Holidays in Tangkahan - Part 2: Money, money, ...

I wish to think that it was my wonderful writing style of the previous post that made you decide to come back and wanting to know more about visiting Tangkahan. So, what's next? I guess the most important thing to know about is the money: Which cost would this trip run up?

Here is what I found out: You need a currency converter and a list of the cost as they occur!

- Flight

- Visa on arrival for European countries and Australia, all others please check Visa regulations

- Taxi from airport to hotel

- Hotel in Medan

- Food in Medan

- Tips (taxi)

- In RAW package

• Transfer from Medan to Tangkahan
• Lunch on the way
• Accommodation in Tangkahan
• Food full board
• Activities
• Transfer from Tangkahan to Medan (possibly lunch) 

- Tips staff at Tangkahan

- Hotel in Medan on way home
- The odd lunch or dinner

- Transfer from Hotel to airport

However, the most important thing to know is that are no ATMs in the jungle, so Medan is the last time you can draw money. For my last trip I travelled with a big pile of banknotes in my bag, because I had to pay for my entire stay in Tangkahan in cash.

Flight

If you are travelling to Tangkahan from abroad, then Medan Polonia airport will be your entry point. Medan is the capital of Sumatra, a sticky, dusty place, stuffed with motorcycles and noise, and I love it! On my first trip it scared the hell out of me, but since I dare leaving the hotel it really grows on me. To get there, you will have to book your own flight even if you book the tour with RAW Wildlife Encounters. They however are always happy to help and they are expanding their services all the time, so just check with them.

Visa on Arrival

Guests from European countries and Australia buy a visa on arrival, all the others please check the visa regulations. In the air plane already, or even at the gate before boarding for the flight to Medan, you will get a customs declaration and an entry card. Best fill it in straight away, it would be a hassle wanting to do it on arrival, although Medan airport is amazingly organised. Staff sometimes looks a little bit 'important' but they are actually quite friendly. In a far corner of the arrival hall are two counters for Visa. On one you pay, on the other you get it stamped into your passport. Visa cost US$ 25, but I saw somebody pay in Indonesian Rupia (IDR) - yet, better check that information if you want to do that, the dollars definitely work!

After that you go through Immigration. I never know what sort of paperwork they want, so I drop passport, custom declaration, Visa stuff and sometimes even the boarding pass on the counter and put a silly smile on. So they patiently select what they need and send me off to collect my suitcase.

There is only one conveyor belt from which everything plonks on the ground. Before you leave the building to enter the steamy heat of Medan you give the customs form to somebody in front of the door, you will know to whom as they already have piles of those in their hands; nobody seems to be really bothered what is written on it as long as they get it.

Taxi and Hotel

Taxi from the airport: If you are travelling with RAW then the tour officially starts with the transfer from Medan to Tangkahan, but usually somebody from the team will be in Medan to pick you up from the airport. The way forward is to stay a night in a hotel. Tangkahan is a four hour drive away and rain usually kicks in in the afternoon making the road a bit of an adventure ride, so starting fresh the next morning makes sense.You will have to pay for taxi and hotel, though. 

Hotel: I usually stay in Swiss Belhotel Medan, a 5-star hotel, which is very nice. It can be booked online and you can book airport pick-up and drop-off with them, too. Those are 5 stars of European standard.

My boys Ika and Bimbim

 The breakfast buffet is amazing, and a mall can be reached through a side entrance of the hotel, so ATM, a store for Indonesian SIM cards and so on are easily accessible.

Christmas decoration, Swiss Belhotel lobby

The transfer between the Swiss Belhotel and the airport lasts about 20 minutes and cost approximately IDR 50,000 if you use a bluebird taxi, they are the safest, a choice I nevertheless only take when I get picked up by RAW tour guides. If I travel alone I arrange pick-up by the hotel taxi, which then cost IDR 70,000. In any case I tip something like IDR 10,000, which is about 50p. I have been tipping in US$ as well because I did not have small IDR bills. All this will change in the future as they are building a new airport outside Medan, so cost and travel time will rise.

