Seeing Wild Orangutans on a 2-Day Jungle Trek in Bukit Lawang

My favorite kind of vacation is where I can explore and get to know a new place and also see some cool wildlife and learn more about their behavior and their life. Orangutans were something that always fascinated me, and when planning a trip to Indonesia, they had to be on the schedule.

I was trying to remember where I got interested in Sumatran orangutans, and I guess I watched a documentary. Not sure which.

North Sumatra, and specifically Gunung Leuser National Park, is a great place to see them up close.

And there is no better way to see them than a trek in the middle of the jungle, and to have better chances, a two-day, one-night trek was something that interested us. It sounded long enough without being too wild. Also, my wife wouldn’t do more than this.

Getting to Bukit Lawang

The starting place is a small village called Bukit Lawang. It is 3 and a half hours away from the closest airport in Medan (KNO), and honestly, getting there is the worst part of this trip. Bring cash, as withdrawing money at the airport was a challenge. One ATM had a limit of 1M IDR, another 1.2M, and one was not working well. I found a BNI one with a limit of 2M and still had to do 4 withdrawals. We arranged the transfer with the hotel, so the driver was already waiting for us when we got there. He was nice but didn’t speak English. My wife slept almost the whole way, while I watched the landscape and the people.

The village is very nice. After a point, you cannot go by car anymore, so you have to go walking or by motorcycle, and that’s most of the tourist area with the hotels, resorts, and everything. The people are very friendly, almost always saying hello and smiling. The village is very small, and you can walk around it in 10 minutes. There are a few restaurants, and the main street is along the river.

Where we stayed

We stayed at the Garden Inn hotel, which was really nice and had a very good view of the river. The staff were really nice. The room was comfortable, and it had hot water and no air conditioning, but there was a fan, and the room was kind of open, with screens to keep the bugs out. One side of the room is made of big rocks, and hearing the river from the balcony is really cool. The only downside is the humidity: clothes never fully dry, so the room has a bit of a smell of damp clothes.

The breakfast was a menu, and you could pick one option from each category, which was good, but if you stay three nights like we did, it starts to get a little bit repetitive. The local coffee is made with the grounds, like a Turkish coffee, and it is better and stronger than the Americano. On our first night, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. We had the Nasi Goreng Ayam, a good meal and cheap compared to Canadian standards.

Booking the trek

The trek was our main goal, and we initially wanted to book in advance with some other companies that we found on the Internet, but they required us to stay at their hotel, which was not an advantage for us because their hotel was a lot more expensive than the one we found, so we ended up booking the trek with our own hotel, Garden Inn, as they also offered the trek. We arranged everything with them through the messages on Booking.com, and the process was very easy and smooth. After finishing the trip, we realized this was the best option anyway. The trek cost 4M IDR for the two of us, plus 450k in tips for Erwin, Jo and the cook.

We went on September 12, which was already the end of the season, so even though we didn’t book a private tour, we were the only ones in our group and basically got a private tour.

We had one guide named Erwin and an assistant guide called Jo. Erwin has been working as a guide since 2007, the last 6 years or so for Garden Inn, and according to him, we were the first Brazilians he had ever guided.

Day 1: Into the jungle

Before we even left, the jungle said hello. Right after breakfast, a snake dropped from the ceiling of our room and kind of followed us. According to the staff, it was poisonous. My wife was really afraid, and the hotel moved us to another room right away. They said that it is not something really common, and I believe them because they looked concerned when we showed them the video.

We started the trek right after that. The guides picked us up at the Garden Inn hotel. We saw a hornbill, but it was with its back to us, so we didn’t see it very well. Later we saw two of them flying.

Even before we reached the national park, we saw some Thomas leaf monkeys. They are beautiful animals and jump all around.

The first orangutan we saw was also not inside the park, but it was a bit far, and we really could not see it well. The best ones came after we entered Gunung Leuser National Park.

