Warning: this post contains graphic animal behaviour, from copulating macaques to a snake making a kill. If you don’t wish to witness mother earth in action, look away now.

Day 114 – Arrival to Sumatra, Indonesia

So, we’ve left Malaysia and arrived in Indonesia! After an epic immigration fail by yours truly, where I discovered I had input my birth date as 1900 on my e-Visa application (they didn’t accept it, I had to buy a separate Visa On Arrival which is a pain in the arse for many reasons), we were on the road and very, very slowly travelling to Bukit Lawang, 5 hours north-west of the major city Medan.

The vibe was immediately different than that of Malaysia. Ultra modernity was gone and it felt most like rural India than anywhere else in SE Asia. We passed through busy towns, roads gridlocked at times. Non-uniformed people took part in trying to navigate traffic for seemingly no reason and nobody actually did what they vigorously whistled at them to do. All quite confusing…

So we arrived in Bukit Lawang quite late, certainly after dark, and we were taken from our car and placed on mopeds for an unsettlingly speedy whizz down a long alleyway, sharply up and down hills, in the fairly heavy rain. A few minutes later we were in the cafe of Sumatra Orangutan Explore, where we were being given instructions and advice for our upcoming three day, two night jungle trek, starting the following morning.

Day 115 – Jungle Trek

You heard right ladies and gents, we are heading into the jungle and we will be sleeping within. Perhaps our most adventurous… adventure to date. To kick things off, I thought we could whet your distinguished palettes with a classic SLL ATV.

We packed up all we would need, donned our unfashionable sweat wicking sports t-shirts, and arrived at 9am to depart into the jungle.

Yahya and Fabian, our guides, introduced themselves with comforting smiles and great English. We also met our companions for the trials ahead; a young German woman about to start her first Junior Doctor job (always good to have on hand), a young french gentleman with an excellent hat and a good camera (he would become my photographic rival in time) and a lovely couple from good old blighty, also on a mega travel trip – but doing an entire year! We counted ourselves very fortunate to have been grouped with such great people, soon to become our friends (hashtag cringe).

Administrative note: not all the photos in this blog are taken by yours truly. Some camera photos are from talented young Houssen from our group, as well as phone pics from members of the group / the guides. All wildlife photos are mine own.

To get into Gunung Leuser National Park, we had to cross an epic bridge over a mighty river, alongside which Bukit Lawang (the town) spreads itself.

Not much later, while still making our introductions, really, whispered calls of “orangutan!” filtered through from up ahead. It was outrageously early in the trek to find them, and we were all slightly bemused, actually! There was a lovely mother and child (teenager) sitting up in a tree together. The teen wandered off (via branches) and was playing a few meters away while the mother surveyed us.

There were quite a few people here; we weren’t even IN the park yet, and this is clearly where they bring all the day trekkers to get their glimpse of a semi-guaranteed orangutan.

Another showed up a bit further back on the path so we went to look at him too. There were a few too many onlookers to be truly comfortable about the experience, but I suppose realistically the orangutans could have left at any point and seem to want to come back to the same spot most days so they can’t hate it too much. The orangutans we witness further on feel much more in the wilderness and more of a privilege to see.

Just an hour later, with only a bit of sweat drawn from us, we stopped. Fruit break, apparently! The guides set to work chopping up a truly ridiculous amount of fruit. Our jaws dropped more and more as they brought out yet another pineapple, dragon fruit or a more exotic mangosteen or snakefruit out of what appeared to be a relatively small bag. We eventually laughed when they started decorating the perfectly arranged platter with flower petals… Maybe this wouldn’t be so rough and ready after all?

Full of fruit, we carried on and got our first glimpse of gorgeous Thomas’ Leaf Monkeys. Smallish and very playful, they have a unique stripe on their spiky forehead. Really cute and it was a real pleasure to sit and watch them.

