In the evening of the 9th I text my brother I want to cycle to a big lake, not far from Medan, but that I do not have a map and consequently no clue in what direction to head. He promptly replies with the directions, fortunately I also find a map of Sumatra in the evening. On this map I see a symbol of an orangutan north of Medan. The next morning before leaving I ask the landlady where I can find this Orangutangs and she tells me I have to go to Stabat. I am already well on my way, when over lunch I talk to some locals I wish to see orangutangs. They convince me I should not go to Stabat, no "jungle man" there, Bukit Lawang is where I should go. I head back and after a 40km over a road of dismal quality I reach the town. Halfway I have met Muhdi and Baba, when taking pictures of a wedding. They want to ride my bike and after lowering the saddle considerably, they are about 1.60m tall, first Muhdi and then Baba have a shot, I ride conveniently on the back of the scooter.
Muhdi manages to convince me to take a jungle tour of 5 days with him. I will be the only tourist, Baba will come as well and Ling completes the group, he will be the cook. In the morning we are not even an hour in the jungle or we spot a Orangutang with it's baby in the next hour I see 5 more. Then we have nasi goreng for lunch with fresh cucumber and tomato with fresh fruit as desert. In the afternoon we only see mosquito's and at 15:00 Muhdi and I arrive at the camp, that Baba and Ling already have setup. Tea is already waiting. I have to do nothing but walk and play card. Ling is a master in the kitchen i.e. campfire. Every day 3 dish dinners, breakfast with club sandwiches and omelets or banana pancakes. The treks are a bit short, consequently we do not get really deep in the jungle, one of the consequences of not plannng the event I guess. Still I manage to see, next to the orangutans, black gibbons, 2 types of hornbill, longtail macaque and monitorlizzard, which is the smaller brother of the komododragon, but still seizable with a length of 2m.
Next to the unavoidable musquito's I saw also quite a few leaches, but unfortunately no tigers, I would have gladly swapped the 2 first ones for the latter. On day four I decide to stay 2 more nights in the jungle. Unfortunately on one of these days I break the camera when Muhdi takes pictures of me when showereing under a waterfall. The jungle experience ends with rafting on cartubes over the river back to Bukit Lawang. The river is quite wild because of the hours of rain we have had the last week. So we manage to turn up side down once and break a steering stick, both not big problems, plenty of sticks in the jungle anyway. Although I enjoyed being in the jungle I am a bit disappointed. We were near the civilised world all the time, next time I will try to get really deep into it.
Muhdi manages to convince me to take a jungle tour of 5 days with him. I will be the only tourist, Baba will come as well and Ling completes the group, he will be the cook. In the morning we are not even an hour in the jungle or we spot a Orangutang with it's baby in the next hour I see 5 more. Then we have nasi goreng for lunch with fresh cucumber and tomato with fresh fruit as desert. In the afternoon we only see mosquito's and at 15:00 Muhdi and I arrive at the camp, that Baba and Ling already have setup. Tea is already waiting. I have to do nothing but walk and play card. Ling is a master in the kitchen i.e. campfire. Every day 3 dish dinners, breakfast with club sandwiches and omelets or banana pancakes. The treks are a bit short, consequently we do not get really deep in the jungle, one of the consequences of not plannng the event I guess. Still I manage to see, next to the orangutans, black gibbons, 2 types of hornbill, longtail macaque and monitorlizzard, which is the smaller brother of the komododragon, but still seizable with a length of 2m.
Next to the unavoidable musquito's I saw also quite a few leaches, but unfortunately no tigers, I would have gladly swapped the 2 first ones for the latter. On day four I decide to stay 2 more nights in the jungle. Unfortunately on one of these days I break the camera when Muhdi takes pictures of me when showereing under a waterfall. The jungle experience ends with rafting on cartubes over the river back to Bukit Lawang. The river is quite wild because of the hours of rain we have had the last week. So we manage to turn up side down once and break a steering stick, both not big problems, plenty of sticks in the jungle anyway. Although I enjoyed being in the jungle I am a bit disappointed. We were near the civilised world all the time, next time I will try to get really deep into it.
No comments:
Post a Comment