Macaques, Gibbons, and Orangutans – Oh my!

Our home for three days ... it was so cosy!
Here's a long overdue update from Indonesia.

Ulrik and I are sitting at an email place in Kalimantan (that's Borneo for the geographically-challenged). Doing email in Borneo! That's enough to do my head in.

Yesterday we finished a three day klotok (boat) tour of Tanjung Puting National Park, where several orangutan rehabilitation camps are located. The primary camp is Camp Leaky, which was established in 1971 by a Canadian woman (Dr. Biruté Galdiki). The purpose of the camps is to rehabilitate wild-born orangutans that were stolen for sale in the illegal pet trade. Our three day tour was fantastic! We lived on the boat, which was very cosy, put-puting along on the river ... it was all very relaxed and quiet. The tour included three meals a day, and boy did they feed us well! When we got our first meal (lunch on day one), there was more food than we had eaten in the previous three days! (Mind you, we have been living rather cheaply and, because of the heat, have had minimal appetite, but still ....) So needless to say, we ate very well on the boat. We also got to see tonnes of monkeys playing in the trees along the riverbanks. It got to be so much, that after a while they became almost commonplace -- "What? There are monkeys in the trees? Oh that's nice." -- when at the beginning it was, "Monkeys? Where? Cool!!"

But the main attraction was the orangutans. We got to see so many!! At one of the first camps, we saw a momma orangutan break into the feeding hut. She initially left with a few fistfuls of bananas. But when most of her bananas were stolen by one of the juvenile males, she broke in again, plopped herself amidst the bananas, and proceeded to stuff herself and her baby. The ranger tried to move her out, first by calling and then by prodding, but she was not going anywhere!

Getting friendly with the locals.
Although we were amazed by what we saw at the first camp, and by being in such close proximity to the orangutans (Ulrik actually handed bananas to one), Camp Leaky blew our minds. We saw nine orangutans, which included three mommas and their babies, during the feeding. When the feeding was finished, one juvenile male walked with us most of the way out of the jungle. Back in the camp, we saw another four mommas and their babies (one baby was just a few months old). The experience was incredible. We'll never be able to go to a zoo again. Although some might question what these camps are doing, our feeling, based on reading about the background and the purpose of the camps, is that they are doing their best to restore these animals to a wild, or semi-wild, existence. A baby orangutan lives with his/her mother for about seven years during which s/he learns everything s/he needs to survive. If that baby is snatched from its mother at a very young age, how challenging must it be to try and teach it all that it needs to know to survive in the wild?

Other than Kalimantan and our klotok tour, we've mostly been spending our time in Indo traveling from place to place. Indo is so spread out! We were able to do a short trek to see an active volcano (Mt. Merapi). That was pretty cool. (Although waking up at 2:00am to see the sun rise over the mountain was not so cool.) We also got to see Borobudur, which is this huge Buddhist stupa. Great views from the top.

A beautiful sunset as seen from our klotok (boat).
Next up, we're heading back to Java (Surabaya to be exact). We're actually stuck here in Kumai (a one-horse town if there ever was one!) waiting for the next ferry, which doesn't leave until 21 Jan. Then we'll head through Bali to the Gilis (this is a group of small islands north of Lombok), then through Sumbawa to Komodo (where the dragons are) and Flores.

For more photos, see our Indonesia photo album.