People of the Forest - Bukit Lawang

  “Brother. Sister. Welcome. How may I help you?” - we heard a second after we stepping off the local minibus in Bukit Lawang. Wary of the usual tout spiel, we tried to ignore him. Hours without sleep, we made a nice slow circle through the village, just... to end up back where we started. Groggily, we agreed to follow our self-appointed guide in search of a room. And, it seems, Oman remained our guide for the rest of the stay. 

  Since jungle trekking in search of wild orangutans is Bukit Lawang's main draw, the sale tactics start right off the bus. I read that guides approach on some kind of a rotational basis, ensuring sharing of the profits. Fair enough, especially since a flash flood destroyed the village in 2003.

  We signed up for a one day trek with Oman, eager to see the spectacular primates after encountering a few up close the day before at the rehabilitation center's feeding platform. In the wild, orangutans are now only found in the rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra. They are solitary animals, although mothers rear their young for up to seven years. They live mostly in the trees, constructing elaborate sleeping nests every night and thus negating the need for grounding. Besides, you don't want to face an orangutan on the ground, as that's when they usually respond to perceived danger.  They deftly navigate the branches, from the tiniest twines to the thickest trunks, pirouetting like some skilled circus acrobats or slow-mo ballerinas. I guess their long, red-brown fur could surely serve as tutus. Intelligent, their expressive faces mimic human emotion.

  So in we went into the jungle in search of these prodigious great apes. The weather established a pattern, soaking the jungle in torrential rain every evening, which in places made trekking hard work. I'd seek purchase on the wet jungle floor, only to find squishy mud or slippery, treacherous roots of gnarled trees.   Rewarded for persevering, we encountered ten orangutans during the course of the day, with ample time to observe their behavior as well as the great apes themselves, particularly the mothers with their uncoordinated young clinging to their sides. We couldn't avert out eyes.

  Even though the orangs were the primary focus of the trek, we reveled in the feel of the resourceful jungle, where trees produced rubber (locally known as condom trees, haha) and mutant – sized ants provided a natural cure for the common cold. We were sick, but no, we did not indulge. We saw Thomas or funky monkeys with their spiky hairdos. We aped (haha) singsong peacocks in their jungle catcalls. We listened to toucans and their manic “tuk tuk tuk tuk tuktuktuk ha ha ha haaaa haaaa” hoots. Sounding deliciously evil, they made me laugh every time.

P, king of the jungle Oman and Chris

Squeeze on its rump, and what comes out cures common colds

  Instead of trekking back, we opted for a jungle “taxi” aka few-tubes-strewn-together-by-rope down the rapid-filled river. Even after getting a faceful of the churning water, I thought it great fun. We ended the trek tired, muddy and wet. But our expectations were met. And there were only a few leeches.

  After an evening of “tost-ing” (Indonesian tost! = English cheers!) with our trekking buddies Kat and Chris, we faced, yet again, a day full of dusty Indonesian buses. After missing the last ferry, we were forced to spend a night in the crappiest room ever in nearby Parapat and crossed Lake Toba the next morning to the island of Tuk Tuk for some much-chilled out (literally and figuratively) respite.

Palm oil plantation