The closer we got to Bukit Lawang there were more palm tree plantations and rubber plantations around. We drove through a few small cities, but otherwise there were mostly trees: Palms and Rubber.
When I arrived in Bukit Lawang I couldn't get around the guides standing at the bus station to be the first ones to "welcome" the tourists... I took a becak into the city, but Mudhi from the Indonesian Guide Association (the guide nearly pulling me out of the bus at the station) followed me all the way. And soon I realised that I wouldn't get rid of him. So I made sure that I at least got all the good information out of him.
He took me to a cheaper hotel than the one that I had gotten recommendations on before I left Medan. But in fact the one he took me to was really cheaper and it was located in a much nicer place: Eco Lodge Bukit Lawang Cottage.
When he later gave me his business card it showed that this was also where he had his address as a tour guide...
He tried to pull as much money out of me as possible. There was always something more that he could show me. And since I was only one person, I should usually pay the price of three people, but he would do the tour with me for a price of two people. I told him that I would do the tour with him, but only I he made the tour with me for a price of one person and I got what I wanted in the end.
They have price lists and all the tour guides from the Indonesian Guide Association have to stick to these prices. But than they have a lot of additinal criterias, which makes it easy for them to pull money out of peoples pockets.
We left from Eco Lodge right away for a three hours trek in the jungle.
I was a bit sceptical, cause we saw an orang utan after only five minutes in the jungle... Weird...
Mudhi had brought some carrots and he called the orang utan and it came down to us.
I had heard and read that you should never feed the orang utans, but Mudhi said that is was normal to do with this one.
And it was an amazing experience. But later that day I found out that all the guides do this. And they do it with different orang utans. Another Danish couple had also had Mudhi as a guide for a three days trek and here he had fed an orang utan mother with her baby.
The trek was hard. The jungle is in a very hilly area and it goes up and down all the time.
We saw another orang utan with her baby, but here Mudhi told me to stay on a distance and be careful.
Otherwise the trek was characterized by sweating, sweating and sweating! I saw three kinds of monkeys: orang utans, white gibbons and leave monkeys. Later that day I also saw some Thomas Leaf Monkeys. So all in all four species of monkeys that day!
On our way back to the hotel we went through a rubber plantation again. On the picture above you see some dried rubber, ready to be sold.
Back at the hotel I had a short shower and then I went out to discover the city, which took me the rest of the day.
I found a nice little restaurant/souvenirs shop, where I bought some post cards and had my second pisang goreng on this trip.
I talked to another Danish tourist.
I crossed some challenging bridges.
I had a really nice day!
Bukit Lawang is not fancy at all. No big shops. Nothing. You can't really feel that it is a tourist city. And mostly the tourists also just step by Bukit Lawang on their way into the jungle or to see the feeding centre.
But still there is a nice atmosphere in the city and it is very relaxing.
On the way back to the hotel I had a nice juice and a fruit cocktail (including avocado) at a restaurant down to the water. And back at Eco Lodge I had my real dinner together with and Australian couple and the husbands father.
They were all biologists and used to travelling in Indonesia.
And the most frightening thing was that they had their room next to mine. And they had found a huge bird spider in their room the same day. Apparently they got attracted by light, which made them come into the hotel rooms. And there were plenty of small wholes and cracks to come in through.
They also told about dangerous snakes and malaria mosquitos e.g.!
SO, when Catharina went to bed that night. She took her sleeping back from her backpack, pulled it all the way over her head, had no light on doing this and took the mosquito net around her.
I got very hot and I nearly didn't sleep. But no spider, no snake, no mosquito came to me that night!
Next morning I had an early breakfast (I got up quite early, since I hadn't been sleeping anyway...) and then went to the feeding spot.
There is a Orang Utan Reservation Centre in Bukit Lawang. From here it is possible to go on trips into the junge, to the feeding spot, with some guides and a ranger.
There were a mother and her baby and two elder babies and then another male, so five orang utans.
All together I think that I've seen 10 orang utans during these two days.
At the feeding spot they get milk and bananas.
We were around 25 people and we were there for around 45 minutes. Then we went back to Bukit Lawang. There were a whole Danish family, some Germans e.g.! A lot of northern European tourists!
Back at Eco Lodge I had my early lunch, packed my stuff and checked out.
I wanted to walk to the bus station, where there was supposed to be a market that day also. But I wasn't allowed to. I had gotten by all the becak drivers and ojek drivers, but on the "big" road a motorbike stopped and the man kept saying that he really wanted to drive me and talk to me, to practise his English. And in the end I said ok and got on the bike.
The market was nice, local and not to big.
Below there are some pictures of the market: A man selling fish (Lele and goldfish), the market for rubber and Duku (a very delicious fruit).
The bus was leaving soon after. And here I was, on the way back to Medan, in the public bus: Pembangunan Semesta.
Again we drove through palm oil plantations, rubber plantations and small villages. And I even managed to sleep a bit on this very dirty and hot bus.
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