Trek Swim Climb: Part One of my Three Week Vacation

 My month long holiday has sadly come to an end, but oh! the places I've been! My travels began in the city of Medan which is about twelve hours north of Pekanbaru. Eric and I kicked off our trip with three days in the small village of Bukit Lawang, home to an orangutan conservatory in Gunug Leuser National Park. An all day trek with our guide Dharma was wildly successful and we not only encountered orangutans at the conservatory's feeding stations; but, we were chased through the jungle by an orangutan named Minah with a record for biting tourists. It was more than a bit disconcerting when Dharma, who has trekked the jungle for years and knows most of the orangutans, told us to run. Needless to say we did not hesitate. 

Our next stop was Lake Toba,  the largest volcanic crater lake in the world created by a super volcanic eruption. We stayed on Samosir Island which stands in the middle of Lake Toba and is about the size of Singapore. The relaxed island  attitude seemed to seep out of Samosir and we were surprised by the many signs advertising "magic mushrooms". We hiked to a gorgeous waterfall, rented a sweet pink motorbike and toured the many small villages on the island, swam in the lake, ate huge lake fish, and just relaxed in true island style. The last stop on our Sumatra tour was Berastagi, famous for its fruit market and the two volcanoes that shadow the small town.  We climbed Mt. Sibayak, the smaller of the two at 7, 257 feet. Although its last eruption was in 1881, the volcano still has many active steam vents and the smell of sulfur was over powering at times. Standing at the mouth of the volcano truly made me feel insignificant.

The crater of Mt. Sibayak

The next day we flew to Surabaya on the island of Java where we traveled to Malang, Eric's hometown, to spend a few days relaxing with some of our best friends. In Malang we added Polly and Brandon to our duo and together we spent Christmas on a bus (4 actually) bound for Banuywangi where we visited a National Park and ultimately boarded a ferry that would take us to Bali. Bali, however is a horse of a different color and therefore deserves its own post...