Ibioh, Pulau Weh, Sumartra

After our time in the jungle, the Stanleys and I headed for the beach. We went as far north as you can go in Sumatra, to an island called Pulau Weh. It was a very long and interesting journey.

We started our trip from Bukit Lawang at 2pm, when we were picked up by a motorbike, from our accommodation and driven to a shared taxi (a car that we shared with two tourists from Estonia) in the village. The shared taxi dropped us off at the bus stop in Binjai. The bus stop was a desk and a sign on the side of the road. Next we got on a bus that drove to Banda Aceh, at the top of Sumatra. We were in the bus from 5:30pm until 6:30am the next morning, with a 30 minute stop for dinner at 9pm. The seats on the bus recline back a bit and every seat has a cushion and a blanket. It wasn't very comfortable though. The most annoying part was that the air conditioner kept dripping on me. In the end I put my head under my blanket so I didn't get wet. I did get some sleep, but not very much. 

From the bus stop in Banda Aceh, the Stanleys and I caught a taxi to the harbour. I bought a ticket for the slow ferry. There are two ferries, the slow ferry and the fast ferry. The slow ferry leaves the harbour at 8am and takes 90 minutes. The fast ferry leaves the harbour at 9am and takes 45 minutes. I decided the slow ferry was better because we arrived at the harbour before 7am and the slow ferry wss also cheaper. At 8:45 when the slow ferry hadn't moved, we got off and bought a ticket for the fast ferry. When we arrived at the harbour in Pulau Weh, we got a motorbike with a sidecar from the harbour to Ibioh Beach. We arrived at about 11am.

Can you work out how long it took to get from Bukit Lawang to Ibioh on Pulau Weh?

How many different types of transport did we take?

The markers start light and get darker in order of the places we went on our journey.

Click for a closer look at the map

Maria and Mika, from Finland who I met on the ferry, on their way to Ibioh. 

The view from our bungalow.

Our bungalow

Different views from the bungalow

Snorkeling in front of the bungalow

My favourite fruit salad 

Mamamia's the restaurant (on the right) where I got my favourite fruit salad.

The Stanleys were pretty excited about Mamamia's chocolate and coconut pancakes.

I hired a motorbike with Bram (a Dutch tourist) and went for a tour around the island.

There is more than transport on these roads.

What can you spot?

The most northern point in Sumatra. Lots of tourists get their photos taken here.

Getting distracted while trying to update the blog...

Our trip from Ibioh to the ferry. We left before 7am but there are lots of children on their way to school.

The slow ferry we took to Banda Aceh

Bukit Lawang, Sumatra

The Stanleys and I were in a hurry to leave Medan so I spent a lot of money and got a private car to pick us up and take us to Bukit Lawang.

Click for the full map

On the way, we drove past a lot of Palm Trees. Companies are cutting down the jungle to grow palm trees so they can make palm oil. Maybe you can do some research and find out what happens to the animals when their homes are cut down or burnt so palm trees can be grown. You could also do some research to find out what palm oil is used for. I think you will be surprised how many different foods and products it is used in.

Palm trees

Bukit Lawang is a small village on the edge of the Gunung Lesuser National Park.

Click to see Bukit Lawang

The view from our room

Breakfast time visitors.
One cheeky monkey even ran across the table in front of me.

Here are some of the sights I saw when I was trekking:

A Viper that had been relocated from the village

When I went on a jungle trek, I saw 8 Orangutans; 3 rehabilitated females, each with a baby and 2 wild males.

Orangutans get rehabilitated and released into back into the jungle if they have been kept as pets (which is now illegal) or injured. Bukit Lawang used to have a feeding station where the rehabilitated Orangutans could come twice a day for food if they were unable to forage for enough in the jungle. The people running the feeding station kept the food boring to encourage to Orangutans to fend for themselves.

Long Tail Monkeys (Macaque)

You can see the cuts villages have made to collect rubber.

Fruit snack in the jungle

Picnic lunch
Rice, vegetables, fish, noodles and rice crackers

This guy was attached to the back of my shoulder. It had a good feed of my blood but it still looks hungry.

Termites

Bukit Lawang Village.

The locals swim, wash themselves and their clothes in the river.

Tourists from other places in Indonesia come to go rafting on the river in rubber tubes.

My 'Jungle Taxi' that carried me through the rapids back to the village.
It was made of a large tube tied together with two smaller tubes.

Medan, Sumatra

Medan is the largest city in Sumatra. From the airport the, Stanleys and I, took a train into the city.

It was not very far to my hotel from the train station. Google maps told me it was a 15 minute walk, so I decided to walk. It was a very interesting 15 minutes which felt much longer.. All of the locals were in cars, buses, becak (motorbike with a side cart) or on motorbikes. Have a look at the video below to see what the roads and footpaths are like in Medan.
 

There wasn't very much room left to walk on the footpath because they were crowded with motorbikes, food stands, building supplies, rubbish and so many other things.

The parking area beside a market.

 The Stanleys and I only stayed Medan for two nights. It was too busy, loud and dirty for us and the locals weren't very friendly.

Malaysia to Sumatra

From Kuala Lumpur, the Stanleys and I flew to Medan in Sumatra.

Click for an interactive map

Indonesia is outlined in red and Sumatra is the long island in the top left.
Bali is near the middle of the map at the end of Java (Jakarta is in Java).

Malaysian Currency

The Malaysian currency is the Malaysian Ringgit (MYR). Like New Zealand, they have notes (ringgit/RM instead of dollars/$) and coins (sen instead of cents).

RM1

RM5

RM10

RM20

RM100 & RM50

20, 10 and 5 sen

There is also a 50 sen coin too.

Use this currency convertor to compare the New Zealand Dollar to the Malaysian Ringgit.

Click for currency converter