A cheaper hotel option is the Pardede International Hotel, Medan. Less then half the price of the Swiss Belhotel, it has wifi as well, the breakfast is decent, sockets for charging appliances are a bit scarce but it is doable if you take a multi-socket extension lead with you, something I highly recommend anyway. This way you only need one power adapter - Indonesia has the European style sockets - and you can charge everything in one go.

 

The hotel is just around the corner of the current airport. So yes, it is a good hotel, but nothing like the standard of the Swiss Belhotel.

For dinner you either can eat in the mall, which is still very affordable and tasty, or if you are with the team, go out to one of the street restaurants. The food is amazing, but I am still not 'street smart' enough to dare going out on my own.

The Adventure Package

If you are travelling with RAW, then the transfer to Tangkahan, accommodation, food, fees, and activities are included as stated in your bookings and itineraries. If you are travelling individually you will have to consider the individual costs.

Transfer to Medan: I tested the different ways to get from Medan to Tangkahan. When I booked with RAW it was included anyway, the team usually would meet the guests at the Swiss Belhotel the evening before and then share cars to go to Tangkahan as convoy the next day, very safe and organised - and fun, travelling in a group.

For my second trip I book a car via a young lady who usually did the bookings locally for RAW. Everything went well and the car was on time, yet the driver did not speak English. In an emergency we would have had no means to communicate, so I was glad that coincidentally a guide was in Medan who was about to use the bus. So it was a win-win, I had my translator and he had a comfortable ride.

For trip number three I used the hotel to book the transfer and that went horribly wrong. The car just didn't show up. So I got double lucky again that my Tangkahan friends had come to pick me up and they called their own car. This saved me quite some money as well - via the hotel the car would have cost IDR 700,000 and booked directly by the boys I only paid IDR 500,000. Depending on the bills I have I tip IDR 50-100k.

The solution for travelling alone: Get in touch with CTO  (Community Tourist Operator) or the RAW office in Medan (they are only just establishing now, but check the RAW website for details), and ask them to arrange pick-up and drop-off for you. Now, this 'getting in touch with CTO' thing is again showing how remote Tangkahan is: Internet is weak, so email usually is not working well. Facebook turned out to be a fantastic tool to communicate as the mobile application usually works. So either:

• send SMS or call the CTO mobile on +62 85275605865 (Rilly), or +62 813 61423245 (Darwin), or
• befriend them on FB and send messages to Rilly or Darwin

Rilly is the lady in charge at CTO, Darwin was running the CTO office and is now taking on the new RAW-Indonesia office in Medan. 

Fees, Accommodation, Food, and Activities: On arrival in Tangkahan you have to stop at the visitor centre to register and pay the entrance fee. In the end all the cost will be paid to visitor centre, except purchases and services arranged with the respective lodge like washing clothes. The picture below gives some guidelines what cost to expect for fees, accommodation, food and activities. I however will not be able to update with the latest version, so please check with Rilly about the actual price. This is really just meant to give you an idea. All the lodges are beautiful, I however can't help but stay in Green Lodge. The elephant camp is right next to it, and it is a bit more remote than the others, I just love it there and it has become my second home.

prices as of April 2011, please check with CTO for current prices.

Tipping Guide - North Sumatra

I took this from the RAW material which I recieved during my first trip. There it says that tipping is not compulsory yet it is generally recommended if you believe the service warrants a show of appreciation. They gave their recommendation in A$ I am using a converter to give you a rough idea:

I hope all of this didn't put you off! Things are quite cheap; going for lunch with seven people to the local open restaurant usually set us back 120 - 200k which is something around £10-15. Those restaurants usually don't look like much but the food is just amazing.

Last lunch in the Lake Toba area before heading home to Tangkahan

Coming up: The Elephants

Holidays in Tangkahan – Part1: Setting the scene

Tangkahan is a beautiful jungle area in Sumatra, Indonesia, offering a wonderful eco-holiday experience including elephants, wildlife, hiking, tubing, caves, waterfalls, great food and wonderful people.

RAW Elephant Odyssey, July 2011

Now: South East Asia might sound a little bit scary for the rather inexperienced traveller, I however am sure that almost everybody feels a little bit of a tingle going down the spine, thinking: I wish would just dare going there…

I am one of those people. Up until summer 2011 I only had travelled to the USA, safely accompanied by my husband. Yet, travelling alone to the jungle, facing heat and humidity, creepy-crawlies, and uncertain food and bathroom situations was not really my idea of holidays.

