Orangutan Trekking on Sumatra - Bukit Lawang, Indonesia

[Miss Biscuit]

I’ve been trying to go to Indonesia for several years. And I’ve planned various lengths of trips there and then just always ended up doing something else.

My friend and I do a girls trip every year and this year we did something different and joined a week long trip group trip to the Phillippines meeting up with 10 other woman on an organized trip.

Well, it’s my belief that with the amount of time it takes to get to Asia, that a week is not long enough. I barely get over jet lag in a week. So I suggested to my friend that we go somewhere else after the week and since I’ve been dying to go to Bukit Lawang for the orangutans especially after doing the gorilla and chimpanzee treks last year in Uganda, that was my suggestion. She agreed and so I set out to put a plan in place.

I read a lot of reviews and blogs and forums to try to pick a tour operator. There are many to choose from and some people do not arrange tours in advance. They wait until they get there or use a guide their lodging provides.

It is not my nature to wing-it that much. I am not so rigid in my planning that I can’t adjust on the fly or allow for spontaneity, but I did not just want to show up and figure it out. So I did indeed want a TO that would book transportation, hotel and guide.

There are various choices to make. I believe there are regular shuttles from the airport/group transportation and private transportation. We wanted private transportation both for comfort and convenience.

Not all hotels have air conditioning so we stressed to our TO that we must have a room with a/c.

There are also various trek options ranging from half-day to multi-day where you are sleeping in the jungle. We decided to do two full day treks where we returned to our hotel at the end each day. As you can imagine, it can be quite hot and humid and we were not interested in trying to sleep outdoors in those conditions. Now you might be thinking you get to see more on the multi-day treks and of course that potential is there, but mostly the orangutans are located within the day trek radius. Our guide said he had taken multi-day treks where they saw virtually nothing after the first day. However, there is the potential to see less habituated orangutans on the longer treks.

There are many TOs but ultimately we decided to book with Sumatra Orangutan Trekking. I could have just as easily booked several others. Communication was good and they seemed to have legitimate reviews on Trip Advisor.

They required a 30% deposit which I completed via the wire transfer app Wise. I had never used this app before but it’s a fraction of the cost of using my bank. The rest was paid in cash in person. We got local cash at the airport. There are not ATMs in BK and it’s cash only in the village ( or so I read and did not test this).

The nearest airport is in Medan (KNO) and it’s a 3-4 hour transfer to Bukit Lawang. We had a morning flight from Singapore. We had flown from the Philippines to Singapore. Our layover was overnight so stayed at one of Singapore’s airside hotels which was so convenient.

Transfer from KNO took 3 hours going to Bukit Lawang (late morning) and 4 hours returning (evening). And since it was private, it was just the two of us in an suv.

There is a certain point that cars do not go past and then it’s walking in the village. Porters carried our luggage and it’s a good thing because our hotel was probably at least a quarter mile walk partially over sketchy bridges. If we had realized this, we probably would have found a way to store our luggage either at Medan airport or airport hotel and taken just wait we needed for these 2 days.

The village is charming and picturesque. People were very friendly. There are various restaurants and shops and most hotels seem to also have their own restaurant. Long-tail monkeys were a plenty and were entertaining to watch. We learned that it was a holiday weekend which meant that besides foreign tourists, there were also visitors from “the city.” We didn’t ask which city and assumed Medan. But Medan is not a tourist hotspot and people there are not used to seeing foreigners. Twice people from “the city” stopped us to ask to take a picture with us.

My friend and I are experienced hikers but not really experience hiking in jungles in hot and humid conditions. Fortunately, it ended up not being near a hot as we feared. I don't know what the temps were but probably high 70-s to low 80's and there were clouds so never sun beating down. And then in the jungle there was always a tree canopy. It was humid though. We were drenched at the end each day that's before getting in the river.

Anyway, the hiking was not difficult for us. There were ups and downs but not great elevation gain, but you need some stamina. The second day we took a different route and at the end, we had a long, somewhat steep climb down.

The orangutan treks at Bukit Lawang have a reputation as being less than an authentic experience. At one time, there were feeding platforms and other less than ethical practices to encourage orangutan sightings/experiences. The feeding platforms have been gone since 2010 and we did not witness any feeding practices. The most unethical or perhaps unauthentic practices we witnessed were that some guides mimicked calls which was actually quite irritating and don’t think worked one bit. Thankfully, our guide did not do this and expressed his disapproval of the practice. He always made sure that we were respecting what was best for the animals and maintaining proper distances, having us move away if the animals started to get closer.