It wasn’t long till lunch – delicious and nutritious noodles wrapped up in a banana leaf. Onwards and, in it’s defence, the trek actually got pretty challenging – it was up a hill then down, over and over. It got steep in places but we rested often and were safe under the watchful eyes of our guides.

At 4-ish, we arrived at camp, a series of makeshift shelters made of wood with tarp thrown over them next to a pale blue but heavy flowing river, the sound of it drowning out most of everything else. We stripped out of our sweat-soaked clothes, hung them to (not) dry and all got in the river to cool off. It was all smiles and relief as we reviewed the day’s treasures and shared travel stories. We sat bathing for a good 40 minutes before drying off for tea and biscuits on a mat, followed eventually by dinner on a mat by candlelight.

We slept under the tarp of one of the aforementioned shelters, each couple / solo person with their own mosquito net on a thin faux leather mat, otherwise open to the elements. It was quite hot and we all slept pretty badly!

Day 116 – Jungle Trek

We didn’t sleep so badly that a hearty breakfast, coffee and sliding back into our wet clothes didn’t wake us up for the day. We were off up a steep hill and within 30 minutes had spotted another orangutan sitting high up in a nest. Orangutans make at least one new nest every single day! One to sleep in, sometimes another to chill in. This one only poked it’s head out from time to time, or a gangly, backlit ginger arm might snake out to absently hold a branch for a while.

Murmers, as a baby peeked out. So many of the orangutans we saw had babies or children. Surely a good sign, no?!

We marched on, the trekking markedly harder than the day before. As we crested a hill, a new monkey greeted us. A big pig-tailed macaque was just sitting on the side of the path, on a log. It was there in such a dumbfoundingly human way, and it even made some gestures like that of a person, checking it’s fingernails or putting it’s head in hands in desperation.

There were a few others to watch as well, with fearsome teeth and strong muscles; you wouldn’t want to meet one in a dark alley. So different to the much more common long-tailed macaques seen all over Asia, it’s a wonder they’re related at all.

It was fruit stop time – this time we’d earnt it – but we had some unwelcome guests. Pig-tailed macaques had clearly cottoned on to fruit hour, and were lurking in the vicinity.

They were chasing and fighting each other around us, and a few times Yahya had to threaten one with a stick to defend the fruit. There was an hilarious moment where these two male macaques who had been chasing each other finally squared up to one another… we all watched, tense at what might unfold when… one popped on the others back and started humping him. It was over in seconds and we were all incredulous and laughing. I was sad not to have caught the act on my camera (I’m a wildlife photography enthusiast folks), which I was holding, but fear not – I will be vindicated on that front later…

A hard hike on, interspersed with monkey sightings eventually led us down a VERY steep path to our camp for the night.

Our ritual was much the same as the night before, again by the roaring river, sharing stories and talking all things political, cultural and philosophical. Anything ending in al, really. It was lovely! We all slept much better that night, most likely on account of being ridiculously exhausted.

Day 117 – Jungle Trek

So on this day, we had the option of a 4 hour trek back up the insanely steep hill we came up before, or a shorter trip to a waterfall in which we could swim. We unanimously voted for the latter, and after a slightly treacherous river crossing, soon were cooling off in a gorgeous waterfall pool.

Here, we found a frog struggling a bit on the slippery walls of the pool and gathered to watch him and cheer him on. To our suprise and amusement, he eventually found his way to a shelf with a lady frog upon it and they did their business together. Mother nature sure wanted to show us some varied animal sex on this trip!

The guides, always with a trick up their sleeves to entertain and amuse, had fashioned paints out of natural stones and the water and spent some time painting things on us, in some cases laughably dreadful, in others, quite artistic. We all had a good laugh.

As we arrived back at camp, the guides called to us that an orangutan had been spotted. We rushed over in just our swimming cossies and sandals and trekked through a bit of jungle to see it. This one had a really young baby and was gorgeous.

