I left the big city of Medan to travel to the more peaceful and serene Bukit Lawang. A jungle village of Sumatra, located in the Gunung Leuser National Park, that's famous for it's wild orangutans and rivers.
I took the cheap public bus which leaves from outside Mawar Bakery on the street called Pinang Baris. There's a common scam there where touts will try to convince you to pay for your ticket up front at an extortionate rate. I'd read about this before hand and sure enough it happened to me while I was sitting on the bus waiting for it to leave. Unfortunately I didn't get that on camera. The correct fare is only 30,000 and it paid AFTER reaching your destination.
The food in the Mawar Bakery is excellent and very good value, so it's worth stocking up there before getting on the bus.
At Bukit Lawang Bus Station there were many touts. They are just trying to "help you" by sell orangutan trekking tours. I just told them all no as I would prefer to book a trusted guide through my hotel. They were very persistent and sticky though.
In Bukit Lawang village, which is only 1.3 km away on a flat road, so is easily walkable, I checked in to my hotel: Wisma Leuser Sibayak. It's one of the more costly hotels in the area but still very cheap. I took one of their best rooms at 400,000 IDR but it seemed like other than size there wasn't much difference between that and the cheaper rooms, starting at 200,000 IDR.
I started the stay with a light meal in the hotel restaurant. Gado Gado is a local Indonesian meal of boiled vegetables and peanut sauce. The healthiest food I'd eaten in a while.
My main activity of the day was tubing and swimming in the river. It didn't start off too well and I had to rely on the locals kids to rescue me.
My first (half) day concluded with a delicious goat barbecue beside the river, hosted by the hotel owner Bob.
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31 окт 2019
