Meet the Ancestors

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Sumatra....

'Why Sumatra?', I hear you ask. And no it's nothing to do with a book of 'those' positions - that's the Karma Sutra you bunch of pervs. Well ,the real reason is that after watching the late Steve Irwin do a documentary with the Orangutans in Borneo I thought that maybe by visiting them, all my questions about being ginger could be answered by these 'men of the forest'. Plus in return I could share with them the hardships of being the only ginger in the class when growing up in 1970s Gloucestershire. Thus paving the way for some primate - homo sapien bonding, making the world a better place. Hmmm maybe. But anyway before this, I had to get thro Medan.....

Getting there....

First impressions of Medan weren't good. Well it was cool that I was the only Westerner on the plane from Malaysia but not good that no-one seemed to know anything about the bus to Bukit Lawang and the lady at what looked like the tourist info didnt' seem to speak English (they hadn't thought this thro).

I put myself into the hands of the taxi driver who had told me he would try to find the bus but if he couldn't he knew a hotel....that old story. He went on to inform me (after under 10 mins) 'you and me, we good friends'. An hour and a half later and there was still no bus so I asked him to take me to a guest house listed in the Lonely Planet (pure coincidence that it was next to a KFC - but Taylor take note). It was closed (the guest house, not the KFC). Then another. It was full.

A local then offered to walk me to another hostel. It was down a dark alley and pretty dingy. Nah, it was pretty rank to be fair and I would have to share his family's bathroom. hmmm. Then off to the next place and this time I had swapped the 'dinginess' for a 'busy road' which, from the outside, seemed a lot better. On arriving in the room I realised not only was it on a 'busy road' and have an 'equally manky bed' ...but it also came 'with cockroaches'. It did however come with a ceiling fan which balanced things out, sort of. Anyway I thought I'd stay there and leave early in the morning.....not quite as early as my early morning call tho - 4.30am - as I soon discovered my hostel was also 'near a mosque'...

When I was dropped at the bus station (well a bus on the side of the road which I was told would take me to Bukit Lawang) I felt I had made progress. I got chatting to the kids on the bus selling sweets and stuff. I bought some and offered them round and waited, and waited....and waited. I had read that the buses only leave when they are full, but our bus only had around 8 people on it (this included the 3 kids that were selling sweets). I noticed two Westerners leaving the bus as I thought they knew something that I didn't so I followed....

So, on to the 'Plan B' then, which involved a mini van with my new found friends: Branco (US), Joanne (Can) and Clara (Ind). The cost would be under a pound for the 4 hour journey so as you can imagine it wasn't the best of minivans. And along the way it would stop whilst locals would look inside and try to chat to us and get us to go trekking with them when we arrived at BL. At one point two guys just started playing music and singing, it was surreal so I chucked a few cigarrettes in their hat and then we moved off (cigarrettes are a kind of currency so I got a pack for this reason, it wasn't the stress of travelling in Sumatra, altho it could have been).

Bukit Lawang

Back in November 2003 BL was damaged by flash flood which caused many deaths and much devastation. I had read that this was due to illegal logging upstream. But when I asked someone who was giving me a ride to my hostel (who incidentally had lost his sister in the flood) he claimed that this wasn't the case....So, sorry folks I'm none the wiser...(pause)....Don't look at me, I wasn't there. I was probably completing a spreadsheet or something.

Anyway the place is famous for being the village right by the Gunung Leuser National Park and the home of the Orangutan and the Rehabilitation/Feeding Centre. It's remoteness meant that the nearest ATM was 3 hours away in a bus (hmmm, 'a bus' you say..), internet was on a hill (but closed for the first 4 days I was there) and electricity where I would stay was limited to around 4 hrs per day. Altho storms often reduced this further.

