Southeast Asia: Day Twelve - Borneo Orang-utan Adventure

We got out of our taxi at a house on the edge of a large river. We met our guide Akim and were served coconut water (they cut the tops off coconuts with machetes) while we waited for the house boat to be ready. The couple that was leaving the boat said they only saw one orang-utan and it was really far into the bramble. We got a little worried that we might have come all this way for nothing.

Once we boarded the boat there were a bunch of wicker chairs and a mattress on the middle of the boat for Zaddek to lay on while we cruised down the river into the Tanjung Puting National Park. There was even a table and chairs where they served us lunch. On our way into the jungle I spotted some river dolphins (not the pink ones) in the water around the boat. We only got a quick glimpse but they were pretty cool. We left the main river and entered the jungle.

Akim told us about the park and the beautiful orang-utans, hornbills, snakes, river dolphins, and the proboscis monkeys that only live in Borneo. We cruised along the river and saw a few kingfishers on our two hour ride winding through the beautiful jungle. Once we arrived at the Eco lodge we checked into our room. The whole lodge was up on stilts over the jungle floor. It wasn't big and it was like all the ones in the movies with palm fronds and wood posts through the whole thing. We dropped off our backpacks to look around the Eco lodge and immediately saw some of the funny looking proboscis monkeys swinging through the trees outside our room. We got some good photos of their crazy looking noses before continuing our tour around the Eco lodge. Before long we went out to look for orang-utans.

We got on the boat (Zaddek stayed behind at the lodge and slept trying to get better) and went ten minutes up stream before starting our hike into the jungle. Akim told us about the project to help orang-utans with feeding stations with plenty of food because their habitats are dwindling and there is less food for all the orang-utans. I was really excited to see one, and there was a really good chance that we might not see one at all in our one and a half day trip so I was really hoping. Once we arrived at the feeding station there on the feeding platform was a giant orang-utan. We watched in awe for a few minutes when a small female swung in to grab some bananas before swinging back into the tree to eat away from the male letting him have the feeding platform.

We grabbed a seat at the bench and watched the huge male orang-utan eating banana after banana. We all took turns with the big camera and took hundreds of photos of the beautiful animal that was in front of us. Akim told us that it was a relatively small male and that the alpha was much larger which was hard to believe because this guy was humongous. It was amazing sitting there watching him with his beautiful orange coat.

The small female would stay in the tree and swing down to the platform again and again taking handfuls of bananas and then went right back up to the tree branch. We watched in awe for forty five minutes not even caring about the mosquitoes biting us. Then all of the sudden the male stood up and stomped into the bramble and after a few minutes the female grabbed some bananas to go and swung into the jungle.

We all got up and headed back to the boat. Before going back to the Eco lodge for the night we went farther down stream and saw a ton of proboscis monkeys roosting in the trees near the river in big troops. Akim said that they sleep by the water so that if they are in danger they can jump into the water and swim across the river bank. We saw a ton of the big troops with their huge cartoony noses before heading to the Eco lodge.

We told Zaddek all about the orang-utans and hoped he would be better by the next day so he could see some of the beautiful orang-utans for himself. We walked the stilted platforms around to the dining hall and made sure the doors quickly shut so no animals could sneak in. We had some really good noodles for dinner and some sweet mango for dessert before going to bed ready for the next day of adventures.

Total boats: 1

Total miles walked: 4.5 miles