Jungle Trek Jungle Trek and Happy Birthday Daz

  Lake Toba, Indonesia
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Bah, this is the second time I've had to write this and I'm sceptical if it shall be as good as the first attempt, but news needs to be told eh?
So, we are in Indonesia, again a new country utterly different from anything else we've experienced so far! Our first stop was a quick overnight stay in Medan, although not much sleep was enjoyed due to the mosque next door blaring its religious music over the city at random hours! We had a crazy journey from Medan to Bucet Luang, far North of Sumatra, famous for its Orangutan rehabilitation centre. The journey was long and eventful - busy, crowded, dusty, bumpy - and irritatingly slow. The entertainment alternated between loud happy hardcore music and local lads jumping on with guitars and sharing a few tunes before disembarking somewhere along the way and being replaced with a newbie!
On the bus we met Amir - our  jungle trek guide to-be, who had gone to Medan to use the internet (it was a 5 hour journey each way!!!) Towards the end of the journey we were in dense jungle on a dirt track road, really had that 'in the middle of nowhere'  feel to it, and when we saw Bucet Luang we were blown away by its beauty!

kuhu8

Its pretty much a large and ever growing village of just one road situated just one side of a very fast flowing river with rapids. We stayed at the north end ( a long walk away) at garden inn which was fab except for the rats in the roof at night and the very stinky drains. But for less than 2 pound a night we were hardly complaining! The first night we had a few beers, watched the monkeys running around, prepared and planned our trek route and went out to dinner where i was informed there was no chicken for me cause the cat had run off with it!
So, we (i should probably tell you now we were still with Tom and Charlie)

tthy777

set off for our trek into the national park with Amir and his helpers after a day of rest. We were anxious to get moving as obviously with the animals being wild there's really no guarantee of seeing anything at all! Straight away Charlie set a new record for  'the bridge issue' as , bless her  she is terrified of bridges! But she came across really quick and then we were in he jungle ooo!
We were a bit thrown by seeing the massive knives our guides were carrying especially when we were told he had to take up the rear (hehe) in case we were jumped by a tiger!
We were very lucky and happy to see Monkeys literally within 2 minutes of being in the national park area! A large group of Tomas Leus Monkeys who have punky hairdos in the trees nearby.

hjd54

We were happy to stand there gazing up at them (some were shagging teehee) but Amir coaxed them down with random monkey noises and bananas and then put the food on our heads and the monkeys came down and got them it was a crazy experience!

dfs2

During the trek we saw some weird trees too - rubber trees (is this a common fact? Cause' i was gob-smacked!) where they get rubber with just a leaf and half a coconut!

n8

We saw chocolate trees and anti malaria trees which tasted exactly like the disgusting tablets we stopped taking ages ago.
Within the first hour we saw our first Orangutan - in fact we saw three, two females and one had a small baby which was gorgeous! They were less than 5 feet away and we just stood there watching them for ages

jyjyt7

and they just sat there watching us back (and keeping an eye on our rucksacks hoping for food). Whilst the baby had obviously been born in the wild, both of the females were previous habitants of the rehabilitation centre. It was strange watching them they were so human-like and lovely.

hjgbf5

About 20 yards away another came swinging through the trees to investigate what was going on but she was really shy and swung away (really quickly) Tarzan style when we came to see. Before a quick break we also saw a spotted frog and a chameleon.
After walking for a couple of hours we stopped for a break, and the guides handed out some snacks, and the best mango's in the world! We had literally just sat down when Amir got all excited as another Orangutan was nearby! He quickly lost his excitement when he saw it up close though - it was Mena, a previous rehabilitation occupant well known for her aggressiveness - Amir had a Mena scar on his wrist!. With her she had a baby less than a month old and she saw us as a threat (she probably also wanted our food). Amir yelled at us to grab our bags and move away, which we did but not really realising the seriousness of the situation we were pissing about getting our cameras ready and enjoying our fruit when all of a sudden we were aware of the knife-wielding guides legging it and behind them this massive orangutan came wandering around the corner after us. So, not very quietly, we all started shoving each other through the jungle. Tom threw his mango at her to try and distract her from following us, and we thought we were safe, until once again she rounded the corner and off we went again. It was only then whilst we were running everyone saw me running and trying to  eat my mango at the same time - everyone else had discarded theirs but bugger that it was an  amazing mango - my amazing mango! Anyways, we were safe thats the main thing, but looking back it was quite funny really. Lunch time saw the first leech of the trip in Charlie's shoe, but as she was eating bugs left right and centre she barley noticed it! Daz got one on his leg too but we burnt it off.

