Why did I leave the capital of fine arts and culture and decide to make it to Sumatra? Why did I travel all the way from Yogyakarta to Ketambe? As I have already mentioned a few times, I started my trip in Indonesia with pretty much nothing planned. That was some sort of a challenge for me, someone who was used to plan everything ahead. Leaving the comfort zone is not easy but, the way I see it, it is the best way to grow up. After all, if you want things around you to change, you need to be the first change.
Thus, as time went by and I moved around different areas, I decided I wanted to see Orangutans. I had done some research and found out that there was a place in Borneo where you could go see them as you spent a couple of days on a boat in the jungle. The problem? It was off season and without enough people to fill the boat it was pretty expensive. It was then that I learnt about two new areas in Indonesia where I could see Orangutans. Both of them were on the island of Sumatra, the largest island of Indonesia and the sixth-largest one in the world.
One was found at “Bukit Lawang”, while the second one was found at “Ketambe”. After doing some more research I learnt that the wildest place of all three (including Borneo) was Ketambe. It was there where the chances to see Orangutans were the smallest, but it was also there where, if you happened to see them, you would see them in real wildness. Thus, I decided to try my luck and make it all the way from Yogyakarta to Ketambe 😉
How to get to Ketambe?
As I was saying, after doing some research and pondering my options, I decided I wanted to go to Ketambe. Going on a jungle trek there was way cheaper than in Borneo, and slightly cheaper than in Bukit Lawang. It was also way wilder. The problem? It wasn’t easy to reach. I did some research but I didn’t find many blogs or experiences of people sharing their time in the jungle of Ketambe. The same went for how to get to Ketambe, I didn’t find much info and the little bit I found was outdated or not very clear. Eventually, my efforts paid off and I run into the following website, which I pretty much followed to the T:
https://www.ketambe.com/from-medan.html
There are basically just two ways to make it to Ketambe. The first one is using “Banda Aceh” as your starting point and the second one is using “Medan”. In my case, I found Medan more convenient and “easier”, even if it wasn’t that easy in the end lol. Both routes are kind of long, so, expect at least a whole day to make it to Ketambe. From now on, I’ll be providing you with the different steps I followed to make it to Ketambe. I hope they will come in handy for you 🙂
From Yogyakarta to Medan
As you might remember, I had just made it to Yogyakarta’s airport after an amazing week in Java. After saying good bye to Mai and Conti and, after getting Roberta’s watch back, I started to walk to my next destination: Medan, the capital of Sumatra. I paid 1.105.000 IDR for my flight from Yogyakarta to Medan. That’s around 70 Euros, so you get an idea. The flight took around 3 hours and, once at Medan’s airport, I decided to try to sleep for a while until the new day started. It was my second time sleeping at an airport in Indonesia.
The first time was at Denpasar’s airport, when I first arrived in Indonesia. Compared to Denpasar’s airport, at least when it comes to sleeping, I found Medan’s way worse. By the way, in case you are truly backpackers and you know you will be sleeping now and then at airports, please, take a look at the following amazing website. You can use it to find whether you can sleep at the airport you are going to, what facilities are available and other useful stuff!
https://www.sleepinginairports.net/
Leaving Medan en route to Kutacane
From Medan’s airport to “the van terminal”
At around 06:45, I decided I had had enough sleep and walked outside the airport. I waited for a while and got onto a bus to Medan city. I paid 20 K for the bus and it took around 90 minutes. Once there, I tried to find a way to get to “Padang Bulan”, the area from which you can get a mini van to Kutacane.
Sumatra was the third island I was visiting in Indonesia, after Bali and Java. I didn’t do it on purpose but it seemed like I chose the islands depending on their level of Western tourism. What I mean by that is that in Bali you could meet plenty of locals who spoke English. In Java, that number dropped quite a lot. But, in Sumatra, meeting someone who spoke English was a real challenge. Thus, I tried to take it easy when I found myself lost in the middle of Medan. Regardless of who I asked, the answer was the same: sign language.
