Who's watching who?

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We arrived at Medan airport on lunch time, after some talks and bargain we managed to get a taxi to Bukit Lawang. It was a 4 hours trip, the road wasn’t smooth. Too many palm oil plantations as well.
In the middle of the trip there was suddenly a motorbike stopped the taxi and one guy jumped in the car. He introduced himself, Pak Ren, as the driver’s friend who works at Bukit Lawang. He was asking about where I would stay at Bukit Lawang, and what I want to do there. I really wasn’t comfortable and kind of ignore him the whole trip. Later he turned out to be okay and gave some tips about Bukit Lawang.
When we got there, there were already 2 motorbikes offered us a ride to Jungle Inn, the place we wanted to stay. So we said yes. It was a scary ride, but I do prefer to take it than to carry my backpack to walk that far.
We passed little inns and restaurants on the riverside. There were many of them. Pak Ren took me on motorbike and told me about the 2003 flood happened at this place. About 130 people died and it happened not more than 10 minutes. The water took everything off.
When we stopped Pak Ren showed me there was an orangutan hanging out on the riverside. Her name is Sasa and she’s from the orangutan reservation near there. It is so cool that people here are used to have orangutans hanging around, so Sasa could go anywhere she likes without having anyone bother her.
We got to Jungle Inn but it was full booked already, so we checked out Sam’s bungalow next to it. We took the room on tops, mine has the most beautiful river view, where I could see the entrance of Gunung Leuser National Park on it.
It is so good to be close to the jungle, orangutans, friendly people and clear river of Bohorok. I couldn’t believe that I worked overtime until midnight at office the night before.
We had good drinks decorated with flowers when we talked with Pak Ren about trekking. Bargaining a bit then we were introduced to Baba, the guide that will take us to do 1 day trekking tomorrow.
Because our rooms are booked for tomorrow we checked the hotel Pak Ren recommend for us, Eco Lodge. It was on the other side across the river and we had to walk about 20 minutes to get there.
Eco Lodge has the most confusing pricing. The cheaper rooms are the better ones for us. So we booked the cheapest one for tomorrow.
We walked back at night and had dinner at Jungle Inn. Then I chat with some of the.. jungle boys? They had this what they called ‘jungle clubbing’ every Saturday night. But it was raining hard so I decided to not jungle clubbing.
After some talks with the boys I got tired and went back to my room to rest.
The next morning I had really good shower with an open window with jungle view.
Waiting for Baba to come at breakfast to pick us up, I was playing with baby Galuh. He was so cute I forgot to eat my toasts. I’m not usually a babies fan but this one is very cute, not crying, friendly and smiles a lot.
His mom is very cool too, she’s from Medan and been living there for 2 years to help her husband running the business.
After we moved our backpacks to Eco Lodge we started our trekking. Boy the first half an hour was hell. I know I’m out of shape and just a lazy fat person who hates to exercise. So I forced myself not really to the limit, but just to the limit where I could force myself. Baba noticed and he waited for me and give some rest once in a while. I really don’t know how would I turn out if I took the 2 days trekking. There is even 7 days trekking straight to Aceh. That package made for abnormal people. He explained about rubber plants and other plants around. He showed some animals tracks and sounds. Since 1973 the area was protected as National Park by the government.
After tiring ups and downs and taking pictures as excuses to rest, we crossed a stream and got to see an orangutan in a glance. Baba tried to make a sound to lure him down but it didn’t work. So we continued our trekking until one point we rest to eat oranges Baba brought for us. He suddenly could feel there is an orangutan around, so I followed him. There was a teenager orangutan was watching us from the top of a tree. Baba brought some bananas so she would come closer.
“This one is semi-wild” Baba said. “Try to give her bananas.” Baba handed some bananas to me.
I handed it up to the orangutan, and she took them from my hands.
The time her fingers touched mine, it was really an amazing feeling. I always imagined they have rough skin, but they were really soft. All the moves they do is slow-but-sure motion, when she looked into my eyes, her eyes were just so pure and innocent.
She climbed up back to the tree, then there was come a very big orangutan swinging from trees to trees. He was so big. Baba could call him down, but this one is wlld, so we couldn’t touch him. Anyway I want to take a pic with this bearded dude, I asked baba to do so. When he did he warned me to get not too close to him. Apparently I just wouldn’t listen to him. At one second this big dude was roaring at me and showed his fangs off. I just jumped away from him. That was stupid, myself thought. He could’ve grabbed my hair and done whatever to me. If that happened it’d still be my fault to not be careful about his feeling of safety.
We passed other ups and downs, some tracks are unbelievable. Baba walked like a Tarzan man, he sometimes forgot about us and had to walked back to help us.

