10/18/13


a rare group photo! ;)

We said goodbye to my family in the busy, crowded Bali airport and flew to the island of Sumatra to meet our friend Kevin again. We spent one horrible night in Medan and then drove out to the jungle. Our destination was Bukit Lawang - home of orangutans! 

After driving a few hours, our driver stopped in front of a little shop and told us that was as far as he could drive us. He pointed down a path along the river and explained our guesthouse was a ways down. So we dragged/carried our luggage down the long river path. We were hot, sweaty and tired but it was certainly worth it. Kupu-Kupu Garden was a really lovely, quiet spot, although its lack of electricity was something to get used to. The morning we left, we had to pack up outside since it was pitch dark in our room!

Anyways, our first afternoon there, we headed further down the river path and found a perfect swimming spot. It had been well over a year since we had swam in non-salt-water so it felt like quite the treat. Us Canadians are used to cold lakes and rivers so we all found it surprisingly warm for a river. Mike and Kevin spent a long time fighting the current, playing with rocks, and jumping off the rocks, monkeys by their sides. 

I'll never forget the moment when I turned and saw Mike getting carried away briefly by the current, struggling to keep our camera above the water. Oh man, that almost gave me a heart attack. Glad we didn't lose our baby! :)

21 comments:

  1. These pictures are incredible! What an adventure!

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  2. I'm always amazed by your blog. Many of the places you visit I didn't even know existed! How do you find all these places? Great shots.

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    1. our friends had visited sumatra before so they gave us some recommendations. also gemma (of lineshapecolour.blogspot.com) gave us some amazing tips as well!

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  3. this looks incredible! what an adventure, and how lovely.

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  4. These photos are absolutely wonderful! So serene and perfect.
    http://liveitinerantly.com

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  5. What an amazing place. Your travel photos are giving me itchy feet! Beautiful photos.

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  6. oh, i LOVE your pictures. so gorgeous. bukit lawang is such a beautiful place. there's another place in Kalimantan/Borneo for orangutan. the place is meant for research and conservation. it is placed in the middle of a forest and not everyone could get access to enter.

    p.s : out of curiosity, what your friend kevin's doing in sumatra? is he a photographer? i wonder if he's the one taking pictures about a local tribe in the sumatra forest

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    1. i'd love to go to borneo one day! and it would be awesome to see oranguatans again. i loved them!

      kevin is actually a friend from canada. we had traveled with him in malaysia for a week then he went to australia while we were with my family and then we met back up again! :)

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  7. I really love ur pictures, the way u make them deep, yet dreamy. The fourth one is just beautiful! xx

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  8. Beautiful photos, Janis! This makes me want to seek out a misty jungle. :)

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  9. so beautiful! this make me extra bummed we didn't get to visit. it looks so idyllic! can't wait to see more photos x

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  10. I love these photos! I can't wait to see more of Asia... I need to get over my weird fear of going there.

    To answer your question, I finally met with the Quebec version of ComFree last week and hope to get my place listed in the next few weeks. As soon as it sells, I'm outta here!

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    1. yeah! congrats! hope it sells quickly for you. xxx

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  11. oh janis. that b&w photo of you is breathtaking. you inspire me immensely.

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  12. i want to echo everything that has been said and add... holy hell what a beautiful experience you shared!

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  13. I love the rain shot of you! Such awesome photos

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  14. whoaza, hot mama in pic #4!!!

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  15. I really love the way you tell the stories (journey) through those nice pictures. Since I'm Indonesian, I like to see how it turned out through your view... Unfortunately I have never been to Sumatra before, should be exciting. At present I live in Seoul as well and joined Flickr in Seoul (FIS) since 2007, that you might interested to join :)

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thanks so much for writing! i love hearing from you!

xo