Eventually I “spoke” to a lady who kind of pushed me into a van that was already running around some areas in the city. I paid 2 K to make it to what I thought it was Padang Bulan, but it wasn’t. Nonetheless, in the mini van I met Mariana and her friend, who were college students and who could speak some English. What a relief 🙂 They were the ones who told me I wasn’t about to make it to Padang Bulan, but to somewhere in front of “Ani Sitepu (outlet 1)” on Jaming Ginting Street.
They advised me to get off there and they told me I just needed to ask around to find a mini van to Ketambe. I want to take advantage of this writing to thank them both for their help. When you are looking for a place or an address and you can’t comunicate… it is not the best feeling in the world… But, thanks to them, I made it to where I needed to 🙂
A long ride from Medan to Kutacane
I realised it was the right place because there was a counter and, after some English and some sing language, I got my ticket (for 70 K) to Kutacane. I put my big backpack in the trunk, sat behind the driver (for more legs space) and asked what time we were leaving. They laughed at me and told me there was no departure time, but “full” time. I learnt that lesson there and it came in handy during my trip in Southeast Asia. You leave when the bus or mini van is full, that’s the departure time 😉
I had seen traffic jam before. In LA it was crazy. And the same goes for some areas in Bali and Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. But, what I saw in Medan was at a different level. The traffic jam was so big that some motos and even cars started to drive on the sidewalk. Welcome to Medan 🙂
We were around 12 people in the mini van. There were small families, young boys and a tourist (myself). Like pretty much always, regardless of how hard I tried, I couldn’t fall asleep. I couldn’t speak with the people in the mini van either because none of them spoke English. Ahead of me I had 7 hours of “fun”, but, at least, they started to play some nice music. It was some sort of Hindu Techno, which I liked, but which was kind of too loud. It sounded like this:
Even if I managed to sit behind the driver (I had more space for my legs), my butt started to hurt after a while. It wasn’t probably the most comfortable van in the world, but just picturing myself in that situation made me happy. I was the only tourist in the van. I had taken a 3-hour flight to move from Java to Sumatra. After that, I was on the way to Kutacane and, from there, hopefully to Ketambe. I was doing all that to try to see some Orangutans. If they had spoken some English I’m sure they would have thought I was crazy lol.
We stopped to have lunch after 2 or 3 hours driving. I was halfway on my trip from Yogyakarta to Ketambe. My legs, my stomach and my whole body were really happy about it. If in Bali the biggest religion is Hinduism, in Java and Sumatra it is Islam. That being said, Sumatra takes Java’s Islam to another level. As we were driving, I started to see a change in the landscape. The further west you go, the bigger the power of Islam. Why am I telling you this out of the blue? Well, to give you some facts about Indonesia, but also because the place we stopped at to have lunch was a Muslim restaurant. The food was good and the price was incredibly cheap. I paid 8 K (less than 50 cents) for a couple of small dishes 🙂
After lunch we went back to hit the road yet once again. We still had plenty of kilometres to cover. The landscape started to change again. Little by little, it seemed like if we had left all sign of civilisation behind. We didn’t see any towns (big or small) for a while, but just pure nature. We saw high mountains, steep cliffs and plenty of vegetation (most of it was palm trees). It looked something like this:
Arrival in Kutacane
Everything comes and everything goes. Everything has a beginning and an end. And even if the ride from Medan to Kutacane seemed like it was never going to end, we finally made it to Kutacane. The town was big, way bigger than I had thought. Some people got off before Kutacane but most of them got off there, at different stops. My stop was the last one. After getting my stuff from the trunk a guy told me to follow him. He was driving me to the “Labi-Labi” terminal.
