We took the local bus and arrived at the bus station in Bukit Lawang which was full of older men playing cards and a few geese.
Our hotel sent someone to meet us. Which was probably a good thing because it might have taken us a while to find the hotel. We stayed at Lucky Bamboo. In a bamboo hut. No hot water but we had power. We had a mosquito net but we did not need it. There are not many mosquitos here and there is no malaria. We were greeted by Keller who works as a jungle guide for the hotel. We met the owner Johnny later he was very friendly.
The hotel was very affordable and it had a nice garden area. It also came with 5 chickens, a dog and some monkeys. The monkeys which the owner referred to as terrorists drove the dog crazy and took stuff out of the garbage cans but they did not take our stuff or act threateningly. So that makes them good monkeys in my books.
Our reason for travelling to Bukit Lawang was to see the Orangutans in the jungle of Gunung Leuser National Park. There used to be an orangutan sanctuary here where captured orangutans were released and fed bananas and milk which was enough to live on but not very exciting. The plan was to let them learn to find their own food and learn to live in the wild. The model lasted from 1973 to 2002 when the center was closed because too much human contact caused issues. They continued to feed the orangutans until 2016 when it was determined that it was no longer needed. Captive orangutans are still released into the jungle but now it is done far away from tourists
Those orangutans and their offspring still live in the trees in the area. They rarely come out of the trees but the ones closer to town are used to seeing humans and pay no attention to them.
We did an overnight trek into the jungle to see them. We saw lots along with Thomas leaf monkeys, pig tailed macaque, and white faced gibbons. A few cool birds too. Our guide was great and as it was low season we had our own guide. He found birds, plants and monkeys we never would have spotted. The first part of the hike was pretty easy and quite busy even in the off season. The semi-tame orangutans here are way up in the trees but still pretty easy to find. We learned that they are big and heavy and spend a good part of their day sleeping in nests. We also learned that you should never stand under an orangutan because of “yellow rain”.
A day trek gets you to these orangutans. As we went overnight we continued into the jungle. It was pretty tough going with a lot of slippery ups and downs. I torn one of my two pairs of shorts. We spent the night at a jungle camp by a river. Our guide has a buddy/cook who made us enough food for 10 people.
We found some wilder orangutans. There are tigers, honey bears and elephants deeper in the jungle and you can do multi day treks but overnight was a good compromise. We did see evidence of the bears. On the second day we hiked back to the river where we rafted home through the rapids in inner tubes while our guide sang. Definitely a trip worth doing and our guide Keller was great.
Bukit Lawang is a small village with a ton of small to medium hotels lining the river. There are also several suspension bridges in various states of repair. We decided to walk into the actual village where we found lots of friendly kids yelling hello, hello. There are canals everywhere and the adults were all washing clothes and other things in the water.
Bukit Lawang is a day trip from Medan and we were there on the weekend. There were families everywhere enjoying the river with inner tubes and picnics. There were small shelters where you could get a mat and set up for the day.
Notes about Bukit Lawang
- There is no ATM so bring cash- this can be a challenge because the ATM limits in Sumatra are pretty low
- Bigger places will take visa but not everyone does
- You can pay for Trekking trips in Euros
- There are a remarkable number of souvenir stalls
We used the local van to get to Bukit Lawang. Our next stop was Berastagi and we had hoped to use local transport again but you have to go back to Medan and take a different van to Berastagi making a 100 km trip take 8 hours so we did the tourist thing and paid 250 Ringgit each for a shared car. In general we found getting from one town to another harder than it is in many places when we were in Sumatra.
The car was very crowded with six of us plus luggage in a car. I was crammed in half a back seat where I had to put my legs to the side in order to fit in.
