Tourists do come to Medan, albeit briefly and only as a means to getting somewhere else. They plonk themselves down, quite uninvited, in my local bar, open up their respective travel guides and look for a means to getting out. On discovering that I have chosen to live here, they invariably give a gasped and incredulous “Why?!” as if I had just revealed that I support West Ham. My Pavlovian response to this is to repeat that I don’t know why I like it here and that I’m still trying to figure that one out.
It was while I was bathing in a steamy hot-spring that feeds into a deliciously cool river in Tangkahan that I began to realise the answer. I stared up at the jungle canopy and listened to warbling birds and the occasional call of a gibbon; a three foot long monitor-lizard crept silently past on the deserted pebble beach over the other side of the river before plunging into the clear green water. I was only a few hours from the city.
I finally hauled myself out of the body-length rocky fissure that had formed my hot bath and contemplated wandering further down the river to stand under a waterfall for a ‘jungle massage’ but decided I had been long enough without a beer. I swam across the river and headed up the bank on the other side to my bungalow where I dried off and headed to the terrace/restaurant to sup on a Bingtang and gaze out at the lush jungle and sparkling river below. Tomorrow I would go and see the elephants.
Ten years ago, Tangkahan was just a part of the jungle with only a few scatterings of houses bordering a palm plantation. Then the illegal loggers arrived and the sound of falling trees silenced the more natural soundtrack. The local inhabitants decided to do something about the destruction of their environment and stood up to the loggers who, in turn, resorted to vandalism and intimidation. Eventually the government reacted to the villagers appeals and designated the area ecologically sensitive; the loggers retreated. Elephants that had been tearing up ‘private property’ and generally making a nuisance of themselves in Aceh and Bukit Lawang, were brought in as transport for rangers to patrol the area against any further intrusions. They have since become a draw for tourists who can come and see them bathing in the river or go on a trek with them. However, Tangkahan still remains a blissfully quiet little backwater, unencumbered by souvenier stalls, or even shops.
I got up early and headed in what I assumed was the right direction along the river and met some rangers riding the elephants down to the river. One of them stopped and asked if I wanted a lift, so I clambered up on top of the enormous beast and had a thoroughly painful and uncomfortable bare-back ride down a sharp and muddy incline to the beach, clinging desperately to what I could while the ranger and his son calmly urged Sari, our steed, on. It was an alarming experience which wasn’t helped by my sitting on a protruding part of her spine, and I was pleased to learn that longer treks are made more comfortable with the aid of saddles. Sari reluctantly sank to her knees and I gratefully peeled my splayed legs from her sides and hobbled down to the river.
Before the elephants are allowed into the water they have to empty their bowels lest they defecate in the unpolluted waters of the river, and if they aren’t quite ready for their morning ablutions then a helpful arm is inserted into the appropriate orifice in order to extract the offending matter. It was a part of the morning ritual that the rangers were surprisingly unwilling to have photographed.
It was a fantastic experience to see these massive animals playing and washing in their natural habitat, and also to help give them a welcome scrub behind the ears. I was the only visitor on a weekend morning which goes to show just how far removed this place is from the usual tourist routes.
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After another soak in the hot-spring and a spot of lunch, I hopped on my motorbike and made my bumpy way back to civilisation. What to do next weekend? Berastagi to climb a volcano? Bukit Lawang for a walk in the jungle and see some orang utans? Or maybe out to Lake Toba for a swim in the volcanically heated water?
I definitely had a new answer for those incredulous fly-by-night tourists.
