The Gunung Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra Indonesia is one of the last places on earth where the endangered sumatran orangutan lives freely in the wild. Bordered between North Sumatra and Aceh province Mount Leuser National park covers over nearly 8000 sq km of forest area. Bukit Lawang a small village in North Sumatra acts as the gate way to this national park.

From Medan airport we took a train until the city and after spending some time there, shared a cab until Bukit Lawang. Bukit Lawang is on the banks of river Bahorok. The stay in the village is very pleasant amids the nature. Our room was right in front of the river. We spent the evening exploring the village.

Early next morning we got ready for the trek in the wild to see the orangutans in their natural habitat. We need to cross the river via hanging bride and start the trek. We were a small group of 4-5 people from different countries. None of us have seen an orangutan in the wild till then.

First part of the trek was up hill. On the way, we heard the calling sound of orangutan, as we went ahead mother and a little one were just above us moving from tree to tree. We stood our ground, they came close to us and ate some fruits from the tree and moved away. This was the first sight of the orangutans for us.

On the way we saw another orangutan but it was very friendly with the people. Although it is illegal to feed the wild animals, some guides tried to feed it saying she is a good friend to them and was in rehabilitation center for many years before moving back to the wild, so it is very much used to people.

After nearly half a day into the trek, we stopped somewhere in the dense jungle for lunch. While having lunch, a gibbon appeared in a flash jumping from tree to tree. We all were amazed as this was our first gibbon sighting. The creature looked similar to monkey but had a very long arms and legs. It gave us couple of mins to click pics and snatched a food packet and disappeared into the woods immediately.

We continued our trek and now it was a small descend to the other side of the hill. Heard the sound of river flowing and knew the camp site was not very far. Our camp site was right next to the river and enjoyed the tranquility of nature. It was a wonderful experience to spend the entire night in the jungle which had wild orangutans and other mammals. We had set up a proper camp fire and our guide prepared some local food for us. He kept us engaged by singing Indian and Indonesian songs. Not to forget, he also knew who Rajinikanth was 🙂 To sleep admits the sounds of water rushing through the river, insects and calmness in the air was definitely an experience in itself. The park is also a home to one horned Sumatran Rino.

Next morning woke up to the sounds of birds. Spent sometime walking along the river, the water was very cold and clear, drinking it was refreshing. Went for a small trail to reach a waterfall which had a pool of water surrounding it, swam there for sometime before moving into the main river for some dives, we all had so much fun that morning. Although we dived from near by rocks, the guides and some local kids climbed to the top of a small mountain and jumped from there. It seemed very scary but they knew what exactly needs to be done. Then it was time to get back to the start point, but in a more interesting way 🙂

We had to raft on a tube in the river for half an hour to reach back. One can call it a mini raft. Four of us sat on individual tyres and it was held together by a rope, guide used a big stick to control directions. Although it was adventurous and almost got toppled on couple of occasions, it gave us scenic view of the jungle on both sides. All of us enjoyed the adventure and had lot of memories in mind from Bukit Lawang.