Chapter Five: Welcome Back Jungle Trekkers!

We spent the evening just hanging out with one another, we attempted Phase 10 once again, and I was able to redeem myself from the previous pathetic attempt. We laughed a lot and reflected on the amazing day. The next morning, we had breakfast, packed up and headed back out on the path we had taken only 36 hours before. Around 10:00am we boarded another Jungle Bus to head down the mountain to the Tiara Hotel in Medan complete with a pool, hot showers and plenty of towels. The ride down was not nearly as painful as the ride up was. It was really cool to get to see the scenery during the day. The road was just as bumpy, but this was time also ridden with cattle, children with air guns, and a pig. It was the holiday for the local people, and every year at this time, the little boys get a new plastic gun. They were everywhere: on top of buses, and in the middle of the road. We safely arrived in Medan after a long three hours.Our first destination in Medan, unfortunately, was a Crocodile Farm that Pak Barhum recommended. It cost only 50 cents to get in and see groups of thirty crocodiles stuffed into 12X10 foot shallow pens. It was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. I have no doubt that if our friend Mr. Steve Irwin had really been on the trip with us, he would have been appauled at this sight. At the Crocodile Farm were also other animals including puppies, some monkeys, and a couple snakes. We left that place a little traumatized and rather speechless.There is nothing that compares to walking into an air conditioned hotel after a couple days in the nice humid jungle. The Tiara Hotel was an excellent way to finish up our trip. That night we went down the street to a huge fancy mall. We walked around and did some window shopping, then decided it was time for dinner. We decided to try out a Korean Restaurant. After a twenty minute wait, we were seated at a round table in the back corner, and within minutes the waiters were bombarding us with trays of food for us to choose from. It was extremely stressful, and they kept coming throughout the entire meal. It was very good food, my favorite dish was the soft shell crab.The rest of the night was spent playing Phase 10, we were determined to get to Phase 10. There was a lot of laughing, some trash talking, a little bit of bullying, and a lot of storytelling. At 1:00 in the morning we had finally reached Phase 10! We would be okay if we never saw that game again:)