What a difference a few hours makes...

Flew into Medan, with its flashy new airport, only opened two months ago, (obviously without my suitcase) and it appears that they have forgotten to join the airport to town with anything resembling a road! Medan, the capital of Sumatra and a city of 2million is everything you would expect from a frenetic Asian city but to be honest as there was not really much of cultural interest I was very happy to leave this morning.

4 hours driving through palm oil and rubber plantations and we have arrived in Bukit Lawang, a village north west of Medan. Four of us hired a guide to take us to The Bat Cave. A trek through the jungle, climbing up rocks, down rocks and across gullies and we entered the cave. Thankfully they were small bats and fairly sparse, which at least meant there was limited bat poo!

Our adventurous spirit was rewarded with  two different troupes of monkeys (macaque and Thomas Leaf Monkeys) having a few Tarzan moments. Must be such fun to swing from tree to tree!

Also passed a few building covered in murals and surrounded by gardens full of colourful objects, including huge clogs! Turns out to be the local orphanage. There was a massive flash flood in 2003 and a lot of the villagers died.

I am typing this at the rivers edge, and have just met Eddy (about 8) who was following his Dad up the river. His Dad was trying to catch fish, but Eddy wanted to know who I was and what I was doing!