The Global Guy

Well, I’m getting over a 5 day bout of something…It’s been a weird experience being sick on the road. I’ve been able to go out and keep a little active with the help of aspirin, but at night when you’re lying in bed sweating, all you can think of is the health section in the lonely planet guidebook that talks about all the dangerous tropical diseases out there. For a while, I’d convinced myself that I’d contracted a combination of yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis!

I’d started feeling lousy while I was in Lake Toba, but the worst of it didn’t really hit until I’d gotten to Medan where I was going to catch a bus to the northern part of the island en route to Pulah Weh. Once I got to my room, I couldn’t even make myself get out of bed. I spent about two days going between the toilet and the bedroom, wondering if I’d survive. Finally on the morning of the third day I started feeling a lot better. By that evening I was eating solid foods again, and beginning to believe I just might live thru this experience. By the time it was all over I’d lost about 8 pounds in three days, but luckily there was a McDonald’s across the street to help me get it back.

I never did get to see much of the town, but I don’t think I missed much. There was a beautiful mosque right across the street from my guest house, and while I could appreciate its architectural attraction, the call to prayer five times a day right outside my window was enough to almost make me want to start a modern day crusade.

I’ve headed down to Danau (Lake) Toba, still in Sumatra. Getting here from Bukit Lawang was interesting in itself. I’d met up with about six other people who were heading that way, and we found a tourist mini-bus to take us. When we got to the town that is the departure point to our island destination, we were told that the ferry was full, but there would be another one in an hour and a half or so, but in the meantime why don’t we relax in my cousin’s restaurant. Well, we’d been in a cramped minivan for four hours and there was no way in hell we were standing for that. We demanded our ferry tickets from him, ran over to the ferry that was just about to depart, climbed on, and found it nearly empty.

After a pleasant half hour ferry ride we decided to stay at a guest house that was recommended by one of our fellow passengers. We figured he was probably getting a commission, but he didn’t try to rip us off so we didn’t mind at all.

I’d started feeling strange that morning, so I decided to make it an early night. The next day I wasn’t feeling great, but after a few aspirin, I was up to renting motorcycles and going out for a tour if the island. This was my first time ever driving a motorcycle, and I have to say I feel really bad for my passenger Eve. She and I got dumped off of the bike more times than we really should have. I’ll say that the roads were lousy, but there was really no excuse other than the fact that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.Anyway, when we weren’t falling off, it was a great day of biking. We saw nearly all of the island on a combination of paved and dirt roads. We realized towards the end of the day that darkness was catching up with us, so we decided to take a shortcut all the way across the island…our map showed a road, but about halfway thru we realized that it was no good for bikes at all…too many steep muddy hills that these bikes just weren’t designed for. We ended up backtracking a couple of hours, and finally found the paved road just after nightfall. It would have been slightly safer, except for the fact that Indonesian drivers don’t like to use headlights at night…For some reason they figure that they know the roads well enough, and it’ll save money. Luckily we had our lights on full blast, so that usually pissed them off enough to at least flash their lights at us, which at least alerted us to their presence.

The island is a beautiful tropical paradise in the middle of an ancient volcano. The water is up to 300 meters deep in places, and crystal clear. During the day it can get quite hot, and a quick dip in the lake is the perfect remedy for anytime you start to feel even the slightest bit warm. The local construction style is very unique. There used to be a tribe called the Tomok that was native to the area, and the local buildings still follow the style of construction.

I caught a passenger ferry from Penang to the town of Medan on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was my first experience with a large passenger ferry, and I was a bit surprised at how it operated. I’d expected it to be just a big boat with benches for seats, and people standing around. I certainly did not expect airline style seating with bad kung-fu movies playing on televisions.

Anyway, when I got to Medan I hooked up with a tout who was selling seats on a minivan headed to Bukit Lawang, the village near the island’s orangutan sanctuary. I was glad to get out of the dock area as quickly as possible. Leaving the city it was nothing but filth, garbage, stench and poverty. Once we left the city itself things started looking much better. The trees got thicker as we drove into the jungle. We finally arrived in Bukit Lawang after about 4 hours driving. I looked around and found a guest house with a private bathroom and a balcony overlooking the river for the princely sum of $3.00 per night.

That evening hanging in the guest house bar, I met up with a few other travelers and we hired a couple of locals to guide us on a two day trek to find the orangutans in their natural environment. We got to bed fairly early after a few beers knowing that the next day could be a tough one.

The first day of the trek featured high humidity, but relatively pleasant temperatures. We were hiking up hill most of the morning, and our guides called a break after about two hours. They pulled out their packs of weed, and offered it all around to the rest of us. I’d later get used to this casual attitude toward pot use in Asia, but it was surprising at first. About an hour later we finally ran into a group of four adult orangutans plus a baby. These were fantastic animals! One was obviously unhappy with our presence, and kept pulling down branches from the rain forest canopy and throwing them down on us. We watched them for about half an hour before they finally moved on. We could see evidence of their presence all around. Old sleeping nests were everywhere in the trees, and branches had been stripped of nearly all fruit.

