a copy of your passport and two photos on a red background, all of which can be done opposite the Indonesian consulate for cheap. They will tell you where. We filled in the form and they told us that the return boat ticket was valid for a 60 day visa. It was really simple. We needn't have worried and we picked up the passports with our 60 day visa the next day. I think the Langsa boat is the easiest way to get one as the price for a return or single is the same and there is no need to book a flight out. We went to the English pub and got some fish and chips.
The next day we didn't do much. Picked up the passports and then went back to pick up our boarding passes. We relaxed and watched Battle Royale. Some guys were nervous as a tsunami warning had been issued and they were off to climb a car park to be safe. I checked online and the earthquake was off Sabah and the warning had been retracted with the initial wave feared at 1m. Fuck sake. Some people need to get a grip and research things properly.
In the morning we got to the ferry terminal and everyone kept trying to send us to the queue for Langsawi with the zombie tourists who seemed to be heading that way. It was just us and one other couple heading to Langsa. They asked me on the boat for the exchange rate. Shit. Do some people look up nothing before they arrive. We watched Harry Potter 1, Undisputed 3 and The Expendables 2. They like numbers. Cannelle was pissed that we got the Expendables 2 again, but the other two were good. It took about 7 hours, but we arrived in Langsa and we were entering the final country of our trip and the one I was most looking forward to. Indonesia at last.
In the morning we walked to the Petronas Towers and picked up the new LP for Indonesia. We also enquired into the possibility of seeing the orchestra only to be told that we didn't meet the dress code because we weren't travelling with any suit shoes. Shitty. We ate at Nandos and both of us spoke with our families. Tottenham drew 2-2 with Wigan and that was the result that probably cost us the champions league. That and the Fulham loss.
We got up late, did a laundry and took a bus to Butterworth and grabbed the ferry to Georgetown again. We stayed in the same place as last time and got a good biryani. Arsenal drew with Man United and I realised Georgetown seemed a better place this time round.
We were stressed for Indonesia as the return boat trip to Langsa was only valid for 30 days and we were certain that they would not give us the 60 day visa we wanted. We also knew that if we went to Langsa on wednesday then we would need to stay 91 days and that was going to be awkward for the extension, but we would have to take it one step at a time. We didn't want to wait until the following monday. So we set off on the monday for the boat office as well dressed as we could manage. The tour agencies had told us our only option was to fly now that the Medan boat was finished until we told them of the Penang-Langsa ferry. The boat agency sold us a return ticket for 190 ringgit and we set off for the Indonesian embassy. You are going to need a copy of your boat ticket, a copy of your passport and two photos on a red background, all of which can be done opposite the Indonesian consulate for cheap. They will tell you where. We filled in the form and they told us that the return boat ticket was valid for a 60 day visa. It was really simple. We needn't have worried and we picked up the passports with our 60 day visa the next day. I think the Langsa boat is the easiest way to get one as the price for a return or single is the same and there is no need to book a flight out. We went to the English pub and got some fish and chips.
The next day we didn't do much. Picked up the passports and then went back to pick up our boarding passes. We relaxed and watched Battle Royale. Some guys were nervous as a tsunami warning had been issued and they were off to climb a car park to be safe. I checked online and the earthquake was off Sabah and the warning had been retracted with the initial wave feared at 1m. Fuck sake. Some people need to get a grip and research things properly.
In the morning we got to the ferry terminal and everyone kept trying to send us to the queue for Langsawi with the zombie tourists who seemed to be heading that way. It was just us and one other couple heading to Langsa. They asked me on the boat for the exchange rate. Shit. Do some people look up nothing before they arrive. We watched Harry Potter 1, Undisputed 3 and The Expendables 2. They like numbers. Cannelle was pissed that we got the Expendables 2 again, but the other two were good. It took about 7 hours, but we arrived in Langsa and we were entering the final country of our trip and the one I was most looking forward to. Indonesia at last.
Philippines Part 9 (Naga, Caramoan Peninsula, Olongapo, Subic Bay and Angeles airport)
We arrived in Naga and got ourselves a cheap place. The policeman had said it was a great city and while that may be a stretch I would say it could be the third best city we went to in the Philippines.
We watched the Boston manhunt on the tv today. Was quite a shock, but all the news channels were totally focused on the event. Bicol food is really good. We just spent the day bumming around and I did a lot of writing. We had decided not to go to the watersports park.
