Brenda lu

Trip to Ecotourism Tangkahan

By Brenda Lu - 5:50 AM

Dear my loves,

How are you today? I hope you are doing well.

Today I want to write about my trip to Tangkahan Ecotourism, one of hidden gems in Medan, North Sumatra, located right at Gunung Leuser National Park, in Langkat District of North Sumatra.

Let me tell you for Medanese some of them don't even know this place and it is so sad because this place is beautiful! If you get a chance to enjoy our beautiful Medan city, please fit Tangkahan in your itinerary. We were informed by the local tour guide that Tangkahan was once a logging trade, but the villagers were aware of the damaging activities, hence they stopped the illegal logging and transformed Tangkahan into ecotourism.

How I went there, the road to Tangkahan was told to be pretty bad and rocky so we were quite worried about our car. We decided to rent a car and a driver who had experienced driving to Tangkahan. If you want to rent a driver and a car please do not hesitate to reach me out and I would be happy to share the friendly uncle's phone number.

Our road to Tangkahan was not smooth, but was not as bad as we thought it would. Please bear in mind we had a road trip to local mountain before and our car got stuck inside a hole, it was pretty traumatic and some local kids helped us, bless the Lord. Phew.

Along the way we saw group of cows and it was really eye-refreshing! We went at 6.30 am and reached approximately at 10.30 am. We stayed the night at a nice inn and if you want to know the place do not hesitate to contact me as well. The receptionist were really friendly and welcoming. After placing our belongings inside the room, we went down for small kayaking and explored the river.

The whole price per person was slightly expensive, Rp. 700.000 below, in which you could get it cheaper if you do not use tour guide for the elephant show and if you do not ride the elephant. I personally think giving tips to the tour guide for the elephant show is one of the way to preserve this place, because it is their source of income. I do not however recommend riding the elephants, you could do your own research on the internet about this.

The wave was not that strong, so it was rather safe and we did not need life vest. It was fun, but the weather was really hot!

I rarely see beautiful clear water in Medan, so when I saw the clear water I was incredibly excited and happy as if my endorphins just shoot up. We booked a local tour btw, and a nice young local man guided us around the river.

We found a nearby waterfall. The floor was so slippery and I think that was my first time in waterfall. Climbing up to the place in that photo was tough for me as I was petite and the tour guide had to carry and push me like they are pushing a small child.

The tour guide made a crown from leaves and a flower, it was so pretty. The floor was rocky and walking on top of them made my feet sore.

At night we went down under the stars and sat in river side for fire-born. We barbecued corns, sang a song with the locals, played ukulele and danced.

The next morning before going back, we went for a stroll and we found this long bridge and a birdhouse.

The highlight of this trip is definitely the elephants. I had never seen an elephant in real life and they were really huge, I was astonished. Again, my endorphins shoot up, lol.

I was told by the locals and also after researching, the elephants were not originally from Tangkahan. They were brought by the government to this place as part of the ecotourism.

What I really amazed was the elephants were not kept in their cage except at night. For morning and day time, they were freed and the elephants could find their own food inside the forests. We saw couple of small elephants and oh my God they were really cute and naughty! The young ones liked to snatch foods given by tourists, while the older as in the big ones, they were pretty much calm.

We were given brush to bath the elephants, brushed the very thick skins. Supposedly we had to brush hard because they have such thick skins.

I got the elephant-kiss. After the elephant tour finished, the big ones were released back to forest without the elephant trainers following them. I then asked question how the trainers could find and gather them back to cage at night. Honestly, I forget the answers. I am sorry :(

If you manage to have elephant tour, I would suggest you not to ride them because turns out it hurts their back. But if you insist to ride an elephant, they have tour package for tourists and locals and of course for tourists it will always be in different price.

Honestly it was tiring but fun and I would want to come back again with different friends. For my next trip to Tangkahan, I want to camp in the cave. Hopefully I will be back next year with different companions.

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