Week 82 - Berastagi, Bukit Lawang, Banda Aceh (Indonesia)

We got up unnecessarily early and ended up sitting on the pier of our resort in Tuktuk on Samosir Island for 45 minutes, waiting for the first boat of the day to pass to navigate Lake Toba to Parapat. We’d splashed out on transport and had a ticket for a shared taxi to Berastagi, to avoid changing buses numerous times. We had a super strength coffee while we waited for the car to leave and then were on our way. We changed vehicles halfway through the journey but made it to Berastagi in 4 hours, checking into our hotel on the outskirts of town. We caught a van into the centre and spent a couple of hours eating lunch, wandering around the small market selling mainly fruit and tourist tat and organising a hike for the following day through the tourist office. 

View from the boat during the trip across Danau Toba to Parapat.

The next day we headed back into town to meet our guide, Marison. We jumped in to a van and before long were at the start of the trail to climb Gunung Sibayak, a volcano standing at 2,094m. The trail was a fairly easy 7 km route and it took about 2:30 hours to reach the summit. The first part of the walk was a little boring, following a tarmac track that had been laid by a gas factory company who had attempted to build on the volcano (and ended up resituating to a spot further down at it’s base). Then we turned off the track and started climbing through the woods and over boulders. Before long we could see steam puffing out of vents pasted with bright yellow patches of sulphur crystals. 

Rhys and Marison hiking through the luna landscape of Gurung Sibayak, Berastagi.

Rhys checking out the sulphur and vents at the peak of Gunung Sibayak, Berastagi.

We spent about an hour admiring the vents and climbing down into the shallow lake at the top, all the time with views of Gunung Sinabung (a taller volcano at 2,450m), that has been in a state of eruption for the past 6 months. The walk down the other side through the woods was harder than the way up and required a lot more concentration as the trail was in poor condition. With shakey legs from the descent, we followed Marison to some hot springs and climbed in to sooth our muscles. It was extremely hot but pleasant, more of a locals spot than for tourists but relatively clean. After catching a van back into town we grabbed lunch at a little eatery and headed back to our room to while away the afternoon.

View of the crater lake of Gunung Sibayak, Berastagi.

We had thought of visiting some of the Karo Batak villages nearby the following day but Rhys had picked up a cold so we decided instead to have a chill day. Other than popping out for a quick but delicious chinese lunch we spent the day in our room, reading and watching TV.

Another early start and we jumped in a van to the centre of Berastagi where we found a bus leaving for Medan. We had a two hour journey on a rickety bus playing some pre-breakfast trance music loud enough to give you heart palpitations. At the terminal we avoided all the people trying to put us on a bus and walked outside to grab a becak (tuktuk) to the Mawar bakery 5 minutes down the road where minibuses to Bukit Lawang leave from. In no time we were on the road again. We stopped a couple of times to fill the bus but it seems that they don’t allow people to stand here so it’s far less claustrophobic than traveling in the Philippines. The only other Westerners on our van were a retired couple from Pennsylvania and we passed the two and a half hour journey chatting and learning about their RV adventures in the States (having sold up and rented their house to travel), what an inspirational couple.

We arrived in Bukit Lawang around lunchtime and after taking a becak down to the riverside, walked the kilometre or so to our resort, Green Hill. By the time we had checked in the humidity had seen to it that we were drenched and desperately in need of a shower. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the souvenirs stalls lining the riverside and drinking cold cokes in cafes with views out over the water. We had arranged a two day jungle trek to start the following day and when we returned from a happy hour beer to our resort, we were introduced to two girls, Caroline and Rachel, who hoped they could join us and share our guide. Happy to have new people to talk to we settled down for a few more beers and a slow dinner. It would have been blissful going to bed that night in our wooden room with views across the river and the sounds of the jungle all around, if it wasn’t for the loud Saturday night live band playing next door until the early hours. 

The river running through the centre of Bukit Lawang.

After a bad nights sleep due to the music, we were woken early with big thumps on the roof as Thomas Leaf Monkeys passed over to reach a tree right next to our balcony. We couldn’t be annoyed for long, waking up to watch monkeys swinging just feet from your balcony isn’t too much of a hardship. We had a quick coffee downstairs, met our guide Bike (i’m sure that’s not how you spell it but it’s how you say it), and started out for the feeding platform in the Gunung Leuser National Park. We joined the queue to wait our turn to climb in the boat to be pulled over to the other side of the river -it took the whole of 20 seconds. We registered and paid the entry fee and were led up to the platform for one of the twice daily feedings. The feeding station was set up in 1973 to help rehabilitate orangutans who have been held in captivity or who had been displaced due to loss of habitat. It is part of a programme to help teach the orangutans to fend for themselves in the wild and only offers bananas and milk, basic and boring foods that encourage foraging for more tasty snacks in the jungle but help to supplement the food to ensure the orangutans get enough nutrition while learning to be self reliant.

Thomas Leaf Monkey in the Gunung Leuser National Park, Bukit Lawang.

