Orang Hutan: Forest People

For our final excursion in Indonesia, we donned our hiking boots once again to venture into Gunung Leuser National Park located between the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. In particular, we were headed to Bukit Lawang for their Orangutan Sanctuary.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be an Indonesian nature activity without the long and nauseating three and a half hour car ride to our final destination. I’m pretty sure this was our longest drive yet, but with my narcoleptic tendencies, I managed to sleep through most of the winding roads. I did not, however, sleep through the millions of potholes we hit when we finally reached the entrance of the 800,000 acre World Heritage Site.

Accompanied by our friendly local guide, Ginta, we embarked from a river side village and headed into the dense tropical rainforest in search of some orangutans. With no way to guarantee we would actually encounter any orangutans, we trekked deeper into the jungle with our eyes alternating between the dense canopy above and the tangled roots below. Just based off looks, you would have thought our group had been caught in some rain within the first 15 minutes of our hike. But no. There was no rain. Just sweat. Lots and lots of sweat.

About 45 minutes into our hike, we ran across another group of hikers who excitedly told us we were in for a treat up ahead. Just across the creek we would be able to see three orangutans—a male, female, and tiny baby.

Armed with our cameras, we hopped the creek and started our ascent up the steep embankment in the supposed direction of the orangutans. Not even two minutes had passed before another guide, half falling, half running, streaked past us yelling, “back back back back back!” The cause of such urgency? A huge male orangutan 15 feet away and quickly approaching. Without further urging, I promptly about faced and hurled myself downward.

At the reassuring claims from Ginta everything was safe, I looked up to see that the orangutan had climbed up and was moving from tree to tree. It was a scene out of The Jungle Book. First real life in counter with an orangutan? Check. Heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, potential near death experience? Also check.

[1] The huge male orangutan placated after Ginta offered him some bananas [2] Second set of mom and baby orangutan we saw [3] Male orangutan of the hike spotted swinging through the canopy

Thankfully, the remainder of our orangutan sightings were significantly less harrowing encounters. Ginta, being the amazing guide that he is, had brought bananas with him with the sole purpose of getting the orangutans closer so we could take good pictures. On a good day, most people will only be able to see one or two orangutans. We ended up seeing seven, including feeding one. Three males, two females, and two babies. One of the babies couldn’t have been more than a week old—he still had his umbilical cord attached to him. We sadly didn't get a good photo of it because his mom managed to protect him from all our prying cameras.

Assortment of photos of the cheeky male orangutan who gobbled up all our bananas and promptly left when he realized we had no more food to offer him.

It honestly is so different seeing orangutans in their natural habitat versus in a zoo. You can only find them in the wild in two places: Borneo and Sumatra. Admittedly the whole ‘use bananas to get the attention of the orangutans so we can take cool photos and show everyone’ aspect of the trek wasn’t very natural, but seeing them roam free up in the canopy was amazing. And they were clearly intelligent enough to deduce that humans in the forest meant they were going to get some fruit. Kind of like pigeons in a park. Humans equal free food.

At the conclusion of our three hour excursion, Ginta led us back out of the dense tropical forest and on a path back towards the riverside village. We stopped by a small food stall in the village for some much needed food where we came across Francine Neago. She’s from France and has lived in Indonesia for 50 years. She’s known for her work with orangutans in Indonesia. You can Wikipedia her actually.

I don't think I could have asked for a better culminating experience for our time in Indonesia. Sure there were moments when I didn't think I would make it out alive, but it was an experience only attainable in Indonesia and I don't plan on forgetting it any time soon. I don't plan on forgetting any of our Indonesian adventures any time soon. It was truly an unforgettable 11 days. And with that, my final parting words to the amazing country of Indonesia, in trend with the jungle theme, are ones borrowed from Phil Collins: "You'll be in my heart."