Tanjung Puting – cruising the rivers of Borneo

One of the driving factors behind my visit to Indonesia was the desire to take a trip by klotok, a houseboat where we would eat, sleep, and live, with a captain, guide, crew, and cook, up the Sekonyer river through the jungles of Boreno. I have always wanted to see exotic places, the wilder the better, and the jungles of Borneo seemed about as exotic and wild as I could think of.

We flew to Pangkalan Bun, and were taken to Kumai, where we boarded the Kunang Kunang, which means Fireflies (I thought she said French fries! said Emily, hahaha). Most of the klotok on the river are newer than the Kunang Kunang, but our boat is made of expensive, sturdy ironwood, and she is beautiful.

We spend most of the day cruising along the river. The klotok is well-equipped with a deck with wooden chairs, a shady area with mattresses, bean bag chairs, and hammock, a dining area, and an open-air washroom. The crew spend most of the time below deck, where there is a library, a space for the captain, and a kitchen, where the cook makes us assorted dishes three times a day, on top of fried bananas, drinks, tea, and coffee for snacks in between.

When Louis Leakey’s three famous students set off to study the great apes, Jane Goodall headed to Africa to study chimpanzees, Diane Fossey made a name for herself studying the gorillas in Africa, and Canadian Biruté Galdikas came to Borneo to study orangutans. The main draw of these klotok tours is to visit the orangutan feeding stations when the rangers call to them and leave out fruit. The orangutans are semi-wild, most having been rescued, rehabilitated, and released as part of Professor Galdikas’ efforts. We visit Tanjung Harapan the first afternoon, Pondok Tanggui in the morning on the second day, and arrive at Camp Leakey later that afternoon before beginning our journey back to Kumai on the third day. The journey to Camp Leakey takes an hour and a half by speedboat, but the journey by klotok is way cooler.

Orangutans stay with their mothers for years. This youngster was careful always to remain in contact with his mother.

Other creatures abound as well. Indonesia is one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world.

Proboscis monkey rescuing it’s shrieking young after seeing us on the river

Carnivorous pitcher plant that consumes insects after luring them into its “pitcher”

Ruth (our guide) and a terrifyingly large spider

Butterfly drawn to the laundry detergent…

Not so cool are the creepy crawly pests that await us in the jungle. The crew refers to Tanjung Harapun as The Kingdom of the Mosquito, so we wear our long pants, Emily and I don our matching ExOfficio, permethrin-pretreated tops, douse ourselves in bugspray… and then are told that our primary concern is leeches, because it starts to pour. We stuff our pants into our socks and tie them with elastic bands. A more fashion-forward group we could not be.

(Not visible: Emily and I are also wearing matching SmartWool running socks)

The sun sets around 6pm, and we eat in the dark by romantic candlelight. The mosquito coils at our feet are also, uh, romantic. Ruth, our tour guide, asks us if we believe in ghosts, and tries to scare us with stories about spirits. We joke to each other, and I have some concerns that I will laugh so much, I’ll tip my chair over backwards and fall into the river where there are hungry, 15-foot long crocodiles.

A small crocodile. Not the one that ate an Englishman some years back despite being warned to stay out of the water. Ruth warned us not to go swimming; she didn’t want to tell her next guests about the Canadians that got eaten by crocodiles

At night, the crew converts our sitting area into a sleeping area with mosquito nets. There is a shower, but it can only run when the klotok is stopped, and when the klotok is stopped, bloodthirsty mosquitos descend upon us. The four of us go rustic, and “shower” with moistened cloths the first night, and bathe in the river the second. When faced with insect bedmates, I choose to wear the bug-repelling shirt I’ve been sweating in to sleep. I can’t wait to be in a sealed room with air conditioning, and realize just how fortunate I am that I live somewhere where this is an option.

I realize I don’t find the orangutan viewings very interesting. While I appreciate that our money is going towards tourism so that fewer families need to rely on burning virgin rainforest to grow palm oil, and while I realize the orangutans are semi-wild, and free to come and go as they please, the whole affair still resembles a zoo. We and forty other tourists crowd as close as we can to the feeding platform with our cameras, and take the same photos, while the orangutans turn their backs on us to get some privacy. I have a lot more fun hanging out with the crew; swimming by the dock, throwing our frisbee around, and learning about their local customs. I loved the tour, but like with the motorcycle tour in Vietnam, my favourite parts of it are enjoying the scenery, seeing a different way of life, and the interaction with the locals.