Where is Kalimantan and why go there?

After relaxing in Thailand for a few days, we were up for more adventure. With much discussion and referencing the world atlas we have been carrying, Olivia and Maya agreed that Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) was the perfect place to celebrate their birthdays.

So it was off to Jakarta and an overnight stay in the not-so-lovely Huswah transit hotel for a long 6 hr night ( funky tap water and bedbugs free of charge).  We then flew to Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan where we hired a klotok (houseboat) to take us down the Sungai Sekonyer Kecil river to the Tunjung Putting National Park.

Our ultimate destination was Camp Leakey, an orangutan research station and rehabilitation site for former captive orangutans. Along the 4 day journey on the river we saw lots of species of birds including rhinoceros hornbills, kingfishers, eagles and owls.

The crocodile infested river was to dangerous for swimming and the only creatures daring enough were the proboscis monkeys who dove into the river from the trees and quickly swim across (the riverboat engines scare away the crocodiles making it safer for the crossing so the monkeys would  jump in the river from 30 feet up in the trees and land right in front of the boat).

Our sweet home for 4 days and nights

Amazing sunsets on the river with frogs and cicadas singing us to sleep.

a flying fox

proboscis monkeys only live in Borneo

                                                                 gibbon at Camp Leakey

                                                    macaques in the jungle at the riverside

                   all hairy apes love bananas!!!!!!!!
(I fell far short of the record of 11 bananas at once)

We saw many wild orangutans, proboscis and macaque monkeys along the river.  We saw one very rare  gibbon and many languor monkeys too. Though pythons are also in the area we were not lucky enough to spot one.  Plenty of wild boar and flying foxes and bats kept us company.

We were able to observe the rehabilitated orangutans up close at multiple sites along the river and even met Princess, a female who had learned sign language as a baby and now was being reintroduced to living in the wild.

                                       oh wait... that's not princess

                                                    here she is... with our three little monkeys