EL SUDAR NUNCA FUE TAN GRATIFICANTE - SWEATING HAS NEVER BEEN SO GRATIFYING

El final de nuestra ruta por Indonesia estaba más cerca que nunca. Llegamos al aeropuerto de Medan sobre las 8:00 de la mañana, totalmente reventados. La compra online de vuelos internos es imposible para los extranjeros, ya que la mayoría de aerolíneas exigen tarjetas nacionales, así que la única alternativa que te queda es ir directamente al aeropuerto, cruzar los dedos y esperar alguna milagrosa oferta que implica largas esperas y noches sin dormir. Aún así, puede que la jugada no salga tan rentable como uno se imagina. 

The end of Indonesia was closer than ever. We had arrived at Medan airport around 8:00 AM tired as hell. Again. It feels like taking cheap flights in Asia means long sleepless nights or waking up early. But at last, we had made it.

Nos habían dicho que Sumatra era una isla más relajada, del estilo de Sulawesi, todavía no tan trillada por el turismo y, por consiguiente, con menos cazaturistas. Tan pronto como pusimos pies en tierra, los "simpáticos" taxistas vinieron a por nosotros. Por suerte, el limitado bahasa indonesio que teníamos a estas alturas, ayudó a que la situación fuera más agradable y no tan pesada como en anteriores ocasiones, incluso conseguimos bromear con ellos sobre los precios que pedían. A primera vista podía decirse que Sumatra, a pesar de estar más explotada de lo que nos habían contado, era bastante más relajada que sus islas vecinas. 

We had heard from our friend from Slovakia that Sumatra was more laid back, with less tourist hustlers, but as soon as we got out of the airport it didn't seem that way. At least this time, the "friendly" taxi drivers with good English, still tried to offer us an extremely overpriced taxi, but this time with our bahasa sharper than ever, we managed to have a good laugh with them. They even were nice to us while we joked around with the prices saying that we would only pay double of what they offered, or asked them why is it that they always think that two individuals like us would be willing to pay 20 times a bus fare. They were shocked with our knowledge of bahasa, making the situation even more comical. It seems to be that transport people here aren't too bad after all. They are just trying to find easy cash and easy prey. We helped them by saying that tourists traveling with a trolley would more likely pay for the ride, rather than the average backpacker. Hopefully they've applied this new skill.

Cogimos un pequeño autobús público con precio fijo al centro de Medan. Nuestra intención era llegar ese mismo día a Bukit Lawang, un pequeño pueblo en mitad de la jungla famoso por ser uno de los pocos lugares del planeta donde todavía es posible avistar orangutanes. Lógicamente, como todo aquel que llega a Sumatra quiere ver a nuestros primos pelirrojos y los locales, lo saben, allí estaban esperándonos en la estación de autobuses de Medan, como perros hambrientos, ávidos de sangre, deseando sacarnos hasta el último centavo. Pero claro, lo que ellos no sabían es que se enfrentaban a dos viajeros que se habían esforzado en aprender su lengua, que tenían muchísima paciencia para estar discutiendo durante horas y que estaban hasta las pelotas de que les tomaran el pelo. "Señores, ¿a dónde se dirigen? ¿a Bukit Lawang?" "Si, vamos a Bukit Lawang…" "100.000 rupias por persona". "¡100.000 rupias! Qué va hombre, eso es lo que pago por recorrer toda la isla. Otro precio por favor." Y así seguimos durante un buen rato hasta que bajaron el precio a 12.000 rupias por persona. Aceptamos y, al parecer, según la conversación que escuchamos entre el conductor y uno de los locales, acertamos con el precio. Vaya chiripa y vaya gol. 

We made it to the center of Medan with a charter bus with a fixed price. It was time to look for transport to take us to the backpacker ghetto of Bukit Lawang, the famous little jungle village known for its orangutan encounters. As soon as we got near the bus terminal, it was that Bali feeling all over again. "Where are you going sir? Bukit Lawang... This way, this way!". We ignored most of them until we managed to find ourselves in the mini van stop. Once again "same old shit, different toilet." 100,000 per person (first price). We started to get angry. Again. It took us some time to discuss the price, but eventually got it down to 12,000. It seemed we had gotten the real price by pure fluke. 

Llegamos a Bukit Lawang bastante rápido, teniendo en cuenta las malas condiciones de las carreteras. Al ser un lugar tan turístico, hay multitud de hostales y guías para ver orangutanes, y mucha competencia significa buenos precios, amabilidad y poca presión. Encontramos un hostal totalmente nuevo, con las habitaciones más limpias y cuidadas que hemos visto en el país y al mejor precio. Las aventuras por la jungla eran ilimitadas, pero no especialmente baratas, así que optamos por la más corta y económica teniendo en cuenta que los vuelos desde Java a Sumatra se habían ventilado gran parte del presupuesto destinado a la isla. 

