Organge Haired Cousins and a Big Lake

After we bought our visa on arrival for $25 which you will have to do once you get to Medan we grabbed a taxi to a "bus station" which was a bunch of super old mini buses on the side of the road.  After a squished two hours with no AC and 20 of our closest friends we arrived in a village on the side of a river.  From there we had to hike along a path from guest house to guest house looking for accommodation.  We did find something that was pretty pimp but no AC or hot water to be found.
The next morning we woke up to monkeys jumping on our roof.  We headed out on our jungle trek walking up hill in the rain forest till we spotted some orange haired orangutans we stopped and watched for a while and then moved on and found a mother hanging out with her baby which we stayed and watched for a while as the baby tucked and rolled down the hill and the mother built her nest.  After the veiwing we made a long trek back stopping for a lunch along the river where we ate banana leaf wrapped (that was the tupperware of Sumatra) rice, beans and veggies with a delightful coconut sauce.

Lake Toba

Grind Lindsey Grind

The next day we took a "toursit" bus from Bukit Lawang through Medan to the town of Parapat where we got the ferry to an island in the middle of Lake Toba where we stayed in the town of Tuk Tuk.  Lake Toba is a volcanic lake with an island the size of Singapore in it we stayed on the island in the town of Tuk Tuk.  The next day we walked all through  Tuk Tuk looking at the sights of chickens crossing the road, little children calling out "hello", dodging motor bikes and the unbelieveable lake views.  Today (saturday) we took at three hour Indonesian cooking class in Hedi's kitchen.  She was a 50 something woman who showed us the art of cooking over kerosne stoves.  We made a vegetable, chicken and fish dish (the fish was whole with the head on!!!).  It was pretty amazing to cut up the vegetables from her garden (that a ton of chickens were roaming in) and wrap up the fish in banana leaves to steam.  Tonight we are staying here in Tuk Tuk and tomorrow we head out to the Jakarta by plane to explore the island of Java.