Day 51, 52, 53, 54, Bit of a Catch UP, Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, Indonesia

Orangutan Reaches Out For Your Help

Mother and Child Orangutan, Child Glows With Pride

Result of Delayed Plane: Bedbugs

Consolation for Delay, A Few Pieces of Rice and Some Deep Fried Crap

So the last few days have been a bit of an adventure into the jungles of Sumatra in the search of Orangutans.

Things started off in KL on the 2nd of Oct, getting up at 4.30am to catch the stupid 1.15 hour long bus to the airport and then of course find out my flight is cancelled, and the next one doesn't leave till midday. So a fun few hours surfing the net in the airport....

Arriving into Medan was very interesting, after being ripped off purchasing a flight to Bali, I caught a ride on the back of a motorbike through the busy city, across the pot holed roads, and around the head-on approaching trucks to the bus station. Bus up to Bukit Lawang which takes 4 hours along a poorly paved road again full of pot holes. (pretty epic day of travel #1.)

The next day was what it was all for though, the day was spent criss-crossing dense jungle, bush wacking our way through primary rainforest in search of the rare Orangutan. It took nearly the whole day for our small team of three to find any, just before we were about to give up Firman, our guide, got word from his jungle buddy that some have just been spotted. We ran through some untracked jungle to find six orangutans, three mothers and their babies. A very rare accurance seeing they are solitary animals. For the next hour we watch in awe as the majestic creatures slowly make there was along the tree tops in search for fruit, seemingly oblivious of us below. It was one of those moments that make travelling miles on end worth it.

Numerous other sightings of gabons and various jungle insects were also made before heading back to the village for a well deserved rest.

The following day I was rushed out of Sumatra, maybe it was too soon, there is alot more to do here, but unfortunately time is of the essence, and Bali must be reached. So a long day of buses and flights was undertaken again. As is the way with all my flights, things were delayed for hours on end, and I arrived in Bali a nice and early 10pm after leaving Bukit Lawang at 7.30am (pretty epic day of travel #2.). This resulted in of course not being able to find a room in Kuta as everything in the decent budget range had been filled up. So it was either an expensive night in a flash hotel or going to a dive of a place. I took the dive, and a dive it was, the night was spent waking up from tingling sensations. The morning showed the results of bed bugs with my arms and back covered in rash like bites....