Is Sumatra Worth Exploring? – Part 3

As soon as we arrived, a guide was waiting for us at the station and took us one by one with our backpacks on a motorcycle to our accommodation. We were speechless over the warm welcome, the friendliness, and he found us a very nice room at a very good price. After a long time, we welcomed a bathroom with a toilet, which was almost impossible to get at that time.

We agreed to start the trek first thing in the morning, we will not put anything off.

Is there anything interesting in the jungle?

The path began as a normal walk, over a suspension bridge and to a stone vault, which was a kind of entrance to the jungle. The path slowly began to rise, and we were accompanied by birds, spiders, giant ants, Thomas Leaf monkeys and more, but I don't even want to know about all of them. I wonder what else was swarming around us? The journey became more and more difficult, up and down, jumping over streams. I will not forget the unbearable heat, the humidity and the annoying mosquitoes that feasted on us.

Somewhere along the way, the guides stopped us, and it was time for a snack, they sliced us a pineapple and offered us some other fruit to quench our thirst. Well, because I love pineapple, and I was dehydrated, I ate half of it. The guides gave me a new name: Pineapple monster.

We had quite a long way to go before we reached our campsite. But we also wanted to see the orangutans that live in this jungle and we did, not just one. We saw three giants resting peacefully in the treetops. They were huge, really huge, and I was glad that they were far off the ground. In silence, so as not to scare them, we took some pictures and went on.

We walked on, the forest thinned out a bit, we relaxed and we talked about orangutans. The guides explained to us what gender they were, their names, and how they behaved. Only one of these orangutans makes it to the ground, and it is even rare for it to do so. We were walking more or less one after the other, when suddenly we heard a scream. Female scream. What is happening? I turned around and saw a girl from our group sitting on the ground just a few metres behind me, scared and crying, held under her arm by an adult female orangutan. The whole thing was even more scary because there was a baby orangutan with her. It bit the girl in the elbow every once in a while.

We all went quiet. The guides were also concerned. This has never happened before. The orangutan who kidnapped the girl did not have an aggressive character, but she still had a baby. The irony was that this particular girl did not want to go to the jungle at all, but only went because of a friend with whom she was travelling with together.

The guides were trying their best, talking, rattling sticks, throwing bananas. In the end, I know that the food won, but I can't remember which fruit she grabbed, it wasn't a banana, though. Suddenly, it dropped her, took the food and simply climbed back up the tree. The girl was shaken up for quite some time.

I will never forget that moment, and now I know how dangerous wild animals are.

After about two hours of walking, we finally reached the camp. Our sleeping bags were waiting for us under a kind of shelter on bamboo poles, and this was our one thousand and one star accommodation. The guides immediately warned us that there are monkeys here who like to steal and that we should keep our belongings outside as little as possible and keep our backpacks closed at all times. The first scoundrels soon visited us and immediately set out to see what they could take. Hahahaha.

After dinner, we enjoyed some more time by the fire and recalled the attack of the orangutan. Then followed a not the most comfortable sleep, but for one night it's an experience, too.

Rafting, elephant rehabilitation centre, anything else?

After a delicious breakfast, we got a new surprise. We will be returning to the village with a raft. Well, that's the closest description of what we saw. These are no more than four larger tire coats connected together, one after the other. That's where we go and our backpacks with us. I have to admit that I was scared of losing my stuff. If something happens, I will be able to swim ashore, but I will not be saving my belongings.

The ride was unique, interesting and somewhere towards the end we stopped at a small waterfall to go for a little swim. The journey back to the village was way too fast. But since we had a great time, we agreed with the guides to have dinner in the evening, one of the typical local cuisine. The guides cooked, and we took care of the fun.

We felt so good in this place that the next day we decided to visit the elephant rehabilitation centre.

Two guys on motorbikes took us to the centre so we could help wash the elephants in the river. I like the centre because the elephants are free, there are no fences and no chains. They come to bathe in the river and the caretakers help them. There weren't many tourists, but there were a few of us, and we all helped out. Elephants are interesting, large and at the same time such gentle creatures to me. That is why I didn't mind getting an elephant's kiss. Well, I didn't think it would be so wet, but it was with love, at least in my imagination.

A glimpse into the lives of young people in Bukit Lawang

After the visit, we went to the local market, bought vegetables for lunch and went back. We were invited to prepare lunch together and go to a concert in the evening.

After lunch, we walked around the village a bit more to observe the locals going about their daily chores and lives.

In the river that runs through the village, we watched the children bathing in the rather dirty and fairly fast flowing water, and their parents were not around. They were on their own, not like we are used to, when you always hear a parent yelling at their child, what they can and cannot do. Here, parents work and children are alone a lot. This was also the case in Slovenia a few decades ago. Children need to learn and use at least a little of their wits about what is dangerous and what is not. Today, our children think less with their heads because their parents do it for them.

As we were walking back to our room, a teenage girl caught up with us in the street. She stopped us and immediately told us not to be afraid of her, but that she wanted to know a little bit about where we were from and how we liked it here. All so that she could speak English and practice her second language. There were very few tourists at the time, so she took advantage of every opportunity. Such a kind and sympathetic girl that we fell into conversation and the time passed too quickly. We had to return slowly, as it would soon be evening and the concert.

The group that performed consisted of one of the guides who led us into the jungle. Why shouldn't we go? That's how we experienced how the locals have fun here. It was great, it was simple and they played foreign songs and we all danced. The time passed quickly and it was already time for bed, because we were going to our next destination the next day.

If you are interested in where we went, wait for the next article to find out.