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Dewi is shouting, however most of the kids just do not understand her, “I don’t want to be alone!” she is screaming repeatedly while holding a hand of the girl who has a tan skin. The day is getting darker. The delta, where the river flows of Buluh River and Batang Serangan River meet, at Langkat Regency will soon be left in the dark. The sand flies have started to party. The afternoon ray is at the back of National Park of Leuser Mountain gradually getting dimmer. Moreover the remaining ray of sun is reflected on the big river stones little by little are fading away. The spreading stones at the bank of the river, that looks more like a beach, have become to appear in dark color. The owner of a stall that is located on the entrance gate of this tourism location hang a kerosene pressure lantern near by one of the hut’s pillars, which are made from the river wood. From the distance, its color is shinning just like a little star. Not far from there, near by the plantation areas, the diesels turn on some electricity light bulbs in Bamboo River Cottage and Jungle Lodge. Both are the accommodation providers for the tourism area in Tangkahan, which is located at Batang Serangan district, Langkat Regency. Dewi is getting even more worried. Actually, this 8 years old girl’s body is already shivering. Her lips become blue and her clothes are soaking wet. However, this Indonesian – European mix girl seems to be hesitant to leave the river. This afternoon goes too fast. “Wait for me!” she says, finally she gives up after all her native friends are running grabbing clothes which are scattering all over the stones. These children with their dexterity conquer the stairs, which are made from steep stones and leaded them to their residence. In a blink of an eye, they have left along with the noises they made. The bank of Batang Serangan River is quiet now. The only thing left is a small boat, which is the facility they use to cross the river, and it is swung and played by the light river flow. The night starts. Dewi gets into the Bamboo River Cottage, the cottage which is also her house. Her mother, Jane watches her for a moment, shakes her head, and continues to do some house works. Jane is a British woman who is married to Wak Yun, a native Indonesian, who was born in Bukit Lawang, and known as an nature activist too. They have been living in Tangkahan for almost 6 months only, after living in England for a while. Meanwhile, Dewi discontinues her study and as the substitute she learns everything directly from her mother. Slowly but surely, this mix girl is starting to absorb some of local habits and that include speaking in Karo language, even though with she has a cute and funny accent when she speaks. One of her Dewi’s favorite habits is to bathe in the river. She can do this for hours. Tangkahan as a tourism object can not be separated from bathing activity. The main river in Tangkahan, Batang Serangan River, becomes the meeting point of tributaries that reach the upper course of the river besides Leuser Mountain. The water is clear, cool, and shaping some stone relics that are located on the bank of the river. In this river, many activities can be done, starting from swimming, tubing from the upper course of the river, fishing, camping, until fish hunting in the river by using traditional tool, which is made by a joined iron wire and its shape is pointed and sharp, moreover it makes a good use of the elasticity of bicycle or motor bike’s rubber as its strength. Batang Serangan River and its tributaries have various fishes’ yang delicious, such as, baung fish, jurung fish, habaro fish, and many other names. The position of Tangkahan as the tourism object alone is right on the meeting corner of Buluh River and Batang Serangan River. Across Buluh River, the entrance gate to Leuser Mountain is clearly visible. Through this door, tracking activity will be started by tropical jungle adventure lover. At the present, many local rangers which have been trained were starting to pioneer an effort to provide three choices of tracks for the adventure. They are Family Track, Track II, and Track III. Three of them own different levels of difficulties and also need different time of tracking. Family Track was made for family group. The route is easy and only needs at about 1 to 2 hours of tracking. Tracking in this route means you can pass by this beautiful Pantai Kupu – Kupu ( or can be called as Butterfly Beach), which is a location of a river for bathing, with its calm water just like a pool, Air Terjun Kenangan ( or can be called Memorial Waterfall), Raflesia flowers location, and couple meters of TNGL forest with its rich vegetation. On Track II, visitors are leaded to go through the slope of the mountain until finally they reach the peak of the mountain for 3 to 4 hours. Besides, seeing various forest vegetations, which some of them are already rare, you can also be lucky enough to notice many wild faunas from primates to beautiful birds. We, who are happen to try this route, have a chance to see orang utans’ houses which are left on kuawu’s birds’ dancing and many small animals dancing arenas. But most of these animals seem to “hide themselves” in the stomach of the forest since it is end fruit season. Track III is the most difficult route and the longest route compare to the others. It needs some preparation and one day trip to finish this route. However, on track III you will have bigger chances to enjoy the flora and fauna on Track III. The trip will end in a cave named Kalong, adventurers will also be invited to go tubing following the down stream of Batang Serangan River until they reach to the starting point. If there are no obstacles, many local rangers who are the members of Tangkahan Simalem Ranger are planning to pioneer a passage route to go through Tangkahan, Bukit Lawang, and Aceh. The length of time needed for these two routes are estimated to be 5 days and 5 nights. If the packet is open, many maniacs of forest adventure will have a new “heaven”. Tangkahan can be reached from Medan in less than three hours. One of the regular busses to get into this area from Pinang Baris Terminal is Pembangunan Semesta Bus. Actually, trip can be saved half of its time, however, due to the bad condition of the road, the transportation should slow down its speed. As you arrived in Tangkahan, you have to report yourself to Community Tour Operator (CTO) office for various needs of your activity plan. If you want to do some tracking and reach the TNGL area, visitors need to pay permit fee. Domestic tourists will be charged Rp 5.000 and international tourists will be charged Rp 20.000. Besides, LPT party will give written requirements for anybody who wants to go camping and tracking. The purpose of it is to prevent things that are destructive for their environment. They also do not forget to insert one page of questionnaire for each guest in order to get some feedbacks to improve their ecotourism service quality. Tangkahan, in the next future, will make everything that needs to be done under one roof, therefore they do not have to make guests feel inconvenient. Tangkahan as a tourism object is a unique service