The best view we had that day was a big male we were trying to track down. It was close to us, so it was really nice to watch it for a few minutes. It even made a nest so it could sit more comfortably.

Halfway, we had our lunch, which was prepared with great care. They really pay attention to details and did a great job. It was also really good.

We walked around 9.5 km, which is not that much, but in that heat and humidity, we were exhausted. We had never sweated so much in our lives, I guess close to sauna sweating. We were wet from head to toe the whole day, and so was everyone else. I also discovered new smells I didn’t know I had, not good ones. If you go, bring clothes that dry quickly.

The camp is very basic, but better than I expected. When we arrived, they served us fresh fruit, which we were kind of missing.

Our shower was a river shower. It was so hot that we went straight into the river to cool off. The water was really good and cool, so we enjoyed it a lot.

Not long after, the rain started. Being in the middle of the forest, hearing the river and the rain, set a great mood.

Dinner was around 7 PM, and it was really good and well prepared. We ate a lot more than we expected, and we were really surprised they could make such good food in the middle of the jungle. They put a lot of care into preparing every meal. The fruits were always cut really well, like the pineapple in nice shapes, and the plates were always nicely decorated with banana leaves. After dinner, there was nothing else to do, so we went to bed.

The bed is ok. It is not a luxury hotel, but we cannot complain, as we are in the middle of the jungle. We didn’t sleep that well, as my wife was a bit scared, and it was not super comfortable. But it was a good enough sleep to rest.

Day 2: The mother and the baby

We woke up early, around 5:30. A cook comes and prepares everything. They have their own tent, which is also a kitchen.

There was a pig-tailed macaque that came close to our campsite. Actually, pig-tailed macaques are pretty common, and they are usually around when you are having meals.

They prepared a nice breakfast for us by the river, so we could enjoy it in peace and calm. The food was really good, and the coffee was strong and good too. The breakfast was served on banana leaves, which was a nice touch.

We left the campsite around 9:30 AM. We saw the big male again on our way back. It was even on the ground, moving between the trees. It was such a great time.

The highlight came after our fruit stop around noon: a mother, a young one and a baby. The young one was moving quite a bit, and we even saw it grab a termite nest and eat the termites. The baby was so young and fragile. Seeing the different ages of orangutans together was really special.

After a quick lunch, the way back was by tubing down the river. It was better than expected, fresh and not scary at all. The team put all our things in a waterproof bag, so nothing got wet. A great way to end the trek.

In total, we saw around 8 orangutans in the two days.

The extra day in Bukit Lawang

We had one more day in the village. In the morning, I walked about one hour to the bat cave. The cave is big, and the second chamber had a lot of bats. Crossing from the first chamber to the second was really hard, but it was worth the morning. On the way, I even tried to talk with a local farmer. Talking is a stretch; it was more like sign language.

My wife does not like the jungle so much, as there are not many things to do, so she stayed relaxing by the river. The monkeys were very active in the morning, jumping around on the roof and the wires, and I found them quite aggressive.

For food, we found a better option than the hotel. We saw some locals sitting by the river at Madam Resto and thought if it was good for the locals, the price must be good. Beer was 50k compared to 80k at the hotel, and the food was a lot cheaper too. We had gado gado and chicken satay, and both were really good. On the last night, we went to the IDA restaurant for chicken and fries to take a break from the local food, again picking a place with beer around 50k.

Final thoughts

North Sumatra was a good surprise. I thought Bukit Lawang was going to be a very simple and poor place, but the village is well taken care of and organized, and the people are really friendly. The village relies on tourism, so everyone makes you feel very welcome. We said so many hellos walking around.

The trek was challenging, but it was the second-best experience of our whole trip to Indonesia, right after scuba diving in Komodo. Seeing orangutans of different ages in the wild, being so well fed by the team and sleeping in the middle of the jungle are things I will remember for a long time.

I took the orangutan photos with the same Canon R7 I used for the wildlife of Kenya and Tanzania, and some of them are available on Adobe Stock as part of my stock photography experiment.

Cheers.