Jungle Trek Jungle Trek in Bukit Lawang

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Yet again I start with an apology. This time, its that the highlight of Bukit Lawang undoubtedly was trekking in the jungle with orangutans. However, my camera had packed up by then, and thus no orangutan photos. I'm still hoping that one of the folk I trekked with will get round to sending me them one day, but until then, you'll have to make do with the residue of my photos Im afraid.

See the monkeys see the birds, see orangutan. Sing that to the tune of Jingle Bells, and you've got the hottest song around the place. But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. From Penang, I flew to Medan, the largest city in Sumatra, which happens to be a little bit rubbish. From there I got a bus to Bukit Lawang. Right, now we can carry on.


Bukit Lawang is a really cool little town. A river cuts right through the middle of it, and it is crisscrossed by various bridges, some more sturdy than others. Upon arriving in town, my newly acquired friend (guide who wanted to to do his tour) led me to a losmen, and conveniently chose the most rickety for me to cross with my full pack. It happened to be Indonesian independence day when I arrived, and the river was full of people from Medan and around who had come up to Bukit Lawang on a long weekend. This particular bridge was also pretty full of people, and trust me, trying to get past people on a bridge big enough for 1/2 a person whilst carrying a full backpack is a recipe for an unplanned swim.

The aforementioned independence day meant that there was no room at the hostel when I arrived, although they assured me that Indonesian families just wanted the room as a base for the day, but would be leaving by 6. This seemed fine, and gave me a chance to have a wander round, and find the guide I'd been recommended. The cheeky chappy that had led me across the bridge wasn't too chuffed at this - its pretty competitive in Bukit Lawang. Anyway, I found the guy, and he said his mate was taking a 2 day trek starting tomorrow, which is what I was after.

Our merry group of jungle trekkers started out the next morning, and after a short time we saw quite a few monkeys monkeying around... as they do. A little bit later we stopped, and Eddie, our guide, started calling for Sandra. Turns out he'd not left his wife in the jungle, this just happened to be the spot where they know a semi-wild orangutan likes to hang about. Eventually, we caught a glimpse of her high up in the canopy, but it had started raining, so we were told she wouldn't come lower, as she wanted to hide in her nest as a storm was coming.

Turns out orangutans are pretty good at knowing the weather forecast, as shortly afterwards it began bucketing it down. This made an already quite difficult trek up and down pretty steep slopes even more treacherous, I think everyone took quite a few tumbles along the way. This didn't detract from the fact it was a really cool hike, unlike Taman Negara in Malaysia, this truly was trekking in proper jungle. No boardwalks to be seen here. We walked until it cleared up enough for lunch, when Eddie's mate Mowgli (not sure if that was his real name or not), pulled some excellent nasi goreng (fried rice) out of his bag. Love the stuff.

After lunch, the weather improved, the trek remained challenging, and with the absence of rain everyone was getting a little bit hot and sweaty. So what a relief it was when we reached camp and could go for a swim in the river. Suitably cooled off, it was time for tea, and we just sat there and enjoyed being in the middle of the jungle drinking tea whilst monkeys played in the trees around us. Ace. Another treat was to come with our evening meal, which has to have been one of the nicest meals I ate in Indonesia... and it was all cooked in one pot in the jungle. Quite a remarkable achievement. After tea, we drank more tea and played a variety of silly games until it was time to go to bed on a load of stones. Literally. Worst sleep ever.

Everyone awoke on day 2 feeling a little bit sore, but we set off optimistic that today we'd get a closer look at some Orangutans. Unfortunately, it seemed they weren't coming out to play, and we walked for about 2 hours until we began descending the final hill towards the rafts (we were to go tubing back to Bukit Lawang). By this point, we'd kind of split into a faster and slower group. Naturally, being in peak fitness, I was with the faster group, and we had got a fair way down possibly the steepest slope yet when there was a shout from behind. Orangutan ahoy! It says something about the gradient of this hill that there was some debate about whether to go back. Not much though, and soon we were hotfooting it back up, to be greeted by a female orangutan and her baby who had decided to join the group for a bit of trekking. This is what we came for, and we just stood and watched her go about her business, looking for termites to eat, and swinging about a bit. The similarity of her movement to humans really was quite remarkable. Anyway, eventually she got a bit bored of us, and decided we should go, so she set off down the hill, leading the way to the tubes.

We lost her after a while, but luckily Eddie knew the way too, so we got to our lunch spot (mee goreng - fried noodles) before we took to our rafts. Now, our group was 7 people. An English couple, a Dutch lass, three other English lads and myself. There were 2 rafts between us, so naturally you would have thought we'd probably go down in 2 groups of 3 and 4. Oh no. The powers that be decided the couple should have their own raft, and the rest of us got squashed onto the other. It was very cosy to say the least. The weight also meant we grounded quite a lot. Meanwhile, the other 2 got a pleasant, spacious, tranquil ride through the river. No fair.

Before we knew it, we were back in Bukit Lawang, and there was time for a couple of cheeky Bintangs before bedtime, and a bus out the next day. I mentioned last time about travellers malaise. That certainly only applies to cities, as I could hang around Bukit Lawang and go into the jungle for days on end without getting bored. Fantastic place.

Stewart

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