November 1, 2006
to Bukit Lawang: oh what a bus ride!
Breakfast of toast, egg, some juice and tea is included in our room price. Most of our stuff will stay behind in the hotel in a dufflebag and with the bikes. Udin shows up a half hour early, and we head out. He has arranged a taxi to the other side of town, we all share in the price. Then we hop on a minibus and finally onto a large bus that will take us all the way up to Bukit Lawang. We are on our way to see the orangutans.
What a ride!
Sometimes the road is full of potholes, rarely good, always narrow and for 2 hours bumping along. We hop off the bus once in Bukit Lawang and immediately on a becak to take us to the swinging bridge over the river to the Ecolodge. We get settled into our room and arrange to met Udin tomorrow after breakfast. Before going to the room, we order lunch for us and Udin of fried noodles, chicken and a large fruit salad.
In the afternoon, we head out to explore along the river. It starts to rain and we take refuge in "The Rock Cafe", a neat sitting area with wooden tables above a rock and on a precipice. We watch as the river rises and flow faster, Rachel is having second thoughts about floating the river in an inner tube tomorrow at the end of the jungle trek. After we finish our hot drinks, it is still pouring. The cafe owner gives us his umbrella and we continued our river walk to another restaurant near the river crossing to the orangutan feeding area.
Patrick talks with an Australian Surfer Dude and girl friend. They've been away from Australia for 9 months, he teaches surfing, and as we are visiting the girl says "orangutan". We see 3 orangutans work their way from the tree tops to the official building and watch as they make their way across the porch.
It's still raining as we make our way back toward our hotel, returning the umbrella along the way.
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