7th November – 10th November
This is a super long post. Whilst I suggest you read it because, frankly, I am hilarious and this weekend, for me, was indeed the highlight of our time in Indonesia. But if you don’t feel like you can make it through the whole thing, scroll to the bottom and watch the video Martin made that summarises our trip perfectly.
Now we get to the part of the trip that I was most looking forward to. I had initially intended for this entire weekend getaway to be a surprise for Martin to celebrate our anniversary (2 years!!). You see, we don’t like to give each other gifts on our anniversary, we have too much stuff, especially now that we have to carry it all on our backs. Instead, we prefer to do something awesome together. Our first date was a pretty spectacular firework display. Last year we went to a super fancy restaurant and stayed in a nice hotel. This year was less glamorous, but WOW was it amazing.
I had to end up telling Martin what I had planned about halfway through our Japan trip as the costs were working out to be slightly more than I had anticipated and asking him to fork out £300 for something he genuinely might hate seemed a bit harsh. In hindsight starting to the conversation with “Martin, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, and we need to talk” was not the best way to go. But I quickly saved myself by following up with “I have found an amazing opportunity for us to camp in the jungle and spend our anniversary surrounded by wild orang-utans, but it’s gonna blow our Indonesia budget”. After a brief telling off for my insensitive approach to the conversation, Martin assured me that, as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, we should 100% be going for it, budget be damned!
After spending two days in Jakarta, we were ready to get out of the city and see some of Indonesia’s famous jungle. We had a long journey ahead of us, a two-hour flight followed by a four-hour drive along crazy Sumatran city roads and through bumpy jungle tracks. To break up the trip, we stopped off at a crocodile sanctuary where crocodiles that are in danger of being killed in the local area for interfering with livestock or invading people’s homes are relocated here to protect them. There were dozens of crocs swimming around in a giant lake, and the sanctuary runs educational programmes for visitors to help them understand the importance of preservation and prevent the needless killing of these magnificent creatures.
We continued on our long journey, through towns and cities and jungle, past many palm oil farms and also lots of reforestation efforts. We eventually arrived at our destination: Cheeky Monkey Sumatra Guesthouse. The place was excellent. There were outhouses and covered areas for chilling, bean bags, a roof terrace and several little hidden spots for drinks and some privacy. We fell in love with the place at once and instantly found ourselves wishing we could spend more time here. We were even more taken when we were greeted with fresh coconuts and a great chat with one of the owners. He gave us the lowdown on our upcoming jungle trek and the village itself.
Unfortunately, about 20 minutes after we arrived, while we were still sipping our coconuts on the terrace, the heavens opened. Having spent time in South East Asia before I thought I knew what rain was. But I have never seen anything like this. It was so heavy and went on for HOURS.
We spent the rest of our evening trapped inside, playing cards, eating amazing Sumatran food and just generally lounging around in beanbag chairs. When the bugs started invading our privacy as they were also trying to find refuge from the relentless rain, we decided to call it a night. It had been a very long day of travelling, and we had an even longer, far more exciting day to rest up for.
On the morning of our anniversary, after a hearty breakfast of, you guessed it, banana pancakes, we were ready to set off into the jungle. Backpacks and walking boots at the ready, we headed off towards the other side of the lake, towards the dense tree line ahead. On the way, we had to cross this bridge and pretend that we didn’t fear for our lives the whole time.
The first thing we came across was a rubber farm. At this point, we had to slather ourselves with 50% Deet as rubber is collected in little bowls of water which is a breeding haven so pesky little biters. They swarmed around us in clouds, and we were pretty happy to be away from the rubber farm as quickly as possible (also, it stank).
About half an hour after we entered the jungle, after less than an hour in total of walking, we ran into our first orangoutang. It was a small female, and she was just chilling out in the trees, watching us, seemingly without a care in the world. At this point there were probably 20 other tourists around us, all vying for the best shot of this magnificent creature. She was stunning. To our left, we heard a rustle and, on further inspection, found that there was also a male nearby, just a few trees over. Our guide believed that they might be preparing to mate as orangoutangs are generally solo creatures except for mating.
Behind us, swinging through the trees and refusing to be ignored were a family of Thomas Leaf Monkeys. These adorable little creatures are named for their diet and their discoverer. They, unlike the orangoutangs, spend their whole lives in big family groups and have a strict social structure to follow.
