In order to take advantage of the Lebaran holidays (when Fulbright does not count days away from my site as part of my limited vacation time), we had to leave almost as soon as Kalani arrived. He got two nights in Payangan, helping me with bee observations, then we flew off to Sumatra on his third day.
The plan to go to Sumatra hatched several months ago. When I first started looking for ways to get the boys here, I sent them an article on Indonesian National Parks and asked them to pick what they wanted to see. Kalani immediately responded that he'd like to see orangutans and coral reefs. Coral is not too hard to find but the only orangutans left are on Kalimantan and Sumatra. Originally I tried to work out a visit to Tanjung Puting, but Kalimantan logistics are a challenge -- it's just so big and so remote. I'd also been wanting to see Sumatra for the Trigona bees and with a little research decided that was maybe easier to arrange as well as checking off the 2-birds-1-stone aspect.
The more common Sumatra orangutans (Pongo abelii) are a different species from those found on Kalimantan. They are a little less charismatic (can an orangutan ever not be charismatic?) than the Kalimantan species because they are mostly arboreal (at least when wild, some of the rehabilitated and released ones apparently spend significant amounts of time on the ground). The best place to see them is Gunung Leuser National Park and the most common place to start is Bukit Lawang village. The area of Gunung Leuser near Bukit Lawang was used as a soft release site for rehabilitated orangutan from about 1972-2002 and so there are a number of animals there who are not scared of people -- either because they've been raised and fed by them or because they were raised by a mother who had been rehabilitated and released. So, of course, I decided that was not where I wanted to see orangutan and started researching other access to the National Park.
The more common Sumatra orangutans (Pongo abelii) are a different species from those found on Kalimantan. They are a little less charismatic (can an orangutan ever not be charismatic?) than the Kalimantan species because they are mostly arboreal (at least when wild, some of the rehabilitated and released ones apparently spend significant amounts of time on the ground). The best place to see them is Gunung Leuser National Park and the most common place to start is Bukit Lawang village. The area of Gunung Leuser near Bukit Lawang was used as a soft release site for rehabilitated orangutan from about 1972-2002 and so there are a number of animals there who are not scared of people -- either because they've been raised and fed by them or because they were raised by a mother who had been rehabilitated and released. So, of course, I decided that was not where I wanted to see orangutan and started researching other access to the National Park.
I stumbled onto a blog that mentioned the town of Bata Katak. A little further from the Park boundary and not as likely to see orangutan, but certain that any that you did see would be truly wild. Plus! There was a Trigona bee farm in the town. It could not be more perfect.
Traveling there was not easy, but not all that hard. We took a flight from Denpasar to Medan, which ended up being nearly 3 hours delayed. It was the same plane all the way but it turned out that there was a stop in Bandung (Java). The agent in Denpasar told me (three times) that no matter what, I should not get off the plane there. So, when the attendant asked us to deplane, I said no. That didn't fly and we ended up taking all our belongings, deplaning and walking across the tarmac to the terminal where we had to go to a transfer desk, a back passage to the departures terminal, wait at the gate, then walk all the way back across the tarmac to where our plane was still parked and return to our original seats. A little Laurel and Hardy, but it worked and we made it to Medan right about sunset.
I had arranged to have someone drive us (I think it was 4 or 5 hours) from Medan to the hotel and I was really glad that we weren't trying to find a bus in the gathering gloom. It was pitch black, pouring rain, and very late when we finally arrived. They asked if we'd like to go on a trek in the karst forest surrounding the village in the morning with a young British couple who were also staying with them and we said sure. We collapsed into our beds having no idea what was around us but hopeful for the next day.
The next morning was one of those great surprises where everything is even more wonderful than you might have hoped. The rain had cleared, only small traces of flooding from the previous night were evident, and the area was gorgeous. In fact, we were just above the bank of a pretty major river which we had not even heard given the amount of raging water running through small streams on the property.
We stayed at the Orchid Bungalow. There are several little places in Batu Katak, each seems to be super sweet with little cabins and a strong wilderness feeling. Staff at Orchid Bungalow were really nice and the food was so-freaking-good! I had arranged the stay through WhatsApp in Indonesian (and they were surprised to find out that I was an English speaker) and that had led to a certain amount of confusion. But it all worked out well and they had asked me about food and I had mentioned hoping to try Sumatran dishes so they went out of their way to cook some interesting dishes for us. There was one made out of banana stems that was really good -- I never knew you could eat the young stems. The only strange part was that we arrived on Wednesday nigh, just before the end of Ramadan (Saturday) and it was clear that they didn't want to have to work over the holidays. We'd planned to spend six nights there and do a multi-night hike out to the National Park, but realized that workers wanted to go home to family for Idul Fitri. So, we ended up finding a place in Bukit Lawang for the weekend and arranging for an overnight trek from there rather than from Batu Katak. In the end we spent three nights at each area (Tuesday-Thursday nights at Batu Katak, Friday in Bukit Lawang, Saturday in the jungle, and Sunday back in Bukit Lawang). Everyone was happy and it turned out to be fine for us too.