All around, long-tailed macaques were playing and running in the trees. Houssen captured this hilarious photo of me photographing the orangutan topless with monkeys running around. He thought it was so funny because it looked like I could be naked…

Little did he know, I was capturing the final piece de resistance, the ultimate photo of the trip. Two of the macaques above me, you guessed it, started to have a good old hump up on the branch! This time I was ready. Their expressions are to die for.

Having seen more monkey business than we had any right to, we packed up and mentally prepared ourselves for the journey back, which would be by tube down the quite scary looking river! The guides, however, had absolutely no worries about it and we tied the tubes together with all our bags tied on in giant wet bags.

Down the river we went, and it soon became clear it was a delightful serene ride with nothing to worry about. To my delight, our guides started singing a song (to the tune of jingle bells):

Jungle trek, Jungle trek,
In Bukit Lawang,
See the monkey, see the monkey, see orangutan.
HEY HEY!

There were more lyrics, which I actually remember vividly, but that’ll do you for now. We arrived back in Bukit Lawang, tired, exhausted and gratified. We arranged to meet our pals for dinner and headed to a homestay the check in, shower, and collapse on the bed.

Now… you might think that would be the end of the day, but noooo no no. Drama ensued.  

That’s right, monkeys invaded our balcony. To be fair to them, there was a massive thunderstorm and they clearly needed to take shelter, so we didn’t begrudge them… at first. Soon there were about 20-30 monkeys on our balcony, and we’d been advised previously to be very wary of monkeys, so we fled when they appeared, grabbing what was to hand but, in our rush, left a few possessions that we worried we would never see again, though luckily they stole nothing. There was a mothers’ corner, where babies and mums huddled together adorably, and then the evil bastards club, where the adolescents and men would jump around our hammock and the wires outside, screeching and fighting. If we went to the window some of them jumped aggressively towards us and even stuck their hands through little gaps into our room. It was quite intense… We didn’t sleep well that night, with the monkeys remaining on the roof having an all-night party, jumping up and down like nutters.

Day 118 – River Walk

Thankfully they had a different room for us, with apparently less monkey activity (better not to consider they purposefully put us in the monkey room) so we moved and I can report better sleep was had for the rest of our stay. Today we explored Bukit Lawang a bit more. They had some fantastic shops selling orangutan based merch – mostly bright paintings and sculptures. They’re really not our style but I’m kinda gutted I didn’t get something in hindsight.

We had noticed, while tubing down the river, that there was a path that ran alongside it on the village side, much of the way. We decided to follow it and were so glad we did. It was absolutely stunning, a little sketchy at times, and gave such brilliant views of the mighty roaring river that had shaped so much of our past few days.

We photographed butterflies and critters galore:

The highlight had to be this super-cool under / overhang, which looked like a wave crashing over you as you walked underneath. Top-notch stuff.

Day 119 – Back into the Jungle

So, perceptive young whippersnappers that we are, we did notice that the place they take everyone to see the guaranteed semi-wild orangutans were actually not quite in the National Park, and so technically no permit nor guide need be required. We made a plan to head to the area ourselves with the sneaking suspicion that we could get another cheeky glimpse of Billie’s relatives twice removed.

Back across the bridge…

Success! We found them, and I think it was the same mother and adolescent as before. The young one swung away to a nearby tree and started making its own nest. Within minutes it was done, flopped down in it, stuck it’s head over the edge to watch us and the world go by, and started picking its teeth. This is my favourite pic of the ginger primates!

We also saw Thomas’ Leaf Monkeys again, and I was particularly taken by this mother with what must have been a newborn monkey. Absolutely tiny and pure white. Very sweet.

That concludes Bukit Lawang! It was a truly nature-filled adventure. I’ve never seen a place so filled with monkeys, and that includes the hotels, too! It was a special memory that we’ll never forget – high up there in the best experiences we’ve had travelling. Sumatra has set the bar high… can it keep up the good work on our next stop – an active volcano?

I leave you with some photos of amusing signage from our hotel: