Orangutan Hiking
Day 2
So it's really day 4 of vacation for me if you include all my travel days. Ha ha. It's our first day of the trip without any travel so we have the entire day ahead of us for excitement!
The ecolodge we are staying at is right on the edge of Gunung Leuser national park, home of the Sumatran Orangutan. It was originally a conservation site with a rehab facility where after they were released they were still regularily fed. They have closed this in the recent years and have a new location south of us where I don't think the tourists visit. Due to the history of the area about 30% of the orangutans are semi wild. Where they can survive on their own but can smell our food and will approach humans easily.
It was an earlier start for our group. We had 3 guides altogether. Lili was our main guide for our stay at Bukit Lawang. The one thing I never did figure out is who exactly these guys worked for. As you'll learn in the coming days we did get to know this group of guides fairly well as they did both hikes with us in the jungle, as well as escorted us around the village on hikes, and even for our lunch experience in the village. And they would mill about the ecolodge as well on their off time. But it seems that they were assigned to our group so we spent a lot of time with them. Idris was his assistant guide. He carried all the snacks and fed the animals that came near us. And I can't remember the first guide who was the advance scout. He was only with us one day and then we had a new guy who joined us. And it was close to Jimbo but wasn't Jimbo. Despite the one lady in our group telling him she had a guide in Africa named Jimbo.
We had to walk up through the rubber plantation to get to the entrance of the park. They have a lot of rubber trees and there was a guy cutting the trees to get the sap out of them. It's a pretty low key sort of operation. They cut the strands to get the sap moving and then have random little wooden bowls to catch the milky white substance. They collect the containers every few days and it was a pretty big area.
It was a successful day for wildlife on this trek.
We started off with the Hornbill, a large bird, that even our guide says he doesn't typically see this close up. They do see them but typically farther in the jungle at a distance. This did get the bird enthusiasts of the group very excited to see them.
We also had fabulous luck with the orangutans today. We spotted 5 in all. 2 moms with their babies and a lonesome one who we got really close to. They are incredible to watch move around. Hanging on branches that shouldn't support them. The young ones stay with their moms for 6 or 7 years before they go off on their own. They are far more active and spend a lot of their time building practice nests for the future. Some of the orangutans were close to the ground and easy to see. And one pair was way up in the trees and it hurt the neck to watch them for awhile. Mom would sit and watch while the baby jumped from all the trees.
The jungle was really well known for the Liana trees everywhere. They grow massive branches like above ground roots so they were hanging in our way a lot. Or draped all over the trails. Over some of the hills they did act as stairs in a way. I did have a few minutes of terror when I would think that they could be snakes instead of branches. But once I let that thought go I was okay. The trails were fairly narrow and not maintained at all. Just beaten down by the tourists coming through. And it wasn't as bad for mosquitos as I had been expecting. Still wore my bug spray and brought more with me to be on the safe side.
On our way back down we had a mystery animal approach us while we were having our snack. The guides were lucky enough to carry several pounds of fruit during the hikes for our snack on the way back. The guides kept calling it a baboon but after we couldn't find it in the animal book they told us it was actually a pug nosed macaque. So many monkeys!
After our hike we detoured up to another hotel for a quick lunch break before heading back to the hotel. The grounds were really lovely and filled with all sorts of flowers and trees. And monkeys. They did have a dog wandering around to chase them away. Most people just got drinks but I decided to go for a milkshake and fries. And all of a sudden a monkey swung down and stole half of my lunch. I do feel a bit of shame that this is the second trip I've had food stolen now. One lady asked if I got a pic. I didn't. I was concerned about the monkey being that close and figured a few fries was a good trade off for not having to go for rabies shots.
It was a tropical thunderstorm after lunch. Of course we were drenched on our way to the restaurant for a late lunch. We had a lot of thunder and lightening and the lovely stones they used for the pathways were terrifyingly slippery. We didn't find the nice flat path to the restaurant until the last few days so we were walking through the grass to avoid slipping on the stones. With being unable to drink any of the water here we ate at the hotel for the most part to keep healthy. Salad is always a dodgy treat when you can't drink the water. But our hotel used clean water for food prep so it was the safe bet.
After we finished eating we did get a wonderful monkey treat. Once the rain stopped all the animals came back out. The monkeys must have all been hiding somewhere behind the restaurant as they all started coming down the roof onto the trees in front and jumping from tree to tree to tree. And then more and more and more kept coming. I would guess 40 or 50 of them in total that came along of varying sizes. I was satisfied with all the monkeys. It was a really good show.
After lunch there was an optional walk down to a different part of the river. Only with all the rain they ended up changing it to a walk through the village. And only 3 of us ended up going. We walked along the canals from the river. After it rains they go down to the canal to bathe, do dishes and laundry. It was a bit strange to see fully clothed ladies having a bath in the canal. It does feel quite odd coming from a world of indoor plumbing where my most used appliance is the dishwasher. Idris joined us for this walk. He pointed out the street that he lived down. He told Terry he was a village baby not a jungle baby because he was born at the hospital in town. Although he did a lot of hiking in his barefeet so he was a bit of a jungle baby too.
One strange sight was the government housing signs on some of the houses. If you were unable to build your own house or keep up on the maintenance the goverment would do it for you. Which isn't unusual. The big sign that people seemed required to have on the front of the house was a bit odd. That seems like such an odd prospect anywhere. But our guide seemed to think it was quite normal. It felt more like advertising by the government.
