Sumatra trip

I’m back in Bali with all kinds of stories. As I sit here on my pretty tree house deck after morning yoga listening to the birds, there is a lovely breeze blowing and I remember that an Australian friend told me that the dry season brings a breeze from Australia. Now this could be the start of something good….unless of course it gets hotter?

Where to begin with my Sumatra trek? My head is full of the fun of the group I was with, the orangutans in the rainforest that I saw, my talks with rangers about what needs to be done, and the thrill of riding on elephants plus bedtime chats with my Javanese princess roommate!

The group that I went with is part of the Indonesian Heritage Society based in Jakarta with about 700 members, expats, locals and anyone interested in learning about Indonesia, exploring Jakarta, going to lectures and taking trips together. My impression was of intellectuals who like adventure. Our trip was organized by Pol, the SOS 70 yr old volunteer born in Indonesia and living in Canada as a fundraiser for SOS and to educate people about the problems facing orangutans. We had Nick, Aussie expat my age married to an Indonesian woman and living on a farm for 35 years outside of Jakarta after a career with the UN, Clare, Aussie expat living here with her husband for 23 yr, Giang, Aussie Phillipino woman here with her husband long term, and Yetki, a Javanese woman…actually a princess, who became my roommate, and Elizabeth, a Canadian expat living here with her family and running eco-treks to places like Papua New Guinea. They were all fluent in Indonesian but English too and experienced world travelers! How’s that for an intriguing travel group for a five day trip to Sumatra!

First I flew to Jakarta and Pol and I took a walk around his guest house neighborhood, which is the same neighborhood that Sukarno lived in! We saw his house, which though large was unimpressive from the outside. Intriguing to think about all the corruption that must have taken place behind those walls. Strange to see it at such close range, words that were only in a newspaper or on TV now live. His family’s house next door was quite large with a corridor connecting to daddy’s house and all the other houses were like stucco Street of Dreams. Iranian embassy across the street from us and the house of the general who escaped when the dictatorship fell apart. The neighborhood .. tall walls and solid gates, balconies with grill work…very pretty landscaping. Quiet neighborhood.

Jakarta of course, is a big city. Elsewhere traffic is scooter/motorcycle madness in between lots of big cars. Not the European small cars here. Creative driving means create a lane as needed and many different types of honks like code with different meaning. There are maybe 100 scooters lined up at stoplights as if it’s a race. Maybe it is?

We flew to Medan, Sumatra on Garuda, whose reputation like all the Indonesian airlines is so bad that they are not allowed to land anywhere in the EU or the US—not particularly comforting to board these planes! But my geography is getting so much better as I travel the world. Maybe that’s the easiest way to learn where things are!

First off we went to the SOS office in Medan (is Medan known for bird flu or scrs or something cozy like that?) The office is staffed with 11 paid positions, an American head( actually his whole body too), a UK woman who is leaving after 8 mo. and 10 Indonesians. Young and very educated. Must say though that I was expecting a better presentation from them when we arrived as our group has a lot of influence in Jakarta. I’ve made the suggestion that they put together a 15 min presentation. After a bit of a disappointing disjointed chat, we all went to lunch. One of the Brits volunteering was a good communicator and he studies in the ecotourism field which I feel is the only thing that can save the remaining rainforests. Dollars for tourisms traded for dollars for trees and oil palm production. Either that or some type of carbon trading with other countries paying to keep the rainforest intact. But there is a catch with anything involving money in this country. As I travel here all I hear about is corruption and cheating. Anyone in government takes what they need first. And it filters down. Even cutting in lines at the airport- imagine! Actually cutting! (Excuse me sir, I’m from the NW and we may let you in if you ask but you just can’t walk in front of me in line. That’s cheating!)

