The best way out of the jungle: a raft of lashed tractor inner tubes, a guide steering at the front, and a fast, splashing ride down the river to your guesthouse.
The Bohorok comes out of the Gunung Leuser forest clear and fast, running over boulders past the guesthouses of Bukit Lawang. For local guides it's also the road home.
At the end of a jungle trek, guides tie three or four big rubber inner tubes together into a raft, pack the bags in plastic and sit everyone in the rings. Then you push off and let the current carry you down to the village.
It's not a gentle drift. There are proper little rapids, sudden drops and plenty of spray, and the guides at front and back steer with their feet and paddles. In between, the river slows and you can look up at the forest walls.
Keep watching the banks: long-tailed macaques, monitor lizards and kingfishers are common, and you may pass families washing and children swimming as you get closer to the village.
How it usually goes at the end of a trek.
Guides wrap bags and cameras in plastic sacks and lash the tubes together on the riverbank.
Sit deep in your tube, hold the ropes and keep your feet up. The guides do the steering.
Bounce down the faster sections, getting thoroughly soaked. Shout if you lose your grip.
On the slower stretches, watch the banks for monkeys, monitor lizards and hornbills overhead.
Float past the riverside warungs and swing bridges and climb out near your guesthouse.
Most two- and three-day treks include tubing out. For a standalone trip, ask your guesthouse or a licensed guide in the village.
Ask for a life jacket and wear it. Tubing is cancelled when the river is high and brown after rain; don't push to go.
Phones and cameras go in waterproof bags or stay behind. Expect bumps on the rocks in the shallow sections.
Bukit Lawang practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
