Sumatra; He Eddy, that ape is stealing our lunch.

From civilised Singapore we went back to Sumatra, Medan, to spend our last 6 days in Indonesia. We arrived in Medan, which is not a very exciting city, but as Sumatra is famous for coffee and cigars, this was our goal. We found the coffee, not the cigars. At the famous Café Macehat, we took the avocado coffee. Quite an experience as this is avocado juice with chocolate icecream in it and topped with strong coffee. It is not just coffee, it is a complete meal. After that we decided to walk back to our hotel with the help of our GPS. Not a great idea as not only the side walks are missing, but complete streets. Nevertheless we found our way through the smoke of burning fires at the side of the road. Another mystery solved, Medan is relatively clean because everybody burns the trash on the street. Accompagnied by the shouts " Hello Tourist" we navigated our way back through the smoke screens. Now after Uber in Singapore, it was time to go with Grab, the Asian variant. And yes, it worked perfectly and a private taxi brought us in 3 hours from Medan to the Ecolodge in Bukit Lawang for less than 20 euros. We arrived in a massive Asian afternoon cloud burst, and it took only 2 seconds to be completely soaked. Out of respect of our backpacks we waited the shower to end and after 10 minutes we crossed the slippery and waddling suspension bridge and we arrived at the ecolodge to have a coffee overlooking the river. Next day we decided to make a day tour with Eddy the guide and an English guy Garreth completed our party. What to say about the jungle; from the outside it looks beautiful and attractive, once you are in it is hot and sweaty. So we were climbing and descending and climbing and... over muddy paths and it was slippery, very very slippery. So after a few hours we were exhausted, but we got our rewards. We saw a mother orangutan with child moving through the tree tops just above us. Garreth also met quite a few leeches which stained his trousers completely with blood. We were happy to have a break with lunch. Eddy unpacked the nasi goreng which was complete with egg and tempe. And we had pineapple for a desert, although that was the plan. However a macaca nemestrina or southern pig-tailed macaque or in normal language a big male ape decided to lay a claim to what he thought was his rightful share, meaning; everything left including the remaining nasi in Eddies backpack. As his teeth were a big as my thumb, we couldn't agree more. Another great thing to see was a peacock which was so kind to loose a feather. A beautiful feather, so the rest of our journey we are now walking around with a 1 meter long plastic tube with inside a .....feather. Just before we reached the river we also saw the Thomas Leaf Monkeys, a kind of funny looking monkeys with a chanterelle ( hanekam). The way back was easy; our stuff was packed in plastic and we floated down the river rapids in enormous tubes. Exciting! As we had enough jungle we used the last day for a walk along the river upwards and of course....to tube back to the village. Today we have left Indonesia and are now sitting in the Bangkok airport waiting for our flight to Chiang Rai. Tomorrow we will find some transport into Laos where the Gibbon experience is waiting for us.