The drive to Tangkahan was long but the cars were air-conditioned. The scenery after we got out of Medan went to rural and then oil palm plantations. Picture driving in Eastern Washington through the wheat or Illinois through the corn. It went on and on and on and on. Once the forest is logged they put in oil palm plantations, the peat is lost…which helps fight global warming and all of the diverse habitat is destroyed never to be returned. So 3 hours of oil palm plantations. The big companies like LonSum (out of London) build a village for the workers and a school. Talked to one person who is kinda like an indentured servant from Java. Signed a contract to work for 6 years but in the meantime had a family and will never be able to gather the money to fly the whole family back and the company only pays to fly the one person back. That is so wrong. And I thought that type of thing didn’t exist any more. Naive… very. As we drove through the small villages all of the children were waving hello to us…so cute.

We arrived at Tangkahan at night which was very exciting. I had my headlight and they gave us wee little flashlights and then we headed down 120 steps in the dark. We could hear a river below. It felt like a real adventure! When we got to the swift river we boarded a covered raft that is tethered to a rope that runs across the river…which is not narrow. By pulling on the rope and the skipper moving the rudder we headed to the other side. From here up about 60 steps in the dark. Luckily porters carried our entire luggage. We arrived at Mega Inn which was started by a young man named Mega. He had seen the ecotourism at Bukit Lawang and decided to build cabins on his families land. He’s 31and took great care of us. Our rooms had mosquito nets and cold showers from a bucket! But there was a lovely garden to look at while I screamed from the cold water hitting my warm back. But you know cold water is a really good wake up…try it!

We had a good dinner and then everyone went to their cabins. In the morning we had to wait an hour for the river to go down before crossing to start our elephant adventure. Basically this small ecotourism business saves the forest giving people another way to make money. Mega used to work in the oil palm plantations before he got the idea to build his inn. In our talks I was impressed with his drive, his efficiency at taking us around and making our day great. Nice to know he wasn’t wasting his creativity working the plantation.

The elephants are part of a patrol used to check the forest for illegal logging. There are 5 females, 1 male who is not yet in musk (they have taught him to paint to deal with his issues of being around all of those females with just the idea of something happening but nothing really ready to happen. He holds the brush in his trunk. He’s 16 yr old so soon he’ll be able to put the brush down!) There is also one 7 yr old. The lead mahout was actually trained at a zoo in Australia because the feeling was that the training for elephants in Thailand was too cruel, which was not news to me after being at the Elephant Nature Park. It was good to see kindness.

They put a bamboo saddle on over a comfy pad. The mahout at the front, then two of us onboard. There was a place to put your feet and a handle in front to hold on and off we went for an hour long ride through the jungle! This is not flat, this jungle. It goes steeply up and then same thing down. Lots of it is thick mud. So when the elephant is climbing up the person in the back…that would be me…has to hold on tight cuz you lean way way back. Hardly a chance to take photos but really great fun. Our mahout let our ele eat along the way and hopefully since we were flat on her back we weren’t hurting her. Most amazing was watching them sink up to their knees in the mud and then gracefully pull out. All of us in the back said we checked the handle to see if it was attached well! We eneded at the river with the eles kneeling down, saddles off and then they were free to play in the river. GREAT! They dunked themselves, swam a bit, crossed to the other side to eat and enjoyed the freedom.

And our next adventure? There were 6 inner tubes tied together and we all got in. Mega and our other guides got on too and we started down the river for a relaxing cool float. They paddled us through some gentle white water and we all bounced around. The kicker was one woman…she’s a 5 star hotel traveler so this trip was quite the stretch for her. She put a clear raincoat on for the inner tube float but her attitude completely changed when we arrived at the waterfall! Imagine a jungle hideaway and a beautiful, tall waterfall with water cascading down into a gentle pool…the water a perfect temperature. I was pretty sure I’d found heaven when I dove in and then swam to the rocks with the waterfall hitting my head and shoulders. Everyone was having such a great time and then raincoat woman took off her raincoat and went right in! She got a guide to help her climb near the waterfall…got her hair wet and everything. After our swim, Mega served us yummy WARM lunch on paper. Yetki tried to teach me how to eat Javanese style with my hands. They have a way to use their thumb as a pusher of food. Then watermelon and papaya. Absolutely amazing. Then back in the inner tubes for more floating and then a walk back to Mega Inn through some very small villages.

