How it began: Sumatra as an Eco Tourist

10th December 2009

Yes! I am determined to do this. So brace yourselves, in the future there will be quite a few updates on that matter.

Let's start at the beginning: Michelle tweeted a Tweet - 'I highly recommend this tour company: Raw Wildlife http://www.rawildlife.com.au/index.html'

Innocently I clicked the link - as you do when you are on Twitter - expecting well, a link of a tour company but nothing utterly mind boggling, and then I got hit by something that felt like a hot iron in the neck.

OK, I admit: For a lot of you this might not be the holiday of your dreams, but I love big wild animals especially Elephants and Apes. Ever since I got the book from Jane Goodall about her life between chimps when I was about 15, I wanted to go into the jungle and observe animals. But then one gets married, settles down and is thinking: 'Well, there are nasty, big insects, and they bite, and it's hot and humid, probably it's not that nice anyway'. This is how dreams are getting forgotten.

Now that I was sitting in front of this screen my dream was streaming down my neck like a flow of something very hot, I had to take off my jumper. Reading on, the tension grew and all the thoughts I ever had about this subjects flooded my brain within a split second - between all those noises there was one voice shouting louder than all the others: I need to do this with my mum... alone with her... without hubby... sh... he will never approve, ... and started crying.

I know: Pathetic!

This trip seems to have it all, the environmental approach, the 'not just being a tourist' but being integrated as much as that is possible within the short period of 12 days, the animals - Elephants AND Apes, the jungle, and most importantly the soft approach. I have been looking at other trips, and usually one has to be a tough, well trained, weather proof, 20 something year old, '...Get me out of here' style. With me be being almost 50 while mum is hitting the 70 soon we are running out of time to make this dream come true - can it be that a thing like this is running in the genes? I know that my granny would instantly have joined us as well...

So I enquired about the price and tried to get a bit of background information, hoping for a 'nice' email to come back. I have this thing of writing to people and if the response is too business like I am becoming a rather cautious. Well, what can I say: I got the loveliest email!

Jessica, one of the tour directors explained how Michelle came to recommend the company: The two are friends and she is assisting the Nyaru Menteng project with an 'Enrichment Program' teaching the staff how to keep Orangutans interested and make them learn all the stuff they need to know if they want to behave like proper Orangutans, and to prepare the ones who are waiting for release back into the wild. So she will be going to Nyaru Menteng in January 2010 for 6 weeks - gosh how I envy her!

The tour is rather expensive though, I was told around A$4180 incl. VAT, excl. flight. I had a rough check about flights, the visa will cost extra, and of course it depends on the exchange rate - that makes an approximate £3000 for the two weeks. Please be aware that these are rough numbers and that the basic price can change as well. So if you are interested, always enquire details first.

So given that mum has an incredibly busy travel schedule and I have to smartly manage my annual leave and my expenses during the next year, we are aiming for the first quarter of 2011. I am determined to stop buying stuff now... in 15 month time I should have managed to save the one or the other quid towards this wonderful dream!

Can't wait...!