Monday 10-Oct-2005 (day 2) Continued
At last we arrived at our hotel. At least one hanging bridge across the Bohorok river separated us from our hotel. Luckily there were many boys waiting for us. For Rp.5000 they were willing to carry our luggage and also cross the river.
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Max. 4 at a time for crossing
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No more than 4 people at a time are allowed to cross the bridge together. The frugal hanging bridge could collapse with a greater weight. Also, the swing frequency would increase with more than 4 persons.
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Fruitdrink for welcome drink
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We received cool fresh fruitjuice upon our arrival at the hotel.
The hotel itself was furnished plainly, but whatever one would need to eat or drink was present. The rooms were not luxuriously furnished.
A large sized double bed was present. There was also a shower facility, even a real toilet with a seat, only there was no running flush. A big bucket with a ladle served to flush the toilet. Cute large cockroaches radiantly looked up at you.
Cicaks (wall lizards) walked against the walls and somewhere from a corner there was the sound of the familiar Tokeh (geckos). However, a well running Aircondition compensated for much discomfort.
The remaining of the day we were free to make our own plans.
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The wild Bohorok river
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Because many trees were cut for years, on 2nd November 2003 a natural dam in the river broke and the Bohorok river caused much misery to many people from Bukit Lawang. Due to the flood many houses were wiped out. There were also many dead to be mourned.
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Hero Suginta
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During the flood of the Bohorok, Suginta worked in a hotel across our hotel. During this flood he did not think twice and managed to save some 30 foreign tourists from drowning.
Our later becak (bicycle taxi) guide, I'll talk about him later, had suffered greatly from this flood. Once he had a nicely furnished house, a sweet wife and a child of 18 months. The flood destroyed his whole life. His wife and child perished and his house was dragged and destroyed entirely by this flood. Now the guide lives in his poor cabin and spends his days with his sad memories of what he once had.
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Remnants of the hotel which was destroyed by the flood of the Bohorok
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Tourists now come sporadically to Bukit Lawang, because they have become afraid that the Bohorok rivier shall flood again. They are now constructing an extra dam in the river, as a kind of assurance against reflooding of the land by the river Bohorok.
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Memorial for 2nd November 2003
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Bathing in the Bohorok
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In the Bohorok you don't only see women washing clothes, but also bathing men. And since toilets of the locals are emptied directly in the river, you can occasionally see human excrements floating by.
To get to know each other better, our female travelguide invited us to have dinner together. We were offered Indonesian food prepared the European way.
Many of us found it delicious, but not me; in Indonesia I want to eat real Indonesian food and not some surrogate. For that reason I decide that from now on I would not join in mutual meals but I would go and find my own.
As we were all tired, we went to bed after the meal. Accompanied by the joyous sound of crickets and the sounds of the river, occasionally surpassed by the Tokeh, I fell asleep quickly.
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Also read the Other Stories in Wahrweb
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