We finally stopped for lunch of Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice), cucumbers, boiled eggs, and fresh fruit. We ate by a stream in the forest, and the soon after came to an overlook where we could see the whole canopy of trees below us. We started heading down a steep hill toward our campsite when the afternoon thunderstorm opened up on us. It quickly became obvious that this was more than just a regular rain shower. Our guides looked a little nervous as we were encouraged to hurry up and get down the mountain. Finally we reached our shelter for the night which was just a plastic tarp on a wooden frame next to the river. It was enough to keep the six of us dry though, and thats what really mattered.

The rain kept up for a good 8 hours, thru the evening, and a good part of the night. When we woke up the river had nearly doubled in size from the previous day. The plan was for us to float down the river on a homemade raft, but our guides said it was way too dangerous to attempt with the river at its current level. It was best that we wait around for a few hours and see if the river would recede. We entertained ourselves with stories of where we were from, and the locals special tobacco. It turns out that one of the guys on the trip was a dive instructor in Thailand, so I got his address and told him I’d see him in a few weeks.

Finally the river got low enough that we could float back to the village. Normally the river is fairly tame, but we bounced and splashed back thru rapids the whole way. One great thing was that there were probably a dozen waterfalls we passed on the way back that are normally dry. Watching them splash down from over 50 feet up right next to us was quite a treat!

The next day after a hot shower, I went out to see the actual sanctuary. Here we got to meet some orangutans who had been orphaned by either bad luck or poachers. One actually reached out his hand to me and grabbed mine..I couldn’t believe the power in his arms! That last night I made plans to move on Lake Toba, and then went to one of the local bars to hear our guide play in his band.

One footnote to this chapter…the village of Bukit Lawang was completely destroyed in November of 2003 by a flood of the river. Over half the population was drowned, and most of the buildings were washed away. Blame has been placed on illegal logging in the forests that used to act as a natural flood-stop. Apparently rebuilding is progressing slowly, but the region depends on tourist dollars to keep it alive. Hopefully in a few more months things will be close to normal…at least as close to normal as things ever get in the third world.

I left the highlands early this morning, and took a bus to the east coast and the island of Penang. The island has one town called Georgetown which was the country’s first major port founded by the British East India company as a trading crossroads between China and India. It’s an interesting montage of Asian and European cultures all swirled together. There is still an old British Naval fort in town, and the local museum talks almost more about the British history than the local Malay past.

On the bus down here I met two other Americans, and we decided to all grab a room somewhere. The main backpacker area is called Chulua street, and it’s just one guest house after another, most with identical looking restaurants serving a mixture of western and Asian food. Most of them have huge big screen televisions showing different pirated movies every night. During the day they’re all playing some combination of Bob Marley, bad techno, or 80s music.

The guys and I decided to take a trip up to Penang hill, where there are several temples from different faiths on the top. To get to the top you’ve got to take a funicular railway that goes up quite a steep slope. On the way over there I recognized Meg, a girl I’d met in the Cameron Highlands. She was hanging out with a friend of hers, so we decided to combine groups. We saw all the tourist sights at the top, and stopped to sample a local desert speciality. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had. Imagine soft serve vanilla ice cream with kidney beans, jelly beans, corn and some kind of sticky syrup poured all over it. It looked great on the menu, but none of us could take more than a bite or two. We decided to hike down the hill, but one of the guys accidentally slipped and cut his leg pretty badly. We helped him about halfway down, and then flagged the train at the midpoint. The conductor looked pretty puzzled about the situation, but did allow us to board…as long as we made sure to pay full fare at the bottom!

That night I got my first real experience with Asian beer. The five of us went out drinking at some local hole in the wall away from the tourist area. We ended up laughing and drinking with some locals who didn’t seem like they saw a lot of foreigners. I’m not sure who had the better time, us or them!

1800 meters above sea level, the Cameron Highlands provide a nice cool environment in contrast to the hot humid air of the coast and cities. I’ve arrived here with four English girls I met in KL. The main activities here are jungle hiking, and touring the various tea plantations and farms of the region. The area is absolutely specatcular…nothing but rolling hills covered with green tea leaves, flower farms and rain-forests. It’s cloudy unfortunately, but I’m told that this helps keep the temperatures down.

The first day I toured a tea plantation and butterfly zoo with a group from our guest house. It was my first experience with tea in any form other than a Lipton box. The butterfly zoo was amazing as well…tons of species flying around you that normally you’d only see mounted on a tray in a museum.

The last night that I was there I went down to the local town for the Thaipusam festival. This is a Hindu festival celebrating the life of the deity, Lord Subramanian. If I’d stayed in KL, I could have seen the most impressive example of devotion, with over a million people descending on a local cave, and piercing their cheeks and bodies as a sign of devotion. Unfortunately due to the Larium lethargy, I just wasn’t feeling up to it. Instead, several of us saw a smaller version with colorful floats, offerings of milk and honey, and for some reason, lots of smashing of coconuts. It was a lot of fun, and we were all invited to participate in the ceremony. It was absolutely the highlight of Malaysia!