Monkey Business

Janelle and I had a great sleep in our little bungalow (complete with free pet geckos, of course) and it was really nice to wake up to sunshine and fresh jungle air. After breakfast we met up with our guides - Ian, and his younger 'brother' whose name I can't remember and began our first of many advetures in the Sumatran rainforest.

Sumatra is a very special island for many reasons. Not only is it the sixth largest island in the world, but it is home to one of the largest tropical rainforests left on the planet. Rapid deforestation has sadly destroyed most of the island's native forests, but a few pockets still remain here and there, and Bukit Lawang, (where we're staying now) is right at the edge of one of these. Gunung Leuser National Park is Indonesia's largest, and this green preserve remains as one of the largest carbon sinks left on the planet, and is home to countless millions of species of both rare and unique flora and fauna - the majority of which has yet to be fully categorized or even discovered. The park is also home to the orangutan - a beautiful animal that is sadly on the world's endangered species list. In fact, the orangutan, thanks to poaching and loss of habitat, is nearly extinct and now lives in only two places in the wild - Borneo, and here on Sumatra. Only a few thousand orangutans are alive outside of zoos today, and it's estimated that approximately 5000 live in the park.

Just outside of Bukit Lawang is a rehabilitation centre for orangutans. Here the centre takes in orangutans that have have either been orphaned or have lost their habitats, or were once pets and have since been abandoned. The aim of the centre is to slowly re-introduce the orangutans to the wild in the hopes that eventually they'll leave the centre on their own, and head up into the jungle to live free. Twice a day the orangutans are fed at a feeding site, and tourists are allowed to accompany the Park Ranger to watch the oragutans being fed their twice-daily diet of bananas and milk. (The orangutans are given the same meal each and every time so that although they are being fed, eventually they get bored of the same food and go off into the jungle to forage for food for themselves.)

Ian and his bro led Janelle and I up the path from the eco lodge to the edge of the park. The 20-minute walk took us through the small town which was devestated by a flash flood nearly two years ago. Despite the fact that so much time has passed already, sadly the majority of the damaged buildings lie rotting in ruins. It looks as if the flood could have happened last week for all the progress that has been made. At the edge of the town we had to get into a dugout canoe and get pulled across the river to the park entrance. Once on the other side we waited for the Ranger to be ready, and then us, with a few other tourists, were led into the park.

I was really excited at this moment because it's been my dream for a long time to visit this centre and see the orangutans in their natural habitat. And now here we were being led into the jungle where they live! Just past the Ranger Station are a couple of cages where a few orangutans - ones that are too old to be reintroduced to the jungle - are taken care of. Here, we also met Jackie and her baby. 'Jackie' is a rather large mother orangutan who has been released within the last few months. She's free to wander wherever she likes, but still prefers to hang around the immediate area and shows up almost every day for the feedings. Being used to human presence, she wasn't frightened at all by the fact that half a dozen tourists gasped at her emerging from the jungle suddenly, and then began to take a bunch of photos. In fact, we were all completely shocked when Jackie chose to follow us up the path to the feeding centre (a good half hour walk!) It was so crazy to be walking through the jungle with an orangutan in our troop! How cool is that!!??

We got the feeding centre and the Ranger laid out some bananas and milk. No more than a few minutes after doing that we could hear some crashing coming through the trees (very 'Lost' like, and I was expecting a monster to suddenly appear) and then suddenly we saw two orangutans swinging through the trees. Orangutans are quite large animals - the largest arboreal creatures in the world, in fact - but they move through the tree tops with such ease and grace it really is amazing. The orangutans dined on the milk and bananas, and later Jackie re-emerged with her baby to have a snack too. Jackie passed right through our group on the way to - and then back from - the food and it was AMAZING to see such a beautiful creature so up close. WOW! Janelle and I were in such awe and it was an experience that I'll never forget.

After the feeding was over we went back to the lodge and then later in the afternoon Ian took Janelle and I to go and see a bat cave. It was only a few kilometres from our lodge and was a pretty cool place, despite the fact that it involved a bit of climbing and was very narrow in a few places. We saw plenty of sleeping bats in the cave, as well as a colony of swallows. After the cave we went back to the lodge, relaxed, had dinner, and then had an early night. We've got a Big Day tomorrow....

