Aceh

I continued north again, into Aceh province and a place called Ketambe. Aceh is all good these days. I felt safe the whole time there, and couldn’t even see any signs of the recent conflict.

The trip took even longer than all the others… the road was so bad that the buses’ suspension broke so there was quite a wait for that. But it was worth the trip because the next day I got out into the rainforest for a spot of monkey-hunting. There’s a massive national park in the north of Sumatra called Gunung Lueser full of exotic animals like tigers and elephants and rhinos… and orangutans. I found a guide (easier done than said; there are guides everywhere but no tourists) and we headed out for the day. Orangutan hunting is tiring business – you march through the rainforest, which is hot and humid and wet, watching the tops of trees looking for movements. When you see something you charge towards it then crane your neck to try and spot something. It’s almost always a monkey. Once it was a black gibbon which was exciting. We also saw a bunch of hornbills. After 5 tiring hours I was starting to give up hope… seeing monkeys wasn’t special any more, the leeches crawling under my socks were getting harder to ignore, it was stinking hot and tiring… but then all of a sudden we heard a loud strange desperate and unmistakably simian sort of panting noise. We ran. I don’t know how we ran through the thick undergrowth so fast… afterwards I could hardly walk through it. Anyway, luckily the noise continued for long enough, and I could look up and there was a large male orangutan high in the boughs above. He was eating lunch, so we sat down to do the same. Afterwards he lay down between branches and had a sleep. We continued walking, and after only a few minutes saw another one! This was much more co-operative and swung through the branches in front for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. It was too scared to let us get close but great to see it nonetheless.

Rainforest:
And here’s the orang:
Yeah, I don’t know why nat geographic haven’t hired me yet either. Seriously, my camera is small and my skill smaller. I could see it much better in real life.

Back at the village everyone was partying to celebrate some poor boy’s circumcision. As far as I could tell, the celebration involves staying up all night listening to the Vengaboys. Loud. I was very glad when on my second night there there was a massive storm and power went out – it meant I could get some sleep.

This is from a town called Takengon I stayed overnight in on the way further north to Banda Aceh: