Bukit Lawang--"when I say move, you move away from the Orangutan"
The weekend prior to Thanksgiving was our regional conference with our program, in Medan, Sumatra, an Indonesia island north of Java--I live on Java. A couple days before the conference, friends and I decided to drive the 3 hours to Bukit Lawang where the Gunung Leuser National Park is--a rehabilitation center for orangutans was founded in 1973. The main purpose is to preserve the decreasing number of orangutan population due to hunting, trading and deforestation. The region is a World Heritage Site, including 2 other national parks. The park is HUGE and covers 7,927 km squared and is a thick, dense jungle. It was exactly how I pictured a jungle to be. My friends and I kept joking that it looked like Fern Gully and Jurassic Park's child.
Amazing winding vines and giant trees and lots of bird calls. And of course monkeys and orangutans! On our trek we saw 5 different monkey species, one of which is very unusual to see (the Gibbon). It was amazing to see the monkeys swinging high in the tree tops of their home. Our trek, was truly a trek--a full body work out to say the least. We were all scaling super steep rocks--literally rocking climbing, and holding onto tree roots and vines to prevent us from plummeting down the steep inclines. It was incredible.On our way to Bukit Lawang our driver took us to this converted temple, now a christian church. It was pretty funky.

The murals on the ceiling:
Below is where we stayed in Bukit Lawang! Amazing little homestays that cost 50,000 rupiah--about 5 bucks a night, split between 2 people.. $2.50 not bad.
The river running along our place was amazing and so peaceful and serene. It was incredible being out in the wilderness after living in the dirty busy city of Tangerang. No trees and green space can really get to a girl.
Right when we first arrived we set our bags down in this building waiting to get our rooms figured out and we heard what sounded like cats fighting..nope. Monkeys. Two monkeys came hurtling into the room and were wrestling and fighting each other. It was insane! Definitely a wonderful welcome to Bukit Lawang. 
The river we eventually raft down after our trek.
This is the sketchiest bridge of all time and I am surprised it didn't collapse while we crossed it.
The beautiful stone stairs leading us to our trekking adventure!
Cute kitty that kept following us around.
Lounging with the girls
Hayley buying handmade masks from this man. 




Make way for sheep
Our amazing guide Tomas. He was very knowledgeable of all things jungle and taught us cool facts about trees, plants, and animals. Below he is explaining tapping the rubber trees--at the bottom of the rubber tree is a small coconut dish catching the liquid. 
First monkey sighting!
Monkey with baby!



Termite's nest with trails leading down the trunk.
Old orangutan nest in the middle
First sighting of a Gibbon, Tomas told us it is very rare to see them so we were lucky!
Waiting and searching..
Our first sighting of an orangutan! There are over 5,000 orangutans living in the jungle, but there is never a guarantee that even one will be spotted. Borneo and Sumatra are the only places where orangutans still live in the wild, and unfortunately they are in danger because of hunting and deforestation. We were lucky to see one big old grampa-looking orangutan hanging out in the trees. It was a little scary because as we stopped to take photos he would stare us down, and then swing slowly towards us, almost challenging us. Whenever he moved towards us we would back up and move away, we continued this little dance for a while and got some good photos and saw an amazing animal in his natural habitat. 






Fresh fruit break by the water before rafting down the river back to our homestay. 
These are the tubes we rafted down the river in. It was so much fun...we all joked how this trek and river rafting was the best date of our lives.
Lounging in a hammock on my porch
Soaked after jumping in the river!
To and from Bukit Lawang we passed through beautiful palm tree groves--there were rows upon rows of palm trees, such an incredible sight. 




Indonesia looks like a very beautiful and exotic place to spend a vacation. I love the slow life and friendly people. Wonderful pictures you have got there!
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