CRAZY Public Bus in SUMATRA 🇮🇩 Medan to Bukit Lawang - Indonesia Travel Vlog

When we first arrived in Indonesia we spent time exploring Jakarta, then we flew to Medan (the capital of North Sumatra). After exploring Medan we had to get to Bukit Lawang for our 2 day jungle trek looking for endangered orangutans! We could either pay for a private driver to take us to Bukit Lawang or we could take the public bus. As we’re traveling on a budget, we decided to take the public bus. We had seen some reviews about the public bus that weren’t very good, specifically that the Pinang Baris Bus Terminal was full of lots of scammers. Initially we thought that was the bus station we had to use, but after further research we saw we could take a bus from the Mawar Bakery about 1 kilometer up the road….we still weren’t sure if this was correct or not, but actually on the Grab application it had the bakery bookmarked as ‘bus to Bukit Lawang’ so we decided to try it!
When we arrived at the bakery, there was already a bus outside that looked VERY full and a couple men were trying to get us straight onto the bus. We had planned on going to the bakery first for some breakfast/water/toilet so we went there….the bus waited for us outside of the bakery! As they didn’t ask for money we decided to jump on and got what we thought were the last seats on the bus. Taking the bus from the Mawar Bakery was a very good decision as we got to skip out on the entire Pinang Baris Bus Terminal!
We heard the bus ride should be 3+ hours, but we were pleasantly surprised as we arrived in a little over 2 hours! We think that was possibly due to our bus being EXTREMELY full so we didn’t stop to pick up many people who were waiting at the side of the road. Honestly some of the seats (the little stools on the floor) weren’t the most comfortable, but once we were able to move to the bench part it was a decent ride! We arrived safely and so did our backpacks on the roof! We expected to pay 30,000 Rp each according to everything we had seen online, but once we got off the bus we were charged 50,000 each….still better than a public car would have been!
Once we arrived in Bukit Lawang it was actually much bigger than we expected! There were so many hotels and restaurants, as well as lots of people which we weren’t expecting! There were men at the bus station to transport you to your hotel, but we decided to walk. It was about a 20 minute walk from the bus stop to our hotel (Sumatra EcoTravel Bukit Lawang) and we stopped on the way for food.
Overall, if you’re on a budget, the public bus is worth it!
Stay tuned for our next episode from our 2 day jungle trek!
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