Snakes and Apes

Writing from java. Got here from borneo where i taveled to see orangutans. From gilis, took boat to lombok, drove to airport then connected theough surabaya. That afternoon, Got off plane at pangkalan bun, a local city but more rural very rural town. At the airport, met my guide and after 20 min, pull up on street in Kumai, a nearby town. "We're here " I'm told which was surprising because i could see no water. However, i was directed towards an alley, and next to a bunch of dudes smoking cigarettes was a simple boat sitting on dirty bay - water the color of chocolate milk. Very basic accommodation but I had the boat to myself. It's wooden, 2m across and 10 meters long, with one room where staff sleeps. I sleep on deck. On boat is guide, chef, assistant and captain - all for me! My quarters are open air and open walled. I've attached pic if my "bedroom" I had a small table and a mattress. It's not luxury but sufficed and staff was great as was the food. First dinner consisted of omelette, tempeh, fried shrimp, rice and watermelon. Breakfast included banana pancakes. Each meal was solid, and after long days in the jungle, was much looked forward to.

MyGuide spoke a bit of English and was super nice. He told me about the time Julia Roberts came to the sekonyer river. He served her tea in her documentary, but you can only see his arm according to him, so hes only partially famous. He then mentioned that she drank the entire glass of his tea in one gulp - big drinker that Julia.

A few minutes after boarding, we were off down the bay to the sekonyer river. Felt like I was in Heart of Darkness. Jungle is so dense and right against the river - no river banks. Very few other boats. Felt truly isolated.

The River is heavily polluted. Very dark brown due to an illegal gold mine up river. They need evie cook to come and get things in order. Also, the boat"toilet" which doesnt flush simply let's out into the river beneath the spare wooden beams below. This is not water suitable to drink...

As it turned to dusk, the fire flies came out which was amazing. The forest looked like its was filled with Christmas lights. An impressive sight. Docked for night along river. No dock; we just tied up to some branches. No sounds except for crickets and the odd bat or proboscis monkey, which are only found in borneo and have giant noses. I would have made a jewish joke, but this being a muslim country, figured best to be quiet!

the next day, I visited Camp Leakey.

Wow.

Amazing to see these orangutans up close. Walking around camp leakey, many orangutans that have been rehabilitated have since had offspring. Truly wild orangutans are difficult to find and those found often do not come to the ground. Here, u can get right up close to them. There are no walls or fences. The apes live in the forest, just happen to live near this camp, which provides food as the orangutans are rehabbed. It is amazing to watch them interact with each other (like watching children) and and in some instances, interact with you. This probably shouldn't be permitted, and technically it's not, because these "guys" are much stronger than humans. It got hairy when we encountered an orangutan and it's baby on a walkway. While playing around, the orangutan grabbed my guide and wouldn't let go. At first guide was calm, but as orangutan made tighter grasp and took more of his leg, he started yelling for park ranger. Orangutamn finally relented when i got out water bottle and gave it to him to play with. Later that afternoon I got a picture right next to a large female - 1 foot away - and realized, if it wanted, this woman could turn around and tear my arm out of its socket! Amazing, thrilling, and somewhat dangerous. Very unique. Also, hung out with the author for lonely planet Borneo who was there. He Had interesting story from our location. A British tourist was eaten by a crocodile there 10 years ago. Borneo, in his opinion, is the most dangerous place he has covered. A bit nervous something may come aboard and join me at night. Back at the boat I saw a monitor lizard, basically a 5 ft long Komodo dragon. I figured him or an orangutan would make a nice house guest, but one of the thousands of tarantulas that come out at night (and whose nets i had seen all day) would definitely not.

The next day, visited two more camps and saw more orangutans. What was really impressive was during dusk trip back down river, saw the "Jewish" proboscis monkeys. As we continued our journey we then saw tons more. we pulled off to side and we were in the middle of 50 maybe more monkeys, and just a few meters from the local king, the largest of the monkeys. It seems as though there were two factions and we had sailed into the middle of a turf war. Being dusk, difficult to see in pictures, but it was an incredible site, especially the sounds of 50 monkeys screaming, and the king and another male screaming at each other and eventually tussling!

It had been overcast each evening, and my Last night it was finally a clear sky. It was Stunning with no light pollution. Could see countless stars, planets and even a galaxy. The stars above coupled with the fire flies on banks, made for an amazing sight,mas I was enveloped by "stars" all around.

Overall, was glad I went to borneo. As a fan of wildlife, was an extraordinary place to visit and get close to orangutans. They are really neat to observe. like watching humans interact. Mothers take care of their young until they are seven years old, I think the longest time in animal kingdom. Seeing the moms and their kids was a trip, as it was a nurturing that I hadn't really seen first hand in the animal kingdom. So far have had great time in Indonesia, and would recommend a trip, probably two nights instead of three would suffice, to the sekonyer river in Borneo.