The mini van ride was quite quick considering the roads, amount of people inside and general traveling conditions. After a few hours, we had made it to Bukit Lawang. To be honest the first impression just stepping of the bus was one of those feelings of: great, I am another walking dollar, again. But, the guide who had greeted us, offered to take us to the village and show us around. He seemed like a very honest man. It's a pity how you become prejudice after being hassled so much in a country.

But the relaxed feeling came as quick as ever. This seemed to be the Sumatra we had been hearing about, more laid back and more authentic than other tourist exploited islands. We found a beautiful place to sleep in for a great price. In general accommodation is very cheap here, as most people live from jungle treks. The amount of guides you can find in the area is huge. Our room worth 50,000 rupia/night was amazing. Clean, private bathroom and freshly painted. It was completely new. This couldn't get any better. The guide from the hostel itself wasn't too pushy either. He informed us about the treks through the jungle you could do and left the prices for last. With a huge range of possibilities, we opted for the least expensive one. Let's just say the flights ate up our budget…

Al día siguiente fuimos al Santuario de los Orangutanes. La verdad es que la experiencia no era en absoluto de lo más emocionante y salvaje que hemos vivido en este viaje (claro, pocas cosas pueden superar lo vivido en el Amazonas), pero tan pronto se fue el resto de turistas y nos quedamos solos con el guía, en silencio, los orangutanes comenzaron a asomarse entre la vegetación. Incluso vino a saludarnos la famosa y temida Mina, un orangután bastante agresivo debido a  ciertos maltratos vividos durante su cautiverio. Ver a estos animales en vivo y en directo, incluso tener a escasos metros de distancia a un bebé orangután de 8 meses cogido de su madre, es algo que solo imaginas poder ver en National Geographic. En resumidas cuentas, aunque la experiencia escogida no parecía que fuera a ser de las mejores, podemos decir que tuvimos muchísima suerte. Gracias karma.

The next day we went to the Orangutan Sanctuary to see how they feed these amazing creatures in the wild. The experience itself wasn't a thrill, until most of the visitors left the area. We were there alone, the ranger, the jungle and the orangutans. At one point, more orangutans starting to pop out of nowhere, even Mina, the most famous orangutan known in Bukit Lawang for her aggressiveness caused by a traumatic past during her captive years. To see these animals even with their 8 month baby was one of those things you thought only possible to see in National Geographic. In conclusion, we had been extremely lucky.

Para finalizar nuestra rápida visita a Sumatra, nos dirigimos al pueblo de Tangkahan. Este lugar es una versión más pequeña, más remota y menos conocida de Bukit Lawang, donde en vez de orangutanes, pueden verse extraordinarios paquidermos. Se trata de un diminuto pueblo (2 calles) perdido en mitad de la jungla, rodeado de árboles de cacao y durians, Llegar hasta aquí fue una de las experiencias más duras que hemos vivido hasta ahora. Tuvimos que retroceder hasta Medan y parar un autobús en medio de la carretera que, supuestamente, nos llevaría hasta nuestro destino. Para averiguar el precio real y no pagar 10 veces más, pusimos en práctica un pequeño truco que funcionó a la perfección. Teniendo en cuenta que los únicos que podían ayudarnos eran los mismos locales que iban en el autobús, pero que a su vez estos no querían hacerlo por miedo a que el conductor se enterara y les hiciera pagar a ellos el doble, cogimos un papel pequeñito y escribimos en indonesio "¿cuánto cuesta llegar desde… (Medan) hasta… (Tangkahan)?" Acto seguido, pasamos dicho papel junto con un bolígrafo a las mujeres que teníamos delante (según hemos comprobado, las mujeres suelen ser más de confianza). Al principio, nos miraron extrañadas. Nosotros les guiñamos un ojo y les animamos a leer la notita. ¡Y funcionó! A los pocos segundos nos devolvieron el boli y el papelito con el precio correcto. Cuando se acercó el revisor pagamos el precio exacto y, como de costumbre, pidió más dinero. Esta vez le respondimos con firmeza "aku tahu harga" ("conocemos el precio") y al oír las palabras mágicas, no insistió más. Pero… todavía no sabíamos lo que nos esperaba. A medida que avanzábamos, el autobús se iba quedando más y más vacío, hasta que se bajó todo el mundo y nos quedamos nosotros dos solos. Nos miramos mutuamente. Sabíamos perfectamente lo que iba a pasar. El revisor y el conductor nos dijeron "última parada, el autobús no avanzará 1km más. Nosotros argumentamos que todavía no habíamos llegado al destino. Protestamos, discutimos… pero la decisión ya había sido tomado. Nos echaron del autobús a la 18:00 y aprovechando la última hora de luz que quedaba, comenzamos a caminar los 10 ó 15 km que todavía quedaban…

To finish off our quick visit to Sumatra, our last stop would be Tangkahan. This place is like a smaller less known version of Bukit Lawang, but more famous for its elephants. To get there was probably one of the hardest experience up to now. We had to backtrack towards Medan and stop the bus in the middle of the road which would eventually take us to our destination in the middle of the jungle. On this bus ride we used a little tactic that worked excellently on our way down from Bukit Lawang. Like always the best way to figure out a price of a bus ride in Indonesia is to ask the locals on the bus, never the ticket salesman. We have discovered that they are always willing to rip you off. To be discreet, we asked the price to a local by writing it down on a small piece of paper and passing it to him or her. We have also discovered that women tend to be more honest and willing to help. Executing this tactic on the bus, our front seat neighbor wrote down the price with a smile. Once knowing the price, it was only time to wait for the ticket salesman with the exact amount and just refuse to pay a cent more. The ticket salesman did come and like always insisted on making us pay more… but this time we just nodded our heads and told him "aku tahu harga" (I know the price). He desisted once he heard the magic words, while our neighbors on the bus laughed. It wasn't till a few hours later when the bus dropped off 98% of its passengers. We were almost alone and it didn't take long for the last passenger to get off a few minutes later. With this, the driver (our ticket salesman who had swopped place with the driver) told us that the bus stopped here, and that it would not go any further. We complained and refused to get off, but the decision had already been taken. We got of the bus at around 6:00 PM, we had a good hour of light left, but we had been told that our destination was 10 - 15 km away. What we recapitulated as a 2 - 4 hours walk. 

Caminábamos por un camino de tierra, entre plantaciones de aceite de palma, cargados con nuestras mochilas, deseando ver aparecer en la lejanía algún coche que nos llevara hasta el pueblo. Los motoristas que se cruzaban con nosotros paraban y nos preguntaban qué narices hacíamos allí perdidos, alucinando cuando les decíamos que no nos quedaba más remedio que caminar hasta Tangkahan, a lo que respondían diciéndonos que estaba muy lejos y que la noche se nos echaría encima. Vaya papelón. Al cabo de una hora apareció circulando un camión. El conductor nos dijo que solo podía llevarnos un par de km. Mejor era eso que nada. Después, a caminar de nuevo. Empezaba a oscurecer y cuando comenzamos a plantearnos la posibilidad de colgar nuestras hamacas y pasar la noche por allí, vimos una cobra aplastada en el camino. Cuando pensábamos que la situación no podía ir peor… empieza a llover. ¡VAYA MARRÓN! 

We started walking down the dirt road towards Tangkahan. Even locals coming the opposite way stopped and asked us where we were going. One honest man told us it was too far away to walk and that we would have to hitch-hike there. If not we would find ourselves in the dark and rain, and eventually get lost. We thanked the guy for his word of advice and just started walking and hoped for a car, truck or bus to appear. But there were no cars what so ever. We walked an hour until we saw a truck come up behind us. He kindly stopped for us, but informed us he could only take us a few kilometers down the road. We had no choice, we got in the back of the huge truck and prayed we could get an hour walking distance from the village. But that didn't happen. A few minutes later the truck stopped, we got off, thanked the driver, gave away a few clove cigarettes and continued walking. It started to get dark, and the road forked every few kilometers with few to no signs. At one point night fell upon us, and we had to use our torch to lead the way. We thought that we could use our hammocks and hang them in some sort of shed-like structure we were finding every few kilometers, but as soon as we had seen a dead cobra on the road, that idea fled from our minds.

Pero de repente… una furgoneta apareció de la nada. La paramos inmediatamente, les explicamos la situación, les suplicamos ayuda para llegar al pueblo, el cual se encontraba a tan solo unos minutos en coche… y entonces, las palabras mágicas salieron de la boca de una de las personas del vehículo: "¿cuánto dinero vais a pagar?". Nuestras caras debieron ser tales que inmediatamente nos ofrecieron sentarnos en la parte de atrás, entre verduras, lechugas y tomates, nos invitaron a unas mandarinas y nos llevaron al pueblo. La verdad es que aún quedaba un buen trecho. Les dimos las gracias y les pagamos un extra de gasolina. 

When everything seemed impossible, we saw a pickup truck driving down the opposite direction. It had room in the back for us. We looked at each other and both of us put up our hands to try and make the car stop, which they did. We told them that we needed help to get to Tangkahan, which was only a few minutes drive, but a few hours walk from were we found ourselves. Then, the woman in the car asked the magical question: "how much you wana pay?" Her husband must of seen the look of despair on our faces and just told us to get in the back. They were farmers who had the back of the truck full of fruit and vegetables they had been selling in a market, they offered us two oranges and  turned the car round towards Tangkahan. It took us at least 30 minutes to get us to our destination, the road was not easy for any motorized vehicle and less for two walking foreigners like us. We would have gotten lost for sure. We thanked them once we arrived, gave away some more clove cigarettes and payed for the gas used. It was fair. They were lucky enough too, as they made some last moment cash as some people from the village bought some of their goods.

Por fin… Tangkahan. Descubrimos que allí prácticamente no llegaba nadie, tan solo un par de turistas en servicio privado. Sus habitantes se entregan al máximo a sus elefantes, incluso organizaban patrullas armadas para mantener la zona libre de cazadores furtivos y de cualquiera que intentara dañar su selva.

So, Tangkahan, at last. A place devoted to elephants and the jungle as the villagers themselves had taken the control of pouters and logging. They had even formed armed patrols on the back of an elephant to patrol the area. All that was left was to see these elephants and have our last untouched indonesian jungle adventure. The next morning we were able to walk around and enjoy the village lifestyle, it seemed to be a very unspoiled village as people were amazed to see us walk around freely around the area. We were even given two free durians to try, a smelly but delicious experience which some people can not handle at all. Let's just say it's a fruit that has a love & hate relationship with its consumers, kind of like marmite.

Durante los dos días que pasamos allí, tuvimos tiempo de disfrutar de la vida del pequeño pueblo. La gente se extrañaba cuando nos veía pasar e incluso alguno nos invitó a algún que otro durión, una fruta famosa por su mal olor, tan intenso que es ilegal comerla en lugares públicos sin ventilación, aunque es increíblemente apreciada por su sabor en estos países asiáticos. Fuimos a ver los elefantes y darles un baño, una experiencia bastante "turística" pero que fue un gran placer. Antes del baño, los cuidadores deben realizar el desagradable trabajo de extraer los excrementos de los animales metiéndoles la mano por el culo, para su posterior análisis y estudio de la salud del paquidermo. Descubrimos que los elefantes realmente caminan en fila india agarrando el rabo del de enfrente con la trompa. Aprendimos que el noviazgo entre elefantes existe, aunque al principio pueda parecer una pelea. Tuvimos la suerte de disfrutar de una cría de 18 meses para nosotros solos, la cual jugaba alrededor de su madre, de vez en cuando nos soltaba algún que otro trompazo y nos disparaba agua con su trompa. Una experiencia que había costado lo suyo, pero que mereció muchísimo la pena.

We arranged to see and bath the elephants the next morning and were informed of the presence of a baby elephant only 18 months old. So the thrill of seeing these amazing animals couldn't get any better. When the time came, we walked to the river bed where we would be introduced to our new spa clients. The elephants came down in single file each one holding the other's tail, just like in Dumbo, (it seems that elephants actually do this from instinct and is not some cute Disney invention). Before bathing the animals, the rangers did the nasty job of inspecting the elephants feces by scooping it out directly from "where the sun don't shine". This is done every day to inspect the animal's health. And we thought we had a bad job… One way or another, we were lucky enough to get the baby elephant and its mother for washing duty, all to ourselves. The whole herd walked in the water, rolled around and played with each other, a very comical moment. When the bathing time came, they all chilled out on their sides while we scrubbed their rough skin, squeaky clean. The baby elephant was always being naughty pushing us around and spraying water, he either didn't like the idea of us touching her mother, or was looking for a bit of play time. To put the facts straight, he was the cutest little bugger.

Nos despedimos de los elefantes y de la jungla de Sumatra relajándonos en el río y en unas pequeñas aguas termales. Ahora nos tocaba a nosotros darnos un baño. Con la cantidad de experiencias por la jungla que habíamos vivido en los últimos 18 meses, prácticamente nos sentíamos como en casa…

We said goodbye to the elephants and enjoyed our last moments of the Sumatran jungle by relaxing in the river ourselves. It was time for our bath too. We were told that there was a great place to relax near some hot springs up river. We managed to find them very easily without the help of a guide. We finally had a moment to take in this magical jungle. We let time do its thing, swam and bathed in the cool and warm waters of the Sumatran jungle, while we looked out for wildlife. With the amount of jungle experiences we have had in the past 18 months, we almost felt at home. When would we be able to see such a pristine place like this again and how would this place change in a few years?