The train to Yogyakarta provided another chance to meet some friendly people. We ended up spending the majority of the 6 hour train ride talking to a young man who had actually studied in Fresno of all places. Needles to say he had good English from living in the states, and had a lot of interesting facts to share.
He informed us a little bit about the history regarding religion on Bali vs Java. Apparently, Java used to be primarily Hindu, like Bali, but after one too many volcano eruptions the people decided their religion wasn't working out too well for them and changed to Muslim. This is why the famous ruins of Borobodur and Prambanan exist on the Muslim island.
We also learned a little bit more about the many volcanoes, and the villages surrounding them. I had been unable to get a clear answer as to whether or not the people can tell when one of the volcanoes is about to erupt - he informed us that every volcano has a sort if volcano guru, an elder and very respected figure in the town whose job it is to take care of the volcano. They have a special relationship with it, and are the ones responsible for evacuating the villagers should the need arise. One of these elders became very famous after successfully evacuating his entire village. However, as it is important to be loyal to your volcano he apparently chose to stay put throughout the entire time the volcano was erupting and ended up dying. Very interesting glimpse into how these matters are dearly with here, vs. how they'd be fealty with at home.
In the end, Yogyakarta was an ok stop. I feel like the town has a bit of a hippy, natural reputation in the west -- we were expecting something like Ubud, but didn't get that. For the most part Yogya is a big city, full with scams, and lots of life. The food is sweeter here, which we didn't really care for, but they do offer kopi jos, coffee which is served by plunking a few pieces of hot charcoal in at the end. This was quite good, and gave your coffee a nice, smoky flavor. We rented bicycles and spent a few days in the town, exploring the sultans palace, enjoying some dance and the local tradition of puppet shows, checking out the depressing bird market (where animals of all sorts are caged up which shouldn't be -think woodpeckers and owls), and just hanging around. One of the most interesting things we came across was the night carnival, we had no idea what to expect and entered a lively scene with a parade of led adorned vw shells, which you could rent and drive around. Only in Asia. Another cool part of the culture in Yogya, were the night time lesehan restaurants. Around 10 at night all the street vendors pack up, and these restaurants set up. The sidewalk changes from being filled with t shirts and souvenirs to crowds of people sitting on mats and eAting local foods with their hands -- most commonly a combination of fried chicken, sambal, rice and fresh veggies. It was very cool to see the scene change so quick and watch everyone just sit down and hang out in the middle of the sidewalks -- another only in Asia thing.
From Yogya we hopped on a flight to Sumatra, to go to the jungle town of Bukit Lawang. The goal here was to do some jungle trekking and see some wild orangutans. We got so much more than we were hoping for. Sometimes you come across places when you travel that are overwhelmingly special, and Bukit Lawang was one of these places. It was nice to find it, as it was a place we'd never heard of before -- really just a jumping off point to the orangutans. So far, it's a place at the top of the list for both Paul and I -- and won't be surprised if it turns out to be a favorite of the entire trip. Amazing jungle treks and wildlife aside, we made a lot of friends, and ran into someone friendly we knew almost everytime we left our room.
The locals are incredibly welcoming and warm, and all just a little bit crazy. It's hard to explain the feeling of being in Bukit Lawang, but I can try.
The first thing we did was jump right into our jungle trek. We had a group of 6, with two local guides. Half the group was trekking two days, Paul and I and a traveler from Switzerland, Stephan, were trekking three days, which meant 2 nights camping in the jungle. Not 15 minutes into our trek a large black gibbon emerged from the trees and started coming for us, fast. He stopped a sat on a vine right in front of me, then quickly grabbed for a banana stuck down deep in one if Stephan's pockets. A couple seconds later and he was back in the trees with the banana, Stephan never feeling a thing. We then caught a couple glimpses of some orangutans high up in the trees and continued trekking to get some better views. Seeing the orangutans in the wild was really amazing, they move slow and are very graceful. They make some of the weirdest movements climbing the vines and moving between trees and it's so cool to watch their muscles as they move. The park we were in, Gunung Leuser National Park, has both wild orangs (shyer and harder to find) and semi-wild who may have been rehabilitated and are more used to/seek out human interactions. Two of the most famous orangutans there are Minna and Jackie. Minna is notorious for attacking over 100 guides, our own guide, Wong, had the scar to prove it. Minna has a bad habit of demanding food from the guides, when age doesn't get it she's aggressive. We came upon a spot and our guide directed us to one area, while our other guide, Jefri, called for Minna. She descended from the trees, baby on her back, to be fed. Ideally these creatures should be fully wild and live in the trees while finding their own food, but seeing one close up on the ground was a sight to remember. She was huge, and it was powerful to see her walk. After she descended and was happily being fed by Jefri, we were able to come closer for a better look. She kept holding out her hand as she was given one banana after another. At one point she looked at the ground, found a piece of trash, picked it up handed it to the guide. When the bananas stopped she started to get up and head towards us, at which point we were told to quickly retreat and not look back. A pile of fruit was left to distract her as we made our escape.
