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Published: October 6th 2007
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So... we arrived safely in the city of Medan on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, via our Air Asia flight from KL. Indonesia has immediately struck us as being very different from the other Asian countries we've been to. For instance, although all the people of the various countries we have been to are very friendly, Indonesians are arguably even more friendly than the rest! They don't hesitate in the slightest to come up and chat to you, or even just shout "Hello Mister!" at you in the street. We checked into our hotel and discovered that there are no showers just
mandi (a brick basin full of water, with a plastic saucepan thing to pour it over you, back to basics!), we were informed in a friendly manner by the manager that this is "Indonesia experience"! We then went round the corner by the Masjid Raya (Grand Mosque) to get food, and unwittingly walked into the Ramadhan Fair. This was crazy, we experienced at first hand how an animal in a zoo feels! Hundreds of pairs of eyes were on us as we walked through, everyone was staring at these two white westerners. We chose a stall and sat
down, only to be mobbed by about 50 people thrusting menus at us! Was definately one of the most intense experiences we've had so far, but it was all ok in the end when we ordered something and a nice Indonesian couple sat down and chatted away to us.
We later found out from some ex-pats that it is all friendly, and the reason they act this way is because not many westerners come to Sumatra, so it is a rare thing for them to see white people, kind of like if we were to see a wild dolphin! Now, when they shout "Hey Mister!" and stare, we think to ourselves... "We are dolphins." Not much more to say about Medan really, not a great place, just a big urban mass with lots of mosques.
Now to the good stuff... Bukit Lawang! After a very cramped, hot bus journey (a 9 seater minibus with 15 people crammed in!), during which we met a nice Indonesian guide called Erwin, we arrived at Nora's Homestay, basic, cheap, and great food! We set off on a 2 day jungle trek through Gunung Leuser National Park with Erwin and his young brother Indra.
Funky Monkey!!
Check out his cool mohawk!! This ended up being the greatest experience of our trip so far!! 10 mins into the jungle and we saw Thomas Leaf Monkeys, known locally as Funky Monkeys because of their cool haircuts. After a few minutes more, we came face to face with our very first wild Orang Utan (which actually means "Jungle Man"), words can't describe what an amazing experience this is! They are such human-like creatures, they could almost be people you've known as you watch their expressions and mannerisms. On that 7 hour jungle trek on the first day we managed to see 7 Orang Utans, some up close, including a stand-off for about 10 mins with the aggressive "Meena" and her baby, and some further away, chilling out in the trees. The trek itself was challenging but enjoyable as we took it easy and had plenty of breaks, including some
nasi goreng (special fried rice) wrapped in a banana leaf with pineapple for lunch. After lunch we managed to see a very rare white-handed Gibbon swinging in the trees. We arrived at our jungle camp by the river at 4pm, and relaxed with some tea and biscuits, we then had a refreshing wash in the
river. That night we had an delicious candle-lit dinner in our open sided tent, cooked over a camp fire by our assistant guide and culinary genius, Loho. We spent the evening playing card games and drinking ginger-cinnamon tea, and then went to bed, drifting off to sleep to the sounds of the jungle.
The next day we woke and had a cold, refreshing wash in the river and then sat down to some banana pancakes. Whilst clearing up the camp we were joined by some cheeky little long-tailed macaque monkeys and their young, along with a couple of monitor lizards. We then set off down the river on a raft made of 3 large inner tubes, which was pretty damn cool. It was so nice drifting along and bumping over rapids with the jungle on either side and hornbills flying over head. We stopped one last time to look for Orang Utans and were not disappointed as we had our closest encounter yet with a pregnant female, who enjoyed some of our fruit. We then had some lovely noodles knocked up by Loho and then rafted off back down the river to Bukit Lawang (where we also came across a
Our jungle camp
We slept in this open-sided tent overnight in the jungle! particularly poisonous snake). All in all this was truly a brilliant experience that we'll never forget.
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pPamela
Pamela Joy Fuge
Hi, Loved reading about your experiences in Bukit Lawang- one of my favourite places- spent 5 weeks there on and off in Sept/Oct2006. Pamela.