Bukit Baby

In an attempt to see "everything" before A returns to the US, we've spent the past few weekends traveling. Two weekends ago, we took a little drive to the jungle to see the famous orangutans of Bukit Lawang. Orangutan is actually an Indonesian word meaning "man of the jungle". Anyway, we had planned to take it easy by going on a little hike and watching the orangutans from a feeding platform. Our plans changed a bit. We decided to make the most of our time by hiring a guide to take us on a full day trek. Besides, schlepping through the jungle has kind of become our thing, right?

Bukit Lawang was at one time a rehab center for orangutans who had been illegally captured and traded. That operation has supposedly been shut down, but they still do feedings twice daily for the semi-wild orangutans who had been rehabilitated and released back into the jungle. Unfortunately, tourism has created a bit of a problem. Tour groups want to see the orangutans as closely as possible, and many guides are too happy to satiate that desire by feeding them. The wild orangutans then become dependent on people for food, and...you see the problem. Luckily, we had a great guide who cared about the impact of tourism on the orangutans and the jungle, but we did see another guide handing out bannanas for people to tempt orangutans out of trees.

We ended up seeing several orangutans, gibbons, and monkeys. We also got to try some interesting herbs, plants, and fruits along the way. There is a crazy little pod called "magic fruit". When you bite into the pod, it's extremely bitter, but it turns amazingly sweet when drinking water after chewing.

The trek was pretty difficult. We went off the main path and through the jungle. We were slipping and sliding through mud the whole time. It kind of reminded us of Laos, without the leeches. At the end of the trek we were treated to an amazing river ride back to town. The guides tied together a few inner tubes, and we rode the rapids. It was a lot of fun!

Formatting pictures around text takes forever on this site, so I'll describe them here. The first two pics are of a semi-wild orangutan we saw on the trek. We saw some wild ones too, but they're hard to photograph. The next photo is of A with our guide. In the fourth photo, Kar is deciding if we do the hard trek, or the easy one. The pic of the hammock was taken from the balcony of our room. It was beautiful. We were right across from the jungle on the river. Finally, A wonders if he could pass for an orangutan.

Penang Bang

We took a great little trip to Penang, Malaysia over the 4th of July weekend. While we enjoyed walking around town taking in the beautiful old colonial architecture, the true star of the show was the food. Penang has huge ethnic Chinese and Indian populations, and the food of both of those countries is well represented. Some of the highlights included the best tandoori chicken and dim sum we have ever had. We're getting hungry just thinking about it!

These are some photos of just a few of the meals we enjoyed. The pics of the plated food are from a Chinese restaurant we went to in the main area of Chinatown. We had twice fried pork and stingray in a clear broth with tomatoes, hot peppers, and fresh herbs. Both were fantastic.

The picture of the cafe is the dim sum restaurant. A picked out our dumplings and buns at the front of this place. Not really knowing what was going on made for a crazy and fun experience.



We spent much of the time seeking out little delicacies, but we had plenty of time for exploring as well. We went on walks of Chinatown and the colonial district, as well as a big hike down Penang Hill to the botanical gardens. We were so sore the day after our hike that we had trouble walking. We figured going downhill would be easy!

These are a few photos from some of our adventures. A took advantage of a hat and gun laying around at Fort Cornwallis. K looks like she's growing horns at a temple near Penang Hill. And the two of us take a little break on a bench in old Chinatown.








A was excited by the botanical gardens, because monkeys were running around everywhere.


Just to give you all an idea of where we were, Penang is an island off peninsular Malaysia. It's very close to where we live in Indonesia. We were staying in an area called Georgetown. Unlike most of Indonesia and Malaysia, which fell under Dutch rule, Penang was colonized by the British. The British influence is still palpaple. While much of the area we stayed in has given way to monster hotels and backpacker bars, we were able to stay at some beautiful old guesthouses that have been converted from colonial era mansions. Our final night in Georgetown was spent at Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. It was built by a wealthy Chinese businessman dubbed the "Rockefeller of the east". It had fallen into squalid conditions not 15 years ago, but has now been restored to much of it's former beauty. Some truly amazing feng shui elements have been kept in place. Below are some photos of the outside areas. It was a real treat.

Desynchronosis

In case you're wondering about the title, it's the medical term for jet-lag. We both have a bad case of it...real bad. Instead of focusing on the endless trip back to Indonesia though, we'll share some pics of our amazing, whirlwind trip back to the U.S. for K's and L's wedding. Unfortunately, we discovered that we don't have any pics of the bride and groom on their wedding day :( Ahh, we're sure the photographer they hired will have plenty of great ones. Here's a few from the Lake George wedding extravaganza. It was a blast.




































































Most of these photos were from the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately, KSR did not wear a raccoon skin hat to the wedding itself.



One funny moment to note from our trip back was the spray of disinfectant we got when we returned to Indonesian soil. We had to walk through a machine that looked like a metal detector, but instead of making loud noises, it sprayed us with some sort of mist. We were told we were being disinfected. We guess this is Indonesia's solution to stopping the spread of H1N1. Hmm.

We are off to Penang, Malaysia this weekend for a little July 4th holiday. The food is supposed to be amazing. We'll make sure to give a full report of the delicacies!