That evening mega arranged for some locals – Bataks, a tribe known for their good voices and long ago for the cannibalism, I’d add gorgeous wavey long hair – to bring their guitars and sing for us. By now all of us were good friends…Elizabeth had a rat in her room, Yetki had a leech on her leg, I had a horsefly bite my little toe…just things to laugh about. Sitting around the small outdoor restaurant, singing and laughing and telling stories…after a great day.

The next morning we were to load up into 2 Land Rovers for the 3 hour drive over really bumpy roads through more plantations to Bukit Lawang to see the orangutans. Imagine our surprise when we crossed the river to find 2 beat up pick up trucks with no seats and no cover for shade! Now what do we do? I’ll stop here and tell you how it turned out…..

On the road to Bukit Lawang.

Well, we all sucked it up and road in the heat in the discomfort on the long and bumpy road. About midpoint we stopped for something to drink. I must said that my image of an Eastside Land Rover was a muchmuch better dream. After our break I joined Nick who was standing in the back holding on to the bar as the bumpy bumpy sitting was just no cutting it for me. Our truck overheated with about 10 min to go. We all got out and walked while the other vehicle took the others to town and then came back for us. We arrived dusty, sweaty but okay.

If you read the newspapers, you might remember that Bukit Lawang was the site of a horrible flood in 2003 caused by illegal logging upstream from the town. 250 or so locals and 10 tourists died in the flood. Since then the government rebuilt the houses lost and built a very unattractive cement channel. We crossed along wire suspension bridge to get to our hotel..the Ecolodge built to encourage ecotourism. We had time to go to the afternoon feeding so we all rushed down the river to the small wooden boat tethered to the rope going across the river. I got in with Nick and our guide..are you picturing small canoe, wooden in a fairly wide river crossing? So the boatman pulls on the rope and we glide across to the other side but when we are ready to get out Nick thikns that a rope is in the wrong place. I’m not sure still what he was worried about but he decided to flip out the boat and not towards the land either. Obviously he was worried about something. The guide in front of me must have had the same male brain working. But I had my camera around my waist and wasn’t about to ruin it. I leaned back to steady the boat and the guides came flying to help me. I screamed…save my camera, save my camera. (Mom, I was in NO danger ) So they pulled me up by my camera I think and though the case got wet the camera was fine. My back pack was wet, my clothes were wet though no wet tshirt contest but Nick was totally soaked with a wet phone and camera. I was kind of refreshed and my adrenalin settled down. I’m still not sure what happened.

So next we headed up the hill for about 20 minutes…steep steps, some mud so some of the locals are human walking sticks. Two men took a hand each and lead me up the stairs making sure that soggy wet woman didn’t slip and slide. There was something really funny about all of us being lead by the hand. Kind of a royalty thing…like where was my robe trailing behind me and gosh, how about a crown too. When we reached the top sure enough there was a mom, Mina, and her baby on the feeding platform eating bananas. We moved to watch her all transfixed by the site. She was rescued from the pet trade and taken here for rehabilitation in 1979. Since then she has given birth to 5 babies and raised them all successfully. A great accomplishment. But and this is a rather big but, the thing is these orangutans are semi-wild and used to being fed bananas out of backpacks. So she came out of the platform and sat near us. The guide told us to slowly move away and so we did but Mina had other palns. She charge through the group heading directly to one woman and reached up and grabbed her backpack tearing it off. She then opened it and startd looking for food. Of course, everyone in the group was weirded out and totally scared now. And Mina just looked miffed with the whole thing! Well, it turns out that earlier in the day that girl had been hiking wither guide and feed her from this backpack. So Mina wasn’t being vicious just wanted bananas. I sat and talked to one of the guides who voiced concern about SOS and all the other NGOs. He felt they were doing fundraising but leaving the orangutans on their own now. I asked him if we could talk later so that I could write down his concerns and let SOS know. I really appreciated his frankness and passion. \

Then having all lost our enthusiasm and headed down the path. What with tippy canoes and charging orangutans, we all felt that a beer would be a much safer bet.

