Of course the roads pretty bad, but there was another thing every 15Km or so there was a roadblock sometimes it was just villager collecting, sometimes new mosque, but often it was an official Police roadblock, but usually there were no police. They had apparently retired to the café etc and left small boys to collect the 10c from each bus and lift the gate. People told me police salaries are pretty low, but get into the army or police you have to pay a big bribe cos of the benefits it brings.. Now that is pretty "banana republic", if the police can be bought no wonder Indonesia is broken and some things don't work properly. .

At Kutacane Of course I got off to have a look around and of course it was another typically unquaint town.

Sumatra is the only place where I always see school kids riding on top of the bus.

Ketambe

Met some of Indonesian volunteers on the bus who are employed in a big research project the other side of the river to monitor Orang Utans. One of them took me to a guesthouse, but my plan was to visit them all. The English speaking would be guide I met at the first place wanted to tag along, but I knew he would get sick of traipsing around. I followed the same plan as before to spread my money around stay at a different place to other people etc .But Sadat Wisata is head and shoulders above the other places, before the river moved it was right on the river, it's organised ..prices on the menu and trustworthy. (All the other places ask the price before you eat.) I stayed at the doctor's cabins cos of the view and closeness to Monkeys - sometimes they sat on my terrace and the bastards stole 4 socks. All places were 30,000/room. The American group of 6 stayed at Pacmus. (some people complained of overcharging and anger if you didn't go on their treks) Simon at SW, none at the dutch woman's Pondok, it's OK, I thought the family at the rafting place were kind, but no English and most locals are Muslims who smoke, drink and watch crazy novelas.

Tourists are just beginning to come back in. Locals told me it's safe cos the war ended and all the weapons were collected 6 months ago and all the guerrillas are now elected politicians. The UK Embassy still advises people it's not safe.

In the evening walking along the road out of the village, someone took me by motorbike the 1.5km to the Villa, this would be a great place to stay for groups as you are guaranteed from your room to see monkeys and maybe orang utans as the tours all spot them within 1km of there (not deep in the forest as I thought) . Not really secure or convenient for singles like me.

At the Villa a convoy of big politicians were celebrating an election victory. A year earlier they had mostly been guerrillas hiding in the forest, but actually seemed not so different to the corrupt Jakarta lot in it for the money. One talked of his 500 hectare palm oil plantation i.e. They are clearing the jungle for money . They kindly gave me a bottle of palm wine which is not so great bitter without much alcohol content.

Instead of rushing off with a guide I decided to work out the local situation. The tribes here are Kayo and Alas, both muslim with all signs of tradition obliterated.

- Wed - Jack the rafting guide was going to collect nuts, for the village industry of nutmeg, so I went to help him in the morning.

Would be guides around town getting coming up and asking me if I wanted to do jungle trekking. They weren't very good salesmen. When I asked what to see ? people said you can go on 2 day, 3 or 5 day hike, what do you want? I said where to ? Everyone said jungle and hotsprings and a probability of Orang Utan sightings for whatever trek . They wouldn't elaborate more as it semed they paranoid about giving information away .

A tourist I met said he'd been on a big hike to a hotspring and also a second time just a 10 minute walk. So either theres 2 hotsprings or 2 routes one of which is very easy. So I thought great I don't want to do a big hike to the jungle for 3 days with all the leeches and mosquitoes, and possibility of getting stuck in the rain, but a 10 minute walk yes. But all the local would guides be told me no hotsprings- big hike.

so I set off with an American to look for them. A would be guide said he would show us. As a guide he was pretty useless he got lost and couldn't find the trail, but refused to admit it , I'm no expert, but I can spot trails much better than he can, turns out he's from the city so that put me off guides even more. The only reason I wanted to was cos it's only supposed to a short walk so we gave up. We did however find a hidden village, one of the places people moved to in trouble times to hide from the guerrillas and the Indonesian army.

On the way back I went to the area that Simon walks and where he sees Orang Utans 60% of the time far from being difficult jungle it was a forest park with clear trails and picnic tables.

The first team to go in is the Americans with all their computerised satellite tracking system. They emerge from the jugle 24 hours later with 1 tiger.

OK now it's the turn of the British SAS and they slip silently into the jungle and emerge again 24 hours later also with 1 tiger.

