Bukit Luwang aka Monkey central

After a joyous 16 hour overnight bus journey from Banda Aceh to Medan (where due to massaging my face with my kneecaps I managed precisely no sleep) and then a further 4 hour bus ride straight after to Bukit Luwang I arrived feeling fresh and ready for whatever life wanted to throw at me. Probably a good thing considering 10 minutes after I arrived a flash flood tore down the centre of town which provided fun for all. Thankfully though they are prepared for such an event and the defences held up pretty well. Sadly that's only the case because the entire centre of the town was demolished in 2003 which resulted in 1 in every 10 people in the village being killed. After Banda Aceh I feel like I'm on a tour of mass drowning sites. Very glamorous I'm sure you'll agree...

The very scenic Bukit Luwang:
and ten minutes later...(it got higher but I legged it off the bridge and up into my room on the hill)
I spent the first day watching the river rise then quickly retreated in to my room when the heavens opened and refused to come out. The next day I reluctantly got out of bed to embark what I assumed would be a forlorn Orang Utan hunt as I assumed that if they had any sense they wouldn't appear while the weather was so bad. How wrong I was:

While watching the above some Macaques decided to come and join me too:

As you can imagine I had an utterly brilliant time and really couldn't have asked for more from my 2 days there. Sadly though I had to go to Berastagi at 5am (where I am now) so once again I retreated to bed. At least that was the plan. Somehow I got roped into some games of pool followed by an impromptu karaoke style thing in the guesthouse with some of the local guides accompanying me on the guitar. Singing "Come as you are" at 3am with while possibly under the influence of something that was being passed around was an experience to say the least. My normal reaction in those situations is to smile and say no but it seemed rude this time...

Apropos of nothing:



So now I find myself in Berastagi after another night of sod all sleep and a couple of long bus journeys with two things to accomplish. 1 is to see Lake Toba and the other is to climb one of the nearby volcanoes. More on this later though...

Hope everyone's well,

Keg