Day 48 - Jungle Trekking

I'm writing this blog post tonight, from one of the most amazing places I've ever been.  It's so wild and expansive - I feel like I'm on the set of Jurrasic Park or Honey I Shrunk the Kids.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed and had a bad attitude for a good part of the morning. Because of the language barrier, I was signed up for the 2 day trek instead of the 3 day, which doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but it changed the whole route and doesn't go as deep as I had wanted into the jungle.
As soon as I realized the mistake, I tried to switch treks. Even though it's high season, there are not enough people for the tour to depart that frequently (They need a group of at least 4). So, I would have to wait in this tiny village that has no bar or real restaurants (they are literally the villagers personal kitchens, with a few chairs and tables for patrons), and no real bathrooms (it's more like a squatty potty, where you use a bucket of water to force the waste down), it's extremely Muslim with prayer/chants being broadcast over village loud speakers several times a day, in a guesthouse that doesn't provide any bedding, towels, or toilet paper.... I'm feeling bad even while typing this, because I sound like an entitled American.
Basically, it's a fantastic place to experience, but not for an indefinite period of time whilst awaiting enough people to do the longer trek. I'm nearing the end of my trip, and I would just feel too antsy here with nothing to do.
So, back to the trek that I'm on... I'm so grateful that I'm here and able to even get a small glimpse of Sumatra. I never thought I'd come here - it was not in my original gameplan, but I've been blown away by all the animals, amazing untouched jungle, and gracious, happy people (aside from my taxi driver in Medan!).

We left the village in a group of 6 (a German couple, 3 Brit guys, and myself) with 2 guides, this morning at 8 with just a small pack each. All of our food and supplies would be carried by porters. The trek began through a private rubber tree plantation, which was very neat to see. The majority of rubber for tires, condoms, etc comes from here and surrounding areas, and it is gathered so simply. They literally cut away a small strip of bark, and attach a leaf to the tree. The rubber sap runs down and drips off the leaf into a coconut shell at the base of the tree. The rubber is then sold right from the shells to processors who clean and strain it and then send off to rubber factories.

Not even 20 minutes in, we saw the first group of monkeys. He called them Thomas Monkeys, but I'm pretty sure that is not the official name. ;) They were not interested the least bit in our fruit offering, and our guide Eddie said these are pretty skittish normally. When they climbed away to avoid their human gawkers, we trekked on and found some playful Black Gibbons.

Another half our down the trail, and we started seeing orangutan nests in the trees. They were close!
Our guide started chuffing (making calls to alert them of our presence), and listening for the cracking of branches. Sure enough, a momma and her baby were in a tree just off the trail. It was so neat to watch the way they interacted with each other, and how the mother broke the upper branches of the tree to build a nest for nap time.

An hour or so down the trail, and Eddie got pretty excited and took us off trail a bit. Our scout, who runs around off trail looking for animals for us, had spotted some baboons. A couple of them were curious about the bananas that Eddie threw there way, so they came close enough to get some great shots.

Ten minutes further, and we spotted some white-handed red gibbons. They weren't interested in us, or the fruit, so we kept moving.
We stopped to indulge in some fruit ourselves, in attempts to get some energy back. We were all completely soaked from head to toe in sweat, as it's extremely hot and humid, and with all the ups and downs from mountain to mountain, we were losing energy quickly. The break and fruit was just what we needed. Bananas, jungle fruit (which I think is what we call dragon fruit), passion fruit (my new obsession) and something similar to an orange, but with a milder, more exotic flavor.

After the break, we came upon a larger group of orangutan. This group was curious, and one came all the way down to within arms distance. It was so exhilarating to be able to watch these creatures (that share 96% of the same DNA as us) interact in their natural habitat, not at a zoo or sanctuary. It's odd how human-like they act, the mother getting mad at her child when it was nap time and pulling him down from swinging in the branches, the way they use different items as tools, etc.

We spent a bit watching the orangutan interact, and then made our way to our lunch spot. Lunch was the traditional Nasi Goreng wrapped in a palm leaf, that I've eaten 100 times on the trip so far. It's basically like a fried rice but with a slightly different flavor than the one we typically have in the States, and it's served with a fried over easy egg on top, with a slice of cucumber and tomato, and shrimp chips on the side. All is nicely packaged tight in a banana palm leaf, and secured with rubber bands. This is the closest thing to fast food that the Indonesians have. There haven't been any street carts for the most part; at least not as many as some of the other countries I've visited, but vendors do walk around carrying baskets (often on their heads) of these little pouches of Nasi Goreng. It's pretty tasty, and does a good job of filling you up for very little money.

After lunch, we were greeted by some "funky monkeys" as eddie referred to them. They not only act quite comical, but they look funny too, with a mohawk hairdo. They were too quick for my camera apparently, because all the pics came out blurry. :/
The trek got steeper and harder the further into the jungle we got, and we were all feeling pretty lethargic. Luckily, it was late afternoon and we were nearing our camp on the river. We could smell the fire, so we knew the porters had made it and would have water boiled for us from the river. It was such a hot day, that we all depleted our supply by mid-afternoon. :/

Camp was very simple, but so cool. We jumped in the river first thing, to cool off and clean up. The jungle was muddy in areas, and we were climbing up and down the steep terrain grabbing rocks or vines and occasionally slipping, so we were all pretty dirty. The river felt fantastic, and was crystal clear to the bottom.

After the swim session, we built a second fire to dry off, and we sat on a tarp and had tea and a surprisingly great dinner that had been prepared for us. Jokes, stories, card games and herb came after dinner, which seems to be the trend on any kind of overnight excursion in all the countries I've visited.
Crashing out now, and looking forward to what tomorrow will bring!