My Experience in the Jungle

Salam...
Hello Stemians...

Today, I want to share my experience in the jungle.

There is a beautiful small village in Southeast Aceh named Ketambe. It located in Aceh Tenggara District, Indonesia. This village has wonderful potential such us rainforest, river, hot spring, mountain, and waterfall. It is part of the Leuser Ecosystem and Gunung Leuser National Park. This place is very famous for foreign tourists. They usually take an annual trip every year. They love to go camping, rafting, trekking, and hiking in the jungle. In 2016, Leonardo Dicaprio visited there for his support to create a wildlife sanctuary in Leuser Ecosystem.

Ketambe Forest

Actually, I heard Ketambe from my friends in 2014, they did field trip there. They told me that Ketambe has amazing rainforest. I was really curious and searched for some information on the internet about that. Surprisingly, I and my friends have had the opportunity to visit there for doing our research in 2015. I fell in love at first sight with its nature. Every day, I always saw the forest, wild animals, and the beautiful river. It was an unforgettable moment for me. We chose to stay in Wisma Cinta Alam as long as there and every morning we crossed the river into the forest.

Ketambe Forest and Alas River

Alas river

Ketambe is a place where my life journey began. I met a lot of great people and learned something new especially about forest. I never forgot on the first day we entered the forest. We had to cross Alas’s current river, the longest river in Aceh by a wooden boat. The wooden boat was pulled by a cord. I was so nervous because it was my first experience. When we were in the forest, we saw a lot of big trees (like meranti and ficus), mushroom, liana, fern, insect, bird, monkey and leech. It made us mesmerized. Our destination was looking for meranti, making plots, and collection sample. We spent long hours every day in the forest.

We were Waiting for Our Turn to Cross the River

The local people told us that Ketambe forest is a paradise for leech because of too many leeches there. We always tried to avoid leech bites by using leech socks (thick cloth socks which will not allow leaches to slip in through) and tobacco water sprayer. It was so funny because we always met leeches along the footpath and to beware of them. On the fourth day, I did not realize that my hand was bitten by a leech. I smiled and watched a leech was sucking my blood. We also met Jelatang/poison ivy (Toxicodendron) which can make skin irritation, pain, and itching if direct contact with this plant. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of jelatang.

Leech

Hopefully one day I can visit there again to feel a real adventure in the jungle. I believe that nature can reduce our stress and boost our mood. I highly recommend you to visit there. For more information, you can see on Instagram or google.

Our Togetherness in The Jungle