Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine September 2016 | Page 114
112
Travel | Padang
A young boy herds his buffalo back along the
river at the end of a long day in the meadows.
Rice is winnowed in West Sumatra by the
simplest system – whacking the sheaves into a
box known locally as a tongkang.
Sungai Pinang (Betelnut River) is a
delightfully pretty jungle river that is both the
workplace and playground of the local villagers.
The team at Rimba has also made successful rescue
attempts. Once a baby macaque was re-introduced
to the jungle where it was, bizarrely, adopted into
the local troop of silver langurs.
from which orphaned and sick animals can
be introduced back into the wild.
The team at Rimba has also made successful
rescue attempts. Once a baby macaque was
re-introduced to the jungle where it was, bizarrely,
adopted into the local troop of silver langurs. They
also recently rescued and released a large buffy fish
owl, a weasel, a rare pangolin and a slow loris.
“Most people don’t realise but the cuddly
teddy-bear like slow loris is the world’s only
venomous primate,” Nad tells me. “They rub
their canines on venom glands inside their
elbows. So, when we rescued one, the first
thing I did was check to see that the villagers
had not pulled his teeth out…”
The slow loris seemed to be in good health
and had a good appetite, so Nad released
him into the jungle.
Nad and Reno seem to have an endless list
of social and environmental projects that
they want to establish to secure the future
of this beautiful region: “If we can get the funds
together, we’d like to establish patrols to protect
the forest and prevent poaching. We also want
to set up a recycling project that would turn
waste plastic into paving blocks.”
One might imagine that with all these projects
there would be little time left to actually run
an ecolodge, but perhaps karma does indeed
play a big part in the eco-business: Rimba is so
popular that it runs almost to 100% occupancy
right through West Sumatra’s high season.
It might appear on arrival at Rimba that there
is little going on at this wild beach, but it is
refreshing to find an ecolodge that is so truly
committed to improving life for the local
community and the region’s threatened wildlife.