OK now the Indonesia Police they barge into the jungle there's a lot of shouting and screaming and 45 minutes later they come out carrying 2 wriggling sacks. Look 2 tigers. The Judge can't believes this he orders the sacks opened. This reveals 2 monkeys, the judge laughs "these aren't tigers !"

The policeman shouts " speak", "no I'm not a monkey I'm a tiger grhh", "me too I'm a tiger", shouts the other bruised monkey

For some reason I'd got it into my head that the reason people did 3 day treks was cos the Orang Utans were far and that the Indonesian guides walk slowly and stop for cigarettes all the time. So if one walks at normal western pace one could do the same walk in maybe one long day. I couldn't face dawdling behind a guide, nor did I want to go overnight ; so I made up to go alone to the forest park trails so I could walk fast deep into the forest and get to the animals.

I now know was actually quite wrong to see the Orang Utans is not a big trek, actually walking slowly and smoking cigarettes is the best way to see the Orang Utans cos they are quite close to the road not deep in the forest. It's a game instead of taking a bus up the road and spending 1-2 hours walking 2Km around the woods, the guides turn it into a 2 day trek, walking 6 or 7Km total , campng, smoking dope. Most tourists are fooled ; they think they are on a deep jungle adventure trek miles from civilisation , they are really enjoying themselves and quite happy to pay the guide, but they don't realise most of the time they are within 1Km of the road. Even the hotspring 2 day trek I could do there bathe and be back in the village for lunch 3-4 hours
rough map of Ketambe area

I knew it would be better to have 2 people so asked J and Simon along. J's guesthouse owner was really unhappy - "you are not allowed to go to the "jungle" without a guide. What rubbish I knew Simon and been 20 times and seen the clear trails myself. By coincidence his son was taking a 2 day trek to the hotsprings that day. In fact by 8.30am I gave up waiting for people I wanted to get out before the follow you about guides got me. I hitched a motor bike to the top of the hill and strode into the woods. I now know I probably in my haste I probably went straight under the Orang Utans cos I expected them to be deep in the forest.

- we have this word in the English language "jungle" which stirs up images of big tall trees gowing closely together, vegetation so dense you have to hack through, snakes hanging off trees animals scurrying around. There are 3 other words, "woods", and forest, and rainforest. Clumps of trees next to the house in England with paths are boring, plain old woods. Forest is a large area full of trees maybe going on for many kilometres, but if you think about it if they have trails they are just different woods joined together. Rainforest is woods where it rains a lot. And in all my experience of Amazon, Africa Jungle is never packed with tall trees, anywhere humans can reach they cut down big trees and anyway in most places the soil is not so good to support many. The tall trees are often not as wide as the trees in English woods though certainly taller. And if there are trails there's no need to hack through..so jungle=woods.

Then take that word trek that's used for big things like trek up Everest. So trek in the jungle builds up a big exciting adventurous image, but what do we mean by "trek", we mean walk don’t we ? So Trek in the Jungle really means walk in the woods !

And that's what it was like walking those trails past broken picnic tables. I could here gibbons off somewhere, I saw glimpse pig tail macaques, I saw and heard occasional Hornbills fly over. But mostly it was like walking in the woods near to my parents house.

In that morning I followed every trail I could find turning back when the trail faded or when I got to the wide river.

When I got down to the river I found a camping spot near 35 minutes from the road across the river it was dammed maybe the hotsprings ? But it turned out to be the fish traps 10 minutes further was a beach camping spot. (actually I know to get to the hotsprings you cross the river and follow the trail for 40 minutes) trail. There was one strange thing a ball of white string fluff that walked. It was an animal See the string animal video
Walking back towards the road I could see, the river parts the guide had led us through yesterday, so I took a different way back to the road. That's when I ripped my trousers. I didn't see the leech, but I looked and my trousers were covered in blood and I couldn't stop bleeding. I walked further up the road and far from it being an empty wilderness of guerrilla territory it was cleared for farming with villages.

"I am homo man", this man came upto me and asked all the normal family questions "ah no wife, are you homo I am homo too blah blag" God Muslim sexually repressed areas "no I am not, but I'm not bothered if you are"

A guy (Duan) came past on a motorbike and offered me a lift. Where ah you going ..ah hotsprings. I can take you . We stopped for coffee.

