Imagine yourself a little hairier and better with your toes and you’ve got Bukit Lawang’s main attraction: the orang-utan (Lonely Planet).

As we had to cut our Malaysian trip short and miss out on trekking in Borneo, we couldn’t miss out on a to visit  Gunung Leuser National Park in Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, the only other place on the planet to see wild orang-utans.

Bukit Lawang is one of the most accessible places to spot this reclusive primate, thanks to an orang-utan conservation programme that has been operating on the eastern edge of the park since the 1970s. The national park is one of the orang-utan’s last remaining strongholds, with more than 5000 animals thought to be living in the wild.

We signed up for a two day one night excursion trekking and camping in the jungle. Camping aside, which was amazing in itself (next post), we seen thomas (if that’s right), macaques and plenty of orang-utans.  Wow wow wow.  It was amazing, truly amazing being so close to these primates, so beautiful.  Although some were a little aggressive most were very pleasant and inquisitive.

As you can imagine we were like the paparazzi on acid whenever one was in sight, so we have plenty of photos.