So yes, older orangutans that remember the feeding stations probably had less than ethical interactions with humans at one time and are used to humans. But it has been quite some time, new ones have been born, others have moved in from farther out in the jungle. At this point, I would argue that these are habituated orangutans much like the gorillas and chimps are habituated in Africa to humans. No it’s not exactly the same but if one considers those authentic experiences then this is not much different. I know there are places to see truly wild or more wild than these orangutans and of course that is the choice/preference of the individual.

Which brings me to the topic of photography. What a challenge for me this was. The experience was incredible but the photography was frustrating. I tried different settings and nothing worked great.

I have a Nikon Z8 which I’m fairly new to using and then the 70-200 2.8 with adapter for the Z body. I own the 180-600 but I did not want to lug this lens around for 2 ½ weeks for 2 days of use. I’d’ve had to bring a different backpack for it to fit. So I took a chance that the 200 mm would be sufficient (as it was for gorillas and chimps) and I would say for the most part, it was. I never really said to myself, should have brought the 180-600. And it would have been even more challenging to use.

So first mistake, I almost always shoot in manual but this time I decided to try aperture priority and auto iso so I didn’t have to think about changing settings due to constantly changing lighting conditions. This was a mistake. Shutter speeds were generally not fast enough so I have a lot of motion blur photos. Thinking now I should have used shutter priority. Why I didn’t think of that, I don’t know.

Secondly, I tried out some of the different tracking modes including 3-D but none worked really well. Maybe because it didn’t recognize the animal even in animal detection mode or because the subject was often backlit or I don’t know. I never was really confident in what would have been best. By the 2^nd day, I was back to full manual with wide-s or wide-m AF-area mode. I shot almost 4500 images and most of them are crap, no doubt due to my inexperience with the fairly new gear in new conditions. So yes, a lot of backlit subjects, moving through trees, high in the trees, obscured/partially obscured by leaves/branches and at one time, another person which I’ll explain more later.

However, the experience is unforgettably amazing. We had great sightings even if I couldn’t always get the shot I wanted. And unlike the gorilla and chimp treks, you aren’t limited to an hour. We headed out at 8 am and made our way back by around 3 pm. And other than a lunch break, we were actively watching or looking for orangutans the whole time and for most of that time, were successful. Day 2 had more sightings than the first day but both had magical encounters..

And speaking of making our way back to the village, that was also an adventure. We basically tubed on the river back to the village both days and it was so much fun!

 

But let’s get started with the photos. I'll put this one for a cover photo. It's not necessarily my favorite but it's good overall photo. And full disclosure, some of these I used Topaz AI Sharpen to "salvage" some of these. But not this one. Photos of the village and of us/food and such are iPhone photos.

 

So here are some various photos around Bukit Lawang. The first day it was very overcast and then we had some rain. It wasn't as pretty that day and I didn't take many photos. This is one of the interesting bridges we crossed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little local humor

 

I didn't take any photos of our room but this was taken from our balcony:

 

Long tailed monkey outside our room. 

 

We started our trek the next morning.

 

 

 

And it didn't take long to see some orangutans...

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next groupings of photos are of a mom and baby that we spent most of our time with.

 

The baby was quite adventurous and I was lucky to get these next ones...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next ones, baby went back to mom. She moved quickly at first and i had trouble getting good, in focus shots. I should say here that there are other small tour groups out as well so although there is no radio communication between the various guides, word gets out. So a crowd developed. Not huge but probably 10 or so people watching these two. Anyway, at this point, I was perched somewhat precariously on a slope when she started to move. I didn't really have the option to reposition as I could have spooked her and could have ended up in a worse viewing spot.

 

 

 

 

 

And then she stopped at what would have been a perfect vantage point for me...but as you will see, I was having to balance while shooting around someone...

 

The white is their hat. I've cropped as best I could. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an unedited version. I have a ton of photos of this scene, some the mom is completely obscured by the hat...

 

 

 

And then she moved again. 

 

 

And the baby went off on its own again...

 

 

 

 

Here is mom by herself

 

 

 

Back with baby

 

 

 

But after this, we moved on and had lunch...

 

Which was delicious but for my it was too heavy to eat while out hiking in the humidity. Don't get me wrong, I ate it.

