It’s been a while that I wanted to write about jungle trekking in Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra. Together with Quentin and Francesco, I spent four days in this wonderful place. We saw huge trees with Orang Utan climbing them, met great people and had fun sleeping in the forest… but let’s tell everything in order. Read on…
Bridge Over the Bohorok, in Bukit Lawang
The three of us arrived in Bukit Lawang in the evening; the village is about four hours by bus from Medan (North Sumatra’s Capital). During the bus trip, we got to know two national park guides, Eddy and Bobby. They suggested that we stay in the Bukit Lawang Indah inn. It offered us a spacious room for three people with attached bathroom, for 30’000 Rupiah. That makes it the cheapest night in my travels so far, but definitely not the least comfortable. To reach the guesthouse, we first had to cross the Bohorok River using the bridge you see in above picture.
Looks peaceful, doesn’t it? But it has a sad history: In 2003, due to deforestation, earth and trees slided into the river and formed a dam, much like it happens in China these weeks (albeit on a smaller scale). Then, early on a November morning, heavy rainfall caused the dam to break, and a flash flood basically wiped out the village of Bukit Lawang, killing around 240 people and five tourists. Nowadays the houses and lodges have been rebuilt, but memories of the flood are still very present for the local people. Additionally, many complain, tourism broke down and is recovering only slowly. To this, I can say that it’s not only safe to go there now, but it is one of the most memorable places I’ve seen during my exchange year.
Old and New in Bukit Lawang
Kids Bathing in the Bohorok River
Anke & Niels
The couple in the picture is Anke and Niels from Germany. They have been travelling for three years now, together with their four-year-old daughter and five-month-old son (who was born in Goa, India). Impressive… They had been trekking in Bukit Lawang before, and had now come back because Maya, the daughter, absolutely wanted to see Bobby again. Anke and Niels told us about the treks they had done and how well Bobby had cared for Maya. After so much praise, we happily signed up for a three-day trip with Bobby and his partner Eddy.
It was amazing! Three days of walking up and down the hills, sleeping in bamboo tents with plastic cover, eating fantastic food cooked by our guides. Let me show you some pictures:
Bobby, Our Guide
Quentin and Francesco
Camp for the First Night
Ali, Best Cook of the Rain Forest
The Valley Where We Camped. Bohorok River
Inside the awesome forests, there was plenty to discover. Our guides could tell us about Arak Palms, Rattan, Rubber trees and other useful plants. We saw about a dozen semiwild Orang Utan (those that have lived in the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre and were released into the forest) and five wild ones. An estimated 5000 of them still live in the national park, few enough to make the Sumatra Orang Utan a critically endangered species. There were river turtles and huge lizards, various monkeys… we even saw a Hornbill from the distance! Again, pictures are probably better to describe the wonderful animals than my words.
Thomas Leaf Monkey
Francesco feeds an Orang Utan
The King of the Jungle
Avril, Eating Papaya
A Termite Nest
Wild Orang Utan! Can you spot them?
River Turtle
Kupu Kupu
Long-Tail Makaka, Proud Thief of a Can of Condensed Milk
Finally, we saw some strange animals that were using lianas to swing from tree to tree:
Francesco Feels Like Tarzan
Quentin using “Orang Utan Transportation”
Swoosh…
Eddy
Now that I’m back to Switzerland, looking at those pictures makes me hear the cicadas again, re-live the tough but rewarding climbs, feel the delicious sour seeds of the passion fruit and remember the sweet juice of fresh pineapple… if you ever need a holiday, Bukit Lawang is a station that I can recommend. Finally, if you want more information, you can contact Bobby by email. Use firman_sitepu as first part and yahoo.com as domain.