We stayed at the Orchid Bungalow. There are several little places in Batu Katak, each seems to be super sweet with little cabins and a strong wilderness feeling. Staff at Orchid Bungalow were really nice and the food was so-freaking-good! I had arranged the stay through WhatsApp in Indonesian (and they were surprised to find out that I was an English speaker) and that had led to a certain amount of confusion. But it all worked out well and they had asked me about food and I had mentioned hoping to try Sumatran dishes so they went out of their way to cook some interesting dishes for us. There was one made out of banana stems that was really good -- I never knew you could eat the young stems. The only strange part was that we arrived on Wednesday nigh, just before the end of Ramadan (Saturday) and it was clear that they didn't want to have to work over the holidays. We'd planned to spend six nights there and do a multi-night hike out to the National Park, but realized that workers wanted to go home to family for Idul Fitri. So, we ended up finding a place in Bukit Lawang for the weekend and arranging for an overnight trek from there rather than from Batu Katak. In the end we spent three nights at each area (Tuesday-Thursday nights at Batu Katak, Friday in Bukit Lawang, Saturday in the jungle, and Sunday back in Bukit Lawang). Everyone was happy and it turned out to be fine for us too.
The trek through the karst (limestone) forest was really great. It was long (about 10 miles) and hot and my camera battery crapped out just as we were getting into nice forest (and I'd left the cell phone in our room) so I have almost no photos of the hike.
It was the stuff of full-on Murphey's law: I'd been lagging behind taking photos and pulling off leeches (for some reason I seemed to be getting way more than anyone else) when we finally got to some karst formations. I framed the shot, aimed my camera and... dead battery. How silly of me to have not charged it after downloading photos in Payangan. I made the crack that everyone could thank me now because in a few minutes a mixed troupe of ape species was going to start showing off in front of us. In less than a minute I heard something and stopped and a big black gibbon came swinging through the trees right above my head. A few more black gibbon rattled the trees in front of us and the Brits went crazy taking what I assume are great photos. Not much longer we ran into a group of white-handed gibbons. Then some Thomas Leaf Monkeys, long- and pig-tailed macaques, and finally, just as we got back to the river that the bungalows are on, a lone orangutan, high up in a tree. But I've got a good fish story, even if no photos to prove it!
It was the stuff of full-on Murphey's law: I'd been lagging behind taking photos and pulling off leeches (for some reason I seemed to be getting way more than anyone else) when we finally got to some karst formations. I framed the shot, aimed my camera and... dead battery. How silly of me to have not charged it after downloading photos in Payangan. I made the crack that everyone could thank me now because in a few minutes a mixed troupe of ape species was going to start showing off in front of us. In less than a minute I heard something and stopped and a big black gibbon came swinging through the trees right above my head. A few more black gibbon rattled the trees in front of us and the Brits went crazy taking what I assume are great photos. Not much longer we ran into a group of white-handed gibbons. Then some Thomas Leaf Monkeys, long- and pig-tailed macaques, and finally, just as we got back to the river that the bungalows are on, a lone orangutan, high up in a tree. But I've got a good fish story, even if no photos to prove it!
We did a full loop but I forgot to start my watch until after we'd been walking for quite some time
The gibbons were actually quite common in the karst forest and serenaded us in the mornings. Have a listen: | |
We did a bit of exploring around the area each day (and some swimming in the river which has a really strong current!). It's really pretty with a great path that runs from the village out to the different bungalows and cottages along the river. The village is part of a multinational project to provide income streams for local people that don't involve hunting the megafauna or chopping down the trees and planting more oil palm. It's a pretty innovated way to offer carrots, not sticks, and recognizes the importance of small landowners in big conservation projects.
Did I mention that the food at Orchid Bungalows was crazy-delicious?
It rained (hard!) every day we were at Batu Katak. But it was limited to a few hours and only in the afternoon or evening so we were still able to do a lot while we were there. The video is a bit long, but if you watch the first few moments, you get the idea
And, of course, the bees! The first thing we noticed was that an industrious group of Trigona (I'm not sure which species, Sumatra has a very diverse Trigona fauna) had made their home on Kalani's porch.
I arranged to go see the local beekeeper on Thursday morning. The guys at Orchid Bungalow made the arrangements and walked with us out to his plantation (which I probably would never have otherwise found). It was great. He had five species of Trigona which it seemed like he was mostly keeping for pollination for the coffee, coconut, and other crops on his and the neighbor's properties. He also harvested honey and told us that we should come see his house in the afternoon where he had even more bees. He said that he waits for the bees to start swarming to split the hives and that he doesn't cut down forest trees but whenever a neighbor ends up with bees on their property, he goes and gets them or they bring them to him. I think he said he had over 100 hives on the 3 hectare plantation.
Later that afternoon we went to see the bees he keeps at his house and the buisness he runs out of it. At home he only keeps Trigona laeviceps.