Bukit Lawang is known for one thing- its orangutan preserve. After our long day of traveling we headed straight to bed. The next morning we got up and got ready for our day of trekking through the jungle. We ate breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, then crossed a small river to see the morning feeding of the orangutans. For some reason there was only one that came to be fed. She was a pregnant dominant female. They fed her lots of bananas and some sour milk drink. She kept eating the bananas, chewing them up, and then throwing them back up and eating them again... yummy. We then left the other tourists and started out on what turned out to be an 8 hour trek through the jungle. It was a blast, but exhausting and scary at times... lots of tumbling down the sides of mountains. We came across many other orangutans throughout the day as we hiked. At one point we were surrounded by three orangutans hanging out in the trees above us. God's creation is amazing and it was so crazy to be surrounded by it for a day. We finally made it out of the jungle when we arrived at the river we had been anticipating all day. We splashed around and cooled off, then we got onto rafts (which were really inter tubes that our guides had tied together) and white water rafted down the river back to our hotel. The river was so fun and it was amazing to see the jungle as we floated along.
That evening we had dinner at a local restaurant and then hung out and played Phase 10. The next morning we woke up and packed up. We headed back to Medan but not before stopping at the crocodile farm first. This was not all it was cracked up to be. The crocodile farm is basically just a bunch of crocodiles piled inside of cement cages... pretty sad. That night we hung out in the city of Medan... had dinner at a restaurant that serves dim sun. We finished the evening by playing a never ending game of Phase 10 that lasted until 1 am. But we did finish all 10 phases. The following morning we ate at the hotel breakfast buffet and went to the airport, only to hang out there for a couple of hours. When we got to Jakarta we stopped at one of the malls and got some lunch at CPK (it was fun to have some American food), then headed back to Bandung. It was quite the weekend... a ton of fun. The saddest part was that I lost my camera somewhere between the Jakarta airport and CPK and with it lost all my pictures from the weekend... I'm so bummed. If you know me at all you know how much I love pictures and I had taken a lot. Here are some pictures I got from friends to give you a glimpse into the weekend. Enjoy!
All crammed in the "jungle bus"- nine of us plus 2 guides and our driver. I was stuck in the back. The end of the ride got pretty bumpy and windy. I took some motion sickness medicine that worked great and so I didn't get nauseous at all... amazing! I can't say the same for the rest of our group.
After traveling for almost 12 hours the final leg of our journey included a 20 minute walk from the end of the road where we left the "jungle bus" through the village to our hotel. This picture was taken the day we were leaving... that first night we walked it in the pitch dark. It was really scary to be led through the dark into the jungle by two guides who we had just met, not really sure where they were taking us.
We finally arrive at our destination- the Jungle Inn... truly in the heart of the jungle.
I felt like I had walked onto the set of the Swiss Family Robinson. This was by no means a five star hotel. They only have electricity at night when they turn the generator on. There was no hot water and each room included mosquito nets. They did have the coolest rooms- ours had a water fall out the back porch with a hammock.
The hotel at the restaurant.
So cool... pictures just don't capture it.
The small village of Bukit Lawang.
A local mosque. We tried to go see their Idul Fitri celebration but it had been moved to another mosque further away that held more people. Idul Fitri is like Christmas here. People go to the mosque and then go around visiting neighbors, asking for forgiveness from everyone for all the things they have done wrong in the past year. Children get gifts and everyone celebrates by eating as they break the month long fast. It was neat to drive from Bukit Lawang to Medan on this day and see everyone out, visiting others and celebrating. It gave me the feel of Christmas for some reason.
In order to get across the river to the orangutan preserve and the beginning of our jungle trek we had to take this boat from one side to the other. This guy uses a pulley system to maneuver the boat across... might as well do it in purple underwear. :)
Up close and personal with an orangutan... lovely pose. I had a picture of me standing right in front of it... but sadly it's gone.
Some of us standing in awe of what we see around us in the jungle. It was so hot and humid... hard to breath because the air was so thick. We were also told by our school nurse to wear long pants and long sleeves and she put us all on malaria medicine.
Finally arriving at the river... glorious. We couldn't wait to get in and had fun white water rafting down it back to the hotel. Our guides navigated our rafts with long sticks.
At the crocodile farm... what a sad life these crocs live.
Things I learned from our crazy weekend in the jungle:
After traveling for almost 12 hours the final leg of our journey included a 20 minute walk from the end of the road where we left the "jungle bus" through the village to our hotel. This picture was taken the day we were leaving... that first night we walked it in the pitch dark. It was really scary to be led through the dark into the jungle by two guides who we had just met, not really sure where they were taking us.
We finally arrive at our destination- the Jungle Inn... truly in the heart of the jungle.
I felt like I had walked onto the set of the Swiss Family Robinson. This was by no means a five star hotel. They only have electricity at night when they turn the generator on. There was no hot water and each room included mosquito nets. They did have the coolest rooms- ours had a water fall out the back porch with a hammock.
The hotel at the restaurant.
So cool... pictures just don't capture it.
The small village of Bukit Lawang.
A local mosque. We tried to go see their Idul Fitri celebration but it had been moved to another mosque further away that held more people. Idul Fitri is like Christmas here. People go to the mosque and then go around visiting neighbors, asking for forgiveness from everyone for all the things they have done wrong in the past year. Children get gifts and everyone celebrates by eating as they break the month long fast. It was neat to drive from Bukit Lawang to Medan on this day and see everyone out, visiting others and celebrating. It gave me the feel of Christmas for some reason.
In order to get across the river to the orangutan preserve and the beginning of our jungle trek we had to take this boat from one side to the other. This guy uses a pulley system to maneuver the boat across... might as well do it in purple underwear. :)
Up close and personal with an orangutan... lovely pose. I had a picture of me standing right in front of it... but sadly it's gone.
Some of us standing in awe of what we see around us in the jungle. It was so hot and humid... hard to breath because the air was so thick. We were also told by our school nurse to wear long pants and long sleeves and she put us all on malaria medicine.
Finally arriving at the river... glorious. We couldn't wait to get in and had fun white water rafting down it back to the hotel. Our guides navigated our rafts with long sticks.
At the crocodile farm... what a sad life these crocs live.-Never wear batik pants while hiking through the jungle... while they look cool they are not sturdy enough to withhold jungle trekking.
-Always bring more water than you think you need... nothing is worst than being 3 hours into an 8 hour trek and being out of water.
-If your guide asks if you want to ride on the top of the car take the opportunity while you can... especially when it means getting out of being smashed in a car with 11 other people on a bumpy, windy road.
3 comments:
aw, I'm so sorry about your camera. . .and those crocodiles, how sad! praying for your week friend!
Wow! I'm so glad that I found your blog. I'll definetly be checking in to see how things are going.
Miss You! Have an excellent week.
-Vickie
WOW, What a great experience. Glad I read about it AFTER the fact. That way, I didn't worry :-))
Love you and miss you!
Aunt Carol
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