Teamed up with a lovely young girl called Paloma, (dove), from Chile who wanted to try the ATVs, so any excuse for a laugh, off we went to Parang Tritis beach for an ATV ride..
. Had a great time, though this time I got the manual geared one and trying to change gear at high speed on soft sand is not as easy as it looks... I much preferred the automatic ones... Found a nice hotel with a sea view for $2/night and decided to return there to stay for a few days...Booked out of the expensive, (5quid), hotel and set off by public bus to visit the 
Hindu style temple at Prambanan. 
a 15p, 25km bus ride that took an hour and involved 3 changes, great bus infrastructure in Java, finally got me there wringing wet with sweat to view the Magnificent structures. Gobsmacked. The size and scale and detail, bearing in mind that 30% of the structures collapsed in the big earthquake here and were also damaged when the Local volcano erupted. After walking so far, I was knackered so I decided to risk my life on one of the 3 wheel motorcycle taxis that run to & from the bus 
station. Well, paying 1quid to sit in the front of one of those with the driver wobbling through fast traffic at 50kph was as scarey as any high-tech amusement ride . The same buses got me back to the hotel area then a sedate half hour bus got me to Parang Trittis Beach, a beautifull cove surrounded by rice paddy fields and jungle covered mountains with ATV rides and beach cafes at on end and a quiet secluded waterfall at the other. Booked into the hotel Anuman for 4 nights @ 2quid/night, top floor corner room was a bit unfinished but with sea views on one side, jungle/mountain views on the other side, friendly staff, good cheap food and a nice through breeze it was certainly 4 star as far as I was concerned. LOL. 4 days of walking on the beach, (got sunburned), LOL, and strolling through the paddy fields was nice and relaxing, :-).
SO! Time to move on,,,,
Flew -> Jakarta -> Singapore and after a few quiet but, (relatively), expensive days in Singapore where I was re-united with my heavy rucksack, now 15kg and falling,, LOL, flew with Jetstar to Sumatra, Indonesia. Landed at Medan airport and took shares taxi into the city.
Medan is a bit of a ***** & dusty city with holes in the pavements, open sewers and no real center to speak of. Checked in at the 'Blue Angel' guest house which is a nice cheap place next to the Grand Mosque...::::
The 'Imam Karaoke' singer at the Grand Mosque, has a nice voice, But not at 5 o'clock in the morning, LOL, we wandered around the city but couldn't find anything like a shopping area so gave upm and returned to the Hotel.
10 am next morning came the Air-Con shared Taxi for the 80k (IDR) to Parapat. I could have taken the hot, crowded, dusty, slow 6hr bus for 22k but the 4quid difference for 4hrs of AC travel was well worth the expense and as the passengers included two stunning young hookers on their way home from a 'working' weekend in Medan and the light, teasing conversation was great fun. Shame they got off before my stop, LOL Once the other passengers had gotten off, the driver pulled over and bought a bottle of local 'hooch' (arak?), and proceeded to guzzel it as we drove the last 30km to Parapat. {-(.
Arriving at Parapat for the little ferry across Lake Toba to Samosir Island, the largest island within an island,
and the fifth largest lake island in the world,
I settled in at Parna's guest house, about a 1/2 km out of Tuk Tuk village with nice room with hot shower for 50k/night,(3quid), and a view across the lake. Tuk Tuk is certainly a Tourist Trap, but a honey coated one, :-) .
In the evening restaurant I met up with a nice Polish/Canadian woman called Naf and the following morning we rented a scooter, 5quid/day, and rode 50km around the North side of the island to visit the Hot Springs. Some Beautifull scenery en route, See: Facebook Photos 
Medan is a bit of a ***** & dusty city with holes in the pavements, open sewers and no real center to speak of. Checked in at the 'Blue Angel' guest house which is a nice cheap place next to the Grand Mosque...::::
The 'Imam Karaoke' singer at the Grand Mosque, has a nice voice, But not at 5 o'clock in the morning, LOL, we wandered around the city but couldn't find anything like a shopping area so gave upm and returned to the Hotel.