We walked through the jungle for about 8 hours, stopping routinely for food (SO much food), monkey and orangoutang spotting. In total, the first day, we saw six orangoutangs, including two babies that were wrapped in the arms of their mothers.
The jungle around Bukit Lawang is an exciting place. The bush itself is a heavily protected nature reserve with lots of rangers that sleep in the forest and help to protect it from poachers and illegal loggers. The orangoutangs, while wild, are the descendants of those who were bred in sanctuaries and later released. This means that they are somewhat used to the presence of humans and often take advantage of the many culinary delights that we tend to bring with us on our treks. Any skin that retains its sweetness and appeal, like watermelon, is buried, so it doesn’t entice the apes t leave the trees. There are one or two orangoutangs left in the jungle that were raised in the sanctuary; these can be easily identified as they are more willing to walk around at ground level rather than refusing to leave the comfort and safety of the higher branches.
“… gorge themselves on the blood of the innocent”
During our trek, we also discovered other, less enticing, aspects of jungle life, Namely leeches. The heavy rain the evening before had brought these little beasties out of hiding and into our path at every turn. For some reason, they seemed particularly attracted to Martin. It took us a while to figure out that they can drop from trees as well as climb like ninjas so every time Martin found one on his arm, or halfway up his trouser leg, we had to wonder where on earth they had come from.
The kicker, however, was that Martin had chosen to wear loose weave woollen hiking socks. A sensible choice for the terrain, one might assume. The problem was that the weave was loose enough for the most determined worm-like blighters to squeeze through undetected and then ultimately get stuck inside the sock and, with nothing left to do but chow down, gorge themselves on the blood of the innocent (Martin).
This eventually lead to Martin borrowing my spare pair of bright pink socks with a considerably tighter weave. The scenes I witness during this sock change will stay with me for years to come. #bloodbath.
Along the way, we met up with another couple trekking with our guides’ friend. They decided that we would all journey together seeing as we were all Australian (3 Brits and a German but close enough). Tom and Kirsten made us look like absolute amateurs. We were scrambling over fallen branches, using our hands to drag us over tree trunks and routinely tripping and sliding all over the place; we were filthy and sweaty and gross.
These two, however, barely broke a sweat. They look as pristine as if they were off to a morning yoga class after a rejuvenating smoothie. If they weren’t as lovely and funny as they were, we might have objected more to their presence. As it was, we got on like a house on fire and their guide, while probably not helping us to spot any more wildlife due to him shouting “come out orangoutangs!! We want to see you!!” At the top of his lungs every 4 minutes, was pretty amusing and had some decent jokes.
After one last fruit stop, where we were essentially held hostage until the 4 of us finished enough fruit to feed a small army, we made our way down to our camp, the final destination for the day. I use the word “camp” in its most traditional sense. There were six wooden frames, half-covered with plastic tarps; three for sleeping, which were hung with mosquito nets and some chaste bedding. The other three were for cooking, one for each of the various tour companies that use the camp.
After a massive jug of tea, some biscuits and some much-needed water, we went to wash off the day’s hardships in the nearby waterfall. The water was crystal clear and cold, and falling freshwater creates a kind of air-con effect that made it difficult for us to leave. We took a few quick snaps and then got freaked out by the monitor lizards that had been making its way upstream behind us so went back to camp to chill out and play some games while we waited for dinner.
That evening’s meal, true to form, was an invariable feast. The chef, who had hiked from town with everything on his back, had done a truly fantastic job. There was rice, vegetable curry, fried chicken, spicy whitebait, potato balls, fried vegetable, small tofu and many other delights. Thankfully both the chef and our guide sat down to eat with us, so we didn’t feel too bad about not being able to finish everything. That being said, they did eat like sparrows and leave the rest to us, they even went so far as to bring us a pineapple for dessert that we couldn’t even touch. At this point, it is probably prudent to mention that there was no plumbing in this camp…
Sleep came pretty quickly after the day we had had, the beds were not the most comfortable, but we made the most of it. It’s not the kind of setting most people would spend their second anniversary in, but to us, it was perfect. What made it even more special is what we woke up to:
Right outside of our makeshift tent was this spectacular sight. A mummy and her baby just chilling in the tree, very calmly surveying the campsite and, seemingly, posing for some beautiful pictures. We climbed out of bed, snapped a few shots of this magnificent creature and settled down to some tea and biscuits to wait for our breakfast.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m going”
After an hour of sitting peacefully in the tree, the mamma orangoutang’s intentions became a little more clear. While pouring myself a cup of tea, I was alerted to movement by the guides shouting at someone on the bank next to the orangoutang.
