Day 17

It’s good to be back on the road again. Shaken all night long by aggressive tropical storms, we decided today was the day we'd hit the road in search of the rain forest. After our daily dose of pancakes and coffee, we bundled into a car with 2 other Swiss travellers for company. There are many miserable faces at the ferry port; it seems the boats have not been running efficiently for days. We are informed that we might be able to catch a boat at 4pm... It’s now midday...

Catching the boat at 3.30, we are then loaded onto an ojek and we speed off to the Polangi bus terminal, where we will take the night bus to Medan. I convince Sarah to eat from the street restaurant, serving a large selection of seriously spicy seafood curries, prompted to select which dish we wanted, Sarah played it safe with an obvious prawn dish, I reached out for a red slushy pile that a later found out to be tuna, all washed down with Sumatran coffee. With no sign of cutlery, we sanitised in preparation to partake in the hands on approach to food consumption, fortunately I spotted some spoons on the far side of the hall. We paid 23,000rp (less than £2) for 2 curries and a coffee.

Our coach is set to leave at 9pm. We fight off the other harassing bus companies as they try to sell us tickets. I purchase a bag of dried treats, which I later find out to be dried banana, lightly salted. We sit and chew the salty, fruity goodness. I'm trying to get more involved with the traditional street snacks, rather than snacking on branded biscuits all the time.

Side note: I brought flip-flops on Pulau Weh due to my shoes falling apart; I paid 12,000rp (less than £1)! What I saved in Indonesian Rupiah, I've since paid for in blisters.

Second Side note: Banda Aceh bus terminals are infested with blind beggars. They'll get right in your face, singing lines of the Quran at you. At one point I was worried one would fall on top of me as I sat there innocently eating my dried banana. They were tripping over one another as they hobbled up and down our stationary coach. Me and Sarah ended up holding our breaths as they walked past in hope they wouldn't realise we was there.

Dried Banana

Lizards on the roof

Night bus adventures