Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z2eKReRkgb7NSAXj8
I had a few days to chill and hang out in Singapore before continuing on to Sumatra. I stayed with my cousin Vishnu and his wife Ruchi – he’s a journalist for the Economist and she works for JPAL, which was started in MIT about 20 years ago. They both were actually super helpful in crafting my resume, especially in adjusting my format to have a “statement” paragraph at the top given my more unorthodox “career path”, if you will, so I certainly owe them a ton for me getting into Columbia and Hertie. I am actually still waiting on hearing back from Lee Kuan Yew, a policy school in Singapore. One good idea they mentioned was that even if Columbia’s aid was not that great, that I could potentially study abroad in my 2nd year (in a program like LKY) and pay lower tuition costs that year since you would pay the costs of the program you study abroad in.
Besides getting my laundry done (for free! instead of paying the outrageous 10 USD prices that somehow every hostel in the world charges regardless of location) and getting a haircut, the other major accomplishment of my 4+ days here was figuring out my post-Indonesia plans. I’ll be flying from Bali to Tokyo on Feb 2, and am planning on basically close to a month in Japan, though I’ll need to figure out specifics at some point in Jan before I actually fly into Japan, including exit flights. Singapore was great though – excellent, excellent food, and just a fun city to walk around and hang out in. Honestly, after NYC and London it might be the most global city I have ever been in. While 3/4 of the city is ethnically Chinese and that is the overwhelming character of the city, it truly does feel more like a global spot that is heavily Chinese rather than a Chinese city. I was talking to a local who was saying for her that it was a negative because there is no “national character” so to speak, but for me as a visitor I love it. And as someone who looooved my brief <2 week trip to southeastern China when I first started traveling, coming back to Singapore to eat all the random delicious Chinese street food was an awesome way to sort of relive that experience. But beyond that, you have great Malay and south Indian street food, and there are uniquely Singaporean dishes that are a mix of all of these ethnic influences that exist here.
Singapore has a wonderful street food culture, and I actually even waited one hour in line for a Michelin star street food stall – Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle. It was only 6 USD and absolutely delicious. But that said, I have definitely had better street food in places like Delhi, Amritsar, and Kuala Lumpur – to say nothing of the Pancha Kattu dosa I had in Hyderabad, which has only grown on me the more time has passed. Still amazing and glad I went. Speaking of Kuala Lumpur, one big similarity is the prevalence of the (in my opinion) delicious fruit of Durian. It’s quite pungent, a formidable scent that stings the nostrils, and it is actually *illegal* to eat it on (the wonderful) public transport because of the divisive smell that it gives off. The public transport here is great and cheap, and I think that is largely because of the way Singapore regulates car ownership…you need to apply for a predetermined number of new car permits every year that give you the right to purchase a car, and these permits can run over 100k USD. This keeps the traffic smooth, so busses are actually on time and punctual, to say nothing of the well connected metro system.
We spent one evening at my uncle and aunt’s spot for dinner – I actually spent a few days with them when I first visited Singapore back in December 2019. Before this, I had visited a museum on the history of Indians in Singapore. Pretty cool and informative museum – most Indians in Singapore are from Tamil Nadu, so Tamil is one of four official languages of Singapore (along with English, Mandarin, and Malay). And while Singapore is on the Malay peninsula, the reason there is a sizeable Indian population here (and a huuuuuge Chinese population) was because the British imported all of these laborers to work in the colony. It’s actually a similar reason as to why some big Malaysian cities like KL also have large Chinese and Tamil immigrant populations. Singapore is in many ways like a more expensive and sanitized Kuala Lumpur, with just as cheap street food and a better public transport system (though KL is pretty good!).
I spent all of my Saturday there hanging out with some people I had met while traveling and their friends. Went to the downtown area which was nice as always, and you get a cool sense of the architectural history of the city there, from the old colonial bungalows to modern skyscrapers. Eventually worked my way over to a hip area called East Coast road, where there were tons of cheap (by Singapore standards) bars and restaurants to hang out in, all with nice outdoor areas. Super fun day/night to be honest, though my lack of sleep that night made the following day’s Avatar movie screening even worse than it normally would have been. Shockingly mediocre movie that was a literal remake of the first one but set in water instead of the jungle, though it was very pretty to look at. All style and no substance.
So after Singapore, I flew over to Medan, the largest city on the island of Sumatra, via KL. Spent an night in Medan before getting a ~8 hour sharetaxi ride to the town (this is an incredibly generous word) of Ketambe, where I would then embark on a 4 day jungle trek to see wild orangutans. I am a wildlife elitist, so preferred this to going near Medan to the tourist town of Bukit Lawang where you can see rehabbed orangutans quite easily. Obviously the rehab center is great and deserves all the tourist money they can get, but I would much rather see wild animals live and with no human interference.
So the trek itself. Four days, three nights. A solo Italian backpacker also joined me for this. Honestly, incredible incredible trip, definitely better than what I was expecting going into it. I can’t help myself here so I’ll kind of compare this to all of my previous jungle experiences first.