“Move brother!”
At the last minute, I looked up to see the mamma drop for the tree and race, with incredible speed, straight towards me. Having less than a second to think I jumped up and dived out of the way, spilling my tea in the process. The mighty ape came to a screeching halt where I had been sitting only moments earlier and began trying to grab every edible thing she could see. The rangers, who I imagine had expected this from the beginning, had already started picking up the biscuits and moving the jug of boiling tea before she could reach for them.
For all her efforts, all she managed to grab was a cup of sugar that was set aside for our tea. She picked up the cup and downed the lot, just like you would a jaeger-bomb in Romford on a wild Saturday night. She continued to look around for more goodies but, seeing that they had all been taken away, she started to make her way back to the tree she came from. It was a sight that I wish I had caught on camera because I don’t think I could ever adequately describe the humanness with which she acted; going so far as to ‘shoo’ the guides away as if to say “yeah, I know, I’m going.”
After all that excitement, it’s barely worth mentioning the long-tailed macaques that were ever-present in the camp and who were wildly entertaining in their efforts to steal some grub. I will say though, that shortly after the orangoutang incident one nearly shat on me. And we watched an ingenious scheme whereby smaller monkeys would come into the camp and steal small amounts of food, presumably to see if they could get away with it, quickly followed by a much larger monkey who would nab the rest.
We know we should have tried to intervene, But this was too funny.
After the excitement of the morning, we packed up our bags and headed towards the river for our tubing experience. This was the fun part of the trip. Basically, they tie three inner-tubes together; one for us, one guide at the front and one at the back. We all scramble in and float down the river, through the calm and the rapids, back into town.
But first, more fruit.
As we sat around, forcing more fruit than we thought possible down our gullets, our guide and our chef were setting up the tube raft. All of our valuables were placed in a bag along with our shoes. We were dubious as to the quality of this waterproofing system, but far too tired to doubt it and have to trek back to town.
What followed was 10 minutes of pure joy as we wooshed down the river, through rapids, into rocks, spinning in the currents. It was a brilliant experience that we won’t forget in a hurry and a perfect way to end our two-day adventure.
Once we had made our triumphant way back into town, and after a short, sodden walk back to the hotel, we had a much needed freshen up. We also had some much-needed grub in the form of tempe, sambal and fried potato, a Sumatran delicacy. At this point, we were feeling rejuvenated to make the most of our short time in Bukit Lawang and head back into town for some exploring. The town is perfectly cute, it’s a holiday village for Indonesian people, and a fair few Malaysian tourists make their way there too. Some of the homemade bridges look like you would be dicing with death to cross, but they add to the whole chilled, happy, self-sustaining vibe of the area.
We spent some time wandering through markets and a wide range of hotels and guest houses and finally decided on a warung overlooking the river for a beer and a banana smoothie. We had been sat there for less than 15 minutes when Tom and Kristen walked in, having been recommended our warung for dinner by their hotel. We all sat together and, over a few beers and some delicious Indonesian food (featuring my favourite: gado gado), rehashed the events of the past two days. We compared notes on guides, orangoutangs spotted food (quality and quantity) and had a great chat about our ongoing trips.
As it turns out, they live just down the road from us in the UK, on one of our commonly traversed cycle routes, we parted ways with a promise to meet up for a post cycle coffee back home. Luckily we stayed just long enough to catch this lightning storm featuring a shooting star. Then it was time to wander home and get ready for another long day of travelling the next day.
The whole experience wouldn’t have been complete without our final little nightcap with the owners of Cheeky Monkeys, our guide and the other guys that worked at the hotel. As it turns out, it was their anniversary too, so we all toasted a few good drams of Jack Daniel’s. After some laughs and a round of goodbyes, it was time for us to hit the hay. Jogjakarta awaits.
Below is a video we put together of the whole experience