In the morning we got the bus and boat combination to the Caramoan Peninsula. It was much smoother than we imagined, but be warned. There is a lot less infrastructure there than I had even anticipated. There is no sense of selling tours or even of really organising them. South of Thailand this is not. We grabbed a jeepny from the jetty to the local hotels. They were all pretty expensive. We had to wake up the owner of the pink hotel (who was sleeping like a pig). Best value place, though the food is best in the expensive looking place just down the road. I wanted to go down to the beach, but I suddenly came down with a violent sickness and too weak to do anything. Hopefully I would recover the following day.
We took a tircyle for 100 pesos (he had wanted 150) down to the port. It was a total rip off for what is at most a 4km walk. Shitty. He also hooked us up with a boat for the short trip around the islands for 1500 pesos. It was steep but we had already come all the way here and there was noone to bargain or negotiate with. They kept pushing us for the longer trip, but I feel the shorter one is more than sufficient. Get a group together if you can to cut the costs like the locals do. Its hard to judge this trip. I would say it was a rip off, but that it was really nice. If you love beaches and especially deserted ones then you may love it, but if like me you don't especially love beaches, then even if you can appreciate the beauty, you will find yourself getting bored a little easily. Even Cannelle was getting tired of perfect beaches in the Philippines. There are just so many of them that they stop feeling special. The beaches here are stunning though. Like you see on google image and you get them to yourself. At least until the Filipine families rock up an hour or so later. The only incident was a little jellyfish swimming around us. Just one though. They say its a day trip. Its more like a half day of 4 hours. Enough for me, but be firm if you want longer. If the trip had been 500 pesos it would have been perfect. They wanted us to take a tricycle back. Fuck them. Even though my sandal had totally broken, I wasn't going to surrender anymore of my money to these vampires. I tied a t-shirt around my foot, to stop the heat and limped 4km all the way back to the hotel. Its an easy walk if you have two shoes. We got some good chicken curry and prepped ourselves for the last leg in the Philippines.
In the morning it was back to Naga on the same boat/bus combo where you pay 10 pesos for the artificial bridge, but at least they are working for it. We walked to the boat harbour so a tircycle eventually offered us for just 40. I love the power walking has to see prices tumble. We got a night bus to Manila for 680 pesos as the train was sadly not running anymore and we kicked our heals in an internet cafe while we waited to leave.
We arrived and got a connection straight to Olongapo. We decided to stay next to the bus station rather than going into Subic Bay and it was a much. much better decision. Then we decided that we wouldn't climb Pinatubo as they wanted too much money and we knew that we were heading to Sumatra afterwards. That evening we walked all the way to the bat kingdom in Subic Bay. Its a fair walk. Around 12km and it took its toll as the bats had moved around and we climbed a hill for no reason. The locals were really cool as always though and directed us towards the bat's new home. We hiked down and heard them a long time before we saw them. Thousands and thousands of the giant fruit bats hanging off loads of tress. What a tremendous noise and impressive sight. We waited until sunset to see them leave and swarm off over the trees. It was almost as if they made the sky go dark all on their own. Super impressive and well worth it. Then we walked back in the dark and it was a b it scary, replete with creaking doors and fantasy horror sounds. Eventually we grabbed a ride with some workmen who had been preparing for a competition in the back of their truck. Yet more nice locals.
Olongapo is a nice town in and of itself and doesn't really smell of shit. It does have a seedy side that you can see without looking too hard. It was our penultimate day and we decided to do nothing except watch Ironman 3 (which was not bad) and then went to Texas Joe's for dinner. What a top class restaurant. Not quite a true Texas barbecue but a really fucking good approximation and definitely somewhere you have to eat if you are in the area.
We lay in the next day and took a bus to Dau for Angeles airport. It was so slow. They wanted 100 pesos for a special jeepney to the airport. Taking the piss for about 8km walk. We grabbed an ordinary jeepney to the SM City in Angeles and apparently from there you can get a public jeepney to the airport. None of them wanted to take us though and were asking for charters, so we walked and luckily a policeman took pity on Cannelle and stopped a truck to take us to the airport turnoff. From there it was a 2km walk to the terminal. Saved us some money for food though and we still weren't sure what the departure tax was for Angeles airport. I can't remember now but its the lower one of the prices you will read online. The plane was delayed and seemed to take ages with a little bit of turbulence. Eventually we arrived back in Malaysia. I had read Voltaire's Candide on the flight and was exited do be back in Malaysia, to go to Nandos, get a roti, horlicks and biryani and sort out the Indonesia visa. The Philippines had been a great country for us, but we were happy to go now. Too many perfect beaches gets tiring lol. We were ready for jungle.
