Oook Oook!

Phew. I've had a slightly hectic two weeks, I'm now in Medan in Summatra. Surat Thani, Hat Yai, Penang, Medan, Bukit Lawan, Lake Toba and back to Medan. Where do I start?
Penang - in Malaysia- was nice, but quite expensive (Malaysia is reasonably developed!). Had a really good garden, with locals walking past the palm and banana trees to gape at some really exotic trees - evergreens, oaks, etc. It had a huge Xmas procession with marching bands, Christ squads, floats, charity collectors, dancers, the lot.
I basically spent too much time in Thailand - it was very good, very cheap and lots of backpackers. I'm now going to have to skip Malaysia and Singapore.
Summatra (Indonesia) is very cheap as well. I trekked through the jungle for 2 days trying to see an Orang-utan, then saw one 5 minutes away from the town! I think it had just been released back into the wild. There are no internet cafes here - well, ok, this one, but this is in a city of 2 million people.
Lake Toba was quite good as well - a huge volcanic crater lake and island 800m above sea level, maybe 50 miles wide? Completely deserted. Tourism is right down in Indonesia at the moment.
I'm now going to have to fly to Jakarta - I made the mistake of assuming that anything that fits onto a single page in the lonely planet is about an overnight bus ride accross. Its 48 hours solid to jakarta, and the plane is only 10 pounds more.
Now comes the expensive part of my trip: Hong Kong, Japan and Los Angeles. And my girlfriend turns up for 2 weeks!