When we arrived in Bukit Lawang I was fighting with my conscience over whether this was a good decision. I desperately wanted to see orangutans and had decided to come here over Borneo since these orangutans were apparently fully wild, whereas Borneo still has feeding centres meaning the orangutans rely on humans a lot more. We had already fallen in to the Thailand elephant trap and visited a sanctuary which didn’t seen quite as honest as it made out. I was really hoping we hadn’t made the same mistake again…..
We travelled from Medan to Bukit Lawang and were welcomed by the tour team. As we checked in the guy told us continually to ALWAYS. LISTEN. TO. YOUR. GUIDE. They always say this but he said it continually and then eventually added that they have had some problems with one of the orangutans who can get quite aggressive but if you always listen to your guide you’ll be fine! Oh, great! I wasn’t feeling too confident about this. What had we signed up for now?!
When we started our trek the next morning with our guide Helmi. He was fantastic; his grandfather and uncle had also been guides and it seemed we would be in good hands even if this monkey did get angry! He showed us the palm oil plantations (which are everywhere here) and explained why he is so against it – apart from obvious reasons it takes a lot of their water supply to support so many trees and has contributed hugely to rising temperatures, not to mention the problems facing all of the wildlife because of it…. very, very sad.
Another thing he showed us was the rubber trees. How rubber is made was the most interesting thing we’ve seen since we learnt how pineapples grow! Locals cut trails around the trunks, which lead in to a cup at the stump of the tree. They wait a day and then come back to collect the cups to sell at the market! Post-trek we each bought a pair of shoes made out of the local rubber… 20,000 IDR / £1! I only wish we had bought these pre-trek so my trainers might have survived!
We didn’t have to wait long until the first orangutan spotting. There were three playing above our heads as we walked over the border in to the national park. They were playful and so orange! Two were shy, whereas the third was more friendly. Like Borneo, apparently there was previously a feeding platform here too to help sustain the orangutans and this third one was from that era, meaning she was less scared of humans. Orangutans spotted, mission accomplished and they were BEAUTIFUL.
Later on, we met two others which were hilarious. They took no notice of us humans at all, but were very bothered by a big monkey who was getting too close to them. They couldn’t take their eyes off of it and were either physically pushing it away, or shaking whatever branch he got on to, to knock him off. So funny and although a bit of a cliché I actually thought wow, we are so lucky to be sitting here watching this!
Finally, we ran in to Mena, the ‘aggressive’ one. She was sitting on a log at the top of a hill where she apparently waits to ambush people tired from the hike up. Our guides distracted her with a banana while us tourist walked past. Usually, I’d have been preaching “That’s it! Those animals are NOT wild! You are feeding them!” but after having listened to the reality of the palm oil industry here, giving an orangutan a banana seemed somewhat unimportant compared to the larger issues locals are facing. You could tell the guides were on edge with Mena there, and when she suddenly finished said banana and jumped down from her perch they said “MOVE!”. When no one listened; “MOVE! NOW!”. One of the guides from the other group actually pushed past us to get away from her! Luckily we were in more capable hands than that and our co-guide Jojo stayed behind to make sure she didn’t follow us to lunch. He said that the huge male orangutan eventually turned up to scare her off. It was the large one that I REALLY wanted to see but alas, it wasn’t to be on this trip.
We arrived in camp and washed/swam in the cold river. It was so refreshing after a day sweltering in the jungle heat. We met our trek chef there, Aci, who was ready with tea and coffee for us. He cooked us up a delicious meal; five different kinds of Indonesian curries with rice. He made them all out here in the jungle, and he was only 20 years old! After dinner he gave us ginger tea and entertained us with brainteasers and puzzles. This was definitely the most attentive trek we had been on. Between guides and chef the service was amazing. The brainteasers and puzzles will be coming soon to a party in the UK! If we can remember them.
The next day, we had breakfast in camp whilst this huge hornbilled toucan came and sat there with us. There were also big groups of monkeys playing across the river. Amazing! We set off on our trek, and had a fruit stop (really, the guides just wanted to stop for smoke breaks; Indonesians smoke SO much!). It was just after this that the rain started. So this was what rain in the rainforest was like! It was relentless and heavy, you could barely see. The guides were great, taking our electronics and bagging them up, but it meant that the trek was effectively over for the day as there were no animals out in this downpour.
