Reed About Beer: Bukit Lawang, Jungle Trekking with Orang-Utans (More Bintang)

Our second day in Sumatra started with an early morning opelet ride (jazzy pick-up truck) to the bus station where we caught a local bus for our three and a half hour journey north to Bukit Lawang. The journey was a bumpy ride with locals offering us fruits while everybody on board chain smoked kretek (Clove) cigarettes.

Our Morning Opelet

First Bus Indonesian Style

On board we also met a friendly chap called Hasana who ended up being our guide for the orang-utan jungle trek. You are told to be wary of bad guides but he turned out to be perfect. From the bus station in Bukit Lawang we walked into the village which was a beautiful town made up of wooden shacks along the banks of the Sungai Bohorok River. Hasana was a great help. We organised our trek and he helped us across the most shaky unsafe bamboo bridge in the world to his uncle’s guest house called Wisma Leuser Sibayak, while his mate Smiley sorted us out some hiking boots or more accurately plastic football boots for £1 per pair.

Entering the village of Bukit Lawang

Bricking it big time

Our accomodation that belongs to Hasana's uncle. Means crossing the river a lot!

One of Kate’s lifelong dreams has been to see orang-utans in the wild and the day was finally here. The one we have talked about for a very long time. We headed into the Teman Gunung Leuser National Park with our guide Hasana and his assistant. Hasana was a dream and an amazingly knowledgeable guide about wildlife, history, plants, eco-systems and tropical medicine.

All tucked in and good to go. Check out those £1 shoes

Our Guide Hasana sharing his knowledge

Rubber from a Gum Tree is major business

A Thomas Leaf Monkey

Thirty minutes into the trek was truly amazing where we came across our first sightings of orang-utans in the wild. A mother and her baby watched us calmly from the trees and our first interaction was emotional with Kate shedding a tear. We had a very lucky day where we managed to see sixteen orang-utans in total along with other species of monkey including the Thomas Leaf monkey. The day didn’t pass without incident. We came across the infamous Mina with her baby who was walking the passage ways of the dense rain forest, and it has been said that she has bitten 100 people since the turn of the millennium. Then came the best part of the day if not our whole trip so far when we were lucky to cross paths with Jakey and her baby where Kate got a huge hug. Jakey lives successfully in the wild with her young but has fond memories of humans from her rehabilitation which is why she is always on the look-out for a human hug.

Kate's First Sighting

Checking us out...

Up close and personal with grumpy Mina and her baby

Jakey grabbing a feel of Hugo's bottom

Now she looks happy. New best friends

Kate, Jakey & the Little One xx

Lunch time arrived in the canopy of the rain forest. Out of a rucksack came fried rice, prawn crackers and a fried egg with chilli sauce all wrapped in a banana leaf. Truly delicious with pineapple for dessert, and there was us expecting a sandwich. The carbohydrates were and would be needed for it was a long strenuous trek which lasted about ten hours with the most difficult part being our vertical decent through the bush towards the river bank in the afternoon. After reaching the river bank I don’t think I could have taken another step due to exhaustion, so it was a good job our journey back to the village was tubing the river rapids in large inflatable rubber rings. What a great end to an unforgettable experience.

What do we have for lunch?

Not bad Jungle Tucker!

We make the climb down to the river

Time for Tubing the River Rapids

Me and Kate with our guide Hasana-What a DAY!

The next few days were spent visiting the Bohorok orang-utan feeding centre, which you got to by crossing the river on a dugout canoe that was pulled by a rope. The orang-utans were fed twice per day at the centre (8.30am & 3pm) and we were able to watch rangers feed a number of semi-wild orang-utans who are or have been rehabilitated from captivity or sudden habitat displacement due to logging.

The Orang-Utan Feeding Centre

Crossing the river from the feeding centre via a pully rope

Rangers feeding one of the semi-wild with bananas and milk

Beautiful Animals

Soaked but well worth it

Bukit Lawang is all about trekking and our red-headed cousins but the place itself is also postcard picturesque. Unfortunately it has had some traumatic times in previous years especially in 2003 when flash floods wiped out most of the riverside area with families losing homes and loved ones. This was understood more when we visited an orphanage that had been set up by a teacher from Holland to educate and give a safe place for children to grow up and develop after losing whole families during the floods.

Entry to the Ophanage

One of the main classrooms

Bukit Lawang also gave us the pleasure of meeting three Quantum Physicians Tomek, Hugo and Kavan who lived and worked in Singapore. We bumped into the guys during our one day trek while they went on to complete a three day trek. We saw them arrive in town by tube where to our great surprise Tomek had captured some amazing photographs of Kate’s surprise meeting with Jakey. This was lucky for me because I was too busy videoing rather than taking pictures. I owe you Tomek! Before leaving Bukit Lawang we enjoyed some local cuisine of Nasi Campur Ayam with the boys as well as some well earned Bintang and learning the orang-utan song that has the jingle bells theme. There was also the coincidence that Hugo’s uncle actually manages and set up the Belo Brewery in Goa, India about forty years ago. What a great contact and he couldn’t believe somebody else had actually consumed Belo. What a brilliant end to Bukit Lawang.