Malang to Medan

The start was early, four am, but with a delicious breakfast hamper prepared in the car it was not too bad to drive through the early dawn from Malang to Surabaya past the view, often obscured by trucks and buildings of Mount Merapi. At the airport I discovered I had made an error of imagination and that the flight was three and a half hours..I thought that it would be an hour and had not realized, once again, quite how large Indonesia is..it is so long..You can fly to most capital cities in Europe , one to the other in about an hour, Barcelona to London, Paris to Rome so I think I had just neglected to consider the distance. North Sumatra is at the Northern end of the of the northest island with only Aceh further north. Medan is the capital of North Sumatra and because we were picked up and taken from it rapidly it did not have a chance to make an impression,or not a very good one. It seemed industrial and I didn't see much to describe as pretty in terms of architecture. Besides I was already being overwhelmed by the amount of palm oil trucks on the road and could sense in myself a sort of dread of what lay ahead both in terms of forest destruction and my own ability to manage the planned four day three night trek in the Gunung Leser National Park heading out of Bukit Lawang. The trip had originally been for a number of people but slowly others had declined or had to meet other commitments, we were down to two of us from Bali and a Canadian intern guide, our real guide and the crew. By the time we arrived at Bukit Lawang we discovered the Canadian intern was off the trek on account of the pitfalls of being a western girl in Bukit Lawang - more on them later. So then it was just us, and I was the only female, my Muay Thai training was meant to be in preparation for this, as also was the personal training I had undertaken for two months prior to departing..I felt fit enough but the vine decline challenge that had been described was haunting me. Our arrival in the soft rain of the afternoon introduced us to our guide and our first night stop. "Sams" is a lovely guesthouse with big rooms and well designed. After meeting Dharma, our guide, sharing some food and conversation about the following day I was much more relaxed, the laid back vibe of Bukit Lawang and the comforting rush of the river contributed as did the sounds of the jungle on the opposite bank. My fear of isolation, or distance that sometimes, in combination with my allergy issue, panics me more that possible a allergic reaction failed to surface. I was with people I trusted and that was what mattered, I was here to do something I had dreamed of and planned, and even trained for. I could surrender my fears and concerns, I was about to see some of the most beautiful remnants of nature and that sense of reaching a first part of my goal was exciting. The rain cascaded through the night and Malang's early morning start contributed to a very very good nights sleep.