We watched the Boston manhunt on the tv today. Was quite a shock, but all the news channels were totally focused on the event. Bicol food is really good. We just spent the day bumming around and I did a lot of writing. We had decided not to go to the watersports park.
In the morning we got the bus and boat combination to the Caramoan Peninsula. It was much smoother than we imagined, but be warned. There is a lot less infrastructure there than I had even anticipated. There is no sense of selling tours or even of really organising them. South of Thailand this is not. We grabbed a jeepny from the jetty to the local hotels. They were all pretty expensive. We had to wake up the owner of the pink hotel (who was sleeping like a pig). Best value place, though the food is best in the expensive looking place just down the road. I wanted to go down to the beach, but I suddenly came down with a violent sickness and too weak to do anything. Hopefully I would recover the following day.
We took a tircyle for 100 pesos (he had wanted 150) down to the port. It was a total rip off for what is at most a 4km walk. Shitty. He also hooked us up with a boat for the short trip around the islands for 1500 pesos. It was steep but we had already come all the way here and there was noone to bargain or negotiate with. They kept pushing us for the longer trip, but I feel the shorter one is more than sufficient. Get a group together if you can to cut the costs like the locals do. Its hard to judge this trip. I would say it was a rip off, but that it was really nice. If you love beaches and especially deserted ones then you may love it, but if like me you don't especially love beaches, then even if you can appreciate the beauty, you will find yourself getting bored a little easily. Even Cannelle was getting tired of perfect beaches in the Philippines. There are just so many of them that they stop feeling special. The beaches here are stunning though. Like you see on google image and you get them to yourself. At least until the Filipine families rock up an hour or so later. The only incident was a little jellyfish swimming around us. Just one though. They say its a day trip. Its more like a half day of 4 hours. Enough for me, but be firm if you want longer. If the trip had been 500 pesos it would have been perfect. They wanted us to take a tricycle back. Fuck them. Even though my sandal had totally broken, I wasn't going to surrender anymore of my money to these vampires. I tied a t-shirt around my foot, to stop the heat and limped 4km all the way back to the hotel. Its an easy walk if you have two shoes. We got some good chicken curry and prepped ourselves for the last leg in the Philippines.
In the morning it was back to Naga on the same boat/bus combo where you pay 10 pesos for the artificial bridge, but at least they are working for it. We walked to the boat harbour so a tircycle eventually offered us for just 40. I love the power walking has to see prices tumble. We got a night bus to Manila for 680 pesos as the train was sadly not running anymore and we kicked our heals in an internet cafe while we waited to leave.
We arrived and got a connection straight to Olongapo. We decided to stay next to the bus station rather than going into Subic Bay and it was a much. much better decision. Then we decided that we wouldn't climb Pinatubo as they wanted too much money and we knew that we were heading to Sumatra afterwards. That evening we walked all the way to the bat kingdom in Subic Bay. Its a fair walk. Around 12km and it took its toll as the bats had moved around and we climbed a hill for no reason. The locals were really cool as always though and directed us towards the bat's new home. We hiked down and heard them a long time before we saw them. Thousands and thousands of the giant fruit bats hanging off loads of tress. What a tremendous noise and impressive sight. We waited until sunset to see them leave and swarm off over the trees. It was almost as if they made the sky go dark all on their own. Super impressive and well worth it. Then we walked back in the dark and it was a b it scary, replete with creaking doors and fantasy horror sounds. Eventually we grabbed a ride with some workmen who had been preparing for a competition in the back of their truck. Yet more nice locals.
Olongapo is a nice town in and of itself and doesn't really smell of shit. It does have a seedy side that you can see without looking too hard. It was our penultimate day and we decided to do nothing except watch Ironman 3 (which was not bad) and then went to Texas Joe's for dinner. What a top class restaurant. Not quite a true Texas barbecue but a really fucking good approximation and definitely somewhere you have to eat if you are in the area.
