Let me take your mind back to October 2019, when the world was a simpler place. Since arriving in Hanoi I’d covered thousands of miles, snaking up and down Southeast Asia through 5 countries. I had just over a week left to make it to Singapore for my return journey home.

Surely enough time for one more extravaganza?

I certainly thought so! I took the money earned from playing a music set at a local bar the night before, and got myself on the next plane to Sumatra, Indonesia. 1 goal in mind… to see an orangutan in person!

Orangutan’s are a rare species in that live in only two places on Earth. Sumatra, and Borneo! They also share 97% of our DNA, and I was intrigued to find out what that would feel like up close. I had to make it there first though!

I’d looked into different options via RometoRio and thought I’d struck lucky with a ferry service between Penang and Sumatra. If you haven’t heard of ‘RometoRio’ before, it’s a brilliant little app and website for travellers… similar to Google maps, input point A and B and it’ll spit out a host of different routes and travel options for the journey including; journey times, a visual guide of the choice of routes, and pricing information (always double check this though). It’s much much better than Google though at combining different travel methods to get you the best route.

Sadly the ferry service turned out to be a dud, but I managed to pick up a cheap and cheerful flight across the Malacca Strait which would drop me in Medan City, a mere 100km from jungle haven Bukit Lawang.

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While entertaining, the journey itself wasn’t quite paradise. It began with a strange bus picked up just outside the airport. They were pleasant enough but after directing me to put my bag in the back, they proceeded to leave the boot open and unattended for the next 20 minutes  😭  😭  honestly, the amount of times things like this have happened, I’m amazed I still have that rucksack.

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Anyway….. the bus took me to Binjai, just north of Medan city! Immediately hounded by several motorbike/taxi/’you’ll understand when you see a picture’ drivers, it turned out I needed to get to a different bus stop if I wanted to make the onward journey into the rainforest. Obviously.

So I took one of these drivers up on their offer… which was ideal given they’d presumptuously started loading my bag onto their vehicle before I’d even uttered a word 😂

Answering the question absolutely no-one was asking… what would the lovechild of a motorbike and some swiss cheese look like? I present to you…

Off the emmental-mobile and straight onto a local bus, I started the final passage to the jungle! The scenery didn’t disappoint, but gave just a snapshot of what was to come…

Getting closer to the town of Bukit Lawang and my jumping off point, I was regularly checking Google maps. I should say at this point that in Sumatra particularly but also in many other parts of Southeast Asia, the public transport can feel incredibly informal at times. The bus stops (to westerners at least) don’t always look like bus stops, and we’d often stop directly outside people’s homes along this long and winding road into the jungle. Trying asking for that on your next National Express coach 😅

I almost stranded myself by jumping the gun on getting off the bus. Due to the aforementioned informality of Sumatran transport links added to the wrong Google maps address being listed for my hostel, I thought I’d gone past it and was gradually getting further away. I did what seemed sensible at the time and hastily heckled the driver to let me off.

Finding myself at the side of the road in new surroundings isn’t something that’s alien to me anymore, but before I could make a move, I was approached by a man on a motorcycle asking for me by name – either someone had placed a hit on me or I’d made a mistake. As it turned out we were nearly at the bus stop, and the hostel had sent a driver (ironically because their hostel is famously difficult to find)! So there I was trying to fix problems that didn’t even exist 😋 

As the skies began to darken above me, and the towering palm trees that line the horizon turned to silhouettes, I made it to Bukit Lawang and Nora’s Homestay. Home. Sweet. Home.

Before settling down for the night, I ventured out into the town, coming across this shop! Babeh sells all sorts of figurine’s and souvenirs all hand carved out of wood reclaimed from the river that cuts through Bukit Lawang.

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His work really is awesome, and he even offered to teach me how to make them myself. So if you happen to be a fan of orangutans and also happen to live next to a rain forest, hit me up! 😋 

Waking up the next day, I realised two things!

1. The town was even more beautiful when you could actually see it! Shocker, I know 😋

2. I had a serious lack of cash to pay for the upcoming trek

Thankfully the hostel staff were really helpful and one of the guys gave me a lift to the nearest town. Back on a motorbike for meee!

This leaves us at the night before we departed into Gunung Lueser National Park, in search of primates! I’m going to leave it here too to avoid making these posts too long. Watch out for a Part 2 over the next few days, and find out if I managed to get up close to one of our closest relatives from the animal kingdom!