Mentawai trek

Was in the Mentawais a couple of weeks ago. You can definitely do a 5 day trek. In case you don't know, the people from mainland Sumatra there are called Minangkabau and a lot of guides who will take u to the Mentawais are Minangkabau. Whatever you do, don't go with a Minangkabau guide - the Mentawai people hate them because they bring the most tourists and give very little back to the Mentawai people. You won't have a very nice experience if you go with them. Just get the ferry to Siberut (you can book it at Padang port or at Hotel Batam Arau in Padang) and get a local guide from Siberut. There are LOADS of Mentawai people on Siberut who speak good English and will be willing to take you; you will be able to start your trek within a couple of hours of arriving if you want. Ask around though and be careful - there are also lots of Minangkabau people on Siberut who claim to be Mentawai (one of these who hangs around the port waiting for tourists is called Sue). Tai Tai and his cousin Matteus are reliable Mentawai guides. If you're on your own i should think 5 days would be quite expensive (maybe 1.5 million rupiah) because you have to use a motorised canoe for the first few hours and you will be paying for all the fuel yourself. If you go with 5 other people it will be a lot cheaper (probably not more than 600,000 rupiah per person) because you will share the cost of fuel. Minangkabau people will charge you more though.
The guides will carry your bags for you when trekking. The trek is not too hard - no real mountains to cross or anything, but lots of walking through mud, swamps and rivers, and its very humid.
Hope that helps!
Ed

EddyV, I am so pleased to see you answered this question. I was hoping you would so I could read about your experience and you could help this traveller.
Where are you now?
Pamela.

hey Pamela, in Lombok now and unfortunately coming to the end of my 60-day visa :( will be back to England on Wednesday. Have completely fallen in love with Indonesia and its people and will be back a.s.a.p. Starting in September i'm doing a TEFL course in Moscow then teaching English there for a year - after that I am considering coming back to Indonesia to teach. Hope you've had a great summer too! what have you been up to?

So Indonesia has stolen your heart too!! Happens to so many of us and if not for those terrible untrue travel warnings, many more would fall under her spell as well.
Wow, you are the secocnd traveller who is doing the TEFL course with thoughts of teaching in Indonesia. I may even the course next year here in Sydney and become the third person.
Have a safe trip home.
Currently in Sydney working hard to pay off debts, working 6 days a week and spending a lot of my other time on travel forums answering questions re Indonesia and answering personal emails ( up to 10 emails/week) from impending travellers to Indonesia.
So life is full and exciting-never a dull moment- but the heart hankers for Indonesia.
Hoping to spend one month in Indonesia at end of year- enter via Bali, East Java-re project to help sulphur miners, Jakarta, Bogor-friends, Medan to Bukit Lawang to see my project up there- shop for Ima my blind sick friend and would love to get to Ketembe to see all my special friends there and Banda Aceh.
In Banda Aceh want to meet up with aceh_sum again and do one of those treks that are being run by the exGam members.
Would love to go elsewhere like Padang, but time will not permit.
Pamela.

wow, sounds like ur keeping urself busy! whats your project in Bukit Lawang?

My project in Bukit Lawang has been to build a shop and stock it with all things to sell making a small business for the family of my special friend Ima who is blind and not well.
She comes from a family where the father died young leaving his wife with 5 children to rear by herself.
One son is not 100% well and has difficulty walking, another beautiful daughter drowned in the flood of Nov 2003 and in the meantime Ima started losing her sight from about 12 and was completely blind by 15-16 yrs old.
In 2005 I had her Cat Scanned and the result was very sad- not something I wish to go into here. So I tried to make her family life comfortable and put on the electricity in 2005 as my first project.
On arriving at her house on Sept 21st last year with Nora- I was suddenly struck with the idea of the family having a shop as a means of income rather the mother going to the rubber plantation for a pittance every day.
As I was travelling and had no money I promised I would have it by the following May, but instead I had the money by early March and a good friend dropped it to the family.
I can't wait to get back there in December to see how things are going.

Would like to do more things like this in Bukit Lawang and other places in Indonesia as life presents it to me.

Talking about people helping to make a difference in people's lives- have a look at this wonderful website about one of my English friends Katie Pavett and the wonderful wonderful work she has done in Sumatra and is currently doing in Sumatra.
Children Of Sumatra
And here is a folio of the success Katie has had with her work on these children. It is the most amazing story and brings me to tears every time I look at what she, her husband Ali and their team of doctors have achieved with these beautiful Indonesian children.
Children Of Sumatra Folio of Success
I have given donations to Katie in the past for the Tsunami when I met her for the first time in person in Medan in late Jan 2005. We had previously been in contact when Katie had given of her time and wisdom whilst I was trying to help a hydrocephalus child in Cianjur in West Java.
And I am planning on signing up this month to give a little every month ( think about 10 English pounds) to pay for one child's cleft palete operation a year.
Pamela.

Hello Eddy,

thank you for helping me out with my trek. I still do have some questions :

Is it one full day with the boat to the island? Does that mean I should count on two days travelling and 5 days trekking.

Do you sleep at the houses of the Mentwai people or in the jungle on a mat ? Do I need to take my own mat, mosquito net and sleeping bag?

You inform me that the boat is around 1.5 milllion rupiah but this is only the boat?
What does a guide cost per day ? is the price inclusing food? Is it easy to get a group together?

Is it easy to get water?
Have you been trekking in the north in Gunung lese park? is that more beatifull? Your description does not sound very inviting. Is it worhtwhile to do, is it more beautifull for the jungle or the culture?
As you see a few more qestions .. ;-) Hope you have the time to help me out. Thanks anyway !!! kind regards, Nora

hi Nora, sorry, i thought i'd replied to all those questions in the email i sent you. first: to the island the boat is 10 hours, overnight - for example you leave Padang at 7pm on Monday night, you arrive in Siberut at 5am Tuesday Morning and start your trek at say 9am Tuesday morning. When returning from the jungle you can trek you can have a day in the jungle then get back to the town on Siberut in the afternoon, because the return boat to Padang leaves in the evening around 8pm and arrives in Padang around 6am. However, the boats only go twice a week so you may have to wait a few days on Siberut - get the timetable from the port there then organise your trek around that.
You sleep in the houses of the Mentawai people. bring your own mat and mosquito net. i didnt bring a sleeping bag, just some warm clothing.
the boat isnt 1.5 million rupiah, i said the whole 5-day trek including the boat would be about 1.5 million for one person on their own, probably more like 2.2 million for 2 people. Note: i mean the second boat, up the river on Siberut on the first day of the trek, not the boat from Padang - Siberut which only costs 85,000. There isnt really a price per day for guides, you just pay one price for everything - boat, food, accommodation all included - thats the 1.5 million. Its not easy to get a group together unless you're lucky or you wait for a long time.
Its easy to get water but its very bad water - bring a filter and purifying pills.
I've never been to Gunung Lesse. Siberut trekking is not so great for beautiful scenery, although the rain forest itself is pretty beautiful - its more about getting to know the fascinating culture of the Mentawai people. If you want spectacular scenery there's definitely better places to go in Indonesia.

Nora26,
Sorry to have partly stolen your thread.
You ask about trekking in Gunung Leuser Park- I visited Bukit Lawang last year, didn't trek this time, but did so in Jan 2005 see photos below. Also visited Ketembe south Aceh and did a 2 day trek with Pak Mus in late October last year up around the hot spring area and camped by the river.
Photos below too.
Happy to answer questions if you have any more.
Pamela.