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We spent one of our days in Bukit Lawang just getting to know the surroundings. A nice villager offered to take us into the town for market day. Nasib is his name. You will meet Nasib later when he guides us for a day into the jungle.
Nasib took us to the rubber tree plantations to see how the trees are cultivated for their liquid rubber, which seeps from beneath the cut tree bark. The liquid rubber drips into a cocunut shell or other receptacle, where it is collected and, ultimately, hardens. It really is a simple, yet fascinating process. We will never look at rubber the same way again.
After we walked through the rubber tree plantation, Nasib took us to the Friday morning rubber market. It was quite an experience to see a dozen villagers hanging off of a truck as it drives up to the market loaded with rubber.
Nasib explained the process of the rubber sale transaction. The rubber is sold by the kilo. One clean kilo of rubber was selling that day for 2,000 rupiah (approximately 20 US cents) per kilo. The buyer will ask the seller if the rubber is clean because some rubber producers will put bark in the rubber to make it heavier. The buyer does not just rely on the seller's word. He will also cut into the rubber to make sure that it is clean. If the rubber is not clean, the buyer will still buy it, but for less rupiah.
We also took a becak out into the countryside to see the hills and the rice paddies. It was very nice and refreshing.
Working in the rice paddies.
Kelly enjoys her becak ride in the country.
Here are the Bukit Lawang Cottages situated above the river. We had a wonderfully large and clean room with a porch and an attached open air bathroom with garden inside. The place had atmosphere! We enjoyed our afternoons jumping into the crisp, clean river and fighting the currents.
Just behind the cottages were many plantations--which grew everything from pineapple plants, rubber trees, peppers, manderine trees, banana trees and as shown here, durian trees.
Continue with us as we go for a jungle trek in the Primary rainforest.
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We
also saw this solo entrepreneur roll up on his bicycle with his many kilograms of rubber
for the selling.