We lay in the next day and took a bus to Dau for Angeles airport. It was so slow. They wanted 100 pesos for a special jeepney to the airport. Taking the piss for about 8km walk. We grabbed an ordinary jeepney to the SM City in Angeles and apparently from there you can get a public jeepney to the airport. None of them wanted to take us though and were asking for charters, so we walked and luckily a policeman took pity on Cannelle and stopped a truck to take us to the airport turnoff. From there it was a 2km walk to the terminal. Saved us some money for food though and we still weren't sure what the departure tax was for Angeles airport. I can't remember now but its the lower one of the prices you will read online. The plane was delayed and seemed to take ages with a little bit of turbulence. Eventually we arrived back in Malaysia. I had read Voltaire's Candide on the flight and was exited do be back in Malaysia, to go to Nandos, get a roti, horlicks and biryani and sort out the Indonesia visa. The Philippines had been a great country for us, but we were happy to go now. Too many perfect beaches gets tiring lol. We were ready for jungle.
Philippines Part 8 (Tacloban, Calbayog, Allen, Biri Islands, Legazpi and Mt Mayon)
This proved a bit of a sprint through these areas as we were running low on time. We had got the slow boat across to Leyte and in Bato we were able to get an even slower bus to Tacloban City. They had a giant jehovah's witness conference on in the city at the time, but we were able to get a cheap hotel. The quality of accommodation relative to the price is so much greater in Leyte and Samar than it is in the touristy parts of the country.
There wasn't a lot to do so we got a buffet breakfast and took a van to Calbayog. This took forever as well, but the scenery was really beautiful. If you want to see a really pretty area with not many tourists then I would recommend spending some time on Samar. We regretted not having much time to look around there. Hire a motorbike and enjoy the scenery. In Calbayog we got a late van to Allen and found a shitty but cheap hotel in this shitty little town. Allen really is a dump. I am not sure why LP recommends you should stay this side if you arrive late, because the other side doesn't look any shitter and the buses and ferries are 24 hours. I doubt LP goes anywhere they say they do after what we just found out in Kerinci Valley but thats for later when I catch up with myself in Sumatra. We decided to visit Biri for the day in case we got trapped there. It was somewhat of a mistake. I would definitely recommend staying on the Biri Islands if you come here.
In the morning they wanted us to take a tricycle for 150 pesos to the local town with the boats to Biri Island. We had also been told that the boats went at 6am. Both of these are bollocks. The town is 10km from Allen and I called their bluff by deciding to walk. Sure enough 5 minutes later a jeepney comes by and we paid only 10 pesos each. I would advise setting off at 7am and insisting on the jeepney and the price of 10 pesos per person. The public boat is 50 pesos each, but naturally they wanted a 'special trip' fare for only 1000 or so. I feel so special with all these 'special trips'. We stood our ground and about 8am or so we left for 50 pesos each. When you land head left to the main town and follow the road round to the rock formations. They try to sell you cheap motorcycle trips and tell you its miles away. Be careful. You have to pay a fee to see the rocks and you pay an additional fee for transport so that cheap fare stops being cheap. Its only about a 4km walk maximum to the rock formations from the town and with the additional walk it took us just over an hour from the boat landing. The scenery is impressive, but the rocks are stunning. One of the prettiest places we have seen on our trip. The rocks have been carved up into stunning vistas by the sea. You can swim over to the rock formations on your left when you arrive, but the ones on the right can be waded to after walking across the bridge and are probably the more impressive of the two. We met a local woman and her Australian husband to be and naturally were invited for food and drink. It was nice but rushed as we were wary of missing the last public boat back around midday or 1pm. Its another reason to stay on the island. When we got back to the port they told us there were no more public boats and that we would have to pay 200 each and wait an hour. I had my suspicions so I walked about 100 metres further and got offered a public boat for 50 each. You can't trust boatmen in this country. Overall it was well worth the trip. Even the ordinary islands on the way back had stunning beaches and water, but this was just becoming par for the course in the Philippines. We had to break some money and came back to Allen. We wanted to find out what time the boats went, but the people were fucking useless. Allen was one of the most annoying places we stayed in the Philippines. The boats just leave when full with no fixed timetable. Great. We met a German couple in the evening and they seemed to be the only other travellers not going to Palawan. They had travelled all over South East Asia many times and lamented the fact that there weren't many genuine travellers anymore. Shit. Maybe it wasn't a difference between Asia and Latin America. Maybe it was just a universal change in traveller types. They said it had been cool to meet some real travellers and once again we were heading in the opposite direction to some cool people.
