Christmas morning, Santa even visited us in Indonesia and filled our stockings with treats!

Amanda grinding Sambal on a river stone.

The view from the balcony of our traditional Batak house we stayed in for Christmas and Christmas Eve.

Sun shining on the rice paddies make for a beautiful landscape
A moonscape view from the hot springs.

Colin and a friend from Jakarta contemplating the hot hot springs. Do we jump in or not?

Wind blowing through our hair as we admire the beautiful landscape.

Sitting lake side at sunset

Batak houses line the shore of Lake Toba in Tuk Tuk (the main tourist area on the island)

A shitty 6 hour bus ride to Parapat, the jumping off point for Samosir on Lake Toba. We sat on the floor by the toilet on the bus and inhaled second hand smoke, but made it!

Grand Mosque, Medan. The kids use the grounds as a soccer field.

Easter chicks, I wonder if they taste like jelly beans. Just another offering at the local market, Bukit Lawang.

Amanda in front of our tree house bungalow at the Garden Inn. It set us back about $7 a night.

Ajis, our other jungle guide leading us through the rapids in our jungle taxi. He ran into the jungle and dressed himself up to keep us entertained, talk about hard working!

Jungle Eddie talking about the honey bears and the jungle fauna. Have you heard of him, cuz he's a pretty big deal.

Jungle lady with jungle hat in the jungle.

Jungle boy with jungle knife in the jungle.

Cheesy waterfall photo, but who can resist?!

What's up cuz? Two apes in the jungle.

OOOO OOOO OOO OOORANG-UTAN!!!!!!!!! Momma orang-utan hanging out in the trees.
Three days to the Indonesian consulate, Check. $100, Check. 60 day visa, Check. We're going to Indonesia BABY!

A thousand Buddha's pagoda at the Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest in Malaysia

North Sumatra, Where the Wild Things Are

We arrived in Indonesia on a small twin prop plane to the city of Medan, Indonesia's third largest and a dirty, busy, and overall insane introduction to the archipelago. After waltzing through customs (there was no one there) we found ourselves immediately harrased by several different "taxi" drivers looking for our business. Like a bat out of hell we got to the other side of the city to the bus station and realized we needed cash before our next destination. We escaped some touts and upon asking for more information and getting swarmed again by people Zohan, our Chinese saviour, arrived on his motorbike, got us on a becak (motorbike with side car), and shuttled us to the closest ATM. Back at the bus station money in hand we were ready for our first Indonesian night in Bukit Lawang, famous for it's orang-utan rehabilitation center. Getting there on a rickety bus clouded with clove scented cigarette smoke and dipping through potholes larger than the road, we made it in 5 hot hours. That's 65km on a Sumatran highway. Selamat Datang!

Having made a "friend" on the bus, we were led by the nose into town and heard our first of many sales pitches for jungle treks. We nestled into the Garden Inn, which was almost like a tree house overlooking the river and jungle beyond. Over a dinner of Gado-Gado (vegetables and egg smothered in peanut sauce) and Indonesian soup we were welcomed to the jungle through guitar strums and sing-alongs. It was a breath of fresh air and an amazing village to spend our first night.

Our friend, who ended up being quite the parasite, eventually won over our business and we booked a two day jungle trek. The trek was amazing, first being led through a rubber plantation and then into Taman Nasional Gunung Leuser, Indonesia's biggest national park which is home to the Sumatran orang-utan. Seeking out these wild beasts our guides very instinctively led us to their nests. Our first encounter was with Meena, the most aggresive orang-utan in the jungle who chased us down the path and was hungry for our lunch. The guides distracted her with fruit as we watched from the bushes. The second orang-utan pair we saw (mother and baby) was very friendly and playfully swung from tree to tree and allowed us to get very close and take several (hundered?) photos. It was truly amazing to watch them in their natural habitat as curious of us as we were of them.

Marching on up and down the cliffs of the jungle we came to our 5 star jungle hotel, which was a make-shift camp done up with plastic bags and tarps. We had a delicious dinner (with our own cook!) swam in an amazing waterfall and played jungle games (really old maid, but who's going to tell the guide it's not the "orang-utan game"?). The next morning we hiked up to another peak that looked over the expanse of jungle and into Aceh, Sumatra's northern most province. Back down to the river we stopped for lunch and tubed back to the village down the rapid waves. It was a great trip!

We stayed one more night in our tree house and headed back to Medan for an overnight and on to Lake Toba our next destination. After experiencing Medan already we had a better time managing the city and had a nice evening admiring the Grand Mosque across the street from our hotel. We even managed to avoid falling into the gaping holes on the sidewalk straight to the sewer! The following morning we treated ourselves to some foot reflexology and went on our way.

Lake Toba, a stunning crater lake with a Singapore sized island in the middle, is the home of the Batak people, with their unique architecture, music, dance, religious traditions and history. Batak houses cover the landscape with their sweeping gables reminiscent of ships docked on the shore. A trip across the island by motorbike exposed the farms, rice paddies and unique burial graves scattered all along the hills. Our motorbike trip ended at the natural hot springs where Colin dipped himself in and out and Amanda begrudgingly put in her big toe. It was hot hot hot!

We've been doing some good ol' fashioned relaxing here, gearing up for Christmas by purusing the markets and sparse convenience stands for candy. We treated ourselves to a 4 course cooking class on Christmas Eve where we learned to make Gado-Gado, Chicken Rendang, Sambal Fish and Fried Bananas. For Christmas we made stockings by hand and stuffed them with treats (cookies, fruit and liquor). Our Christmas dinner was a fresh fish from the lake, marinated, covered with sambal, wrapped in banana leaves and slowly grilled. We missed our family and friends of course but spent Christmas in a beautiful place with great people, so all in all we feel very thankful. We hope that this holiday season finds you all healthy and happy too!

Photos from the Highlands

The house with miles of jungle backing it.
Watching sunrise on the morning of our departure from the farm. A breathtaking view.
The river after 30 minutes of heavy rain. It completely washed out a road and damaged a bridge that leads to some other dilapidated empty houses the guys would gather supplies from.
Feeding the crazy roosters, watch your back!
All these birds would say is "GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!!"
A feast is prepared for Thanksgiving dinner.
Feeding the hungry goats that managed to escape their pen frequently and will literally eat anything.
Weeding and collecting animal food. Killing two birds with one stone (the farm motto)
Fishing for dinner, Ladia complete with wet suit and snorkelling gear.
Soon to be our room, but we never really moved in.
View from the house with the kilang in the foreground. The farm was in a cloud forest.
Ready to kick it into gear and climb up to the farm.
Freezing cold at 6,666 feet felt like home
Top of the Boh Tea Estate in Cameron Highlands.
The trail to Robinson Falls, straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
On top of this mountain in the Cameron Highlands we ate a lunch of Nasi Lemak, rice, a spoonful of curry, peanuts and fermented fish wrapped in a banana leaf.
Well manicured tea plants spread over miles of rolling hills. This photo doesn't really do it justice.

Animal Farm

We're finally back from our isolation on the Permaculture farm in Perak, so here is what we have been up to...

After KL we headed straight up into the Cameron Highlands on a bus driven by a madman. Chugging up the mountain on a busted bus we reached Tanah Rata at 5,000' white knuckled and actually cold! It was our first taste of fall and a welcome change from the sweltering heat that we have gotten used to here near the equator. This area was once a British hill station where they grew lots of tea and veggies, and there are still tons of farms. There is also an extensive network of fairly well kept trails for hiking, which communist rebels once used to smuggle supplies.

We spent a while up here chilling out and taking advantage of the cool temperatures to lead ourselves on some formidable hikes. The highest we climbed was Gunung Brinchang, where we were completely covered by a cloud blocking our views at 6,666'. The moss covered forest on the way there made up for it, however. We also visited the Boh Tea Estate, where we saw miles and miles of beautiful green tea plants covering rolling hills. This was by far some of the most spectacular scenery we have seen in Malaysia.

