“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
The little one with the leaf in his mouth is the best :-)
ReplyDeleteYou didn't want to cure yourself with ant pee?