There was a delay with the ferry the next day. Of course. We then had a fight about taking jeepneys on the far side and eventually had to settle for a fee to Sorsogon. From there we got a bus to Legazpi. We were getting tired of transport here. If only we flew lol. Most of the hotels were full and we had to wander around for a while before we found somewhere. Mt Mayon was covered in clouds but it is still a perfectly formed volcano. Really pretty.
In the morning we visited the Cagasawa ruins by jeepney, which are not as tacky as LP says and worth a detour. We then took our bags up to Danaga church for a beautiful lunch overlooking Mt Mayon. This time there were no clouds. We tried Bicol food for the first time. Its spicier than the normal food here and done with a lot of coconut. The dishes are truly tasty though Naga is where we would really see the level of food. When we finished we went down and got a bus to Naga. We chatted with a local policeman all the way there and it was onwards to the final part of our time in the Philippines.
There wasn't a lot to do so we got a buffet breakfast and took a van to Calbayog. This took forever as well, but the scenery was really beautiful. If you want to see a really pretty area with not many tourists then I would recommend spending some time on Samar. We regretted not having much time to look around there. Hire a motorbike and enjoy the scenery. In Calbayog we got a late van to Allen and found a shitty but cheap hotel in this shitty little town. Allen really is a dump. I am not sure why LP recommends you should stay this side if you arrive late, because the other side doesn't look any shitter and the buses and ferries are 24 hours. I doubt LP goes anywhere they say they do after what we just found out in Kerinci Valley but thats for later when I catch up with myself in Sumatra. We decided to visit Biri for the day in case we got trapped there. It was somewhat of a mistake. I would definitely recommend staying on the Biri Islands if you come here.
In the morning they wanted us to take a tricycle for 150 pesos to the local town with the boats to Biri Island. We had also been told that the boats went at 6am. Both of these are bollocks. The town is 10km from Allen and I called their bluff by deciding to walk. Sure enough 5 minutes later a jeepney comes by and we paid only 10 pesos each. I would advise setting off at 7am and insisting on the jeepney and the price of 10 pesos per person. The public boat is 50 pesos each, but naturally they wanted a 'special trip' fare for only 1000 or so. I feel so special with all these 'special trips'. We stood our ground and about 8am or so we left for 50 pesos each. When you land head left to the main town and follow the road round to the rock formations. They try to sell you cheap motorcycle trips and tell you its miles away. Be careful. You have to pay a fee to see the rocks and you pay an additional fee for transport so that cheap fare stops being cheap. Its only about a 4km walk maximum to the rock formations from the town and with the additional walk it took us just over an hour from the boat landing. The scenery is impressive, but the rocks are stunning. One of the prettiest places we have seen on our trip. The rocks have been carved up into stunning vistas by the sea. You can swim over to the rock formations on your left when you arrive, but the ones on the right can be waded to after walking across the bridge and are probably the more impressive of the two. We met a local woman and her Australian husband to be and naturally were invited for food and drink. It was nice but rushed as we were wary of missing the last public boat back around midday or 1pm. Its another reason to stay on the island. When we got back to the port they told us there were no more public boats and that we would have to pay 200 each and wait an hour. I had my suspicions so I walked about 100 metres further and got offered a public boat for 50 each. You can't trust boatmen in this country. Overall it was well worth the trip. Even the ordinary islands on the way back had stunning beaches and water, but this was just becoming par for the course in the Philippines. We had to break some money and came back to Allen. We wanted to find out what time the boats went, but the people were fucking useless. Allen was one of the most annoying places we stayed in the Philippines. The boats just leave when full with no fixed timetable. Great. We met a German couple in the evening and they seemed to be the only other travellers not going to Palawan. They had travelled all over South East Asia many times and lamented the fact that there weren't many genuine travellers anymore. Shit. Maybe it wasn't a difference between Asia and Latin America. Maybe it was just a universal change in traveller types. They said it had been cool to meet some real travellers and once again we were heading in the opposite direction to some cool people.
There was a delay with the ferry the next day. Of course. We then had a fight about taking jeepneys on the far side and eventually had to settle for a fee to Sorsogon. From there we got a bus to Legazpi. We were getting tired of transport here. If only we flew lol. Most of the hotels were full and we had to wander around for a while before we found somewhere. Mt Mayon was covered in clouds but it is still a perfectly formed volcano. Really pretty.