Jackie, on the other hand, is a little but different. Unfortunately, we only saw her nest. She is famous for holding hands, or coming from behind and bear hugging tourists, sometimes for up to an hour at a time. A group we talked to said she took a liking to a Spanish girl, held her hand and then made a gesture for her to get on her back. Jefri informed us you have to barter with her sometimes, "10 bananas, and then let my client go."
The nights camping were almost as fun as spotting the wildlife. The guides are all so funny and clever, they have such high energy and are a little monkey-like themselves. The night was full of laughs, games, singing and jungle tricks -- they all have their own riddles and tricks they like to share with tourists. It's most fun to see then react to you figuring out their games, then actually playing the games themselves. The nights were spent in some semi-covered, but mostly open air shelters by the river. Amazingly, there were no mosquitoes and the three days we spent in the jungle were lovely-- and a lot more comfortable than id been expecting.
At the end of the trek, you return to town by 'rafting'. This consists of three or four inner tubes tied together, depending on how many people you have (Paul and I shared a tube). Your guide sits in front and navigates through some quite huge rapids, all while screaming at the top of his lungs and seemingly freaking out. He has a long bamboo stick to steer and push off the bottom of the river with, sometimes digging in so deep it looks like it's about to crack. As the passenger, you happily bounce and bump along down the river, feeling all the rocks you're bouncing along on top of, if the river happens to be a tad low that day. All in all it's a fun experience, and a fitting end to the adventurous, though maybe not the safest, trek.
When you return from your trek a jungle party is the normal protocol -- we were staying at Bukit Lawang Indah, a sort of hangout spot for all the guides. At night guitars come out, all the guides seem to be musically inclined, and the whole place breaks out into the highest energy, most positive sing along you can imagine. Western and Indonesian songs are played, with some Bukit Lawang twists. The most famous is the jungle trek song, set to the tune of jingle bells. Other popular ones are Hotel California, "welcome to the hotel Bukit Lawang", the expected Bob Marley songs, classic rock galore. The happiness of the locals is infectious, which makes for the special atmosphere of the entire town that I'm trying to convey. Past midnite the guides were still going and decided to move the music and party out to a bonfire. Another hour later and most the tourists are gone to bed, and the guides are still going strong with more showing up. Any thought that this is a show for the tourists is clearly not true -- these are just some lively people, who can somehow endure these late night jungle parties most nights of the week.
Walking through town, we'd often encounter people from the night before, have a nice conversation, or be offered some company for a walk. It was really nice to have some new friends, and almost feel at home being able to walk through town and chat with people. We ended up staying a bit over a week, and our guide Jefri swung by our room many times just to hang out. We also ended up going on another little mini trek with another friend, Felix, in which we saw more great wildlife. Felix really has an impressive sixth sense, jungle sense, as he calls it and we probably saw as much with him in a few hours (including a wild male orangutan up close) as we did on our entire other trek. It was very cool to be in a smaller group, and "hunt" for the animals in the wild.
I'm really grateful for our time in Bukit Lawang, the people accepted us with open arms and by staying longer we really got the feel of integrating into the special community, something I love to experience while traveling. In addition to that, during our time there is when I learned about everything that was happening with poor jake. Mom had taken him in because he was limping, the vet told her he had 3 compressed discs and would need surgery. Mom, Kevin and I came together saying we'd help pay for his surgery and do whatever she needed in terms of helping him recover. Things quickly took a turn for the worse, he was found to have a fast growing, untreatable form of cancer -- a tumor was likely the cause of his spinal issues, rather than the discs. I will not forget being deep in a random jungle in Sumatra, trying to block out the sounds of the river, while on the phone with mom and being told the news. A day before I was feeling hopeful about his surgery, he'd always been so healthy, now he basically had no options, his pain was getting worse, and the vet just needed the ok. I was shocked and stunned talking to mom, but the second I hung up just started balling, Paul joined too without even needing to be filled in on the details. "I love that dog", is pretty much all he said, while I just agreed and cried. It was such a hard time, and would have been a lot harder if I wasn't surrounded by all the positive people of Bukit Lawang. The next morning I took some time by myself to sit by the river, Jefri came over first to try and make me smile, while our camp chef hung around in the back singing 'no woman, no cry.' The first day was tough, it was the second day of our trek -- but fortunately we were doing a pretty challenging route along the river. Scrambling up the slippery rocks and logs while trying not to get washed away downstream took a lot of concentration, and it was helpful to just have to focus on taking one step after the other. Being in the quiet, peaceful jungle was one of the best places I could be to just have some time to think and absorb everything. The whole trek was all about the observation and appreciation of the animals to be found, which led itself nicely to thinking about jake. I wish I could have been with him those last days, but being where I was is probably the best alternative I could imagine. Here's to you jake, I was imagining you beside me in jungle the whole time, although I know you'd probably hate it there <3.