We woke up early again and packed up just enough clothes and gear to last us a day and a night, cause that day Nellie and I were being taken on an overnight jungle trek!!! WAY COOL! We met up with Ian and bro after breakfast and began our big journey into the wilds of Gunung Leuser. It was a hot and humid day and it was quite damp in the bush (well, hello! It *is* a rainforest!) Not knowing what our trek was going to be like, Janelle and I just trusted our guides and were led deeper and deeper into the thick forest. It was very quiet and peaceful in that beautiful forest, and I was so excited to be inside a real jungle. The park is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including the before-mentioned orangutans, several species of monkeys, gibbons, hornbills, toucans, elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, and bears (although the last four are very rare and almost never seen.) By the end of our day we'd have had a few up-close-and-personal experiences with these local residents!

It was less than an hour of trekking and already we saw two different kinds of monkeys in the trees. They made a lot of noise as they bounced around the canopy looking for food, and didn't seem to be too bothered by our presence down below. We kept on trekking through the forest, and at times the terrain was quite steep and slippery. Shortly after this we saw some other orangutans up in some trees, including Mina, an orangutan who's infamous for occasionally being aggressive towards humans. Fortunately, she left us alone!

Despite the heat we had to wear long pants tucked into our socks to keep ourselves protected from the many little creatures that would love to bite or sting us - and especially the ever-persistent leeches that the jungle is known for. Later we had lunch and Janelle and I were swarmed by giant bees who seemed to be attracted to the smell of our sweat. They didn't sting us, but instead just buzzed all around us in ever-increasing numbers. It kinda freaked me out actually (they were damn big bees!)

We had a surprise treat later on after lunch. We came across a very large, male orangutan - one that's completely wild and not from the centre! He was absolutely massive, and sat in a nearby tree staring out over his domain. He stared right at us a few times, but didn't seem to be scared by us. In fact, given his size, I'm positive that we were a lot more scared of him! He was a truly magnificent creature and I felt very lucky to have seen him.

It was after this that we had the highlight of our trek. Ian and his bro had spotted some black gibbons up in the trees, and got really excited cause gibbons are very elusive animals and it's not often that they seem them on treks. They asked Janelle and I if we'd like to see them closer up, to which we eagerly resonded with a 'yes!' Not knowing at that moment how close he meant, my jaw hit the jungle floor as Ian pulled out some bananas and oranges from his pack, made some noises, and then next thing I knew there were four of these creatures descending down through the trees - coming right at us! Holy fuck! They came right down the trunks to right above our heads, and then Ian began tossing them some fruit. Then he gave a few pieces to Janelle and I, told us to hold out our hands and be very still, and suddenly we had WILD GIBBONS EATING OUT OF OUR HANDS! I couldn't believe it! They were RIGHT THERE and one of them had a tiny little baby clinging to her belly that was so adorable. For quite a while we just stood there and fed them our fruit and I totally felt like I was living inside a National Geographic TV special!!! WOW! Here I am, in the rainforest, feeding freaking gibbons pieces of fruit!!! This sure ain't Kansas - errr....Thunder Bay, Toto!!! ;-)

It was exhilirating but I must admit a little scary as well. Although the gibbons are not nearly as large as the orangutans, they're still sizable creatures, and they have these looooooooong alien-like arms that stretch out and snatch the fruit right off your palm. One of them even grabbed a piece of banana that was placed on Janelle's head! Given my past experience with primates in Thailand, I was a little leary, and hey, they are wild animals so you just never know how they'll act. I was about to find out a lot more than I bargained for about gibbons after this...

I never knew this until this particular moment, but gibbons have a thing for plastic. They LOVE IT and just gotta have it. No, I don't mean Visa or Mastercard, I mean anything that's made from plastic. Well we were about to leave cause we had no more food to give the gibbons and they were therefore getting a little bored of us, when suddenly I inadvertently attracted the attention of the mother gibbon. I was in the process of putting my camera away into my case, which goes into a PLASTIC BAG in my backpack. Well Mamma Gibbon saw this bit of plastic and decided that she just had to have it. She quickly made a move for my bag, but I grabbed it and jumped a step or two up the trail before her long alien arms could reach it.

