Days 20-21 - A little stroll through the jungle

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I was back in another airport waiting for another flight, this time to Medan in Indonesia, to go back in the rainforest again. The flight only took an hour and caught a taxi to Kampang Lalang which could loosely be described as a bus station. From there I caught a minibus to Bukit Lawang, on arrival a guy came up to be and offered me a lift to my hostel for 5000rp. There are 14,000rp to £1 so when I went to the ATM to withdraw £100 I instantly became a millionaire – woohoo. What the guy didn’t say was that he was going to give me a lift to the hostel on his scooter which made for a very cramped journey with my backpack and daypack! It was no surprise at all to me that this guy turned out to be a local guide and asked if he could take me into the jungle.

Nora’s gustehouse is quite famous in the travelling community for Bukit Lawang and most people seem to stay there. She is a larger than life character in so many ways, she is the most corpulent Indonesian I saw on my travels and is full of fun. All the ladies of the house just spent the whole time I was there making fun of me – no change there then:-) There were two girls working there too and Nora was making arrangements for both of them to be married off to me!!

I had hoped to stay in Bukit for 3 nights and to go on an overnight trek through the jungle, but I was to find out that the earliest bus was at 08:00 which would mean that I couldn’t get to the airport in time for my flight to KL so I had to cut short my stay by one day which meant I only really had one day in Bukit. As a result I didn’t book any trips but would definitely recommend it should you ever be there. Besides you can get up to much more fun without a guide:-)

I soon got settled into the place - my room consisted of a mattress on the floor but thankfully there was a mossie net. The shared bathroom had a cold shower, no basin and it did have a western toilet but they don’t flush in these parts so you have a large bucket of water and have to pour the water into the loo with a pan!

Later on the evening I got chatting with my new chum Sebastian from Germany and he asked if he could join me the next day for my wander round the national park. There was a good vibe in the guesthouse and soon a guitar appeared and some of the girls attempted to offer some accompaniment on the vocals but they were terrible:-)

The next day Sebastian and I trudged off to the bat cave, we encountered a few bats, but no Batman. The whole area is limestone so there are several caves in the viscinity. The walk and the cave took a good couple of hours so we headed on back to Noras for some of her fab home-made cooking. Everybody in Bukit is really friendly and they say hello whenever you walk past. The guides can be a bit pushy asking if you want to join their tours but this is nothing compared to other places I’ve been.

There are two feeding times that place at the viewing centre in the Gunung Leuser National Park – 08:00 and 15:00. There was no way I would make it for 08:00 so we were going to the feeding at 15:00, there is a canoe that takes you across the fast-flowing river near the viewing centre but as we had a few hours to kill I thought it would be a good idea to make it there ourselves through the rainforest. Now I had been told that you were not allowed in the park without a guide but as usual I blatantly ignored this and we set off by the river for our little adventure. Sebastian had no idea what he was letting himself in for poor lad.

Soon the trail headed inland and ascended one of the many hills in the area, there were no markings on the trail and we could hear the river to our right as we made our way towards the viewing centre. The problem was that the trails kept forking off down other trails and it was not clear which one to take. At one point I heard some voices and the rainforest thinned out a little so we cut across this open area to find a couple of guys who pointed us to a trail that they sais lead to the viewing area. Again the problem we had was that it forked off numerous times along the way so we ended up following the trail that looked like it had the most traffic. An hour later we realised that we must have chosen the wrong fork as we were in deep triple canopy and to make matters worse it started raining. By this time Sebastien had started worrying about any little thing that crossed his mind and kept asking if this was the right way and even was a little concerned about an orang-utan attacking him! To add to this my old friends the leeches were back and the mossies were out in full. The ground was never flat, we were constantly ascending or descending and due to the canopy and the rain it was quite dark. I had wanted to keep following the trail as I could hear noises from a road in the distance and I was fairly confident I could remember the way back. I was picking up recent boot marks along the trail but my compass was useless as there were no reference points in the jungle. After another half hour I decided we weren’t getting anywhere and Sebastien was going from worrying to panicking. I was used to getting myself into situations crapes like these but this was his first time in the jungle! So we headed back the way we came and an hour later near the start of the walk we came across the viewing area!! After nearly 3 hours of trekking through the jungle we found our objective but had missed the feeding times.

As we got to the park office by the viewing office a ranger came out and started asking where our guide was, when we said we didn’t have one he went apoplectic, saying he was going to take us to the police and we weren’t allowed anywhere in the park without a guide. We played the innocent saying we didn’t know and were just following the directions we were given and eventually he calmed down a bit. Then after all his admonishing he asks us if we had seen any orang-utans and when we replied in the negative he said if we gave him a fee for the camera we could see one (I think the price of 50,000rp was a little inflated for the trouble we had caused him).