In the morning we visited the Cagasawa ruins by jeepney, which are not as tacky as LP says and worth a detour. We then took our bags up to Danaga church for a beautiful lunch overlooking Mt Mayon. This time there were no clouds. We tried Bicol food for the first time. Its spicier than the normal food here and done with a lot of coconut. The dishes are truly tasty though Naga is where we would really see the level of food. When we finished we went down and got a bus to Naga. We chatted with a local policeman all the way there and it was onwards to the final part of our time in the Philippines.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Philippines Part 7 (Alona Beach, Balicasag, Tagbilaran, Chocolate Hills and Anda)
We bought our ticket for 100 pesos to Tubigon from Cebu City. So far, so easy and a tiny bit slow. We slept all the way over and on the far side managed to grab a bus to Tagbilaran for 50 pesos. There we jumped straight onto another jeepney for 25 pesos each to Alona Beach. So much for private transport. Door to door, Cebu to Alona, we paid just 175 pesos each. We went looking for a cheap hotel and most were full. We eventually got a place in Casanova Gardens for 700 pesos, but it had wi-fi and a swimming pool. We found a cheap local dive centre for 1100 a dive to go to Balicasag. Sadly they had dived one of the two best dive sites at Balicasag the day before in Black Forest. Still they were cheap and we liked them. Good first impressions. They have some kick arse local barbecue places in Alona Beach and we opted for that for dinner.
The next day we did two dives at Balicasag Island. I can only say that a dive master is almost unnecessary here. So many fish. Just wow. Like an aquarium. The most fish I have ever seen on a dive site and Cannelle thinks it is the most beautiful coral she has ever seen. I'm not such a coral lover, but I'd take her word on it. I can understand why some people preferred it to Sipadan. Especially if you can't go deep at Sipadan. They are different and I would still put Barracuda Point, our first dive at Dauin and the Mandarin Fish sunset dive in Malapascua as my favourites so far, but it all depends what you like. I saw a stunning green nudibranch, tuna, a school of jack, a school of angelfish (so many schools of fish I had only ever seen in small numbers before) and so many small reef fish. Its not a big fish site, but if you like the small stuff you'll love it. There was a Dutch instructor with us and he told us that the PADI courses were mostly a waste of time and money. He said get your advanced as quick as possible and then its only worth doing rescue, deep and wreck (ice and cave if you have the interest as well). Those seem the best to me. He said that Bali and Gili were great places to dive and the Americans in Malapascua had told us that Komodo was the best they had ever dived. We shall hopefully see on the remainder of this trip. We had an American dive with us on the second dive and he kept annoying the fish and at one point he was even carrying a bit of the reef with him. Random and stupid. We had been warned about the titan triggerfish. Its very aggressive and territorial. At one point he was swimming along and I saw a fish swim behind him. I thought it must be this fish as it went above him and bit him in the head. I was laughing so hard I must have used a lot of oxygen. Too funny. Revenge of the fish. It then came for us as well but we used our fins to fend it off. Interesting fish. I loved these dive sites though. Would have dived again, but Cannelle was having ear problems so we figured we would take some time off diving until Pulau Weh. Spurs drew 2-2 that night and we lost on penalties to Basel. Shit. Only consolation was it meant no more really late nights watching the European football. We spent the afternoon hanging out in the swimming pool with a Dutch/English couple who also told us we would make shit tons of money in Australia and that a target of 24,000 Aussie dollars in a year was more than doable.
In the morning we had some laughs with a moto driver who was surprised we didn't want to rent a motorbike. We told him about the police problems and then another moto driver wanted to take us to Tagbilaran. We said we were taking the jeepney but he told us there wasn't one. The other guy told him not to lie and look like an idiot as we clearly weren't stupid tourists and we all had a laugh at him together. We got into Tagbilaran and found a really nice hotel. We decided to stay there and use it as a base to visit the centre of Bohol. It was even cheap for laundry. We took a jeepney to the tarsier sanctuary and got into a debate with some local women about which cuddly animal was the cutest. We both thought the rabbit. The second woman was not so sure so we told her to ask the kids in the jeepney. They all picked the rabbit. Unanimous lol. The first woman invited us to her hometown village after the tarsier sanctuary. She said just ask for her name and we'd find her. I fucking love the Philippines for the people. Best place. The tarsiers are impossibly cute and small. Was a really nice centre to visit. Then we took a jeepney to this tiny village and went door to door asking for her. Eventually her niece pointed us the right way and a local kid took us. Meanwhile someone had texted her to say some foreigners were looking for her lol. We were invited into someone's house for a wake and they made us eat loads. Such nice people. Then she got some people to get some coconuts for us. We had had fresh buko with the school teachers in Malapascua, but we had some again here. We stayed for a bit and then had to get the last bus back. She said next time we had to come and stay with her. We met quite a few travellers who never seemed to meet locals. I think you have to try hard not to in the Philippines. We watched Oblivion at the cinema which is not bad, but nothing special. Seems to be my summary of most films we watched here.