Duan and the honeymooners
He knew he then took me 13Km up the road. This hotspring waterfall could be seen from the road 200m away ..no big jungle trek. Really Amazing.
- See the video

- hotsprings air panas 13Km by road

Then I took coconut from a tea stall and went by bus to 4Km the other side of Ketambe. The villages were basic, but people talkative took 10c orange drink , walked to where a rope bridge spanned the river where children swam. I played volleyball with the kids and hitched a motorbike back.

Back the would be guide told me I was in trouble for taking other foreigners to the forest. Ha ha ! well if I'd gone with him maybe we would have got lost again.

In an effort to help share money around different businesses I agreed to eat pumpkin soup at a place. "It's not spicey is it I said. No No. Well it was spicey it burnt my lips and burnt my bum on the way out.. Not pleasant .. And then when I asked the bill they wanted 6 times normal price. I paid up and went back to eat cereal in my room.

Many foreigners like spicey food, but I don't so I actually have a hard time finding food in Asia.

Restaurants often have bowls of things to choose from, but almost all of it eggs meat, vegetables etc, has chilli on it, the fish comes complete with tails and heads..(look why not cook the fillet and give the rest to the cat ?). Or sometimes there's anchovies ..yuck !
I prefered to order just rice and add my own tinned sardine

For me Asian food is awful I never like the flavours. I keep giving it a chance I keep trying new stuff, but so often the food is ruined by chilli or too much pepper. I don't understand why people take good ingredients and then ruin it : Rice has the flavour milled out of it ; only white rice is available, with people expected to eat it 3 times a day, except when they eat noodles. And even then you are often served instant noodles this is not food ! they have no nutritional value. Likewise only sweet white bread is available. But it is good that you can find fruits like Coconut, bananas and mangosteen, but these are more difficult to get than you might expect cos locals don't eat much fruit.

White rice might just about keep you alive, but I reverted to a version of normal mixed western diet. I ate my cereal with milk powder in the morning, pau (Chinese meat buns) at lunch, then Nasi Goreng China (Chinese fried rice) in the evening and fruit throughout the day when I could find it. Even then the fried rice was often not so good, cos it had prawns with the shells still on in it etc.

I also stuck to eating with a fork and spoon, wheras Indonesians use their fingers. I also refuse to accept to stick to their right hand only rule.. when handing over money etc. My left hand us just as clean or dirty as my left. Likewise I hate it when people insist on shaking hands, I don't know if their right hand has touched something dirty.

This time Simon was up for the forest park walk, he did know a couple of trails I had missed and we heard gibbons again, but they their noise makes them seem near when in fact they are far. No orang utan, but maybe they were high above. Down this time on a trail that comes down to the Mosque, but takes longer than the road.

Tried tubing in the river, but at Ketambe now in't a good spot as the river is difficult to get to and current is too strong.

A local guide tried to make friends with me by collecting coconut for the first time

cocoguide

I set off to explore 2 more areas 1. the area the other side of the river can be reached by taking a bus south to a rope bridge 3 Km down. Not interesting as nearby it's all burnt for farming. People told me you could walk to Ketambe, but no clear path.

2.Behind the Ketambe school there's supposed to be a waterfall I followed a couple of tracks very steep, good views, some monkeys, but not orang utan territory.

After exploring north and south I know The road runs parallel to the river on the east side all the west side of the river is OK, but all the way along it except for 2Km past Ketambe has been cleared I guess it spreads out from there. So apart from Ketambe, the road splits the National Park in 2 so Ketambe now forms the centre of a bow tie shape, as the National park extends east for another 5 days walk to Bukit Lawang.

Aceh is getting more expensive cos the tourists are mostly highly paid aid workers with cars.

• how to find a good guide ? some hotels will get you a good guide others will rip you off.
• Take your time. Spend the first day walking around or roadside hotsprings. I told guides I was waiting for my friend to arrive so they didn't pressure me to go tomorrow
• It would be great if the guides had a co-operative and shared the work

guides co-operative leaflet

Instead of going back the same way I had been thinking about travelling north to Blancajeren and to Zaragon a quaint laketown, and then nightbus to Medan, but apart from costing more I risked missing my exit date so I took an even more stressful than normal journey back to Medan. Cos there's less people travelling the bus dawdled doubling back looking for passengers.

The water in my room was mountain spring water so that morning I filled my water bottle, but the room was dark as they switch off the electricity off at dawn. Later as I gulped the water down I noticed in horror that the water was cloudy with worm like things living it ..ugh !