Aceh, scuba diving, and orangutans

I arrived back in Jambi on an egregiously delayed flight last night after a week and a half of exploring some of the northern wonders of Sumatra.  After a few days of hanging out with Claire in Jambi and showing her around we flew up to Aceh where we met up with Katie, a former volunteer in Indonesia and good friend.  We spent a day seeing tsunami memorial sites, the mosque famous for being the only building left standing in the city center after the tsunami, the memorial museum ridiculed for its massive budget while so many people still do not have homes, and tasting the infamous Acehnese coffee that I grudgingly had to admit it was even better than Jambi coffee.

Early the next morning we caught a boat to Pulau Weh, an island off the northern tip of Aceh famous for its diving.  After traipsing around the island a bit we settled on a bungalow thats position on stilts right above the tropical ocean and hammock furnishings were hard to beat.  The next five indulgent days were spent relaxing, reading, snorkeling in the clear waters ten feet away and scuba diving until we all developed head colds and didn’t want to risk danger of deep water pressure.  I have to say that the diving was a bit better at Pulau Bunaken where Katie and I visited last September but the relaxed, oceanside living was incredible.

On Friday, Katie headed back to Cambodia and Claire left for Thailand so I flew to Medan and spent a couple nights in Bukit Lawang, a small town in the hills and rainforest when an orangutan sanctuary has been run for years.  On the first morning I paid to enter the park and went to the feeding platform where we saw two adult orangutans and baby swing down from the canopy for a supplementary meal of milk and bananas.  After years of being fascinated by orangutans at the zoo it was truly an incredible experience to see them up close in the wild.  After the hour viewing was up I got some lunch, floated around in the river, and hiked a bit.  Later in the day my room on the side of a hill looking down at the river and playful monkeys made a good place to read while the rain down poured. 

The next morning I caught the public minibus back to Medan and a plane destined for Jambi.  Content with a week and a half of exploring and excited for the endless list of travel destinations that Indonesia holds, I have to say that I think I may live on the coolest island in the world.