BUKIT LAWANG

Our guide Kolan comes from Bataku tribe that lives on the Toba Lake coast and has quit cannibalism just few generations ago. He is a funny and aware guy, a real jungle encyclopedia. We are at the territory of a National park and, according to Kolan, there are more than sixty tigers out there plus wild elephants and orangutans. Of course, to meet them, we should have stayed in the jungle for weeks but we still hope to see some wild animals. Jungle paths are still wet due to night rain, and clay is almost as slippery as ice. Cicadas are hissing in the grass and monkeys yelling every once in a while. We are lucky: in few hours we run into the big monkeys we wanted to see. Two orangutan mamas with their kids are sitting high on the tree. They notice us, too, and show in every way by shaking the tree and breaking lianas that they’d like to see us going better than coming. Motionless and silent we watch them for a while, then leave. In the evening we walk out to the river to stay there for the night.