Jungle Trek, Jungle Trek... in Bukit Lawang

(sing this to the tune of jingle bells and you are halfway to memorizing the anthem of Bukit Lawang)

Landing in Indonesia, I quickly realized how spoiled I had become in Thailand. Nightly blackouts, no internet, minimal fans, holes in the streets. This is all part of the glory that is Sumatra, our first stop in Indonesia. Luckily, we only had to spend one night in Medan before quickly whisking away to Bukit Lawang.

Bukit Lawang is famously home to an orangutan rehabilitation center but it is also the doorway to many jungle treks (hikes) to see the wild orangutans, lizards, monkeys, and if you go far enough, rhinos and tigers. We decided on a one day trek after meeting "Ali G," a local tourist guide, as our minibus pulled into the village. Although it is one of the major tourist destinations, we quickly realized we were 1 of maybe 15 tourists there at the moment (high season is in June, July, August). It is already a relatively small village of 800 so we felt among the only ones there.

However, that did not stop us from having one of the best stops of our trip thus far.

We woke up early for our first full day ready to trek through the jungle with Ali G. He had followed us around town the previous day to show us the sights and we recognized his great humor and were excited for more jokes. At breakfast however, Ali G introduced us to Quinooo (Don't know how to spell it but pronounced KEY NUUUUU). I have to admit -- I was a little bummed but it became apparent shortly into our trek how hilarious Quinoo was.

When we asked if it was possible to climb a giant, two-hundred year old tree, he kicked off his shoes and scrambled up; when we thought a rooster was crowing in the middle of the jungle, he answered his phone and laughed at how perplexed his ringtone made us; most importantly, he led us to see many orangutans and a hidden waterfall for lunch. At the end of the trek, we went swimming in some "slight" rapids on the river and he even seemed amused as we made fools of ourselves trying to climb up rocks and wear jungle crowns. He also insisted we celebrate at the end of our trek... and celebrate we did.

As we left our hotel room in search of dinner, we realized there was a bit of a party going on so we went down to investigate. It seemed all the trek guides had convened at our hotel (someones goodbye party) for a barbecue, some beer, and "jungle juice." The jungle trek day was taken to a whole new level of amazing.

First off, we ate barbecue fish with our hands, dipping it in chili sauce as we pulled it from the bone. Second, I am not a whiskey fan, but whiskey, coke, and fresh fruit mixed together is actually quite wonderful. And third, never would I expect to find myself at a karaoke bar in the middle of the jungle belting out "Everything I do, I do it for you."

Maybe I should elaborate on the karaoke. We walked across a rope bridge from our hotel to a place with our guide Quinoo and his friend Jungle Eddie to sing some tunes. Karaoke in Sumatra consists of one keyboard, no lyrics, and many off key singers. The English pickings were slim and we had to look up most lyrics on Jordan's blackberry; however, we sang most of the songs available from Bryan Adams to Ricky Martin. Then we taught everyone how to dance pretending they were holding a ball in their hand. The whole crowd was quite imaginative, at times pretending it was a soccer ball to pass back and forth. Finally, Jordan and I decided it would be a good idea to leave and ran back over the rope bridge to our hotel.

All in all it was a wonderful day. We had to wake up early the next day for some long bus rides but the whole adventure was quite worth it. I love Sumatra.