Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra

 We arrived at Bukit Lawang after a full day in the car (with the craziest sick stomach symptoms ever, thanks Lake Toba mountains...). We had been in contact with 2 tour guides and had to pick one for the hike the next day. That was dramatic in itself, involving one of the guides telling us karma was gonna get us since we ended up deciding to go with someone other than him. One of the guides was at the place the car dropped us off, ready to walk us to our hotel. Introduced as Eddy, we later met Eddy #2. This was the second time a person'd introduced themselves as the person we were planning to meet, only to find out later that that person was just the friend of the real person. Why people do this is beyond me, as in the US this would be deception. They meant no harm, so why not just introduce yourself as Eddy's friend???

 That night we hit the hay hard! We were very satisfied with our little treetop bungalow, complete with a view of the river!

After a power breakfast of eggs and "pancakes," (SE Asia backpacking places are known as the Banana Pancake Trail because they all serve an assortment of fruity pancakes...really crepes, but still delicious!), we met our guides Eddy and Antone, and our two new friends, a German and Belgian guy solo travelling through SE Asia...whew, brave men!

Antone

Jungle Eddy
jungle_edie@hotmail.com
+6281397125596
fb = jungle edie 

Into the jungle! Our hike began with what is dubbed the "Jungle Breakfast," a straight 15-minute hike up the hill into the jungle. I think it was about 5 minutes into this that I was sweating through my shirt and Britteney was questioning the wisdom of this "fun vacation" choice! 

A typical path on the way up

The guides work together, one in front giving in information and one in back wandering off the trail looking for animals. We have to say, they were quite impressed that we random tourists spoke Bahasa Indonesia. Though they speak English really well, using Bahasa Indonesia really allowed us to have more conversation and joke around. 

  

Thomas Monkey, "Funky Monkey," has a distinctive mohawk!

The real attraction is the wild (rehabilitated) orangutans!! We saw 5, a couple, a mom and baby, and a male. They stayed way high up in the trees, so it was hard to see them, mostly just an orang blur!!

Orangutans are only native to Sumatra and Kalimantan, and we saw many of the Sumatran orangutans. Fun fact: orang means person and (h)utan means forest, so their name literally means "person of the forest."

Sometimes Eddy had to cut a trail through the brush with his knife...yikes!

WATCH OUT for the rattan!

Prepping lunch in the jungle!

While Britteney is a little blurry here, this is the one and one picture
 in which I do not look disgustingly sweaty, so there you have it!

The river we crossed and followed to our campsite

Then we bathed under this lovely waterfall, not unlike a cheesy romantic/jungle-setting movie! 

The resident monitor lizard (not quite a Komodo, that's another part of Indonesia!) at the campsite. 

This was the most intense camping ever, no air mattress, Mom! 

     Note to future travelers, this is just as rock-hard as it looks. And despite being in Indonesia where I always assume it is perpetually hot, it was chilly! I was not awake enough when the guides were asking us if we wanted blankets, so I slept without one until 3 AM, when one of the jungle men saw me "sleeping like a shrimp" and gave me his blanket!! Thanks, Ahmad!

The next morning we got up and trekked back up for about 2 hours. I was truly only sore from the sleeping, and just a hit in my calves. Otherwise, this is a very doable hike!

Our new German friend (above) and Belgian friend (below) modeling the way down the bluff!

Britteney, focused on getting out of the jungle! 

At the end, dirty but very happy! Ready for rafting back down the quickly flowing river! 

Upon our return, anyone else would have crashed, but Britteney and I set out to cleaning our stinkiest clothes ever. Again, anyone else may have found a laundry cleaning service, but we are self-sufficient PCVs, so I grabbed the laundry detergent packets I'd brought, and we set out to bringing my famous laundry parade to Bukit Lawang!

We decided to stay for one more night and catch the early bus back to the airport. I read by the water, bought a jillion souvenirs for all those who minta-ed oleh-oleh, and went to the orangutan feeding platform.

This also meant we could go to the discotheque Saturday night! Unfortunately for me, that meant very late and I am usually ready to sleep at 11 PM.  We really left at about 9 PM for a dinner hunt, up and down the hill time #16 and #17 (man I was sick of that path!). 11 PM was when we left for the discotheque...resulting in a vastly new record, out until 3:30 AM, home at 4 AM, packing until 4:30 AM, and leaving for the bus at 5:15 AM. A record 45 minutes of sleep! (The record for "least amount of sleep I've ever had" prior to this was about 5 hours of sleep...) The discotheque was definitely worth it! While maybe not the best music, it was refreshing to let loose after 6 months stuck in a village with no dancing!!

Looking human again! Getting ready for the discotheque! 

 Overall, Bukit Lawang was such a success! A perfect balance of relaxing, trekking and sweating, and adventure! Thanks for a fantastic trip, Britteney!!!!