Sumatra

After a one hour flight we arrived in Medan, Indonesia, and promptly ran to the airport KFC for wholesome food (I know we are sad but 5 odd months does that to you). We boarded our luxury (Indonesian style) coach and drove the 6 hours to the Samosir ferry to take us to the inland island of Tuk Tuk, formed in a massive volcanic explosion that sent Earth into a mini ice age 70,000 years ago. We spent the next few days exploring the island and meeting the lovely but very poor people before going back on the ferry to meet up with our coach again. We set off North to Berastagi and arrived at a very large and quite grand hotel with a panoramic view of the larger of two active volcanos. Steam billowing from the top. On our second day Julia climbed the smaller of the volcanos up to the noxious gas. The following day we visited some of the original stilted houses still being used and went in to one that housed 8 families around 4 fires on one open level!
The following day we headed off to our next stop, Bukit Lawang in the jungle. We stayed in an Eco lodge with no hot water and basic facilities. We trecked into the jungle with a good guide and came across some Orang Utans. A mother and baby came down and took bananas from us while hanging down from a tree. Mother was very big!  We finished the day coming down a fast flowing river on lorry innertubes. After a lazy day we headed back to Medan where we catch a flight back to Malaysia in the morning.