We arrived in the tiny village of Ketambe and booked into a cheap lodge. Not friendship but the one next door, who are in LP and their name eludes me now. There were some Germans who wanted to stay for 18 days and had been hoping to see elephants, rhinos and tigers. The owner joked with us that we wanted to see tigers. We told him that we had a much more realistic aim for our time here. We wanted to see orangutans, thomas leaf monkeys and if we could siamangs and gibbons. We had decided against Bukit Lawang because I figured it would be like Semenggoh and we preferred it when we saw the wild orangutans in Kinabatangan (since then we have met people who went to Bukit Lawang and saw Siamang and gibbons as well, even if they are obviously acclimatised to people, I think it may well be worth visiting both if you have the time). They also do night treks where you have a reasonable chance of seeing civet cats, slow loris, porcupines and pangolins. I wish we had taken one now and its probably worth a look.
In the morning Mimi was still too sick to walk so they called for the local doctor who gave her some medication for her stomach. The other three of us decided to go rafting for the day. There is a surprising amount of white water on the river and its very, very fast. We actively had to aim to avoid some of the bigger rapids instead of hitting them. Its not amazing, but its really good and much better than I was expecting. On one bend we pulled over to the side and walk to the edge. Ouch. Shit. Something stung me in the back of the knee. Manu screams as something stung her on the finger. The guide told us not to move. Shit. What was it? A black wasp like creature that apparently attacks anything that moves. The more you move, the more of them come so you have to freeze. Great. Then one of the little bastards landed on my eyelid. Shit. I can't let it sting me in the eye so I blink and it stings me in the eyelid. Shit that hurt. My fucking eye. The guide tells me to move downriver slowly and my eye starts to swell up. The stings hurt like hell for 20 minutes and then they ease off. The trip was around 3-4 hours. When we got back some Italians had arrived so we chatted with them in the evening while the rain battered down. We had paid 900,000 rp for the three of us for the rafting. We organised a 2 day/1 night trek for 600,000 rp each for the 2 days all included. I think we could have got 250,000 rp as I heard of some people who did. I don't haggle much with people I like, but I will fuck anyone I don't like on price.
The following day we set off for our trek in the jungle. Its not as muddy as LP says, though there is mud. There aren't that many mosquitoes, but there are a lot of leeches. We were in dry season, but it was after heavy rain and we had maybe 30 each a day, though only one bit me through the hole in my trousers. On the second day in the jungle there were a lot less. Maybe 5-10 each. In the morning we walked for around 3-4 hours, but due to the rain we only saw 3 orangutans quite far away, but it was still cool. You stay in a campsite not that deep in the jungle and there we saw what we thought were long tailed mcaques (only when we zoomed in later on the photo did we realised they were thomas leaf monkeys). We had been worried about tigers but the guide told us some facts. They never attack groups of 3 or more and even 2 is unlikely. You should not enter the forest on your own though. The main cause of attacks is due to injury or farmer encroachment but these always happen on the periphery an not in the actual park. In the park there are three problems. If you see tiger claw marks, this is to mark where they have buried a kill. If you don't step near it they won't attack you. Secondly they pooh at the top of hills so animals smell the pooh and run the other way where the tiger is waiting for an ambush. They know you are not a natural prey so if you enter their territory they will growl three times. If you don't back away after three growls well then you are fair prey as you were warned. The final one is to do with babies. The babies have no fear of humans and will come to check you out. If they get close the mum will defend them. They said if you hear or see a baby tiger just run away. In the afternoon we went for another hike and this time we were rewarded with a troop of thomas leaf monkeys and a mother and baby orangutan at very close range (10m maybe). We followed them until the baby became a bit agitated and started to throw branches at us so we moved away. Both the guide and I were bitten once by a leech and we came back to the camp for some nice food. Having seen our main two objectives (both 99% guaranteed here) I wanted to focus on the siamang and gibbon in the morning.
We went on a search for gibbons in the morning, but had no luck as they weren't in the area that day. Shame. We did see three more orangutans at a distance including a male up in a tree. We saw plenty of varied insect life on the trek as well. Gunung Leuser looked like a nice park to hike in. At lunch the guide told us that there were more gibbons at Kedah, even though the owner had told us they had no wildlife up there. (It seems like Kedah is a good place to go to see gibbons and if I could do this part over again I would have gone there as well as it seems a better place for gibbons, who seem to like to hang out between 1500 and 1900m). Manu was stung by a yellow bee that leaves a nasty swelling for two days after the sting. In the afternoon we saw 2 more orangutans and then the big male, who was enormous, but I think smaller than Richie in Semenggoh. Overall we saw 11 orangutans and it was a really nice trek. I could have spent longer there and gone to Kedah but the others wanted to move on. It battered down with rain that evening so again we didn't have the opportunity to go on a night hike. Cannelle had injured her thigh but nothing serious. Back at the lodge we saw a rhinoceros beetle and we decided we had had enough of rain in the jungle. So far everywhere we had visited in Sumatra was a highlight. Hands down the best place of our trip so far.
The next day we took an early bus to Blankejeran where there were a lot of guides claiming there was no work in Kedah anymore. I think that's because everyone in Ketambe says there are no animals. The next bus to Takengon passes through some really nice scenery. Nothing jaw dropping, but sort of like a poor man's Ha Giang and that's a good compliment. Takengon has a beautiful mountain lake and we wanted to stay the night. The only problem was that it was the weekend and none of the hotels had any cheap rooms left. Shitty. I am not sure if they were telling the truth or just aiming to get us to pay more, but in absence of any proof I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. People were really nice here. Shame, but we had no choice. We signed up for the night bus to Banda Aceh. Manu fell in a hole in the street and cut and bruised herself. She wasn't having much luck. I don't wish this minibus ride on anyone. Its super uncomfortable as there is no real headrest if you are tall. They were stacking the bus, but they wanted to put more luggage on the back and Mimi got into a fierce argument with them, arguing it was against health and safety etc. I disagree. I think she wanted the space for herself and it became real awkward, because she got abusive with the locals and we felt ashamed to be associated as a tourist at this moment, because the people were really nice in Aceh. Needless to say the atmosphere was not great and noone slept much before they dropped us off in Banda Aceh at 4.30am. We dropped into a tea house and waited for the hotels to open. The rde and route through the mountains was impressive and so far everything we had done in Sumatra was a highlight of the trip.
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