Bored with Berastagi and Lake Toba, I and my friends took the road to Bukit Lawang. We leave from medan, driving, around 10AM and arrived at Binjei to pick up another friend at Binjei. Arrived at Binjei around 10.30 AM. Arrived at Bukit Lawang at 1PM. The road is not good, lots of hole. That's why it tooks so long to get there.
At there. you can still see the remains of last year flood. Some woods and log, Debris, Mud near the river. Hotel Rindu Alam is destroyed and the owner didn't rebuild it. But if you want to spend the night, there are still many open hotel and empty room. I didn't spend a night, but I think the best place to stay is at the Cottage. It's on higher ground across the river. COTTAGE ROOM RATE varied from RP.80.000 to RP.120.000 / night. Every room has its own bathroom. The cottage has 33 rooms and I heard from the reception, Last year when the flood hit Bukit Lawang, only 2 rooms from the Cottage destroyed. Others are fine. I saw some tourist stays on Cottage during my visit. That day is November 15, 2004. A day after Idul Fitri "Muslim New Year". Normally, it should be crowded on holiday. But There wasn't many local tourist or foreign tourist.
It was 1PM when we had our lunch at the Cottage. The food is not expensive. Food and drink only cost about RP.25.000. We entered the forest at around 2.30PM and coming out at 4.30PM. We took the trip to the forest, LEUSER PARK, to see ORANG UTAN, with a friendly guide named Amin. He was an Employee to Rindu Alam Hotel, before the flood. He gave me his cellular phone number. I don't know if the number works or not. I had my cellphone with me too, but it says no signal "no network connection available" there. He can help you to reserve hotel or guide you. Maybe you should try calling him. Or ask for AMIN when arriving at BUKIT LAWANG. He's friendly but I don't know if he can speak English or not. By the way, we went into the forest to see Orang Utan, but didn't find any. The walk start from the Cottage and ended at a waterfall at the upper stream of the river. Where there is small boat, more like kano, for crossing the river. There were also cages for Orang Utan which are still undergo rehabilitation at that end. There were 2 Orang Utan. And later we saw an orang utan drinking water under the waterfall and another one climbing a tree from the beach. Enjoy the view and the waterfall. And then walk back through the path next to the river. We didn't get a chance to go the Bat Cave since we had to return to medan on that same day. Took a bath at the river, get changes, and headed back. We gave total RP.100.000 to the Guide Amin and his assistance.
Since it's only half day guide and we only went to the forest.
Last year flood destructions are the most on the side of the river where we first arrive at Bukit Lawang, "RINDU ALAM". The opposite site of the river "LEUSER PARK", is mostly safe like the COTTAGE. And it's also on higher ground than RINDU ALAM
Although we can still see some remains of the flood destruction, we can still find ourself enjoying the scenic view, many waterfall, bathing on the river. The water from the waterfall is also very clean and refreshing. Maybe better than those bottled drinking water. One thing you could do is WHITE WATER RAFTING. It costs USD35 / person and a minimum of 3 eople. One day trip including the food. Starts at 8AM and ends at 5PM. Ask the guy from the reception at The Cottage. Or ask the guide AMIN about this, because he mentioned about the rafting. And he said it cost only RP.250.000 which is cheaper than USD35. We took off at 6.30PM, driving slowly and coutiously since there are many holes on the road.
"HELP THE PEOPLE BY GIVING MORE TIPS AND BE MORE GENEROUS"
"CONSIDER IT AS DONATIONS TO THE POOR PEOPLE"
"IF YOU HAVE FUNS AT BUKIT LAWANG, TELL IT TO OTHERS"
"BUKIT LAWANG IS VERY REMOTELY LOCATED,
WHICH MAKES YOU THE MESSANGER"
Arrived at BINJEI around 9PM. We had our dinner at JL.PANGKATAN. PANGKATAN, BINJEI is a road full of food stalls at the evening, just like SEMARANG or KESAWAN SQUARE at MEDAN.You should go to the Chinese Food area and order CUI KE GORENG. CUI KE GORENG or KODOK GORENG is FRIED FROG with Crispy Flour. Like KFC, only that it's not chicken, it's frog. What's so special about these frogs is they're very big. Bigger than any fried frog you can find in Medan. You can ask to cook the frog different way. But the best is to FRIED the FROG. In Indonesian Word: KODOK 'frog' GORENG 'fried'. One portion/plate has 5 frogs and it cost RP.50.000 per portion. After the dinner, we continued heading back to Medan. Arrived at Medan around 11.30PM.
It's a very tired journey. But hey! It's adventure time.
Next time, we'll spend a night at hotel and try the rafting.
MEDAN - BINJEI - BRAHRANG - KUALA - BAHOROK & BUKIT LAWANG
BINJEI: PANGKATAN "Food Stall" - Try the Fried Frog.
BRAHRANG: RESTAURANT SAGOLI (SAte GOyang LIdah), SAGOLI special menu is Coca Cola Chicken. Chicken cooked with Coca Cola soft drink.
KUALA: Just a small town we passed
BUKIT LAWANG: RIVER, ORANG UTAN, WATERFALL, RAFTING, BAT CAVE, BATHING/SWIMMING.
ENJOY
SAKU
|  | 
|
