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Published: December 15th 2006
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So we flew to Changi (again) and from there we caught a flight into Jakarta, Indonesia. The first thing we noticed about Indonesia was how unwieldy the currency is. Following the economic crisis in 1998 you can now get 17,350 rupiah to the pound. Thus we withdrew a modest amount of cash and became instant millionaires! The only problem is then carrying it around, putting it into my money belt made me look suddenly six months pregnant. Nevermind.
We spent only one night in Jakarta, a huge sprawling city, before flying on to Semarang. Here we planned to buy tickets to hop over to Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. Unfortunately all flights were full for a couple of days so we ended up kicking around Semarang for 3 nights. We stayed in the very nice Ciprutha hotel which had a very western mall attached to it. Semarang is not a tourist destination and there wasn't a great deal to do but we managed to catch a screening of Casino Royale at the local cinema which was good! Unfortunately on the second day we were there I (Laura) managed to catch a nasty chest infection and, convinced it was Legionnaires
Diesease, stayed in bed worridly considering the possibilities of being air evacuated to Singapore. Luckily this proved unecessary as we were able tp purchase antibiotics, cough syrup, strepsils and paracetamol for the princely sum of 3 pounds from the local chemist.
Feeling somewhat wobbly the following day we, managed to catch our flight over to Pangkalanbun in Kalimantan, on a little 50 seater prop plane. Here we were met by Harry, head of Borneo eco tours who transferred us to the town of Kumai and his klotok boat. From here we journeyed by river up into Tanjung Puting National Park and to our base for the next three nights, Rimba Lodge. Set in the middle of the jungle and home to a colony of long tailed macaque monkeys, all you can here whilst staying here is the whir of your ceiling fan and the endless noises of the jungle, it was fantastic.
The following morning, bright and early, we began our two and a half hour klotok journey up to the famous research station, Camp Leakey. Accompanied by our excellent guide Andreas, he pointed out many of the wonders of the jungle, probosis monkeys, hornbill birds, stork billed
kingfishers, a small crocodile, kites, the ever present long tailed macaques and monitor lizards hastily swimming for the bank. On arrival to Camp Leakey we found no orangutans (and few humans as well) but a family of Gibbons. Having lived around Camp Leakey for a long time they are incredibly tame and will come down from the trees and sit on the picnic tables in front of you. Amazing to see such an endagered species at such close quarters. Following lunch it was off to see the 2.30pm Orangutan feeding. Camp Leakey was set up in 1971 by Dr Birute Galdikas as a place to release ex-captive orangutans and to study the remaining wild ones. As a result of releasing many ex-captives back into the jungle Camp Leaky stage additional feeding times for these orangutans to minimise the stress placed on the wild population. Bananas, cassava fruit and milk are all placed out for them on a small platform and the staff from Camp Leakey call out into the jungle for any nearby orangutans. Andreas explained sometimes you get one or two orangutans, sometimes as many as 5 or 6. Well, we saw 12 altogether, including several little babies clinging
to their mothers. It was absolutely fantastic. They came swinging through the trees from far away to effortlessly drop down and grab some bananas, some lingingering, some heading back to the trees, several getting into arguments with wild pigs who were also loitering for scraps. We saw the dominant male Tom (who you would not wish to meet in a dark alleyway) and the famous Princess, star of several nature documentarys for her ability to hammer nails and untie and steal boats. Once she had grabbed some bananas she came to sit down on the bench next to me to look out over the feeding platform as if to say, 'Well? what are we all looking at?" It was just great.
The following day we attended two other feeding sessions in different parts of the forest where we met several other orangutans and also visited a reforestation programme run by local Dayak tribesmen who are trying to replant felled areas of rainforest. Here, for a small donation, we got to plant out and name an Ironwood tree, in order that in years to come, we could come back and visit our tree. It was a good feeling, helping (albeit
in a small way) to replant the rainforest. We went on to visit the local Dayak village, who were preparing for the local area chief to arrive the following day, and the orangutan clinic. Here we got to meet Julios, an orphan baby oranguatan being cared for by an adoptive mother. The "adoptive mother" is actually one of the orangutan care staff dressed in a brown jumpsuit to look more orangutan like, who take over the role of parent and will teach young Julious how to climb and what types of fruit to eat. It was altogether, a once in a lifetime experience.
The following morning we were sad to say goodbye to the fantastic staff at Rimba and to Andreas and all the boat crew as we made our way back down the river and on to our next destination of Yogjakarta back on Java.
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