fftt555

We got drenched that afternoon as the heavens opened just as we were climbing up a big hill so it was really slippery and muddy and we all nearly fell off the side a few times. For a while we tried to hold big leaves above our heads but, nice idea as it was it wasn't overly practical so we got soaked instead!
We were all a bit damp when we finally made it to camp but luckily they'd had the kettle on so tea was a -waiting. We went for a swim in the waterfall to de skank

tyyt55

, removed all the leeches and sat down to a wonderful spread! That night we were all knackered and wanted an early night (also tom's balls were on fire and he was a wee bit uncomfortable) so we crashed out pretty much straight away in our makeshift tent.

The next morning i  woke up with something stuck in my hair it felt funny, but Charlie didn't think it was anything and the boys said it was clay (?why the fuck would i have clay in my hair?). Anyway, Amir came over to investigate and it turned out a leech had got me in the night and sucked my head dry! It got me on the forehead and scalp (apparently they bite at both ends!) and the right side of my head had been turned into pile of matted blood soaked hair! Lovely! Amir did what any local worth his weight would have done and ripped a square of card off his (clove flavoured) fag packet and stuck it on my head to stop the bleeding! A while later when the tent was being taken down, we heard a bit of commotion from the crew then Charlie pointed at it- the leech that got m and it was gross!! It was huge, like a big thick slug and they are so tiny when they latch on to you, i was almost sick. There was a massive trail of (my ) blood following it everywhere - probably he biggest meal it gets in its life! Apparently it was the biggest they'd ever seen!
Animal wise we didn't see the Gibbons we were hoping to today but had a good day nevertheless - apart from our camera broke again. We saw Monator lizards, frogs, turtles, long tailed maccack monkeys and ladybirds having sex. We also had a very very tough descent which took ages as we were all falling over all the time! But when we got to camp we were blown away by its gorgeous location - right by the river, with lizards and monkey playing all around - and trying to steal pour food. There was a beautiful waterfall just behind our tent so we spent a while there, before having dinner, drinking some whisky and being taught random games by the locals!
The next morning we had a lie in as we knew there was no more walking to be done! It was a amazing to wake up and for there to be monkeys and lizards wandering around camp. I could sit there and watch them for hours and saw the funniest thing. There were three monkeys, one big and two small sitting on a bunch of rocks and one of the little ones kept running up to the big monkey and slapping him in the face then running back to sit down again. He kept doing it over and over, even when the big one got tired and moved to another rock -  i was in hysterics!
We had a very lazy morning swimming in the river and watching the wildlife - we both swam across the river through the rapids but i almost didn't make it and had to do a quick turnaround, and poor Amir came running down from camp in his tiny blue pants to save me! The boys had a competition to see who could hit a bottle in the distance first throwing stones. Tom won, but not before they were both beaten by a very camp local in pink shorts.
When it was time to head back our 'raft' turned up - really it was 4 rubber rings tied together, and we and all our stuff clambered on board and floated down the rapids back to the Garden Inn. It was a fabulous few days, we definitely want to do it again, maybe a longer trek next time as it seemed to be over very quickly.
We had a drunken evening with whisky and beers and lots of games and silliness. There was a massive storm making us glad we were under shelter as the river rose so much i don't know whether would have rafted in it.
The next day and we were off - back to Medan and on our way to Lake Toba, a island the size of Singapore in the middle of Asia's largest Lake, a very strange sight! We ended up staying here over a week and for Daz's birthday as it was very relaxing, ridiculously cheap and glorious weather!
I feel the need to apologise for the lack of photos here - our camera broke (again!0 during the trek but we should be getting som copies of the guys soon and we'll put them up then!