“Welcome to the jungle”, that’s how our guide greeted us, after arriving in a little village Bukit Lawang located in North Sumatra. I came here to see the wild life and this place is known as a sanctuary for the Orang Utan, a type of Apes.
I went with Yoko, a Japanese tourist, the guide and his assistant. We hiked for 5 hours to see the different types of wild animals. Beside the Orang Utans we also saw the Thomas Leaf Monkey, the locals jokingly call him David Bekham, because the monkey has Mohawk hair style. We’ve also seen the long tail monkey and other different types of Gibbons. We’ve seen some lizards and peacock. The pictures were not always clear in part because some of the animals were on top of high trees or dark areas. Flash was not recommended to be used because it might scare the animals. There were other hikers/tourists and some of them take the 2 days hike which includes camping in the jungle overnight. I thought the one day hike was enough and we’ve seen many things in these 5 hours. We had lunch in the jungle with our guide; it was fried rice with eggs and vegetable eating with our hands. It was delicious and simple and made me realize with other experiences I’ve had so far that life is simple and joyful we just tend to complicate it with our fears.
After the hike I told the guide that I will be heading back to Medan on the bus and after will take the plane to go to Jakarta, he offered me to stay with him and his family and we can go together the next day, but I decided I wanted to leave on the same day. While in the bus and just like every place I’ve been in Indonesia, people were very friendly. I sat next Herman, he was very friendly and spoke good English, we had a conversation about Indonesia and taught me few things about culture, places and people. Once I arrived at Medan Airport I bought a ticket to Jakarta. I was lucky because I arrived around 7PM and there was a flight that was delayed from 3 or 4PM until 8:30, so I was able to get on that flight.
