North Sumatra trek prep

Day 23 - February 2

We had breakfast this morning at the JW Marriott. There sure were a lot of choices. If we would have had some of everything we would have been at breakfast until they closed. But the breakfast was very good. Afterward we stopped at the concierge desk to see what there was to do. Actually I had asked them about a drive to a waterfall not too far from the city. They told us how to get there, what it would cost, and that we should have a pleasant time scrambling through the jungle. They did recommend that we get a local guide once we got there. After talking about that they asked why we don’t go see the orangutans. That did it. My main reason for coming to Medan was to do exactly that. They arranged the trip for us. And we were off.

So we rode up to for three hours plus a little bit to Bukit Lawang. The roads were crappy but we did get there. We will be staying at the Ecolodge for the next two nights and then going back to the Marriott in Medan. So far on our trip we have seen macaque monkeys, some kind of tree frog. a couple of small lizards (two different kind), a green and yellow snake in a tree, mosquitoes, flies, and feral cats. We crossed to the hotel on a suspension bridge walkway over a river that we will tube on tomorrow afternoon. Bonnie is apprehensive about this, I hope it goes well.

Had dinner Indonesian style, fried rice and other things. Bonnie’s included satay chicken, mine had fried chicken and an egg. The food was good and contrary to the complaints of some on trip advisor it wasn’t that expensive. It is really humid tonight though and I’m sure it’s going to be a bear sleeping. But it’s a king bed and it has a mosquito net so we should only be bothered by a finite number of insects. The jungle around us sounds quite neat. There are lots of insects chirping and frogs croaking. The of course there is the river tumbling over the rocks. We can always sleep at the Marriott when we get back there.

It’s getting close to time to turn in so will call it a night. Breakfast is at 6:30 in the morning and we start our trek at 7:30.