The next day we took the bus to Carmen to see the famous chocolate hills. The ride is pleasant and the hills are nice. We should have taken a motorbike to fully appreciate the scenery. Lots of people were taking stupid photos there. They are sort of like their photos. Its a weird one. They are very pretty, but at the same time underwhelming. Worth the trip though. On the way back we stopped off at Loboc. It is very tacky, but it is very pretty. Another hard one to judge. We opted against the overpriced river cruise and just enjoyed the very picturesque town on the river. You definitely have to visit, but I am not sure you need to stay there. We took a jeepney back to town and Cannelle chatted with her sister and father. Tagbilaran will probably go down as our second favourite Filipino city.
We realised that we could get across to Leyte from near Anda as we had suddenly decided not to go to Camiguin. Our planning and route was really a mess in the Philippines, but it can be such an infuriating country to travel around. Wonderful, but a pain in the arse. Everyone says Sumatra is difficult but its a picnic compared to the Philippines. They were trying to get us to take a van to Anda for a lot of money, but we eventually found a direct Ceres bus for 100 pesos and found a room in Anda for 500. Its a really beautiful beach area and so chilled. So much better than Alona Beach, though Alona Beach has a lot more life. While looking for a cave pool, we found a picture perfect, stunning beach with noone else there. That is the Philippines. Everywhere there are stunning beaches. The 1500th best beach here would be most countries number 1. Why anyone goes to Thailand for beaches and not here is beyond me. I hate beaches and this place is stunning. Even I am happy to spend time on them. We met some drunk local guys and then just bummed around on the beach all day. It seemed like the thing to do lol. Wish we had had more time here but we were starting to run out of time to make Clark Airport by land. You wouldn't think it though by how much time we would waste in the next two weeks.
This time wasting began the next day. We grabbed the local bus to the main road with the hotel owner, who was going to the dentist for his son. He told us how he had had people stay with him who got dengue on Palawan and others who had lost their passports. He always helped them out and seems like a really nice guy. In Anda they want tourists to go there, but they don't need our help to sell it. Just google image it and go. We got a local van to Ubay (again they thought we wanted a private charter. I must make a note to look more hobo like) and then the super, super, super slow boat to Bato on Leyte. Let the bum numbing journey begin.
The next day we did two dives at Balicasag Island. I can only say that a dive master is almost unnecessary here. So many fish. Just wow. Like an aquarium. The most fish I have ever seen on a dive site and Cannelle thinks it is the most beautiful coral she has ever seen. I'm not such a coral lover, but I'd take her word on it. I can understand why some people preferred it to Sipadan. Especially if you can't go deep at Sipadan. They are different and I would still put Barracuda Point, our first dive at Dauin and the Mandarin Fish sunset dive in Malapascua as my favourites so far, but it all depends what you like. I saw a stunning green nudibranch, tuna, a school of jack, a school of angelfish (so many schools of fish I had only ever seen in small numbers before) and so many small reef fish. Its not a big fish site, but if you like the small stuff you'll love it. There was a Dutch instructor with us and he told us that the PADI courses were mostly a waste of time and money. He said get your advanced as quick as possible and then its only worth doing rescue, deep and wreck (ice and cave if you have the interest as well). Those seem the best to me. He said that Bali and Gili were great places to dive and the Americans in Malapascua had told us that Komodo was the best they had ever dived. We shall hopefully see on the remainder of this trip. We had an American dive with us on the second dive and he kept annoying the fish and at one point he was even carrying a bit of the reef with him. Random and stupid. We had been warned about the titan triggerfish. Its very aggressive and territorial. At one point he was swimming along and I saw a fish swim behind him. I thought it must be this fish as it went above him and bit him in the head. I was laughing so hard I must have used a lot of oxygen. Too funny. Revenge of the fish. It then came for us as well but we used our fins to fend it off. Interesting fish. I loved these dive sites though. Would have dived again, but Cannelle was having ear problems so we figured we would take some time off diving until Pulau Weh. Spurs drew 2-2 that night and we lost on penalties to Basel. Shit. Only consolation was it meant no more really late nights watching the European football. We spent the afternoon hanging out in the swimming pool with a Dutch/English couple who also told us we would make shit tons of money in Australia and that a target of 24,000 Aussie dollars in a year was more than doable.
