Bukit Lawang

The drive from Lake Toba to Bukit Lawang took about 6 hours. we should emphasize that most drives in Indonesia come with a lot of adrenaline. As far as we can tell there are three lanes on roads here: the one you're in, the one for oncoming traffic, and then the dotted line in-between where every vehicle on both sides that isn't a bus plays chicken with the oncoming cars, trying to sneak ahead in trafffic. Worse, it seems the seat belts have (literally) been dis-installed from most cars. Why? we don't know.Bukit Lawang is a small strip along a wide river the color of the Amazon (light brown). it sits just outside a huge preserve in Sumatra that is one of the few places on earth you can still find endemic wild Orangutans, along with many that have been rescued from sad situations and are now being re-acclimated to the wild.

Orangutans are curious and on several occasions a few came close enough that we could smell them, swinging down on long muscular arms that could pull you apart. In fact there is one orangutan in the preserve named Mina who has (amazingly) attacked over 30 guides in Bukit Lawang, along with some tourists and one guide just a week or so before we got there. Because orangutans are endangered and protected, guides must (amazingly) bear the brunt of these attacks, and many of them have Mina scars as proof. Incidentally, all these pictures are ours (Mina is the one whose face is framed by her baby's limbs).

Orangutans can live to be 60. they are the only apes outside of Africa and the only ones that live their entire lives in trees. They are solitary animals. While males and females only come together to mate, they "always make love face-to-face". Umbra and Daydee--our guides-- were fond of saying this. Afterward, the male hurries away to endure yrs of solitary leaf munching. TWO YEARS after mating, mother orang will give birth; she will look after her baby for up to 8 yrs.

Cute baby orang periodically emerged from mother's back hair.

Can you spot the peacock-like pheasant in the picture above? The Great Argus is a rare sight, but we got lucky. thick spiraling vines everywhere in jungle. Most start in the canopy and work their way down (the opposite of what I thought), suffocating host trees (often several at a time) while stealing their water (they are a good source of water for lost trekkers, the cactus of the jungle). As our guide Umbra pointed out, these parasitic vines are an essential part of the jungle's ecosystem, opening holes in the canopy for new plant life. The trees that survive them can get enormous and old.

During a short break, our second guide, Daydee, aggravated a colony of lemon ants by sliding his lit cigarette into a hole in a root, and again they came pouring out like a scene in some horror movie. speaking of which: according to Umbra-- who confirmed lemon ants taste like lemons-- the jaws are so big on these beasts that locals have used them to suture deep wounds, holding the ant's mandibles over a wound until it bites, then ripping the body away, leaving the head and jaws piercing patient's skin together!!!

You must cross a river to get into and out of the national preserve (the river also keeps the wildlife IN). Below: the Thomas tree leaf monkey (long tail, tiny head) is actually quite tall when loping bipedally past you. big time hops.

Only one male per troop, so solitary males are common and want very much to fall into line in other simian hierarchies. This one followed us for a while. Our guides, Umbra (not pictured) and Daydee (blowing smoke next to Sarah (every man in Sumatra smokes)), were very careful about not leaving any scraps around. Pack it in, pack it out, nothing but footprints, etc, etc.

Pictured: a gibbon. Gibbons are heard often, but rarely seen. Small fox-like faces. Loud throaty hoots done in deafening chorus. males adn females have monogamous life-long relationships. Families stick together as one band. Very long arms, and when gibbons move it's like they're falling horizontally through the trees. Lightening fast. They never come down from the canopy. Very shy, keep their distance from humans. Again, a rare sight for tourists, I think. This picture was LUCKY. he was a speck in a tree... zoomed way in after the fact).

About midway through trek, I cut my hand pretty deeply on a vine and half-jokingly asked Umbra if he knew of any plant that would help (lemon ants were not readily available). Within a minute he handed me leaves from a small plant-- a "peacock plant"-- and told me to chew them then rub the resulting paste into the cut. The pain stopped immediately and within 5 minutes the swelling had receded as well--a small reminder that the jungles are our only real drugstore.

It's going to be tough to top our experiences at Bukit Lawang.