Stay near the Gunung Leuser National Park
Stay near the Gunung Leuser National Park
Stay in the Eco-Village of Bukit Lawang near the UNESCO Biosphere reserve
Bukit Lawang, located in the Northern Sumatra region is known for its Orangutan Wildlife conservation village and its natural biosphere reserve. The host Erna is an inspiring woman and a community leader for the village community Gotong Ryong. Once a popular tourist village, the region was decimated by a flash flood in the year 2003, and since the communities are working together to build sustainable tourism in the village communities.
Guests like to eat our Ladakhi food. They say it is delicious, even when it is prepared by an elderly ama (mother) like me. I always make sure I serve them the cleanest and healthiest food. My husband is a copper artist. When guests leave us, they say ‘Julley’, and hug us. It makes us feel happy.
I became a Mountain Homestay Host in 2018, and I have hosted many travellers since then. Running a homestay has helped me and my family a lot. Not only is the solar set up in our house useful for us, but even travellers prefer to stay in our homestay because of it.
The training we got in astronomy turned out to be a life-changing experience for our village. I felt happy and proud while mapping the position of the planets and sharing the secrets of the universe with the tourists. Tourists told me that even they didn’t know so much about the dark skies!
