Bukit Lawang, Northern Sumatra

Sunday 26th July 2009
Day 29

Bukit Lawang is a beautiful spot located on a huge river with a jungle backdrop. Watching the town go about their business on a Sunday morning was marvelous.

It wasn't long before the river that dominates the town was full of kids playing and washing. Mother's were cleaning their clothes and the dad's were either not up yet or working out of town.

Layla and I booked into some new accomodation located at the end of town which is where we had breakfast. Over coffee you could see a big group of monkeys playing and Layla also spotted an orangutan in the jungle.

Fortunately a lot of the tourists to the national park weren't staying in town just here for the apes. This left the town to go about its usual activities with a light sprinkling of travellers blending in relatively unoticed.

We went for a long walk upstream for swim in the river where we got chatting to a chap chipping away at the footpath. It turns out this friendly fellow owns a lot of the land further upstream and has big plans for planting fruit trees, opening up the jungle for cheap day treks and the like. He had strong opinions on the work of the NGOs in the town since a flash flood pretty much destroyed the community in the early 2000s.

That night the electicity was cut, a common occurence here, and a severe thunder storm was closing in with the lightening illuminating the jungle. The heavens then opened and emptied water on the town as we munched into our curries.