The trail to this night’s campsite was downhill and slippery. The rain had turned it in to a flowing stream, and it look us ages to reach the bottom. Once we finally did, we came out by the river and there was orangutan just right there! She had a baby with her and was washing in the stream. This was AMAZING. She was a few feet away from us, unbothered by our presence washing herself and her little baby who was grabbing on to her. We had a small let up in the rain, but when it started again she grabbed a huge leaf and put it on her head to shelter herself. The baby grabbed a piece of it to put over himself too. So, so lovely. This beats the sloth, the whales and every other amazing animal we have seen over the past year.
She eventually left us and we chilled out at the river before dinner and then more delicious curries and games. As we sat there, next to the strong flowing river, we watched the local fisherman ping around the corner in their makeshift boats. They came whizzing round in the rapidly floating water, sitting only on a tyre, bags of fish tied to it and a big stick which they use to keep themselves off of the rocks! Even funnier, was some of the trek helpers who chucked their phones, wallets and jeans in to industrial-style plastic bags, tied them up and used them as a float to get ALL THE WAY back to Bukit Lawang; at least 40 minutes away. They must have been freezing!
The next day we too were bagging our stuff up. Our guide tied tyres together to make a raft. Us in one large tyre, trek friends in another, guide on a small tyre at the back (armed with stick), cook at the front on a small tyre (armed with stick) and bags tied all over it! That is how we finished our trek; whizzing down the rapids on a shifty boat, Aki pushing us off the rocks at the front and Helmi at the back ensuring we didn’t turn sideways! We arrived back at the town soaking wet, sore from the bumps but having had the best trek of our entire year!
Later that evening, I opened our door to find Helmi knocking, to see if Luke wanted to go and watch some local football. Off they went whilst I had beers with our new travel friends. We did know already that in 2005 Bukit Lawang had severe flooding which killed a third of the town’s population. Sadly, Helmi told Luke that his Mum was killed in that number. What we learnt later was that the floods were caused by illegal logging upstream. The trees which were previously there would have stopped the flooding but even more terribly, the logs were piled up and being sneakily bought back in to the town bit by bit (the town didn’t know this was going on). It was these logs that came crashing down with the water. They killed a large number of the population and wiped out all of the buildings. Yet another example we have learnt of, where massive companies are screwing over Asia, and Asia is just getting on with it.
As far as litter, leaving no trace etc goes; our company were absolutely fantastic. Very clean and conscious of the environment. Very calm and respectful of the surroundings. Both Helmi and Jojo were great, experienced guides who have come from families of guides. I felt safe with them at all times.
As for the conservation and the ethical question of the company; yes, they did feed the orangutans, but only those friendly enough to venture to us and then Mena, who needed to eat bananas instead of eating us! I’m not fully supportive of this but understand that as orangutans who were used to getting food from the old centre they are very comfortable with human contact. I don’t think the food necessarily changes their behaviour now; I think that damage was done in the past although I do understand that if these practices don’t change the orangutans and their future generations will never fully become wild again.
Overall though, Bukit Lawang is not swarming with tourists as I thought it would be and therefore we had a good and respectful experience in the jungle. I have come to the realisation that in Asia you can rarely expect standards of wildlife protection and care of the environment to be up to those we are used to but this was pretty much there! A safe, passionate company that cares for the environment. I would thoroughly recommend them. Go and listen to their sad stories of the palm oil so that we can spread awareness of this.
A great town, great people and definitely worth not being able to have any tea (our kettle tripped the hostel electrics every time we tried to use it)!
GETTING IN | We paid 120,000 IDR / £6.30 per person for a tourist car (taxi) organised by our Medan hostel (Dazhong Backpackers – recommend!). From speaking to other travellers I’d definitely rather do this over the public bus.
GETTING OUT | Tourist buses leave BL each morning for various destinations. We paid 240,000 IDR / £12.60 to go on to Lake Toba, ferry included.
TREK | http://www.sumatraorangutantreks.com/ We paid 1,900,000 IDR / £100 per person for a 3d/2n trek.
TIPS | TAKE A RAINCOAT! Also, your shoes will get ruined. You’ll notice the guides all wear the same rubber shoes to trek in. I bought some afterwards and wish that I had purchased them beforehand. They are made from the local rubber and cost only 20,000 IDR / £1 a pair. Really cool, and a bargain.
STAY | We stayed in Batu Mandi pre-trek, which although basic was really nice. We moved in to the town afterwards, to Brown Bamboo. I actually preferred it here but the owner tries to massively overcharge on treks and transport, so be aware of that! Both rooms were 100,000 IDR / £5.20 for a double.