We waited about 30 minutes and decided that chances of seeing an orangutan were pretty slim with the crowd and the noise, so we started our trek. The trails are well worn and criss cross through quite a small area of the park. You come across other groups but are rarely traveling in the same directions as each of the guides takes a different looping path to get to the campsites. Our first sighting came halfway in to the day, we veered off the path and through the trees to a spot where another couple of people were standing and there in the trees, about 15 metres away from us, was a mum with her tiny baby playing around in the branches. We were awestruck. Although only considered semi-wild we were still seeing orangutans in the wild. Orangutans are only found in Borneo and Sumatra, the Sumatran Orangutan being labeled as ‘critically endangered’. They are highly intelligent yet solitary creatures that share 97% of their DNA with humans. Size wise, the males can grow up to 5’ tall with an arm span of 7’, weighing up to 82kg and living for up to 40 years.

After a delicious Nasi Goreng (fried rice) lunch we continued and happened across Mina who, truth be told, found us. Mina has been at the park since 1979 and is known to be aggressive. She came careering through the trees with her kid in tow. Our guide immediately took control and instructed us to safety behind him, while Rhys got stuck in her path with her swinging towards and had to leap over to join us. Mina is notorious, most of the guides we met had scars and stories from Mina bites. Our assistant guide handed her carrots to satiate her (she is known not to let humans pass without a food offering) and after a few photos, before she could finish the carrots, the guide called time and we moved off. We were all buzzing from the encounter. Within minutes there was another call (the guides talk to each other on their phones to notify of sightings) and we were off again, this time to see an adult male, perched up in trees, just chilling and watching all the humans pass by.

Mina and her kid, hanging out in Gunung Leuser National Park, Bukit Lawang.

Mina's kid, learning aggressive behaviour from her mum no doubt, Gunung Leuser National Park, Bukit Lawang.

Male orangutan chilling out, watching us, Gunung Leuser National Park, Bukit Lawang.

By the time we made it over the last hill and slipped and slid our way into camp we were exhausted. We washed in the fast flowing river next to camp and settled down for tea and biscuits before dinner while watching the macaque monkeys and huge monitor lizards. The food was immense, a gourmet spread with so many different delicious dishes we couldn’t possibly eat it all. By 8pm we settled down on our thin camping mats under a tarpaulin shelter to get some rest.

Our camp by the river, Gunung Leuser National Park, Bukit Lawang.

Macaque monkeys by the camp, Gunung Leuser National Park, Bukit Lawang.

The thin mats did nothing to disguise how hard the ground was and me and Caroline woke early too sore to sleep any longer. After sitting by the river for a while we decided it was time to wake the other two for breakfast. Me and Rhys laced our boots back up and headed out with the guide for a quick tube ride across the river and a challenging 2 hour hike in the hills on the other side. We were the only people to hike again on the second day and the trails were far more ragged, strewn with fallen trees and rocks, slippery mud and precarious corners where you could easily slip and tumble to the valley below. We stopped after an hour at a waterfall for a break and then continued to the main waterfalls where we met up with the other two for a refreshing swim. Back at camp we ate lunch before packing up and climbing onto our raft/tubes for the short 20 minute journey back into Bukit Lawang. Although I wouldn’t say the river was raging it was flowing fast through the rapids and was a great end to the trip. Our guide Bike, assistant guide and chef were amazing, we only wish time allowed for us to trek for longer.

A refreshing swim in the waterfalls at the end of our trip, Gunung Leuser National Park, Bukit Lawang.

After a shower and a rest, we met up with Caroline and Rachel to go to a little bar on the river for happy hour beers. Good conversation, debates and beer flowed before we wandered to a guesthouse with a restaurant nearer to our end of the village. More amazing food and homemade bread and it was time for goodbyes and bed.

We were up early again in time for a coffee before we had to head back along the river to the road to catch the minivan we’d booked to take us back to Medan. While waiting in the tour office we spotted Bike next door who popped over to say hey, it turned out we’d booked our ticket with his step-brother. The van left on time and despite a little traffic we were back in Medan in 3 hours, waiting at the bus stop for the airport shuttle. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time before our flight, checked in and popped to Starbucks for a sandwich (after browsing in New Look which sad to say is even out of budget now). Medan’s new airport is brilliant, it took the whole of 20 minutes to get from check in to the departure gate and everything is brand new and shiny, some bits aren’t even finished yet. The only downside was our flight was delayed for an hour and a half but we’re so used to delays, we no longer expect flights to leave on time. We double checked we were at the right gate and settled down to wait. 

When we arrived in Banda Aceh we found ourselves on a bus to a central hotel in no time and after viewing a couple of rooms in some adjacent hotels settled in to one at Hotel Prapat. It was already 7pm so we took quick showers and wandered out to explore the area around the hotel and to find a recommended steak house for dinner. A break from noodles and rice was very welcome and although expensive, the steak was a treat after another travel day.

View across the river from our hotel at sunset, Banda Aceh.