Several years ago I had the fantastic opportunity to take a trip to the jungle…like, the real jungle…in northern Sumatra, an island in Indonesia. (We lived there for several years.)
I was invited to join a group of friends for a crazy, whirlwind, three-day trip, and it included a day-long, deep-in-the-jungle hike. Being the adventure girl that I am, I jumped, quite literally, at the chance.
We made a quick, island-hop flight, endured a four-hour van ride (with some of us riding on top of the van…) through the potholed road from Medan to Bukit Lawang, and were dropped off a mile from our hotel, at midnight. Luggage in tow, we hiked through the dark, checked in, and crashed for a few hours before meeting at six a.m. for the start of our adventure.
Because we hadn’t had enough of that yet or anything… 😉
After watching an orangutan feeding just across the river from the hotel, we took off for our jungle-traipsing with a guide leading the way. Up and down, a stop here, a break there, some rock-scaling on the side…it was a tough hike, and I’m sure I spent more time looking where I was stepping than at what surrounded me.
This should probably be where I confess that I’d read too many travel books before the trip and knew the potential of creatures lurking around me. Tigers, elephants, poisonous snakes…yeah.
But at some point during that hike, we stopped for a water break, and I took the time to really look around me.
Vines everywhere…it was totally like the movie Tarzan. And I’d kinda had this dream to be Jane at one point in my life…
Today I’m over at God-sized Dreams, telling one of my favorite Indonesia stories. Will you join me?
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