Jungle Trek!
Once Dana and I said goodbye to mom at the airport and got our visa situation sorted out so we could spend another month in this amazing country, we had some decisions to make. After a ton of research and discussion about where to go next, we narrowed our options down to three regions: West Papua, Sumatra, or Sulawesi. Each of these regions offer a unique experience and involve different budgets, modes of travel, weather conditions, and activities. It was a tough decision, but in the end, we settled on Sumatra and have no regrets, although it started off a bit rough.
We landed at about 9pm in Medan, the largest city on the island of Sumatra (the furthest west on the island chain and the sixth largest island in the world) with the plan of staying the night, then going to a national park first thing the next morning. We had no problem avoiding the overpriced ($30, negotiable) taxi drivers ("taksi, taksi, TAKSI?") and finding the bus from the airport to the city for a buck fifty each. We accidentally got off to early though, and had to walk about a half mile in the dark on a few random slabs of concrete covering the stench filled sewers that the Indonesians call a sidewalk.
We eventually stumbled into a place called Blue Angel Hostel that offered a cheap room, so we said yes right away. Upon seeing the room, we both looked at each other and agreed that we could survive there for the night, but next time, no matter how late it is or tired we are, we will assess the room situation before deciding on where to stay. There were three workers sleeping in the hallway outside our fourth floor room, which smelled like wet towel and had no sink and broken toilet. We slept in our clothes, on top of our sarongs, and used our backpacks as pillows.
The next morning, we were awoken at the ripe hour of 4:15 by about thirty mosques doing their prayer call. Ramadan had begun, so the blaring mosque sessions lasted longer and, somehow, seemed even louder than before. We did our best to sleep through it and when we finally got up and headed out to find a bite to eat, we realized we were situated directly next to the Grand Mosque of Medan.
I have to admit, the building itself was beautiful, but anything that blares a noise similar to that of a three year old with a new kazoo five times a day for twenty minutes simply doesn't go on the list of things I enjoy. To be fair, I'm not too keen on church bells either.
The rest of the morning ended up being a total flail of four hours of public transportation, vans breaking down, getting ripped off, and not finding breakfast, but when we finally arrived in the tiny jungle village of Bukit Lawang, all of our troubles evaporated.
We strolled up a narrow pathway following the river bank and found a fantastic place to stay for just a few dollars. We met a man during our bus ride who works for the jungle trek guide office and he gave us all the information we needed.
One of the many awesome things about Bukit Lawang is that you don't need to haggle your head off to get a reasonably priced tour. The guide office created set, non-negociable prices for each type of tour and the guides all get the same amount of work. This makes everyone so much more relaxed and happier.
Dana and I decided to leave the next morning on a three day/two night tour into the jungles of Sumatra to view orangutans and other wildlife.
There were only five in our group: a young Danish couple, Dana, myself, and our guide.
About two hours into our hike, we saw our first orangutan!
It was an enormous, furry, full grown male, eyeing us from way up in a tree.
Once he realized we were more fascinated with him than he was with us, he laid back down to relax on his branch.
We continued our trek through the little jungle paths, spotting a few more orangutans as well as other animals.
Our guide, Putra, explained that some of the orangutans were considered "semi-wild" while the rest were wild. The semi-wild orangutans were once part of a sanctuary functioning from 1973 to 1996 that helped rehabilitate and restore the orangutan population after a disheartening time of hunting and trading of the animals. Now that the sanctuary is closed, all the orangutans can be found in the wild.
Although many of them are known by name and loved by the locals, I was glad to see that the guides worked hard to make sure everyone respected their distance and home. We never ate around them or made a lot of noise and if one started to come down a tree toward us, Putra would gently point his stick towards it, motioning for it to go back up.
It was very cool to see that they were just as curious as we were.
After a few hours of hiking and orangutan viewing we stopped a nice spot for lunch- Nasi Goreng (fried rice with vegetables, very typical). Putra said his mom helped him prepare it in the morning.
No silverware needed in the jungle!
We even got a few hungry visitors that were shooed away like stray cats.
Carrying on with our trek up and down the winding jungle paths, we spotted a handful more orangutans, a few more monkeys, and other various insects and cool plants.
A long hike down a steep trail led us straight to our camp on the river, a little way upstream of the town, Bukit Lawang, where we started our trek.
We settled into our space, family style and had some chill time to play cards and get comfy.
The boys cooked us dinner while we learned new games and card tricks and enjoyed the river.
The next morning, we woke up to the sounds of the jungle and a fresh breakfast sandwich, made with love by the shy, young cooks who had hiked up the river carrying all the food and gear for us.
Putra gave us two options to ponder while we enjoyed our morning meal: 1. Trek for a few hours until the next camp, searching for more orangutans, monkeys, and other jungle creatures, or 2. Go swimming at a waterfall for the morning, then take a "shortcut" to the next camp. We all agreed that we were happy with the quantity of orangutans we saw the previous day, so we opted for the latter and headed upstream to the waterfall.
Putra, the most legitimate jungle boy I've ever met (read: real life Mowgli) found a couple chunks of clay in the river to make face paint, turned me into a tiger, then made a crown from a single branch. Queen of the jungle!
Who can resist a rock throwing contest? The target was a plastic bottle hanging from a string on the other side of the river.
The monkeys were our audience. More than likely, they were looking for our leftovers.
The "shortcut" stated in the morning had actually been a gnarly, hour long trek straight up, then straight down, and just as beautiful as the day before. It rained the second afternoon, so as soon as we arrived at camp, we tucked into our tent for more card games and magic tricks to pass the time.
Our greeting the second morning was beautiful fruit salad and more egg sandwiches on the riverside.
While we ate like kings, our crew strapped together a few inner-tubes with rope, wrapped our bags up with plastic sacks and rubber ties, and got us secured into our makeshift raft for an exhilarating ride back to Bukit Lawang.
Putra put the Dutch couple in first, seated right behind us in the same way, then he told us to sit side by side. We looked at each other and said "no, we want to sit like them!"
"Jack Sparrow always with rum, jungle man always with cigarette." -Putra
Dana and I decided to treat ourselves and splurged on the $28 suite for our last day in town. We had a beautiful room, bathroom with a skylight, and best of all, a rooftop terrace to ourselves, complete with hammocks and overlooked the river.
Time to relax after an invigorating trek through a tiny chunk of the Sumatran jungle.