The ranger started calling out to the rainforest and initially we could just see a females head visible in the distance but then she started to move a little closer and eventually was within a couple of metres of us to reach out for the bananas that the ranger had for her. As she was feeding the ranger left Sebastian and I to make his way to the river to sort out a canoe to get us back to the other side. There was no one else there but us and the gorilla so we took some great pics. Then the orang-utan started to climb down from the tree and walked towards me, by this point Sebastian was making a hasty retreat but I stood my ground. She then walked straight up to me and reached for my pack and pulled out my water bottle that was in the mesh and put it to her lips to take a drink. She didn’t get anywhere though as the top was on so I unscrewed it for her and she took a drink. I don’t think she was very impressed with it though, I was later to learn that she was after milk! By this point the ranger was shouting at us by the river for us to join him. Thankfully he could only see the tops of our heads due to the foliage I dread to think what he would have said if he saw me sharing a drink with one of his charges (I’ve got most of this on the video attached to the page). She was absolutely gorgeous and I have always been fond of redheads so I was leaving I bent down and gave her a little hug, I couldn’t help myself. She must have enjoyed it as she gave a wonderful pose for my last pictures of her as I headed off back down to the river and the waiting ranger.

This was my last full day of my trip and it turned out to be the most memorable, we both made our way back to the guesthouse with huge grins and celebrated with a nice cold beer when we arrived.

Later that evening at Nora’s we were joined by two new chums, a Dutch girl and Patrick from Germany, who had an unusual job – he was a guide at Neuschwanstein Castle ( for those of you don’t know about this, Walt Disney copied it for his logo) so I promised to sayhi if I ever visited there.

After a great night I had to leave the next day to catch my 3 flights to get home to rainy Manchester. In 3 weeks I had taken 11 flights and travelled tens of thousands of km and seen some wondrous things, now where to next? – well I’ve been watching Argo…….



Boring Bits

This is some info from the Bukit Lawang website which is accurate, you can get a taxi or tuktuk from the airport to Kampung Lalang.

Buses leave from 'Kampung Lalang' a district on the outskirts of Medan, about 8km from the centre. They are supposed to leave from Pinang Baris, the bus station close by, and transportation drivers may try to take you there, but anyone in the area should be able to direct you to the right place to catch a bus, which is directly outside the 'Toko Roti Mawar' (Mawar Bakery).

Mitsubishi L300 (known as el-tiga ratus) minibuses are significantly faster, slightly more expensive, but cramped. Large buses, known as PS (pronounced Pay-Es), because the operator is Pembangunan Semesta (government) are a few thousand rupiah cheaper and slower. The cost is approximately 10,000rp/12,000rp (a little over US$1). On the minibus the expected occupancy is four in each row, including the front (so three plus driver). If you don't want this, when you feel that your section is getting too crowded, you can offer to pay an extra fare to keep the space a bit less cramped (for example, a couple sitting in the front might need to pay three fares to avoid getting someone else sharing with them).

Smoking, with the windows closed, is common on the minibuses, Indonesians don't like the wind! The minibus engine is mounted under the front seat, so it can be quite hot here (but also anywhere else in the bus). The buses break down quite often, and if this happens you will be expected to pay the cost of your journey to where the bus has broken down, from where you just have to wait for the next bus to go by.

Last bus is around 5:30pm, and the journey time is 3 hours by minibus, 4 hours by large bus.

The Bukit Lawang bus station and weekly market (Fridays) is located in the village of Gotong Royong, about 2km from Bukit Lawang itself. Although private cars (including the air con tourist buses) and motorbikes can enter Bukit Lawang (although cars cannot get past the entrance area), buses run only as far as the bus station.

To get from the bus station to Bukit Lawang itself you can walk (but it's long and hot), or just go in a becak like everyone else. This has a fixed price of 5,000rp, you don't need to negotiate with them as you would in Medan, just get in the becak and go.

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Photos

palm fruits
Palm oil is extracted from this

Comments

[Sylvia Hall]

Another wonderful trip. You will be enjoying looking back on these trips in your old age!!! No seriously what an opportunity to travel like you are doing. Keep going. I loved your new found chum!!" The Singapore Light Show was very similar to the one we saw in Las Vegas. We enjoyed that experience when we went last year on route to Hiwai. Keep blogging and enjoy. Love Sylvia