Rise and shine! It’s 8am and I’m about to head into the jungle in Northern Sumatra (well… it’s 9.30pm and I’m sat in my kitchen in the UK, but let’s all pretend for the next 5 minutes for curiosities sake)

Led by our guide and local legend Jojo, we took the first steps on our journey deep into the jungle, discovering even more of this beautiful town along the way…

I have so much love for Bukit Lawang, and really feel it’s one of the largely untouched gems that every budding adventurer should find their way to once in their lifetime! The people here are some of the kindest and most welcoming I’ve met, and there’s a sense of distance felt here from the hustle and bustle of modern life filled with social media and all sorts of other distractions.

A simple life, and an enviable one!

Shortly after entering the national park, we were incredibly lucky to see our first glimpse of the wildlife that fills this part of the world. A curious family of Thomas Leaf Monkeys!

Very little is known about Thomas Leaf Monkeys compared to other primates, but what we do know is that they can be found only in the tropical forests of Sumatra.

A short while later, we were incredibly lucky to come face to face with a wild male orangutan, stamping his authority on his territory against us outsiders. While they are typically peaceful creatures, the guides know well just how strong they can be, and quickly advise us to move back as to avoid threatening him.

Fun Facts Time

Orangutans are endemic to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, meaning their wild population is found solely in this part of the world. Something our guide Jojo brought up when he reminded us that Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book’, set in India, should really have been set in Indonesia, because it’s the only place in the world that all the movies’ animals can be found!

Just something to think about next time you’re singing along to ‘I wanna be like you ooh ooh’ with King Louie 😛

In The Jungle Book – Part 1 I talked about just how close we really are with orangutans, sharing 97% of the same DNA. Interestingly, in the local Malay language, ‘Orang’ and ‘Utan’ translate to ‘people’ and ‘forest’ meaning in this part of the world, orangutans are literally the ‘people of the forest’.

Orangutans are around 7 times stronger than humans though!

They are the only one of the five Great Apes (the other being Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Bonobos, and Humans) to live outside of Africa, and the largest tree living mammal in the world, with males orangutans known to weight up to 120kg.

After admiring this gentle giant, we moved on, trekking further into the rainforest, seeing all sorts of species along the way.

This guy was overjoyed to see us 😛

Yikes! Not all the species were quite so obvious though! Try and spot the next guy…

Did you have to look twice? Anyway, keeping on the topic of jungle insects, some of you reading this may know that I find ants totally fascinating as a species, and they’re admittedly my favourite animal on the planet (if you’re wondering why – look up Fire Ants that are literally WATERPROOF and build bridges to get across rivers, or Saharan Silver Ants that can move as fast as 855 millimeters per second).

Anyone that’s been to tropical parts of the world may have also noticed, the insects in these regions can be seriously scaled up! Check out this fella…

The Giant Forest Ant is one of the largest ant species in the world (reaching up to 3cm in size), and packs a serious bite, so just in case you’re a little out there like me and have a soft spot for these guys…

don’t try and pet one!

As we continued our journey under the jungle canopy, the guides taught us more and more about our surroundings, from the animal species to the plant life… at one point tricking all 6 of us into biting into pieces of tree bark that tasted amazing *disgusting!

With all of us sweating like crazy in the humidity of the jungle, we took refuge and our two lovely guides prepped a selection of fresh fruit for us!

You wouldn’t expect it, but that yellow fruit (no, not the bananas) is actually watermelon… and it tastes incredible!

Over the first day, Jojo continued to guide us through the wonders of his home of Northern Sumatra, filling our heads with all sorts of facts about the ecosystem around us.

We later met one of the rescued orangutans, Nina, and her infant. The backstory here is that almost a decade ago, Indonesia had a serious problem with the trafficking of an already endangered orangutan population with many being kept in illegal captivity. In efforts to halt and prevent this, the government located and seized the orangutans being kept like this, and brought them to a sanctuary located very close to Bukit Lawang town. Here they could learn the vital skills needed to survive and prosper in their natural jungle habitat. For a wild orangutan to learn these skills though is an 8 year process. Now though, after almost a decade of work, the sanctuary has been closed down, with its entire population having been rehabilitated into the national park.

They have grown used to human contact, and in particular contact with the guides like Jojo as they learn to survive in the wild, and so human contact is still very normal to them. We had to keep our distance though. With Nina currently bringing up her own child, she’s more likely to become defensive around people she’s not familiar with.

After meeting Nina, we trekked on through some pretty crazy downpours for the rest of the afternoon, and settled into our first camp!

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Thankful to get some cover from the rain, we rested a while after a day spent trekking up and down peaks and navigating the tree roots that seem intent on catching you somewhere on your face and/or legs.

We had a lovely meal together, with all sorts of curries, vegetables, rice, fried potato cakes and more, and I’m still baffled as to how the guides are able to create such a banquet with their resources. These guys really can do everything!

The next day, we did even more of the same! More trekking, more nature spotting, and more getting way too excited about ants! See Exhibit A…

And as well as all this, I had what was one of the most incredible experiences from all of my life’s adventures. Meeting an orangutan up close in the wild. I have no words that can really describe what this was like, but I really was in complete awe.

I sat down close to Jackie, and she grasped my hand tight, as her child hung onto her below. Jackie, like Nina, is another rescued orangutan that’s grown up in the safety of the sanctuary, and is now living a free life out in the wild.

The level of humanity that I felt being this close to one of these incredible creatures is unlike anything I’ve felt before. Their face, their hands, their gestures, all so familiar.

This lasted only for a few minutes, before Jojo ran out of food and Jackie may or may not have tried to take me hostage. I’ll never, ever forget these moments though. There is no better way to see an animal than in its natural habitat, its home.

They make sure to remind you when booking onto these treks that there is a good chance of seeing orangutans amongst the huge array of wildlife spread throughout the Gunung Leuser National Park, but there is never any guarantee. These animals are wild, and that’s what makes moment like these so incredibly precious.

Back in Penang, Malaysia the hostel I was staying in just before moving on to venture through Sumatra had a wall full of graffiti. Messages from travellers that all literally left their mark on the hostel and the town, and one message has stuck so clearly in my mind ever since.

Venture out into the world if you can, hold hands with an orangutan, play with an elephant next to its favourite river, become a fish!

A Journey’s End

One final time, we settled into a new camp by a river! This camp was much larger, and many groups that had set out with us on day 1 reconvened here for the night.

We played a few games, Jojo told us some of his favourite jokes (oh yes as well as guide, chef, and linguist, he’s also a comedian) and we had some more beautiful food together.

Believe me, I will never not miss having crisp watermelon, pineapple & passion fruit 2-3 times a day!

We made a few more friends around the camp too…

On the final morning, the guides offered us a choice! Either a six hour walk through the rainforest, carrying all of our bags and equipment, or we take the ‘Jungle Taxi’ and white water raft down the river all the way back to Bukit Lawang!

Which one do you think we opted for? 😛

Bukit Lawang you really are a jewel! A spectacular town full of spectacular people! I really really hope the opportunity comes up to return here, because it was a week I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

And if you do make your way there yourself… make sure you book a trek with Jojo at Nina’s Homestay! You won’t regret it!!