We got to this waterfall finally where Baba promised us a private swimming pool. We had our nasi goreng lunch Baba bought for us. With eggs and cucumber he peeled on the river. Then we met Daniella, a British girl with her guides, they were having lunch with us. I fancy how they cut the pineapples. They said they decorated all the foods and drinks they made because they made it with heart.
We took some dipping on the waterfall, it was freezing cold, but I don’t regret it all. It was really nice after many hours of sweats, dirt and heavy breaths. Baba took off his pants so he was swimming with his underwear, with socks on. It was an annoying view, but we had to let it go. We made to let it go but when we found out that his hair is waterproof, that was just it. He soaked it to the water, then he walked out of the water, shake his head, and the hair was totally dry. Magic.
After the swimming we continued our trekking. It wasn’t far this time, but after some smoking, slippy stones and wet clothes on, it wasn’t too easy. Have you ever walked down the waterfall? Well we did. It was scary to see 20 meters below, but we were already too tired to hesitate.
After a short walk we were pretty excited about tubing, though we thought the current is too big to be in a tube there.
Then there was this guy was waiting for us on the riverside. With three tubes tied by ropes and one super big plastic bag.
“how do we do this” my mind asked myself.
“okay, put your bags and shoes and whatever you want to keep dry in here” he pointed at the plastic bag. After we did that he tied the plastic bag with rubber band.
“sit here.” Baba talked to me, pointed the middle tube between the other two. So I did. “Legs up” Baba said and pull my legs up. It was a very awkward position. LM stared at me in confusion while two other guys busy preparing the ‘raft’. “You can jump in now and we will talk about this later” I said to LM.
“well I guess we don’t have any other choice” then LM sat behind me at the same tube.
The raft guy sat on the last tube and he was ready holding a long bamboo stick.
“I’m sitting in front and you didn’t even let me know, Baba.” I said.
“No, I’ll be your captain for today” Baba said. Then he took off his shirt, his shoes, his pants. He was only wearing underpants. I was worried that he wouldn’t take off his socks again. But this time, instead of taking off his socks, he wore back his shoes.
So he pushed the three-tied-tubes to the river, grabbed a long bamboo then jumped to the tube in front of me.
The current was high, the fun was even higher. Me and LM just couldn’t stop laughing the whole rafting with tubes happening. It was really worth paying after the long tiring trekking. The raft guy was screaming all the time at Baba to avoid big rocks and high tides. It was scary, exciting, but at second line I sometimes saw Baba’s leather shoes came up when he pushed the bamboo the big rocks. It keeps reminding me that he only wear his underpants with shoes and socks on. With his waterproof hair.
Baba is awesome. He’s the most eccentric guide you could find around.
We passed Jungle Inn and Sam’s bungalow, Baby Galuh and his mom were waving at us from the restaurant. Then some jungle boys we met were calling our names too from the riverside. After that, everyone was waving at us because that’s what they do here when they see a Caucasian.
“Weird situation for you to be a celebrity” I said to LM. She was laughing all the time, I bet she was enjoying it.
Then we got the tubes ride to Eco Lodge where we were going to stay that night.
We took shower and had some rest. I woke up at 8pm and remember that we had promised Daniella to meet her for dinner. I couldn’t wake LM up. She passed out. So I borrowed her maglite and walked across the bridge. I got lost in the jungle beside Eco Lodge, but then found the bridge. When I was walking, I met a guy from Jungle Inn and he gave me a ride. It couldn’t be happier. He dropped me at Jungle Tribe and there I chatted with Daniella and some other new friends. Later Baba came and joined. Then later that night he gave me a ride back to Eco Lodge bridge, which later I know it’s closer and don’t have to pass the jungle to get to our room.
When I went back to our room LM was already woke up and fresh. She asked me to take her to cross the bridge again cos she needed to buy water (I really think she was making fun of my acrophobia) So we crossed the bridge again to buy waters, beers and instant noodles. I asked her to pay for my instant noodle.
Then we went to sleep to get ready for the bike trip tomorrow.

This is Baba number if you want to check out his waterproof hair.
Baba: [phone]
And Mr. Ren would more than pleased to help you arrange your transportation around there: [phone]

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Photos

first thing we saw when we got there
sasa

made by heart
very refreshing

sometimes
i said i want to take pictures just because i was tired,

Baba
The wildest animal in the jungle

the wild one
who's watching who

there goes my favorite shoes
but the dip on behind that was totally worth it!

Comments

[pPamela]

Loved your blog about Bukit Lawang
Hi, I loved reading about your experiences in BL- one of my favourite areas of Indonesia. Loved the photos of the renovated rooms at Eco Lodge- they do look good compared to my stay there in Jan 2005. Pamela.

[natanoja]

Thanks
Hi Pamela, i've seen your name when i browse sites about Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan. Thank you for the tips you've shared and for loving Sumatra too. It's so pure in there, it's even hard for me to share this blog, i hope those places will still be the same the time i go back there..