In the morning we had some laughs with a moto driver who was surprised we didn't want to rent a motorbike. We told him about the police problems and then another moto driver wanted to take us to Tagbilaran. We said we were taking the jeepney but he told us there wasn't one. The other guy told him not to lie and look like an idiot as we clearly weren't stupid tourists and we all had a laugh at him together. We got into Tagbilaran and found a really nice hotel. We decided to stay there and use it as a base to visit the centre of Bohol. It was even cheap for laundry. We took a jeepney to the tarsier sanctuary and got into a debate with some local women about which cuddly animal was the cutest. We both thought the rabbit. The second woman was not so sure so we told her to ask the kids in the jeepney. They all picked the rabbit. Unanimous lol. The first woman invited us to her hometown village after the tarsier sanctuary. She said just ask for her name and we'd find her. I fucking love the Philippines for the people. Best place. The tarsiers are impossibly cute and small. Was a really nice centre to visit. Then we took a jeepney to this tiny village and went door to door asking for her. Eventually her niece pointed us the right way and a local kid took us. Meanwhile someone had texted her to say some foreigners were looking for her lol. We were invited into someone's house for a wake and they made us eat loads. Such nice people. Then she got some people to get some coconuts for us. We had had fresh buko with the school teachers in Malapascua, but we had some again here. We stayed for a bit and then had to get the last bus back. She said next time we had to come and stay with her. We met quite a few travellers who never seemed to meet locals. I think you have to try hard not to in the Philippines. We watched Oblivion at the cinema which is not bad, but nothing special. Seems to be my summary of most films we watched here.
The next day we took the bus to Carmen to see the famous chocolate hills. The ride is pleasant and the hills are nice. We should have taken a motorbike to fully appreciate the scenery. Lots of people were taking stupid photos there. They are sort of like their photos. Its a weird one. They are very pretty, but at the same time underwhelming. Worth the trip though. On the way back we stopped off at Loboc. It is very tacky, but it is very pretty. Another hard one to judge. We opted against the overpriced river cruise and just enjoyed the very picturesque town on the river. You definitely have to visit, but I am not sure you need to stay there. We took a jeepney back to town and Cannelle chatted with her sister and father. Tagbilaran will probably go down as our second favourite Filipino city.
We realised that we could get across to Leyte from near Anda as we had suddenly decided not to go to Camiguin. Our planning and route was really a mess in the Philippines, but it can be such an infuriating country to travel around. Wonderful, but a pain in the arse. Everyone says Sumatra is difficult but its a picnic compared to the Philippines. They were trying to get us to take a van to Anda for a lot of money, but we eventually found a direct Ceres bus for 100 pesos and found a room in Anda for 500. Its a really beautiful beach area and so chilled. So much better than Alona Beach, though Alona Beach has a lot more life. While looking for a cave pool, we found a picture perfect, stunning beach with noone else there. That is the Philippines. Everywhere there are stunning beaches. The 1500th best beach here would be most countries number 1. Why anyone goes to Thailand for beaches and not here is beyond me. I hate beaches and this place is stunning. Even I am happy to spend time on them. We met some drunk local guys and then just bummed around on the beach all day. It seemed like the thing to do lol. Wish we had had more time here but we were starting to run out of time to make Clark Airport by land. You wouldn't think it though by how much time we would waste in the next two weeks.
This time wasting began the next day. We grabbed the local bus to the main road with the hotel owner, who was going to the dentist for his son. He told us how he had had people stay with him who got dengue on Palawan and others who had lost their passports. He always helped them out and seems like a really nice guy. In Anda they want tourists to go there, but they don't need our help to sell it. Just google image it and go. We got a local van to Ubay (again they thought we wanted a private charter. I must make a note to look more hobo like) and then the super, super, super slow boat to Bato on Leyte. Let the bum numbing journey begin.
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