Orangutans were, to me, closest to the chimpanzees I saw in Kalindu Forest in Uganda. They are annoyingly high up in the trees and move around a bunch (though rangas are thankfully slower than chimps). So it’s tough to get a clear view and to get good photos (though I did grab a couple of money shots I am very proud of) with all the foilage in the way. On the flip side, this difficulty makes the actual sightings more rewarding. One other difference…chimps were in way larger groups whereas rangas were basically isolated creatures. But while the chimp trek was only a few hours and all flat and easy walking, this trek on the other hand…we were going up and down 1000 meters every day in a lush, unforgiving mountainous jungle where our guide was whacking clear a path a good chunk the time, and we were struggling to maintain footing in the mud while trudging up and down hill. I think my gorilla trek in Uganda was a bit wilder because there it was literally *100%* bushwhacking a path while here it was maybe 75% trudging and 25% bushwhacking. But obviously gorillas were way easier to see (they don’t run away, they are eye level and honestly to be fair they are more impressive). And both were super muddy and tough to maintain traction. And the big difference was that the gorilla trek was only half a day while this was 4 days. I can confidently say that I have never smelled more raw in my life – I was oozing buckets of sweat, and every single day my pants and shirt were so saturated with sweat where it could no longer absorb any more, and I was just dripping puddles left and right. Between this obscene amount of sweat and stench, constantly picking off bloodsucking leeches, dealing with various bug bites and scratches, avoiding toxic plants from scraping us where we had open wounds, and slipping and sliding in the mountainous muddy paths, this was an absolutely wonderful experience. We saw over 20 rangas in 4 days, and 3-4 of them were super close up where I got some good (and a handful of *great*) pics. Just such an amazing time. We got super lucky with the weather – sunny skies during the day and rain at night to keep the mornings cool, but this just made the walking paths even muddier.
This rugged experience was night and day from my bougie Amazon stay in Peru. The Amazon in Peru was certainly louder – the bird life was infinitely more vibrant – but Sumatra was much more mountainous. I still would place my El Mirador trek in Guatemala as my top jungle experience – we had some great wildlife sightings there as well, but the ruins were what took the cake, I just LOVE abandoned jungle ruins. And the roar of the howler monkeys at night was an atmospheric experience that cannot be topped. That was a weeklong walk, but nowhere near as wild as Sumatra though. Similarly, the jungle temple vibe of Cambodia is unmatched, but physical exertion wise that is night and day to Sumatra. And even the reclaimed jungles of Chernobyl are probably a bit “wilder”, but that was also a very easy walk physically and obviously a totally different vibe with all the apocalypse stuff (speaking of which, the new HBO show The Last of Us looks amazing, hopefully it’s halfway as good as the games are). The other jungle experience I had was my tiger safari in Karnataka in India, but obviously a driving safari is very different than a jungle trek where you’re sleeping with all the creepy crawlers and wildlife.
At one point, we were running up and down this super muddy slope to get a good view of an alpha male ranga, and I slipped and had to grab a hold of a vine to prevent myself from falling god knows how far…got a pretty nasty bruise and scrape on my wrist, but I managed to snap a GREAT picture afterwards so I think it was worth it. Another highlight was our campsite for the 2nd and 3rd nights…a few minutes away was this natural hot spring which was just beyond picture perfect. Like straight out of a movie or video game…steam rising from the pools, small waterfalls as the river went down a rocky path, vines and jungle in the background, monkeys just hanging around near the water. Honestly it was one of those travel moments where I could just lay in the hot water, shut my eyes, and take the whole thing in for like 30 minutes at a time. Weirdly this might have been the actual highlight even over the wildlife for me.
After this sweaty, grimy, amazing trek, had another night in Ketambe where I had what was perhaps the best cold water shower of my life (the hot springs could only clean me so much without soap and shampoo), before I embarked on another 10 hour drive back to Medan so I could catch my flight to Yogyakarta (pronounced johg-jakarta) on the island of Java. Both ways, the drive had some pretty nice scenery…again, reminded me a ton of Uganda with the vast rolling green hills/small mountains. One disarming thing to see on this drive (I didn’t notice it as much on the drive into Ketambe but I was also napping more for that one) was how many little kids – like <12 – were riding scooters on their own, and without helmets.
Sumatra overall was excellent. The food was the cherry on top – shockingly good, and far better than what I remember the food in Bali to be like. Heavy Indian influence with the food in Sumatra – coconut based curries similar to Kerala food from south India, a few different rice pancake dishes that were similar to some south Indian breakfast dishes. And tons of delicious steamed food that was wrapped in banana leaves, much like some of the best street food I had in Cambodia. And also this really good vermicelli noodle dish that was basically like one of my favorite south Indian breakfasts, except way spicer and with meat. In general, the spice levels here were excellent. This is not to mention more well known dishes like Nasi Goreng, which is basically an incredible chicken and rice dish. And like Malaysia and Singapore, durians are huge here as well – one great thing I had was a durian and avocado mixed juice, which was shockingly amazing.
So my plan is to spend roughly a week or so in Central Java, mostly in Yogyakarta and maybe in the city of Sukarta as well. Primarily to see some old (1000+ year old) Buddhist and Hindu temple ruins, as well as some other stuff too. Then I want to do some scuba diving in Komodo for manta rays, plus obviously see the Komodo Dragons, before hopping from Komodo to Bali (they are fairly close to each other) to catch my flight to Japan on Feb 2.