One thing we did hear a lot about was the new president of Indonesia. It seems that the past presidents have been very corrupt. And not much was done for the people of Indonesia. There are many random projects that have only been started because of the new president and people were very quick to say positive things about him. In fact he brough free healthcare to the citizens. They've only had that priviledge for 3 years. So perhaps the signs on the homes are a bit of advertising to remind the people what they are helping them do.
So it's really day 4 of vacation for me if you include all my travel days. Ha ha. It's our first day of the trip without any travel so we have the entire day ahead of us for excitement!
The ecolodge we are staying at is right on the edge of Gunung Leuser national park, home of the Sumatran Orangutan. It was originally a conservation site with a rehab facility where after they were released they were still regularily fed. They have closed this in the recent years and have a new location south of us where I don't think the tourists visit. Due to the history of the area about 30% of the orangutans are semi wild. Where they can survive on their own but can smell our food and will approach humans easily.
It was an earlier start for our group. We had 3 guides altogether. Lili was our main guide for our stay at Bukit Lawang. The one thing I never did figure out is who exactly these guys worked for. As you'll learn in the coming days we did get to know this group of guides fairly well as they did both hikes with us in the jungle, as well as escorted us around the village on hikes, and even for our lunch experience in the village. And they would mill about the ecolodge as well on their off time. But it seems that they were assigned to our group so we spent a lot of time with them. Idris was his assistant guide. He carried all the snacks and fed the animals that came near us. And I can't remember the first guide who was the advance scout. He was only with us one day and then we had a new guy who joined us. And it was close to Jimbo but wasn't Jimbo. Despite the one lady in our group telling him she had a guide in Africa named Jimbo.
We had to walk up through the rubber plantation to get to the entrance of the park. They have a lot of rubber trees and there was a guy cutting the trees to get the sap out of them. It's a pretty low key sort of operation. They cut the strands to get the sap moving and then have random little wooden bowls to catch the milky white substance. They collect the containers every few days and it was a pretty big area.
It was a successful day for wildlife on this trek.
We started off with the Hornbill, a large bird, that even our guide says he doesn't typically see this close up. They do see them but typically farther in the jungle at a distance. This did get the bird enthusiasts of the group very excited to see them. We also had fabulous luck with the orangutans today. We spotted 5 in all. 2 moms with their babies and a lonesome one who we got really close to. They are incredible to watch move around. Hanging on branches that shouldn't support them. The young ones stay with their moms for 6 or 7 years before they go off on their own. They are far more active and spend a lot of their time building practice nests for the future. Some of the orangutans were close to the ground and easy to see. And one pair was way up in the trees and it hurt the neck to watch them for awhile. Mom would sit and watch while the baby jumped from all the trees.
The jungle was really well known for the Liana trees everywhere. They grow massive branches like above ground roots so they were hanging in our way a lot. Or draped all over the trails. Over some of the hills they did act as stairs in a way. I did have a few minutes of terror when I would think that they could be snakes instead of branches. But once I let that thought go I was okay. The trails were fairly narrow and not maintained at all. Just beaten down by the tourists coming through. And it wasn't as bad for mosquitos as I had been expecting. Still wore my bug spray and brought more with me to be on the safe side. 
On our way back down we had a mystery animal approach us while we were having our snack. The guides were lucky enough to carry several pounds of fruit during the hikes for our snack on the way back. The guides kept calling it a baboon but after we couldn't find it in the animal book they told us it was actually a pug nosed macaque. So many monkeys!After our hike we detoured up to another hotel for a quick lunch break before heading back to the hotel. The grounds were really lovely and filled with all sorts of flowers and trees. And monkeys. They did have a dog wandering around to chase them away. Most people just got drinks but I decided to go for a milkshake and fries. And all of a sudden a monkey swung down and stole half of my lunch. I do feel a bit of shame that this is the second trip I've had food stolen now. One lady asked if I got a pic. I didn't. I was concerned about the monkey being that close and figured a few fries was a good trade off for not having to go for rabies shots.
After we finished eating we did get a wonderful monkey treat. Once the rain stopped all the animals came back out. The monkeys must have all been hiding somewhere behind the restaurant as they all started coming down the roof onto the trees in front and jumping from tree to tree to tree. And then more and more and more kept coming. I would guess 40 or 50 of them in total that came along of varying sizes. I was satisfied with all the monkeys. It was a really good show.
After lunch there was an optional walk down to a different part of the river. Only with all the rain they ended up changing it to a walk through the village. And only 3 of us ended up going. We walked along the canals from the river. After it rains they go down to the canal to bathe, do dishes and laundry. It was a bit strange to see fully clothed ladies having a bath in the canal. It does feel quite odd coming from a world of indoor plumbing where my most used appliance is the dishwasher. Idris joined us for this walk. He pointed out the street that he lived down. He told Terry he was a village baby not a jungle baby because he was born at the hospital in town. Although he did a lot of hiking in his barefeet so he was a bit of a jungle baby too.One strange sight was the government housing signs on some of the houses. If you were unable to build your own house or keep up on the maintenance the goverment would do it for you. Which isn't unusual. The big sign that people seemed required to have on the front of the house was a bit odd. That seems like such an odd prospect anywhere. But our guide seemed to think it was quite normal. It felt more like advertising by the government.
One thing we did hear a lot about was the new president of Indonesia. It seems that the past presidents have been very corrupt. And not much was done for the people of Indonesia. There are many random projects that have only been started because of the new president and people were very quick to say positive things about him. In fact he brough free healthcare to the citizens. They've only had that priviledge for 3 years. So perhaps the signs on the homes are a bit of advertising to remind the people what they are helping them do. 
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