Bukit Lawang really is one of the most beautiful places to go. Situated right along the Bohorok river and bordering the   Gunung    Leuser    National Park    it really is a place that will leave a lasting impression on you. The village is most famous for the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre just upstream the river.

The Bohorok river literally divides the village in two halves. There are guesthouses and restaurants on both riverbanks. On the right bank you will find a trail that will lead you all the way up river towards the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. All the way up the river you’ll see a lot of construction in progress and many new guesthouses, restaurants and shops are being rebuilt. At the end of the trail you’ll find the Jungle Inn and just behind here you’ll find the river crossing to the rehabilitation centre. As soon as you reach the other side it is a short but strenuous climb to the nearby feeding platform, from where you can view the dialy Orang Utan feeding.

When visiting Bukit Lawang one must surely go on a jungle trek and explore the amazing wildlife of the Sumatran jungle. No matter how long you decide to stay in the jungle, you always finish your trek by tubing down the river back to the village.

In the village itself there is also plenty of things to do. You can do a batik painting or coconut carving course amongst others. The villagers are friendly and open and really will try their utmost to make you feel welcome. When walking through the village you will notice yourself sitting down with different crowds of people and having a chat and laugh with them. As soon as evening falls the guitars suddenly appear and you’ll have no choice but to sing a few songs along.

 

On Friday there is a market at the local bus station. A visit is highly recommended and you can buy many things very cheaply like beautiful sarongs, tasty tropical fruits, herbs and spices. It’s also a nice opportunity to buy some fish that you can BBQ in the night time with your newly made friends.

In the weekend many local tourists from Medan visit Bukit Lawang and you’ll find many groups sitting by the river banks enjoying the scenery.

Bukit Lawang might be one of the best place to meet this exclusive and unique primate. Bukit Lawang is one of the largest stronghold community of Orang Utan. Bukit Lawang situated at the eastern side of Gunung Leuser National Park, leap with the track of Sungai Bohorok, Medan. With more than 5000 orang utans occupied the jungle, Bukit Lawang considered as the house of the enormous orang utan by the visitor.

Bukit Lawang founded in the early of 1973, set up to preserve the decreasing number of orang utan as the negative result of hunting, orang utan trading and etc. The rehabilitation center helps the orang utans to re-gain their nature habits and trained through certain programs before released to the wild. Once the primate heads the jungle, the rehabilitation center keep provide them with supplement and regular check-up.

If you wish to feed the orang utan directly, there are 2 feeding times 08.30 am and 3.00 pm; you could feed them with milk, bananas and other food supplements supplied by the rehabilitation center. All the activities within the Gunung Leuser National Park should be done under the permit and guide by professional provide by the rehabilitation center. Some visitor argued that the regulations is way too strict and stiff, but the rehabilitation center excuses that the wrong contact by human could harm the orang utan.

Bukit Lawang is a small village on the edge of the Gunung Leuser Reserve. Being 80 kilometers from Medan, it takes 4 hours to get there and most times is consumed by the bad road of the last 20 kilometers.

The place was quite touristy around 2000, but a flood disaster in November 2003 destroyed a big part of the village and scared away the tourists. Tourism has not really picked up after that. Bad for the people in the area but good for the orang utans, because tourism is focussing more on ecological tourism and not on the mass groups running through the jungle in 2 hours.

The Mount Leuser area is still a protected jungle area and there is still the Orang utan rehabilitation centre. Has to be said, most orang utans these days are actually brought back into the wild in other areas, since this area now has a big wild population of orang utans. But the rehab center is still used to feed neglected orang utans who have been taken from individuals who had them as pets.

Again, perhaps bad for tourism that they are not brought back into this area, but good for the orang utan population here and in other areas with less animals!
Still some beautiful nature to be seen in this area, some impressive hikes and the incidental wild or semi-wild orang utan.

I’m sure you’ll have the time of your life!