10 am next morning came the Air-Con shared Taxi for the 80k (IDR) to Parapat. I could have taken the hot, crowded, dusty, slow 6hr bus for 22k but the 4quid difference for 4hrs of AC travel was well worth the expense and as the passengers included two stunning young hookers on their way home from a 'working' weekend in Medan and the light, teasing conversation was great fun. Shame they got off before my stop, LOL Once the other passengers had gotten off, the driver pulled over and bought a bottle of local 'hooch' (arak?), and proceeded to guzzel it as we drove the last 30km to Parapat. {-(.
Arriving at Parapat for the little ferry across Lake Toba to Samosir Island, the largest island within an island,and the fifth largest lake island in the world,
I settled in at Parna's guest house, about a 1/2 km out of Tuk Tuk village with nice room with hot shower for 50k/night,(3quid), and a view across the lake. Tuk Tuk is certainly a Tourist Trap, but a honey coated one, :-) . 
Saturday saw us on the ferry back to Parapat to spend the day at the local weekly market there checking out a wide variety of unrecognizable fruit and veg plus herbs & spices & batik & vibrant colours & local music. Bought Half a Pound of Baccy for 80pence....... 70p ferry back to island them swimming in the warmish lake.,,,, :-)
Sunday, teamed up with a French woman called Simone and we took the local bud/van to Tomak, the next town and visited the Kings Tombs with lots of iconic stone carvings standing around like a Mini Easter Island..... Ate some great food in a local restaurant then headed back to
Tuk Tuk village.
Sunday, teamed up with a French woman called Simone and we took the local bud/van to Tomak, the next town and visited the Kings Tombs with lots of iconic stone carvings standing around like a Mini Easter Island..... Ate some great food in a local restaurant then headed back to
Catchup time...
Off we go, 4 people in a leaky little fishing boat, off to see the 'Hidden Waterfalls', (I do seem to allow myself to get talked into some strange things), so a slow 2hr chug-chug sailing does pass some beautiful scenery and finally gets us to the waterfall which is quite nice with some good swimming and a nice chicken & rice packed lunch. BUT, trouble in Paradise arrived in the form of a tropical rainstorm. The 2hr return journey was a bit of a pain in chilly rain taking turns to bail-out the slowly filling boat... LOL. We got back safely enough but the next day I was down with the beginnings of a serious cold. Had a great time in Tuk Tuk, it really is a beautiful place to chill out.. Friday 28th was moving day, lots of 'Goodbyes' & 'Come back sometime',(which I probably will), then 7 hour drive, (by Toyota 7 seater Taxi), to Bukit Lawang, a small village on the edge of the Rain Forrest with a nice river and trekking to see Orangutans....
The first trek came as we arrived and found that the Guest House was on the other side of the river accessed by a narrow looking 'Monkey Bridge',
Scarey on 
first crossing, especially whilst sick/dizzy/wobbley, LOL, but easier after crossing a few times.. Settled into Hotel Sarawya and retired to bed with hot sweats/Chills ect for 3 Days.... Was Fairly rough...Tues 02/05, Finally recovered enough to explore around and check out the local 'green vegetation', cheap and medium quality, about the same as in Tuk-Tuk, (20quid/100gm). Most Guest Houses have singsong evenings as many people play a guitar/drums and the Indonesian People love to sing, especially the Traditional Batak Harmony songs..
.Walked out to the Bat-Caves, a 20 min walk through palms & semi-jungle arrives at a sieries of 3 largeish caves connected by a dark, medium difficult walk/climb/crawl with lots of Bats whizzing around. Was great!!! But I struggled a little as am still short of breath yet from the Flu..... So spent a Great 10 days chilling out on the edge of the Jungle and my final bill for the 10 days hotel+food, was 60 quid......
09/May, Back to hot & dusty city of Medanto fly to Penang in Malaysia on the 10 May..........
Well, my holiday in Paradise over for now & back on the road again, heading North to the Buddhist lands of East Asia, back to Temple countries and to try to get back into my Meditation Practice.