Next day the group decided to take a 3 hour hike in the jungle. I decided to go talk to rangers. Rusland the guide had talked to me the night before and my head was full of questions about the welfare of the Os. There is no hospital in the town so when one is injured, transportation has to be arranged. Medicine is not available locally. He felt those two things must change. I was heart-broken when I saw an O in an enourmous jail cell. She had been biting and being aggressive so she was in the quarantine cage till she improved. When she came here as a youngster, she was wearing mascara and lipstick. Had been taught to smoke. What the f----? Yea, so her rehabilitation isn’t going well. I was shocked that there was no enrichment in her cage, no trees, no ropes, no nothing. Just a big rusty cage. So off to the ranger station I went full of questions.

I had a good talk with the rangers who share those concerns. It is as it is everywhere a question of how government moves, what gets funded and then of course, the graft and corruption piece. They would like to change the jail but need a plan. They’d love to have a hospital. And they also want a solution for the orangutan attacks on the durian fruit. Farmers harm the Os because the Os eat all of the fruit. Can’t we all just get along? They asked me to send them any solutions that I could find for this problem, any plans for something to replace the jail and any ideas to improve th e feeding platform. So were they placating me? Who knows but I will follow it all up. I’ve given my feedback to SOS as well as another group. I am also working on a map to show all of the orangutan groups…what they do where they are…add the rainforest and see if there is some joint project we could get going.

Meanwhile the group came back with stars in their eyes. Their hike had been amazing. An O and her baby had come very close to them…semi-wild…and stayed for 45 mintues. Of course, the guide fed her. So there it is again. Ecotourism no no. Please don’t feed the animals. But then after this amazing experience the people in the group will feel more passionate about saving Os. So what is the answer? If there is no ecotourism, the town can only survive with logging. So many puzzles to work out.

I decided to go to the afternoon feed by myself and had a safe, dry crossing and walked up the steps without my human walking steps accompanied by Lucy’s favorite ranger, Dharma. We talked all the way up as I asked him questions to get his view on things. Once up at the top he went to the feeding platform and feed Mina. Oh dear…Mina returns. I told the other people in the group to take off their backpacks! But it was a totally different experience. About 12 orangutans came there taking different spots around us as there is a pecking order on who goes first. After the bananas they were given milk in a glass. So sweet to see their faces and how different each one is. They are so graceful working their way through the trees and climb s o high they are just a dot barely visible. Each one has a different look in their eyes and thinking. They look like they are thinking not just looking. We stayed a long long time with no problems. Dharma told me lots of stories about all the orangutans. He thinks Mina needs to be aggressive to protect her babies. That it makes her a good mother. One of the other Os who was quite beautiful has lost 4 of her babies. He said some might be to kidnapping…from other Os who want to raise a baby and that she is not tough enough to fight them off. He suggested SOS get them a new boat. I thought he was being funny since everyone seemed to know that I got wet yesterday but no he said this one leaks. I felt like I was really lucky to have this time with the three different guys listening to three different perspectives plus everything that I am reading. Now I’m trying to understand all of the different programs and whether or not they work well together.

Our group had a great dinner that night laughing about things that had happened and discussing the issues that I had encountered. I got invited to visit in Jakarta so who knows…maybe sometime though I doubt it. I’m not much for crazy cities. Back to Bali now and earth day is this Sat. We’ll have a booth, maybe sell some t-shirts, get donations.

I’ve got more things to organize for the benefit coming up…like wine and food donations. Stay in touch!