industry. The management is done by the village people who are passionate in conserving and protecting Leuser Jungle. In many previous years, most of the people who manage the forest are members of Lembaga Pariwisata Tangkahan (LPT)or can be called as Tangkahan Institution Tourism, are the people who do illegal logging and felling of threes in the Jungle to be sold to a merchant named by A Beng. The president LPT itself, Mr. Okor, had to spend time in jail for two years and be responsible for his actions. “I already get through the process of the realization, “says this man who used a square plantation field to earn a living for his family. In LPT, he is here only to serve. We can say LPT is the forms of repentance from the village people for what they have done in the past. The process to have this repentance does not go smoothly. Many conflicts they have to face, because only couple hundreds meters from Tangkahan, there are treasures worth billions of Rupiahs which always tempt many parties to robe them. That is what Leuser Mountain National Park is about. But the community is lucky to have some of youths, who happen to come from outside the village, that are loyal to be there for them to go through many problems. There are two activists, they are college students, and two environment activists who participate in managing each phase of the process until they finally decide to choose ecotourism concept to make economic benefit from Leuser Forest. Their hard works are now acknowledged by the central government through an award that was given to LPT for their work protecting the natural environment. Different from the central government, regent government tends to be opposed with the institution who already walks with unsteady steps. If you want to know how the story goes, get ready to puke hearing it. Even though today Tangkahan becomes a potential ecotourism area that is talked about in the international level, the access to reach the location is still in the bad condition. Even the PLN (State Electricity Enterprise)’s electricity pole which only 1 kilometer in distance from the location, has not been connected to the tourism area due to budget restrained. The Committee of LPT made a conclusion that there is no use of hoping Regent Government who seems to be satisfied by only providing 2 signposts to reach the location. As proactive actions, two villagers fund and build the road to reach Tangkahan themselves from the end of nearest road. The road is made from stone and used by Pembangunan Semesta bus, which is committed to preserve this designated route, even though there are not many passengers. However, the village community does something that is outside their ability. They do not have enough funds to conduct a duty that is actually is a government’s duty. From these few numbers of tourists, they charged Rp 1,000/ each and this fund will be contributed into two villages, two orchards, institution account, security fee, cleaning service fee, and etc. To help the operational cost which is purely done by the community self-support, LPT forms several institutions that are called Badan Usaha Milik Lembaga (BUML) or an institution-owned corporation. This institution is similar to BUMN (a state owned corporation) on the central government level. These BUMLs will gradually handle specialized small unit businesses, such as, Community Tour Operator who are handled by the people in the area. These institutions’ activities are under LPT supervisory, people in the community will be able to directly give their contributions to the village, by providing employment field for many youths in the area which are trained to be the rangers, training people to become a tourism society who demands responsibilities and environment friendly, and also protecting the forest and the rivers who supply water demand for thousands people in the down stream of Langkat area. As the avant-garde in protecting the forest and developing economic resources in the society, LPT is supposed to be given an award and incentive from the regent government. However, the regency party acts in an opposite direction. Many times LPT’s representatives make a request to construct the road in Tangkahan tourism location and as a return they (the regency party) ask, “What is your contribution to this area?” Loosing their hopes on the people who have authoritative in the area, finally, the community, with the helps of their guides, conduct this ecotourism development effort by their own self-support. They make their own regulations that cover the area of Namo Sialang village and Sei Serdang village. The regulations become a social structure and unite the areas to become one economic area. “We want to make a small country here, however, we will still be under the Red-White Flag, “ Taufik says with mischievous tone of voice. He is one the activists from a college who has been living with the local society. The village regulations were structured and has been put in effect in 2003 to regulate many cases, starting from the institution relation, such as, the relations between TNGL, PTPN II, village government, and LPT itself, to how to manage the design of the tourism zone, locations and boundaries, area management, youth organization, medical, energy, research, building structure, strategic commodity area, and to regulate sanctions that are related to the prohibitions. The village regulations which are similar to constitutions in a country were signed by the head of the village as the executive party and legalized by the village representative as legislative party. As the result, Tangkahan becomes a tourism object which has beautiful nature, an organized administration, an environment that is secure and full with friendliness. Even though they do not have an access for a decent main road, being in Tangkahan still feels like being overseas. Actually an effort of a group of people without the regent government can still get a better result compare to some areas that are full with government’s help and the lending hands from other rich foreign institutions. Now, the ecotourism area in Tangkahan is starting to be talked about in national and international scope. The area is easy to be found in many internet sites. The world are tempting to visit, and the target of visitors which are determined by LPT keep increasing. “This year, we have just accepted 300 guests and hopefully next year it will increase more than 100%,” says Mr. Okor. Last month, tens of groups of people who live in the border of national parks all over in Indonesia were conducting a national conference in Tangkahan. The reason of having this conference, which was facilitated by Pusat Informasi Lingkungan Indonesia (PILI), was to see how Tangkahan ecotourism was managed by the local people who were able to solve their conflicts and at the same time conducted the conservation activities. Are you ecotourism lover? It is better to plan your trip to a small country under the Red-White Flag named Tangkahan which is located at the bank of TNGL, in Langkat Regency. Live in the real environment, heal your crusted lung, and hear the voice of primates who are howling from the womb of the jungle, and greet the future that is free from jungle exploitation.