We just returned from the most amazing family trip that we have ever taken. There are so many things that we want to share with you so we are going to divide the trip into 3 separate posts, one for each of the places we visited over the last 2 weeks: Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Bali, and Jogjakarta (Java).
Since I studied non-human primate communication in college (basically I fed fruit loops to monkeys while playing them different sounds), Mary has tasked me with writing about our experience with the orangutans in Borneo. I was definitely the most qualified to dodge flying primate poop so we'll see how that translates to the blog...
Robin (of Camp MillerWiener) gets pretty much all of the credit for this part of the trip since she came up with the idea of spending Christmas with the orangutans, she found the guide, she booked the houseboat, etc. - you get the idea.
First a little background on Kalimantan. Kalimantan is the southern part of Borneo claimed by Indonesia. Near the southern edge there is a national park called Tanjung Puting, which is the primary home to one of the two remaining subspecies of Orangutans in the world, the Borneo Orangutan. The other subspecies is also in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra. In the 1960s there was intense scientific interest in studying the behavior of our closest animal relatives, the great apes. Louis Leakey was one of the most instrumental figures in this movement. Dr. Leakey is probably best known for his work as a paleontologist, researching early hominid fossils in Olduvai gorge in Tanzania. He strongly believed that studying our closest primate relatives would help uncover clues as to how our early ancestors lived. He funded Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees in Gombe national park in Tanzania and Diane Fossey to study mountain gorillas in Congo and Rwanda. Shortly before his death he funded a third female scientist, Birute Galdikas, to study Orangutans in Indonesia.
Dr. Galdikas has since become one of the world's foremost experts in orangutans. Shortly after arriving in Indonesia she established "Camp Leakey," a research/feeding station where she first tracked and observed orangutans. She also started a program to rehabilitate baby orangutans that had been either taken captive as part of the pet trade or orphaned when their mothers were killed for meat. Her early work laid the foundation for the national park and the 3 feeding stations we ultimately visited. (For anyone interested in learning more about orangutan research in Indonesia you should definitely check out "Intimate Ape," by Shawn Thompson.)
Getting to Kalimantan was not exactly straight forward. We had to fly from KL to Semarang (a small city on the island of Java) and then on to Pangkalan Bun, the a small city in Kalimantan. We were so proud of the kids during this part of the trip as they made it through the multiple delays and various transfers with a smile. They would not have been able to handle the uncertainties of this type of trip 6 months ago. After 11 hrs on the road, we finally met the Wieners and boarded our Klotok (a large houseboat) to start our adventure.
We absolutely loved the klotok. As we sailed down the Sekonyer river, we were slowly enveloped by the rain forest and happily left the city behind (fours days with no iPads, no email, no phone...).
Initially, only females came to feed but after about 20 minutes or so, one of the larger males in the area came to the platform. He was--simply put--one great big ape. Males are typically a lot larger than females and as they become dominant they develop enlarged cheek pads that aid in their long calling and are a sign of their status. As big as this guy was, he was not even the king for that area. We never did get to meet the king, Tom, but we were treated to about a 30 second all out brawl between the larger male and a smaller one that was trying to make his way to the feeding station. I've never been on an NFL field but I imagine that offensive lineman move with the same unexpected speed and ferocity. (Some friends we met on another klotok did get to meet Tom. As they left the feeding station they found him enjoying a meal in the park ranger's kitchen! When a king orangutan invites himself over for dinner, you welcome him in...)
The following day we visited two additional research stations further upriver and had similarly cool experiences. Tyler discovered a new interest in photography and was never more than 3 feet away from Robin and her excellent camera!
The kids were a little nervous that Santa wouldn't be able to find us in the middle of the rain forest on a boat in Borneo but after some reassurance they finally all got to sleep. Violet awoke at dawn (aka 5:45 am) excited to tell everyone that she had heard sleigh bells and hooves in the nearby palm trees during the night! Low and behold, Santa had left stockings for all 4 children. It was a little weird watching the kids open their stockings through mosquito netting.
A special thanks to the Miller-Wieners for making this an incredibly memorable Christmas. Mary has said it before and I will say it again - You know that you are truly blessed when you have family who are friends and friends who are family!
Since I studied non-human primate communication in college (basically I fed fruit loops to monkeys while playing them different sounds), Mary has tasked me with writing about our experience with the orangutans in Borneo. I was definitely the most qualified to dodge flying primate poop so we'll see how that translates to the blog...
Robin (of Camp MillerWiener) gets pretty much all of the credit for this part of the trip since she came up with the idea of spending Christmas with the orangutans, she found the guide, she booked the houseboat, etc. - you get the idea.
First a little background on Kalimantan. Kalimantan is the southern part of Borneo claimed by Indonesia. Near the southern edge there is a national park called Tanjung Puting, which is the primary home to one of the two remaining subspecies of Orangutans in the world, the Borneo Orangutan. The other subspecies is also in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra. In the 1960s there was intense scientific interest in studying the behavior of our closest animal relatives, the great apes. Louis Leakey was one of the most instrumental figures in this movement. Dr. Leakey is probably best known for his work as a paleontologist, researching early hominid fossils in Olduvai gorge in Tanzania. He strongly believed that studying our closest primate relatives would help uncover clues as to how our early ancestors lived. He funded Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees in Gombe national park in Tanzania and Diane Fossey to study mountain gorillas in Congo and Rwanda. Shortly before his death he funded a third female scientist, Birute Galdikas, to study Orangutans in Indonesia.Dr. Galdikas has since become one of the world's foremost experts in orangutans. Shortly after arriving in Indonesia she established "Camp Leakey," a research/feeding station where she first tracked and observed orangutans. She also started a program to rehabilitate baby orangutans that had been either taken captive as part of the pet trade or orphaned when their mothers were killed for meat. Her early work laid the foundation for the national park and the 3 feeding stations we ultimately visited. (For anyone interested in learning more about orangutan research in Indonesia you should definitely check out "Intimate Ape," by Shawn Thompson.)
Getting to Kalimantan was not exactly straight forward. We had to fly from KL to Semarang (a small city on the island of Java) and then on to Pangkalan Bun, the a small city in Kalimantan. We were so proud of the kids during this part of the trip as they made it through the multiple delays and various transfers with a smile. They would not have been able to handle the uncertainties of this type of trip 6 months ago. After 11 hrs on the road, we finally met the Wieners and boarded our Klotok (a large houseboat) to start our adventure.
We absolutely loved the klotok. As we sailed down the Sekonyer river, we were slowly enveloped by the rain forest and happily left the city behind (fours days with no iPads, no email, no phone...).
For the next 3 nights and 4 days we lived on the deck of the klotok. There was a large table for meals and at night our guides would set up futons and mosquito nets so we could sleep outside.
Within minutes of starting the trip we were in the secondary forest and spotted proboscis monkeys and even an orangutan from the boat. The first night we anchored along a shore that was home to thousands of fireflies. They weren't the synchronized fireflies from Kelip Kelip but it was an incredible backdrop to a great dinner of local chicken curry and fresh fish. Alas, my iPhone camera was not good enough to capture the fireflies mingling with the stars.
After a leisurely breakfast the next morning we set out for Camp Leakey and our first real encounter with orangutans. As we stepped off the dock at Camp Leakey we were met by Peta. She is the daughter of Princess, one of the first orangutan orphans studied by Dr. Galdikas (all families share the same first letter, a technique used by Jane Goodall when she started following chimpanzees). