Monkey mayhem in Sumatra

Hi all,

A little post from Bukit Lawang, Sumatra.  I was about 4 hours drive from Medan, right in the jungle.  It was gorgeous, very quiet and beautiful.  I even managed to find a place where I didn't hear the Mosque call to prayer at 4am. Hallelujah! (Or whatever they say in Islam).   I stayed in a lovely little bungalow right on the river with a private garden.

Even by Indonesian standards the locals were extremely friendly - I literally had a queue of people asking me to come visit their families. However, I received a disappointing number of marriage proposals; not one!  (What's going on?  I thought I looked like Angelina Jolie to the Indonesians!)

Me looking strong, rich and pale.

 Maria has kindly corrected me by saying that I look more like the Gina Rinehart of Indonesia  -  big, white and rich.  I have to say I got tired of telling Indonesians that, 'Oh, you're so strong and so pale' doesn't quite cut it as a compliment in Australia. (By now I know better than to tell local women they look so thin and tanned, because they all want to look fat and white.)

 Osin, one of the women who worked in the place I stayed in, invited me down to the local village to meet her family.  Her house, and all the houses in the village were so basic - 5 people living there with just two rooms, no bathroom, no glass in the windows, and woven palm fronds for the walls.   

Osin in front of her house

The bathroom/toilet/laundry for the whole village is this canal, it's pretty much the social centre of the whole village - although I'm not sure how sanitory the whole thing is. I think the baby bath in the photo above was provided by a charity, probably because the infants were getting sick (or washed away) in the canal. 

So, onto the monkey mayhem.  This photo isn't very clear, but if you look closely you can see six of the little buggers heading into my room.  Agh!  I foolishly left my door open for a few minutes and they swung in off the trees.  In 5 minutes they broke a plate, pood on the floor, emptied my rubbish bins and took my food!

But, some of them look cute.

Finally, my two favorite photos.  This is the school bus - Indo style.  If the inside is full, just let the kiddies sit on the roof!  After all, what could go wrong??

And, this is a photo of the kids next door having their afternoon bath in the river. My fave photo.