In case you were wondering I am still very much alive and kicking despite being incommunicado for the last ten days or so.

This is just a short note to fill people in on the continuing odyssey.

I left Georgetown, Penang in Malaysia and headed to Medan in Indonesia. The plan was to visit an Orang-Utan sanctuary in Bukit Lawang, North Sarawak, but the aftermath of a disaster that struck there last November meant that the journey had to be postponed as it was still to problematic to get there and back safely. As result I headed to Borneo instead - more later.

After Borneo I returned to Medan to visit the Batak people in lake Toba. I've been trekking and climbing in the jungle and hilltops with the Batak people and apart from a strange, shivering, hallucinogenic fever managed to return relatively unscathed. Again more of that later.

Lake Toba has a very basic infrastructure, and this is the first internet terminal I have enocountered in 10 odd days. I'm writing briefly as I am unsure as to when the line will drop - this is the first time it has worked in about two weeks apparently.

To all my readers thanks for checking in in my absence, your messages are appreciated and your continuing support helps to keep me going in the blackness of days.

Thankfully those are rare in the meadows of the sun in which I walk.

And so I stagger on.

yechydda,