2. 2014

Sumatra

The beginnings of another adventure in Southeast Asia.
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Our trip started with 33 hours of travel to reach Bangkok. Bangkok is a bustling metropolis and not exactly the goal we're shooting for, so we took the day to arrange travel to Sumatra tomorrow, and recovered a bit from the jet lag in our hostel.
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Our trip started with 33 hours of travel to reach Bangkok. Bangkok is a bustling metropolis and not exactly the goal we're shooting for, so we took the day to arrange travel to Sumatra tomorrow, and recovered a bit from the jet lag in our hostel.

Aurora Hablett2014ThailandBangkok

  • Our trip started with 33 hours of travel to reach Bangkok. Bangkok is a bustling metropolis and not exactly the goal we're shooting for, so we took the day to arrange travel to Sumatra tomorrow, and recovered a bit from the jet lag in our hostel.
  • From Bangkok we moved on to Indonesia, landing in a sprawling and dirty city called Medan. Our small backpackers inn happened to be right down the street from one of the area's mosques, which offered a tour that was very educational to our inexperienced selves.
  • Aurora stands in the entry to the mosque, prior to our tour of the interior.
  • Behind a glass case inside the mosque was a very old Quran, a gift to a previous Sultan a long time ago.
  • The interior architecture of this mosque was very cool, even though the slightly run-down bits and pieces and the broken windows indicated that the place is not super well taken-care-of.
  • Marble columns hold up the arched dome of the mosque.
  • Shadows play across the floor around the edges of the mosque.
  • This particular mosque is characterized by its dark black domes, rising high over the city streets of Medan.
  • Behind the mosque lies a graveyard, where local royal families are buried in traditional Islamic fashion on their sides, facing Mecca.
  • A small shrub stands shriveled and dry atop a grave in the graveyard.
  • The gopro lends its wide angle abilities to help capture a shot of the typical Asian hostel room, with Tracy and I killing time before bed.
  • After a day in Medan recovering from travel, we moved inland to the village of Bukit Lawang, where we embarked on a two-day jungle trek with the hope of seeing Ortangutans. Our trek started out walking uphill from the village through a rubber tree plantation surrounding the nature preserve.
  • Rubber trees offer their latex to harvesters who stop by every morning at a certain hour to collect the day's supply and score one more line on the tree for the next morning.
  • A large fern unfurls a new leaf near our jungle trail.
  • A very uninterested Macaque sits idly by the side of the trail, allowing tourists to come within touching distance for photos.
  • A very uninterested Macaque sits idly by the side of the trail, allowing tourists to come within touching distance for photos.
  • A very uninterested Macaque sits idly by the side of the trail, allowing tourists to come within touching distance for photos.
  • Aurora gets as close as she ever has to the wildlife in the jungle. Minutes before, she had never seen a monkey in her life.
  • A mother orangutan sits on a branch with her young child cuddling close.
  • Orangutans as a species have been nearly eliminated from the wild by massive deforestation of this part of the world. We're told that they only exist in the wild on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and in numbers decreasing every year.
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