Public Toilet: Tuk-Tuk, Indonesia
For some reason a man is more manly if he smokes. Now that I think of it though I haven’t seen any women smoking here.
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Coffee of the day: Tuk-Tuk – Indonesia
A cafe/restaurant in Tuk-Tuk on the Island of Samosir. Samasor is the worlds largest island within an island (Sumatra).
Magic mushroom and laundry service
Diversified business interests. Tuk-Tuk Lake Toba, Sumatra.
Tuk-Tuk School Bus
School bus in Tuk-Tuk Lake Toba.
Lunch at Tuk-Tuk
Lunch at Tuk-Tuk on the Island of Samosir at Lake Toba, Sumatra. Noodles and fresh orange juice for 16,000 INR (about $1.50 US).
Roller skating in an unremarkable city
Medan is the biggest city in Sumatra, and if you are doing any travel in Northern Sumatra then the chances are you will pass through here. With the speed of bus travel being as slow as it is in Sumatra, then the chances are also good that you will spend a night here.
It’s a hard city to like. A classic big Asian city heavy on the concrete and noisy traffic. It was once a Dutch colonial town which serviced a tobacco industry, but little of the colonial period buildings remain.
I ended up having two nights in this city and my second time here I had half a day to wander. I figure there is always something to see and sure enough I did find a real oddity of a monument in the main park. A monument to roller skates.
Roller Skate Monument
Orangutans of Sumatra – Gunung Leuser National Park
Orangutans are the worlds largest living arboreal animal and can only be found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. These two islands have been logged extensively which has endangered the orangutan population.
The North of Sumatra has seen less logging and palm oil/rubber plantation development thus has a the largest orangutan population in Sumatra.
One of the best places to see the Sumatran Orangutan is in Bukit Lawang in North Sumatra. This little jungle village made the news in November 2003 when a flash flood swept though the town, killing 280 people. Today the town has recovered its tourism facilities and is welcoming back visitors.
The guesthouses where tourists stay is upriver from the town itself and has a footbridge and new embankments along the river along with basic tourist amenities.
Orangutans
Visitors can see the orangutans by visitng the rehabiliation centre or by trekking in the jungle to see them in the wild.
While most people come here to go for a trek to see the orangutan in the wild, visiting the rehabilitation centre will at least guarantee that you will see an orangutan on your visit to Bukit Lawang.
[Orangutan Drinking Milk]
The rehabilitation centre is part of the Gunung Leuser National Park. The orangutans are fed twice a day which is when you can see them. They are fed a simple diet of bananas and milk, which encourages them to eventually go into the wild to look for more diverse foods.
[Orangutan with bananas]
[Thomas Leaf Monkey]
Treks to the jungle range from 3 hours to 3 days and must be done with an official guide. I took a 3 hour trek because, while I love walking, I’m not a sleep in the jungle kind of guy. I was told their was no guarantee of seeing a wild Orangutan on the trek, but luckily we saw one in our first hour of walking.
The guides are locals who love their home that is the jungle. Our guide for the day is probably the coolest looking guy in Bukit Lawang. With his tattoos, long hair and jewellery he looks more like a rock star from Jakarta than a jungle man from Northern Sumatra.
[Gunung Leuser National Park Tour Guide]
What I loved about him most was his trekking gear. You see the western trekkers on these tours in their North Face/Colombia boots and pants developed by NASA that wick away sweat, and here was our guide in shorts, singlet and no shoes! At one point he stopped and showed us his bloody toe. He said with pride that a leech and been and gone.
At one point someone commented on the density of the forest, to which the guide replied in song: “You know where you are?”
No one else seemed to know the words, so I replied: “you’re in the jungle baby”.
I refrained from finishing the sentence: “you’re gonna die”. This of course is from Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N’ Roses.
Guides often bring an apprentice with them as well. In this case his brother. They bring a bag of fruit for the trek break and learn the ways of the guide along the way.
[Guide and brother]
Getting to Bukit Lawang
Bukit Lawang is four hours north of Medan, the biggest city in Sumatra. Medan airport has connections to cities across Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It’s also possible to ge to Medan by ferry from Penang in Malaysia.
Coffee of the day: Bukit Lawang – Indonesia
Sumatran coffee in Sumatra. It beats getting your Sumatran blend from Starbucks. The coffee in Sumatra is served with lots of grinds floating on top, which eventually settle.
Like in much of Asia the milk in the coffee in Sumatra comes in the form of sweetened condensed creamer. Here though you get the creamer in the can and you can dispense your own serve. I am becoming addicted to this stuff. A non coffee drinker in our tour party was even helping himself to the creamer straight from the can.
Bukit Lawang is a jungle village about 4 hours north of Medan. The town is a base for visiting the orangutan rehabilitation centre in the Gunung Leuser National Park.