Namaste Travelling!: Borneo (Kalimantan)

Our next destination in Indonesia was Kalimantan in southern Borneo and we flew into Balikpapan on the east coast. We then travelled for 3 days on various local buses, staying in random little towns, to get to Kutai National Park. Kalimantan is well off the tourist trail and therefore travelling across it is not easy or quick. Very little to no English is spoken and everywhere you go you are constantly harassed by the locals shouting ‘Hello Mister’. Never the less they were very friendly and happy to help although it was often of limited use due to their minimal english. In Kalimantan you rarely see another tourist outside the main tourist spots and consequently there are no cheap backpacker hostels. Instead you have to stay in overpriced run down businessmen hotels - not ideal!

The boat into the Kutai National Park

Accomodation at Kutai was basic!

On our arrival at Kutai National Park we were met by local guide Mr Supliani’s right hand man who took us by boat down the river to the lodge, deep in the rainforest. The lodge was very basic with generator powered electricity for only a couple of hours a night and a mattress on the floor to sleep on. Kutai is situated almost on the equator so therefore the humidity and temperature was extreme and within minutes we were dripping with sweat and all our belongings had that nice damp clammy feel. For our first ‘rainforest experience’ we walked around after a very laid back Mr Supliani looking for orangutans and saw absolutely nothing! Definitely a man of few words we were slightly bemused by the whole experience, he sauntered through the forest stopping every so often to look up and listen and then without a word just continued on. I say a man of few words…that was until his mobile phone rang…luckily for Mr Supliani he seemed to have excellent reception throughout the rainforest and would readily answer all calls in a raised voice to ensure his caller could hear him clearly.

We were staying right in the jungle

After a couple of hours of strolling around to be honest we were getting pretty bored and started to wonder if maybe 2 nights was going to be a bit too long! The evening walk was better though and we found 2 sets of orangutans building their nests in the trees above us. Although we couldn’t make them out clearly it was exciting to have finally found some and our spirits were lifted for the following days trekking. We got up before dawn and went back to the same spot to see the orangutans waking up. Note to future orangutan seekers – do not stand directly underneath the tree in which the orangutan sleeps because when they wake up, it turns out it’s not raining it’s just nature calling! This time we saw them slightly better as a mother and baby orangutan started munching on fruits above us but they were still very high, maybe 20m up, so we didn’t get an amazing view.

Searching for orangutans

We were beginning to realise the difficulty of watching truly wild animals and I think were almost starting to wish they were a bit more tame! Unsatisfied with our orangutan experience we decided to extend our stay and were so glad that we did!! The next morning we watched a mother and baby slowly climb down the tree toward us, busying themselves with picking fruit and playing. Both of us spent almost an hour watching them and it sounds cheesy but I have to say... It was truly magical experience!! :)

Wild mother orangutan

Mother and baby

Mother and baby again

In the afternoon Mr Supliani arranged for one of the guides to take us on a trek through the rainforest. On a four hour trek we crossed streams and bogs, all the way cutting our path with a machete. It was so much fun, I felt like Tarzan running through the forest! In reality I wasn’t quite so nimble and several times the tree roots got the better of me but we felt like we’d had a proper ‘jungle experience’ and we even had the leeches (15 in total) to prove it J