 

There were other orangutan sightings this day but I didn't get usable images.

As we got to the river where we would break again before tubing back, we got to watch a family of Thomas Leaf monkeys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The baby started nursing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a ton of pictures of these monkeys so I won't share them all.

 

We had a delicious fruit snack at the river...

 

 

The dragon fruit was amazing. I'd never seen it all dark like that.

 

 

Stay tuned...Day 2 still to come. And the next day my friend brought her GoPro and we took video going down the river. I'll post that at the end of Day 2. 

[Toxic]

@Miss BiscuitThank you for sharing this with us! What great photos you've managed to capture. I did some research earlier this year into trying to see the orangutans, strangely after seeing two viral videos of two separate zoo orangutans (one was pulling a man to the cage, the other demanding a woman opened her bag to inspect it for treats 😂) but remember being quite overwhelmed by all the options and operators. I will get around to doing it properly at some stage.

 

Also those photos of the Thomas Leaf baby monkey are adorable! 

 

[Miss Biscuit]

Thank you! @Toxicyes, you won't regret it.

[Miss Biscuit]

Ok Day 2 Trek and more photos, might not be as much commentary. We had more sightings this day.

 

But first, here is our guide, Podidi. He was great and after the first day we asked if he was going to be our guide today. He said we could message the TO and request him. Sure enough, he guided us the second day although there was one other person that joined us. I guess they had already paired them before we asked. It was fine.

 

 

This was another mom and offspring though older than a baby. They were quite high up and were fun to watch but didn't get many photos of them. This is durian tree.

 

And here she has a durian in her mouth. 

 

But as I said, they were pretty high up and soon, our necks were stiff from craning up so we moved on.

 

 

 

 

Here is a pig tail monkey we saw while eating lunch.

 

 

 

So these next photos are a somewhat rare sighting of seeing a male and female together. 

 

 

 

And the male yawned several times...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are at the end of day 2.

 

 

Here is the link to the video my friend took on our second day tubing back to the village.

 

 

And here is a video of the male and female.

 

 

[Zubbie15]

Very interesting information @Miss Biscuit, and I think you are getting much too hard in yourself about the photos. Obviously not ready conditions, but you can't 3 away with a lot of really great shots. 

[Kitsafari]

Awesome shots of the orangutan baby and of the stunning Thomas's Langurs! Loved the series of both. I don't know what you are talking about the lack of quality in your shots as I'd be delighted if they were mine especially since they were taken in very challenging conditions. 

 

 

[Alexander33]

Thanks for sharing this with us. I think you’re being too hard on yourself re: the photos. I’ve never had a more challenging and frustrating photography experience than trying to shoot creatures up in the canopy of the jungle/rainforest. The background is blotchy with shadows and specular highlights, the lighting is dim, and subjects are often moving, so you need a high shutter speed. IMO, you did really well!

[Miss Biscuit]

I'd like to thank everyone @Zubbie15@Kitsafari@Alexander33for the kind words. We are our own worst critic aren't we.

Before the trip I asked for photography advice and @Whyone?gave a very accurate description of what it would be like.

[Whyone?]

Hi @Miss Biscuit- thank you for posting, you had some wonderful sightings. 

 

Your photos make me hanker for a return to SE Asia!

Edited July 29 by Whyone?

[michael-ibk]

Great Orang Utan photos!

[pscrimshaw]

This is such a great read! And I agree with others, you have some fantastic photos even through the challenging conditions. I'm also planning a trip out there to photograph the orangutans next year so this was most helpful. What would you have done differently in terms of photography if you had the chance to do this again? I know you struggled with lighting, positioning, and focus, but after doing two treks do you have any advice for others who might face the same struggles? 

[AKR1]

Nice report. 
 

I thought you might enjoy this as well:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-lat8PvvER/?igsh=MW44cHd2bmFvYmw0aA==

[Atravelynn]

Whatever camera settings you may have chosen or not and whatever was going on with the white hat, overall you came away with phenomenal photos--different facial expressions, babies, interactions between orangutans, closeups, teeth, action shots.  Just wow!

 

Did you use a walking stick? 

 

You saw so much in 2 days.  How many were in your group?  You mentioned the number 10.  Sumatra Orangutan Trekking looks like a winner.  Thanks for sharing this unique and wonderful experience.

Edited 4 minutes ago by Atravelynn