Saturday 26 February 2011

Compact Petrol Station (Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia - 26/02)

With air-pressure available!!

Who says you cannot transport stuff with a motorbike? (Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia - 26/02)

Trashy river (Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia - 26/02)

You can now understand what I was talking about the river in Bukit Lawang...
environment and different colour...

Mesjid Raya (Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia - 26/02)

Islam is the most popular religion in Indonesia.
Mosque are everywhere and you cannot miss it: there are 5 prayers a day and
each of the mosques have loudspeakers to share the prayers with the citizen.
The one at 4am can be annoying when you had a busy day...

Palm oil Field (Between Bukit Lawang and Medan, Sumatran, Indonesia - 25/02)

One of the big businesses (other is rubber) in the area which is devastating
the jungle and provoking the decline of the Orang-utan population in the
same time...

Friday Market (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 25/02)

Visiting the Bat Cave (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 25/02)

Small bats spotting the cave ceiling
Then bigger ones, flying and shitting around
Try to find the blind bird:

Sumatran typical house (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 25/02)

As North and East Sumatra is quite swampy, houses have to be raised in order
to avoid flooding.

Morning bath in the river (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 25/02)

Like the locals, using soap to clean themselves and detergent to wash
clothes!!
Who cares about the environment there...
The river is still clean here, further down, it is not the same colour....

Giant leaves (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 24/02)

Orang-utans Conservation Centre (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 24/02)

Crossing the river in a canoe to reach the center
The center organizes feeding sessions twice a day.
The first Orang-utan (translated from Indonesian by Forest Man) is approaching:
Dancing between the branches with her baby
Grabbing some food from the forest rangers:
Leaving the place:

Monkeys on the village (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 23-24/02)

A very common monkey :
The Thomas Leaf Monkey, an endemic species of Sumatra

Bridges in the Jungle (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 23-24/02)

The old Bamboo Bridge

The New Steel Bridge
The Cable Bridge

Tubing on the River (Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia - 23-24/02)

Blocked in a no through water-flow

Walking the river up to find the perfect start:

relaxing in quiet flow

Somebody collecting the tubes:

It was our best refreshing activity so far!! and in such a landscape!!

Friday 25 February 2011

On the way to the forest (Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia - 22/02)

Still drying our clothes from our night washing...

Our 3 days Bus trip (from Bogor, Java to Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia - 19-21/02)

Our Bus
Going inside the ferry to Sumatra
For 3 days, we stop at every meal in a specific kind of restaurant, the rumah makan.
We now feel nauseous just by seeing the front of this kind of restaurant.
The roads at Sumatra are very bad with big potholes and very windy like spagetti.
We were sick of course, but just for 1 night... not too bad.

Angkot again and again (Bogor, Java, Indonesia - 18/02)

a kind of mini-bus/taxi vehicle

Kebun Raya, Botanic Garden (Bogor, Java, Indonesia - 18/02)