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Published: April 29th 2008
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(Matt)
The local bus rattled along on the potholed road from Medan to Bukit Lawang in Northern Sumatra. We were attracted to Bukit Lawang by the promise of 'real' Jungle Treks and the possibility of seeing orang-utans in the wild. It was hot and humid, the bus seats were ripped, the locals smoke cigarettes on the bus (which sounds like a small thing but seems really odd when you see it). The driver's logic of going quick enough to fly over the potholes wasn't really working, I couldn't get King Louis's theme tune from Jungle Book out of my head...we were in Indonesia and it felt great.
Trust in me We were still a few hours from Bukit Lawang when a tired looking Indonesian man got on the bus and sat by us and the only other tourists - a pony tailed German couple, we guessed he was a guide before he'd even spoken. He made me smile with his good attempt at a cockney accent and the line to the
Germans 'Long hair - Long life', turning to me 'Short hair - Good job'! After five minutes and much more rapid-fire patter he produced a book of
Fruit overload
The excellent breakfast where we were staying - cost less than one pound references entitled 'Lets go to jungle with Thomas', we didn't really need to look, by this time I think we'd already decided we'd book a trip with him.
Bukit Lawang turned out to be a picturesque riverside village with three rope bridges and surrounded by jungle. Over the years there has been a dramatic drop in the number of tourists visiting the area and it is definitely no longer on the tourist trail. In part this is to do with the horrific flood at the end of 2003 when 300 people were killed, many more were made homeless and the infrastructure was wrecked and on a wider scale: the Bali bombings, political unrest and natural disasters have all put tourists off from going there.
On our first full day, we walked to a nearby bat cave (second one of our trip) right on the edge of the jungle. On the way we saw a big orang-utan and baby in the trees, even though we didn't have a great view, it was very exciting and you could get a real sense of their size and power by the way even big trees wobbled when the orang-utans moved. At this
point, we didn't realise how rare our sighting was, we thought there were orang-utans everywhere!
In the evening we bought a permit and made the short river crossing (a man, a canoe and some ropes) to the 'Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre' and the feeding station. Located on the edge of the jungle this project helps young orpahaned orang-utans to live in the wild. The feeding platform is a kind of half-way house where those released into the wild and fending for themselves can come twice a day if they need food. After the steep twenty minute climb to the top of a hill, we arrived with half a dozen other people all full of anticipation. This was increased when the ranger climbed up onto the platform with a big bunch of bananas. 40 minutes later the only wildlife we'd seen was: a ranger, a small monkey and ten thousand mosquitos. We were both a bit disappointed but as the Park Ranger said 'it shows the project is working because they're fending for themselves'... we both smiled and agreed but secretly I was more in line with Catherine's view: 'all well and good but I still want to see orang-utans'!
Bare necessities The next day with a new respect for hunting the big ginger monkeys we set out on the trek (with two Germans, Bridget and Peter). The jungle trek took place in Gunung Leuser National Park, we were told to bring only a minimum amount of stuff as the terrain was tricky: muddy and hilly in dense jungle. The jungle is home to: Elephants, Tigers, Rhino, bears, snakes, and Orang-utans. As Catherine said 'it's like a big zoo you walk around', I was going to add 'without the cages' but thought better of it!
In the first 30 minutes we saw a big six foot cobra snake slither into the undergrowth, I was slightly perturbed by the look of shock on the faces of Thomas and Eddy (one of three porters). However, we were proved right in our choice of guide as Thomas proved to be interesting and knowledgable (if somewhat wary of snakes) and after about three hours we were rewarded when we saw two Orang-utans in the trees.
Our round-the-world trip has provided us with some amazing experiences but the twenty minutes we spent watching two huge orang-utans swing towards us is definitely one
Moving stones
These stones mark the border between local owned land and government owned. The small stone in the foreground kept being moved by locals (to increase their land!). The same happened with the thin grey one, finally the white one was placed! of my highlights. At one point a huge orang-utan the same size as me was close enough to touch (although I wouldn't dare!), overall it was an exhillirating and fantastic experience. After twenty minutes the sky darkened and we were treated to a downpour of biblical proportions - so this is why it's called the rain forest! After another few hours of what at times felt like army training we gratefully set up camp for the night.
After a great meal (and a few whiskys!) Thomas told us a true story about Queen Sophia of Spain's visit to Indonesia...
Jungle VIP The whole of Bukit Lawang was excited the Queen of Spain's wish to see the orang-utans at the rehabilitation centre. Many months before the visit the royal advisors surveyed the area and proclaimed that the steep path up to the feeding station was too dangerous for the Queen because of lots of uneven stones. Some local villagers spent many painstaking days clearing the path and tidying up the pathway. On the next visit more of the Queen's people declared the boat crossing to be too risky for royalty (they use a boat because orang-utans don't like water and won't cross the river). Many weeks were spent building a rope bridge to make the crossing easier for her majesty.
In the weeks before the visit many more demands were made on the village: helicopter landing pads were made, security checks increased and all of the guides were told that on the day of the visit the jungle would be closed for security reasons! On the plus side, the village food stalls and accommodation were doing a roaring trade with all of the press and observers that were arriving.
On the day of the visit the villagers, especially after all of the problems they had suffered in the past, were in a state of excitement, Bukit Lawang was back on the map. Children were taking the day off school,a local photographer was in high demand for people to have their photograph taken with a helicopter in the background and the food stalls made industrial sized portions of curry and other dishes in anticipation of the number of people arriving with the Queen...
On the day of the visit Queen Sophia was in Medan (3hrs away) when she was unexpectedly called back to Spain therefore canceling
her visit Bukit Lawang. All of the preparations had been in vain...as Thomas put it: 'that was the story of when the Queen of Spain almost visited Bukit Lawang'! He went on to add that all of the guides enjoyed half price food for the next few weeks because of the sheer volume of it! It's a real testament to the character and resilience of the people in the village that they now find the story so funny.
Forget about your worries and your strife On our final full day in Bukit Lawang we trekked back out of the jungle and rafted on tyres back to the village. That evening so tired we could hardly stay awake, we went to the feeding station one final time with fingers crossed. We were rewarded and got to see a mother and baby orang-utan being fed which was amazing. For us this rounded off a brilliant but exhausting few days.
See the website we created for Thomas when we got home:
Thomas Jungle Tours Our next stop is Southeast Asia's largest lake - Lake Toba.
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Sophie
non-member comment
Wow!!!
The orangutans look so cool! Can`t believe that you got that close! Sooooo jealous!