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Our first impressions of Sumatra are great - everyone is so, so friendly here, more so than anywhere we've been so far! One thing we've noticed is they seem obsessed with noses, particularly Rich's! People keep telling him he has a nice nose and then giggling (they seem to giggle after everything here!). We think it's cuz he has a defined, pointed nose which isn't something they see much here cuz they all have quite round, flat button noses!
Anyway, we arrived at Bukit Lawang (which is where we'll go trekking for Orang-Utan, eeeh!!) after a whole days travel... first we had to get a ferry from Singapore to and Indonesian Island called Batam where we caught a domestic flight to Medan in Sumatra, from where we bartered with a cab driver to take us the 2 hour drive to Bukit Lawang (which woul've taken 4 hours on the bus the following morning! And as there are 4 of us travelling a taxi isn't much more expensive). We arrived at around 10pm, but luckily we didn't have to search for a room cuz we were met with open arms by staff from a cheap guest house right by the river! We sat up with the staff listening to them playing guitar and sampling our first of many Indonesian beers (it'd be rude not to!).
Bukit Lawang is in North Sumatra and is a small riverside village nestled in thick jungle - it's gorgeous! On our first day we took a slow walk by the river through the village right to the end where the thick jungle starts (which took about 20 minutes!). This is also whre the Orang-Uan rehabilitation/feeding platform is - they feed them from a tiny viewing platform on the other side of the river (you have to get a little boat over!) deep in the jungle at 3pm everyday, the Orang-Utan that come here are wild but are in rehabilitation. 2 Orang-Utan came and they were huge! But beautiful! It was amazing. We went back to our guest house and organised our 2 day Orang-Utan trek for the following day! We organised it with a guy at our guest house called Sonny, who also got us some 'jungle shoes' for the occasion! Just thin, rubber shoes with rubber studs on the base, a bit like football boots... for a quid a pair! And what a buy they turned out to be!
Our trek left at 9am and it really was a TREK! We walked through rubber plantations into the thick jungle for around 6 hours, up and down steep inclines using nothing but tree roots for support (health and saftey in Asia! Thank god for our 'jungle shoes'!). There was no beaten path, it really was rugged. But we saw our first of many completely wild Orang-Utan within the first half an hour! She had a baby too, and we thought we were so luck cuz she was quite close- at the top of a tree which we could get to the bottom of! Little did we know of what was to come!
A couple of hours in whilst having a snack break on some banana's and watermelon another Orang-Utan (known as Sandra) with a tiny baby came through the jungle low enough in the tree's so that we could pass her some fruit! Her baby was like a naughty human child - it was hanging from the hairs on her arms trying to grab at my hand! It was looking me straight in the eye and it's face was as though it knew it was misbehaving! I put my palm out and it was using it's feet to touch me! One of the best experiences of my life! Then, as I was trying to position myself to take a good picture of Rich passing the banana to the mum, she got impatient so climbed down the tree, walked up to Rich, face to face, held her hand out for the banana and just took it, gently!!!!!!!!! He was gobsmacked! It was unreal! We were so lucky.
We stopped shortly by a small gorge for lunch where we tried our first Nasi Goreng (a local fried rice dish) which we ate out of brown paper with our fingers, scrummy! There were some tutles in the gorge too which I fed of course!
The last leg of the trek involved climbing through the terratory of an infamous Orang-Utan called Mena - she bites! She's even on the internet for her misbehavings! We had to climb quickly and quietly! The last challenge before reaching our base on the other side of the fast flowing river was crossing it! The guides just put us in tyre innertubes and walked us across! And there was our camp... nothing but a few twigs with a bit of tarpaulin across the top, sides and base, completely open at the front, in the middle of the jungle where wild Orang-Utan, snakes, and TIGERS live!!!! We were made a huge dinner by campfire and chatted and played card tricks for a while before hitting the hay. We were given thin rubber mats to sleep on and that was it... we were told to bring whatever else we wanted along, which Amy decided not to do and instead stole the guides sheets! She was so scared of spiders she rolled herself up in the sheets, spooned me all night and held on to my ear/hair/dreadlock... whatever she could find... for comfort! Haha! It wasn't a great night sleep, I kept getting numb on whichever side I was lying!! Didn't notice Rich having any problems though, surprise!
Waking up by th river was amazing, and unlike any other tour we've been on we weren't rushed off, infact we stayed just chilling out until lunch time, having breakfast and lunch made for us at the camp! Sonny also took the 4 of us for a completely unsafe climb up a nearby waterfall! Bonus!
At about 1pm we left camp and headed back to the village down the river by makeshift rafts made using tyre innertubers tied together... if your bum hit a rock then sobeit!!!!!!! Haha! It was soooo much fun going down the rapids, much better than having to trek all the way back! It took about an hour and we were all soaked! It was probably the best tour I've ever been on, cuz it didn't feel like a tour at all, it was so rugged and layed back. I'd recommend it to anyone.
The following day we intended to leave but didn't! Instead we took a stroll the other way through the village which was gorgeous, lots of rubber plantations, to a nearby Bat Cave which we went in, another unsafe and dark climb! Amy got a little way in before screaming about the dark and the bats! It was so funny! Me, Rich and Kiki carried on a while and could hear her sreaming about the bats flying at her as the guide escorted her out!!! Haha! We didn't go too much further though cuz it really was dark and unpleasant! Our guide left us to continue on with some other people so we were left to find our own way back through the pitch black bat-filled cave!!! Lukily we made it out alive! The following day we did manage to leave and headed South to Beristagi, but Bukit Lawang was amazing, really loved it here and would defo return!
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