There however was that tingle when I stumbled across that website advertising a 14 day Elephant Odyssey with a prospect of seeing wild Orangutans. One and a half years on, I not only did this beautiful guided tour - and I did see a wild Orangutan mum with her baby in the jungle, and a hornbill, and an eagle flying high up above my lodge why I was lying in my hammock - I went back twice, travelling on my own account. Thus I now feel enabled to give sound information and during the next few posts I will hopefully be able to rope you in. Who knows? One day we may even meet in Tangkahan.

Travel always bears the question: What will it cost me? And the answer is: There is always a trade-off between ease and price.

The easiest way is to book a tour with RAW Wildlife Encounters. On their website you find different tours  and they are always happy to tailor a tour for your needs (please note that the prices on the RAW website are Australian Dollars). As far as I know they are now able to help with flight bookings when you are Australian, if you are travelling from Europe or America you will have to book your own flight, but just ask to see with what they can assist. They expand and tailor their services all the time.

Tours booked with RAW of course have to be more expensive than travelling on your own account. Firstly, you will be paying for their service – and what a service that is – and secondly, the company has a strong corporate responsibility scheme, running sustainability and conservation projects in the area. However, if you are organising everything yourself you might find that prices are not as cheap as one might expect from basic South East Asian jungle lodge living. ... and rightly so, they aren't! Tangkahan is special in many ways.

The History

A good decade ago the villagers were illegal loggers and the area was about to lose the rainforest for good. Bamboo River lodge was the first in the area and the owners raised awareness to convince the villagers to rather find their business in eco-tourism and preserve the rainforest rather than destroying it. The paper company fought back, wrecking the place forcing the couple, an English lady with her Indonesian husband, to go back to England. Their message however had been received, the villagers drove the paper company out, Bamboo River lodge was rebuilt and still exists and others followed. The rainforest has recovered and the tourist business is the tool to give people a living without palm oil, rubber and logging. Travelling to Tangkahan is active conservation.

Accommodation is simple, usually a room with a bed with mosquito net, small table and a chair. Bathrooms have sitting down toilet, some lodges have sinks but at my favourite - Green Lodge - you only will find a tap with a bucket from which you will take the used water with a ladle to flush the toilet.

my bathroom 2011 - in the meantime I got a proper toilet seat, amazing with how little water one can survive quite comfortably

Electricity is still provided through generators during evening until bedtime. Bamboo River lodge was the first to be connected to the power grid just now – we had a big party to celebrate – so there is hope that the others will get power as well during the next year or so. Mobile access is available but not strong enough to load some websites, or to send big emails, so communication is slow.

Apart from the conservation aspect you might ask: 'Why would I want to pay for something so basic at all, why should I visit a place like this?' And I would answer: because you would be sitting on a beautiful restaurant terrace in the middle of amazing foliage, overlooking the river. 

walk to the restaurant

You would be drinking strong Sumatran coffee and if you would get lucky it would be from the area of Aceh, you would eat fantastic food cooked and served by lovely people, you would be faced with challenges just big enough to make you proud when accomplished and after only a short while you would feel like family. I in the meantime have a daughter and two brothers and I am proud that they chose me as their mother and sister.

And I am asking back: Why would one want to not pay a decent salary for all of this? If we travel in Europe, North America or Australia we expect service cost to be high, we accept that people have to make a living and that tipping 12% is the norm. Why would we think that only because the houses in East Asia are basic and chickens are running between them, the common rule has to be that labour is cheap? The season for business only lasts three quarters of a year at its best and ever so often staff does not even earn enough to make a living during this period. Tangkahan is different. The prices are appropriate to give people a decent living and to support community projects like rubbish collection and the rainforest conservation.

A lot needs still to be done! Like in Europe, fees are added to certain services and activities to sustain community projects. The people of Tangkahan are working hard to develop a sustainability concept for the villages and the rainforest, and they need the help and support of their guests. You however will get your moneys worth of holiday: If you allow it to happen, then visiting Tangkahan will be a life changing experience.

Coming up: Some more info about money