Thinking that this move would be enough to deter her I tried again to put my camera away safely, which was now half in, half out of my pack, along with several other exposed contents from my bag. Oh, you foolish boy, Scotty! Mamma G jumped onto the trail and started to make another pass for my pack and the plastic, and once again I had to grab it and run up the path. Still determined to get that beloved plastic, the gibbon kept following me (this all was going down in a few mere, frantic seconds) until Ian had to scare her away. Apparently Mamma G was giving me a rather scary 'Gimme that plastic, white boy - OR ELSE!' look and so I was rather relieved when she retreated up the trees. I decided to just proceed down the path with my stuff all half out and repack it later when I was sure there were no gibbons sneaking up from behind to grab my plastic! Talk about an adventure!

Later in the afternoon we had a fruit salad snack next to a stream, and then continued hiking again. Janelle and I were pretty tired at this point but we had to make it to our camp before dark. At one point we heard a bear growling in the bushes downhill from us and we had to quickly and quietly leave the area! Ian and his brother had one of those 'Oh fuck we better get out of here looks!' that made me more than a little nervous. Whoa, the jungle can be scary! Our last bit of the trek involved descending down this steep, slippery, very treacherous hillslope to get down to the river. It took quite a while to scale down this muddy mess and we all had to hold onto trees and vines so that we wouldn't fall down into the jungle abyss. (Feel free to call me Tarzan from now on.)

Finally we made it down to the river, and we could see our camp - on the other side. It was quite a large and rushing river, and Janelle and I had no idea how we were going to get across with all of our gear. A few of Ian's buddies had set up the camp for us, and had brought some inflated inner tubes for us as well. Ummm....how is this going to work? I'm still not getting it.... Nellz and I had to change into our bathing suits and then all of our clothes and gear were stuffed into large plastic bags and floated across on the tubes. Then it was our turn to wade through the rushing waters upstream, throw ourselves onto the tubes, and get caught by the other guidesmen who leapt into the waters to grab us before we were lost forever downstream. I think I've had enough excitement for one day, now! :-)

We had quite the reward for waiting for us after we had crossed the River of Death. Just behind our camp was a sparkling waterfall and a clear, clean pool of water that we could swim in. It was just like one of those tropical waterfalls where you expect a shampoo commercial to be filmed in ("I've got the URGE to Herbal!") and it felt soooooo good to finally cool down and relax. After our swim they made dinner for us (yummy vegetable curry with rice and chicken) and then we played card games late into the night before crashing in our tent. We all slept on a rather hard floor in the same tent, sort of but not really protected from all the creatures eager to bite or eat us that live in these bushes!

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and then Janelle and I did some more swimming in the waterfall and pool. After that we had to pack up and head back to town. This time we wouldn't be trekking back though, we'd be taking a faster, even more lively route - the river! I looked around for a proper raft, lifejackets, helmets, and oars, as I'm used to seeing on all the other times I've gone river rafting. There were none to be seen. Oh boy...I know what this means!

Ian and his buddies took the three inner tubes and tied them together in a line. They then bagged up all our gear again and we were told to jump on the tube and just hang on. Out into the river we went, no safety gear at all, and the only means they had to control the tubes were some long sticks for steering. Oh sweet heavens! It's going to be Sixty Minutes of Death as we get tossed down The River Wild! Both Janelle and I were really nervous about how all of this was going to go as we pushed out into that rushing rapid-filled river...

Actually, it turned out to be an absolute blast! The rapids weren't that scary at all, and I felt rather secure as I had Janelle's big butt in my lap keeping me inside that tube. The water was refreshing, the scenery green and so beautiful, the sun was out, and it was a hundred laughs a minute as we bounced our way downstream. I commented to Janelle that it felt like we were on The Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, only this time the water, the plants, the animals - and the dangers - are all real! A totally fun version of the ride, but definitely the kind of ride that four out of five moms wouldn't approve of! ;-)

A mere forty-five minutes later we were suddenly drifting back into town. Janelle and I were actually disappointed that it was over so fast. It was so much fun! We cruised up to the bottom of the lodge and then grabbed our wet butts - and thankfully dry gear - up the hill back to our rooms. It was the end to a truly incredible jungle adventure that I know the two of us will remember for the rest of our lives. It was so surreal and magical that at times I felt like I had to pinch myself to prove that I was really truly there in that Sumatran rain forest seeing and doing all those amazing things. It was a fantastic experience, and undoubtedly one of the greatest, most memorable highlights of my entire trip.

Woohoo for Scotty and Janelle - The Jungle Explorers!!! :-)