After we arrived at BL we first had to cross not one but two bridges (jealous Kev?) on the way to the famous Jungle Inn. I was shown two rooms, one the most expensive (but still only around 18 pounds) and another more reasonable one. For one night, and one night only I went for the expensive one. Man was it good tho. An open air bathroom with a view of the forest, a huge bed and a balcony with a hammock overlooking the river. Check out my youtube for the guided tour'.

On the eve of seeing these great creatures I pondered for a moment if word had got out that I had arrived and if the Orangutans would be as excited about seeing me as I was about seeing them. I wondered if, when I strolled onto my balcony in the morning, there would there be a few groups of them waiting quietly over the river, cameras poised, going 'shhhhhhh, don't frighten him off', 'it's so great seeing a real ginger in the wild', ...'I wonder if he's going to order a bacon sandwich for breakfast or go for a waz first'...


Jungle Trekking, Jungle Trekking in Bukit Lawang..

After around an hour and having seen some Thomas Leaf monkeys we still hadn't seen any Orangs but then the moment came....

It was a truly remarkable experience seeing the bright orange colour of the Orangs in the distance, and even better as the trees began moving as they got closer. Sometimes you would see the trees move before you would see them. It was a fantastic experience . We saw around 7 and two came up close as they were semi wild and come to take the fruit that the guides have with them..

We carried on and within half an hour came into contact with another. This time it was one called 'Mina'. The panic caused by the guides spotting her gave me an indication that she was an aggressive one. We had to leg it past where she was looking to intercept us at the path. Luckily tho our guide coped really well and pacified her with some food and whilst we kept our distance we were able to watch and take photos. Our guide told us that Mina had recently attacked one of the guides who wasn't carrying any food.....schoolboy error if ever I saw one.

After an excellent jungle lunch by a river we also spotted white handed gibbons, long tail macaques, horn bills, ants, a tortoise, a Sumatran Tiger (only kidding) mozzies, and er more ants.... We then passed the Orangutan feeding centre and saw two more. On the final stretch home we came across another few, the last of which started dumping on us from a great height (probably the Marketing dept) so we moved on.

By the time we got back it was around 6pm and the following day would see me go to the feeding platform, if the river would allow..

To Tube or not to Tube...

No joy with the feeding platform, the river was too high so we decided to go tubing instead that afternoon. However, and it was a pretty big however in fact, as we then found out that a local man but had died doing it that morning. The others decided that it wasn't 'a good vibe, man' or 'good karma' so we shelved our plans until another day (but not a rainy day obviously).

It did however pave the way for me to join in some local Sumatran football (see photo of pitch). It was a bit of a free for all and as there were no kits (and some went skins anyway) which made it all the more difficult. In addition there were stones, pebbles, just the odd bit of grass and a monster lake in one of the goals. Despite these conditions I felt pleased that I was able to bring the art of 'goal-hanging' and 'not tracking back' to this corner of the world. 'Let's hope I can bring something to the Orangs when I offered to volunteer tomorrow', I thought....

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Photos

Me with an Orang in the wild..
(I'm the one in the foreground..)

Bukit Lawang
Central area where river bends and main bridge crosses

The other bridge
Not east to cross with 2 rucksacks

Shower in the Jungle
Great view and the water sprays off the plants

Orang-utans in the wild
My first viewing

Watch out Mina's about!
And she looks mad

The Local Stadium
and the place of my first game since leaving the UK

Watch out Mina's still about..
And still looks mad

Orang in the wild
A pregnant female wanting food

Lookout point
The guides would climb this tree barefoot to spot Orangs. I managed about 10 ft...with shoes

The other bridge
It was only after I pressed click that I realised the man in the foreground was takng a waz

Steel Bridge
You watching Kev?

There's a rat in my bedroom...
....what am I gonna do? I'll prob just change accomodation

Comments

[King Kev]

Bridges
Hi Gaz Thanks for the txt's, just back from States and catching up with work email's and your blogs.... the blogs are more interesting. The Bridges are becoming a theme.. i think your getting hooked!!! keep walking themand taking photo's..... Keep up the blogs