English classes and 'the man of the forest'

From KL we went to Melaka and from there we took the ferry to Dumai. Afraid that Jose wouldn’t be able to enter the country with his passport, because it was just valid for 4 months more. But being very friendly at the border we entered the country without any problems. We arranged a bus to go to Medan from where we would go to Bukit Lawang to do a trekking to see Orangutans. But while waiting for the bus we were drawn into the only English school in Dumai. We slept there one night in return of joining a few English classes to talk to the students. We were received with so much enthusiasm that we couldn’t say no.

The next day we moved to Medan, a city that isn’t that interesting, just busy and hot. But it does have a very beautiful Mosque, Masjid Raya. We slept in a guesthouse next to it so we were woken up by the prayers early in the morning. And we slept in a little room with a bathroom inside so we fell asleep with the lovely smell of old pee.

It was a relieve to arrive in Bukit Lawang, a beautiful small village next to a river in the middle of the jungle. We spend the evening playing ping pong and singing the jungle versions of all kind of songs accompanied by the guitar played by young Indo boys.

The next day we started a trekking of 9 hours thru the jungle hoping to see semi wild orangutans. These orangutans were held as pets in the 70s. In the 80s the government installed a ley that prohibited people from having orangutans as pets. All of them were taken from their ‘homes’ and for 3 years they taught them how to live in the wild. They set them free in the jungle of Bukit Lawang. And we were lucky to see about 15 of them; mothers with babies, males and even Nina, the only aggressive one. They think she was beaten in the family where she lived so that’s why she is violent. Normally she doesn’t attack local people, but when the locals are with groups of tourists she knows there is food and that is when she can attack. We could get really close to them because they are used to people. I could even touch a mother with her baby! It’s beautiful to see how they move, slow and without using a lot energy because they slowly swing from one liana to the other. While moving they stare at you. When we were having lunch an orangutan came, so we had to run with the food while the guide was distracting her with fruit. 

Just before the rain started (that lasted until the next morning) we arrived at our camp where we had dinner, played card games and did riddle’s with matches.

The next morning we did a short walk to a waterfall where we stayed for a while to have some waterfall massages. From the camp we tubed down the river back to Bukit Lawang. And I can say that Guillem and I are the worst tubers in the world. We got stuck on more or less every rock in the river. Even on parts where the river was meters wide with only one rock in the middle....