A labi-labi is some sort of a light truck used to take passagers around the city, or, in my case, to another town outside the city. The driver told me the price of the Labi-Labi from Kutacane to Ketambe would be 20 K. He also told me the ride would take around an hour. Once at the terminal, I started to shout “Ketambe!” until some people approached me and kind of told me they were going to Ketambe. I had to buy the ticket and wait for the Labi-Labi to be full.
When I asked them how much the ticket was they told me 50 K. I told them I wasn’t paying that. It was not because of the money itself, but because of their manners. The real price was 20 K, as the driver had told me. So, why would I have to pay something else? In the beginning they were like… well, it’s your problem. But then, they told me I could “just pay” 20 K 🙂
From Kutacane to Ketambe
Just like during the whole journey, the mini van left when it was full. The way to Ketambe was beautiful. It reminded me to my village sometimes. There were a few girls in the mini van who could speak a little bit of English. They asked me about my place of origin and about my religion. We had a funny and interesting conversation about Islam. They were a little surprised that I wasn’t Muslim. They were like how can you not be Muslim? Lol.
During the way to Ketambe, other than dropping people off, we also stopped to pick some stuff like water, eggs, fuel, etc. It was the old delivery way, before all the new apps showed up. After an hour or so we made it to Ketambe. It is a tiny village in the middle of the jungle. There are plenty of steep roads. I showed the driver where I was going and he nodded but, when I got off, I found myself in the middle of nowhere.
What jungle agency should you choose?
It wasn’t easy to find Leuser Guesthouse. It is literally in the middle of the National Park, by the river. I had to walk like a kilometer from the place where I was dropped off before I made it to the guesthouse. By the time I made it to Ketambe the sun was setting. So, for a while, I was walking with my flip flops and my backpacks on a kind of dark road that already looked like the jungle. I felt a relief when I finally show some lights. After a journey travelling from Yogyakarta to Ketambe, I had made it to Leuser Guesthouse 🙂
I met the owner, his wife, his kid (the porter) and the person who was working as a guide. I asked about the price of the room and they told me 200 K. It was kind of too expensive but it was a big room and it was literally inside the National Park. I told them I wanted to check other options and they told me there was an Internet outage (it was true). He felt my hesitation but he also knew that, being already dark and without Internet I couldn’t do much. Thus, in the end, he dropped the price to 130 K 🙂
Some days before I decided to come to Ketambe, I started to do some research to see how I would go to the jungle. I found different agencies but way less than what you can find in Borneo, or even in Bukit Lawang. Again, this is one of the wildest places on Earth where you can go see Orangutans. After doing some research and sending some emails, I decided to do my 2D1N (2 days and 1 night) trek with Ketambe Jungle Tour & Trekking or Ketambe Tour – Trekking & Rafting (as they are known in TripAdvisor).
I paid 800 K (50 Euros) for the whole trek, which included a guide for 2 days, a porter, some useful stuff like flashlights and anti-leech socks and food throughout the day. Both the guide and the porter were very professional and kind and I really enjoyed my time with them in the jungle. If you are hesitating about what agency to choose, give them a try! You won’t regret it 🙂
After paying for the trek and agreeing about the departure time next day, I made it to my room to finally have some rest. The room was huge and beautiful. It had a big bed with an anti-mosquito net hanging from the roof. It was going to be my first time sleeping on such a bed. After unpacking my stuff, arranging everything for my 2D1N in the jungle and taking a shower, I went outside to really realised where I was. It was incredible. My room was literally by a big river in the middle of the jungle. I could hear plenty of weird noises and I saw a lot of mosquitos, some monkeys and a couple of praying mantis.
I went to the reception/restaurant area to speak for a while with the owner and his wife and to have some food. They have a menu with different options and the food is very good. I paid 35 K for a green curry rice with vegetables and, after saying good night, I finally went to sleep. And, “just like that”, after a long journey, I had made it from Java to Sumatra or, in my case, from Yogyakarta to Ketambe. All it was left was to get into the jungle, try to see some Orangutans and make it alive 🙂
