Elephant bathing
In the river morning and afternoon.
Ahmad mansuri — CC BY-SA 4.0 · VanuitVoorburg — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Andreiromario — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Andreiromario — CC BY-SA 4.0
A quiet village on the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, part of the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra on UNESCO's list, where two clear rivers meet in the forest. Its story inspires: its people once logged illegally, then in the early 2000s set up a community ecotourism project to protect the forest, and their village became a model in Indonesia. Its best-known residents are endangered Sumatran elephants of a conservation unit that uses them on patrols against poaching and logging. Visitors can join the elephants' bath in the river in the morning or afternoon and see them up close, as well as forest walks, small waterfalls, hot springs on the riverbank, and tubing down the current. Elephant bathing is ticketed by the community tourism body, from about IDR 100,000, more for foreigners, with guides paid separately. Please choose bathing and watching rather than elephant rides. The drive from Medan takes about four hours, so allow at least a night in the village's simple guesthouses, and combine it with Bukit Lawang and its orangutans.
In the river morning and afternoon.
From logging to protecting.
On a forest riverbank.
Langkat regency, on the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, about 4 hours from Medan
Watching and bathing are kinder to the animals and truer to the conservation mission. The elephants here work on forest patrols, so it is best simply to join them in the river.