Indonesia - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 220

Post o ce Jl Perdagangan 53, Sabang (Mon-Thurs
8am-3pm, Fri 8am-noon).
Snorkelling Gear Rental Masks and fins are available
all over the island (Rp30,000/day).

Trekking
Bukit Lawang is the most popular base
for organizing treks into the Gunung
Leuser National Park, with plenty of
guides based here. In the forests around
Bukit Lawang, your chance of seeing
monkeys, gibbons, macaques and - of
course - orang-utans is high. A range of
treks is on offer, from one-day walks to
week-long slogs towards Ketambe in
Aceh province, passing through some
pristine tracts of primary forest. You may
also head deeper into the jungle to reach
Tangkahan, which offers elephant-
mounted treks and whitewater rafting.
One of the most popular and enjoyable
options from Bukit Lawang remains
the full-day trek, which includes lunch
and finishes with a thirty-minute trip to
Bukit Lawang through the rapids on an
inflatable tube raft. You must have a
permit (see p.224) for each day that you
spend in the park, as well as a guide with
IGA approval. Fees from the IGA O ce
(guides in hotels charge slightly more) are
€20 for a three-hour trek, €25 for a day
and €195 for seven days, which should
include a permit for the park, food, tent
and a guide. Read guest-book logs for
up-to-date trek reviews. Whoever you
decide to hire, they should never feed,
touch or even call the orang-utans. Keep
an eye out for the notorious Mina, a
mischievous, semi-wild female known for
intimidating visitors and occasionally
descending from the trees to give chase.

BUKIT LAWANG
Tucked away on the easternmost fringes
of Gunung Leuser National Park, the
popular tourist resort of BUKIT LAWANG
is home to the Orang-utan Rehabilitation
Centre . With a wonderful selection of
treks into the heart of the jungle,
whitewater adventures and some of
the world's best opportunities to see
orang-utans in the wild, this is a
destination worth visiting.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Bukit Lawang is in a stunning location
below curtains of thick jungle on the
banks of the Bohorok River. Aside from
swimming in the river or relaxing at one
of the many cafés and bars, the main
attractions are feeding times behind the
Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre and
treks in Gunung Leuser National Park .

4

The Bohorok Orang-utan
Rehabilitation Centre
he reason for the existence of the tourist
resort is the Bukit Lawang Bohorok
Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre
( W orangutans-sos.org), founded in 1973
by two Swiss women, Monica Borner
and Regina Frey, with the aim of
returning captive and orphaned
orang-utans into the wild after
re-educating them in the art of tree
climbing and nest building. Although
the rehabilitation programme was
suspended a while ago, the centre
remains open, having become more a
tourist attraction than anything else.
Visitors are allowed to watch the
twice-daily (8am & 3pm), hour-long
feeding sessions that take place on the
hill behind the centre. All visitors must
have a permit (Rp20,000) from the
PHPA o ce. All being well, you should
see at least one orang-utan during the
session, and to witness their gymnastics
is to enjoy one of the most memorable
experiences in Indonesia.

Tubing
Hurtling down the Bohorok in an inflated
inner tube, battered by wild currents - has
become a time-honoured tradition in
Bukit Lawang. Tubes can be rented from
sheds along the river for about Rp15,000
per day. If you're not a strong swimmer,
consider tubing on a Sunday, when the
locals employ a rescue team along the
more dangerous stretches of the river. he
rapids can be quite extreme after heavy
rain: proceed with caution, especially if
you are without a guide, and avoid the
section just before the town centre. here
is a bridge 12km downstream of the
village (2-3hr), from where you can catch
a bus back (Rp10,000).