Next it was off the the very small town of Lenggong in the mountains of Perak to meet up with Ladia and Hana, the Czech owners of a Permaculture farm nestled in 40 acres of wild jungle. Our first sight of Ladia was of him zipping up to us at the bus station wearing green tie-dyed jeans on the most beat up motor bike in town. After telling us a little about the farm, he pointed to a cell tower straight up a hill behind town about 6km away and told us that we would be driving another equally beat bike up it. Yeehaw!

After a bumpy ride through tall grass on a rutted road we reached the place where we would spend the next month. The farm consists of one building that is the home to Ladia, Hana, and a Homestay and another building, formerly a Tea Factory (Kilang in Bahasa Melayu), that is home to the farm animals and Shiela, a German woman living on the farm. We were shown around the factory and told that in three days time we would be living there too, in a room that was full of rubbish, mold and various feces. This was to be our first project.

While fixing up the new rooms for volunteers in the Kilang we learned the basics of the farm. The first night was a major flash flood that drowned out the sound of the generator, which usually fills your ears and keeps you up at night. The next morning we learned how to fix the water input after bouldering up the river so we could have running water again. We met the animals: chickens, turkeys, ducks, goats, quail and 1 rabbit (Mr. Bunny) and learned how to feed them all. Eventually we learned how to deal with thier aggresive behaviour, for example, if a rooster runs at you and pecks at your head, just hit him with your feed bucket, etc.

Life on the farm is difficult to describe as everyday was different with new tasks, crazy bugs and things gone awry (who's going to clean out the septic tank this time?). We learned a bit about local plants and how to use them to cook with and as medicine (food poisoning in the dark with a squat toilet sucks btw). We fished in the pond (literally in the pond, swimming with the fish) for dinner. We killed scorpions, scrubbed bat shit off walls and burnt of countless leeches. Colin also got to spend most mornings running the path down to Lenggong on a motor bike to get fresh coconut scraps for the animals. After a couple of spills and a few mechanical problems he's ready to zip around just about anywhere. Never a dull moment.

We also spent Thanksgiving on the farm, which was an experience we'll both never forget. Instead of a Turkey this year we slaughtered and prepared a rooster for dinner. Plucking the feathers off of it's warm body was an experience that all meat eaters should have, it really makes you think about what you're eating. We dug up sweet potatoes, prepared stuffing, mashed potatoes and green beans and even made a pumpkin pie! Although we both missed our familes back home, it was nice to share our tradition of Thanksgiving with new friends in the middle of the jungle.

Off the farm and on the road again we are writing again from Georgetown. We will spend a week here filling our bellies and then it's off to Sumatra on the 14th. Enjoy the photos and send us a line, we miss you all very much.

Photos from SW Malaysia & Singapore

The Petronas Towers, KL. We visited the skybridge on floor 41 after hours of waiting in line and a "short" promotional video.
The National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur
Our attempt at Halloween costumes. The people of Melaka didn't really get it, but we managed to scare some kids.
A Chinese parade that snaked it's way through Melaka's preserved streets.
The historic center of Melaka where the Dutch built this church and city hall.
The Durian aka the Esplanade (or the other way around).
They are strict in Singapore, watch out.
Modern Geisha's in the Singapore Art Gallery a blend of traditional and modern life.
Colin tries to become a piece of public art in Singapore.
Amanda's starting to love onions...well, not really. Little India, Singapore.
An amazing view into the vast jungle of Taman Negara
A twisted vine trying to find the sunlight in the thick jungle.
40m above the jungle floor we walked the canopy
After a long hike we stayed in Bumbun Yong, an animal hide. We saw a lightning bug, woot!
BATS!!! Hanging tough with thousands of winged mammals in Telingga Cave, Taman Negara.