Imagine yourself a little hairier and better with your toes and you’ve got Bukit Lawang’s main attraction: the orang-utan.
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Category: Sumatra
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Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Anchored tenuously in the deep Indian Ocean, this giant island is still as wild and unpredictable as the Victorian-era jungle-seekers dreamed. Millennia of chaos erupting from the earth’s toxic core or from the fierce ocean waves create and destroy in equal measure. When the earth and sea remain still, the past’s death and destruction fertilise a verdant future. The rugged mountains and fertile valleys are fed by near-constant rains, colouring the jungles of the Mentawai Islands and the rice terraces of Bukittinggi many shades of green.
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Berastagi Sumatra Indonesia Travel
You might have to pinch yourself upon arriving in Berastagi: the town is too busy with daily life to pounce on tourists. What a blissful relief from the guide overload you’ll find elsewhere in Sumatra.
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Bandarlampung Sumatra Indonesia Travel
Perched on the hills overlooking Teluk Lampung, Bandarlampung is the region’s largest city and its administrative capital. The fourth-largest city in Sumatra, it is the product of an amalgamation of the old towns of Telukbetung (coastal) and Tanjungkarang (inland).
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Banda Aceh Sumatra Indonesia Travel
The provincial capital of Banda Aceh is not frequently paired in the international press with good times. The city was close enough to the sea and the epicentre of the earthquake to have suffered a double punch from the 2004 Boxing Day disaster. The earthquake toppled most of the buildings taller than three storeys and the tsunami gobbled up coastal development across middle-class suburbs. In Banda Aceh alone, 61, 000 people were killed and development outside of the city centre was reduced to a wasteland in a matter of a few hours. This scale of destruction usually takes humans years of warfare to match.
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Pulau Weh Sumatra Indonesia Travel
You are in for a real treat at Pulau Weh. The island’s fingers grasp at the mighty Indian Ocean, forming vistas of alternating land and sea. Like the terrestrial landscape, the underwater geography is rugged and varied, creating the scuba version of hiking. Divers describe great walls of languid sea fans, deep canyons and rock pinnacles, plus a lot of big fish.
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Pulau Samosir Sumatra Indonesia Travel
If you want to trek, swim, explore traditional Batak villages, soak in hot springs, party or just chill with some cool local people, Pulau Samosir is your Eden. Your chickenbus beaten body will begin to unwind on the slow 8km ferry cruise over to this volcanic isle (it’s actually connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, but why quibble?) 900m above sea level. In the late ’90s, Tuk Tuk, the island’s resort town, rocked with full-moon ravers, but Thailand stole their thunder, and now empty hotels and quiet streets are the norm. Which means low prices, high value and tranquillity.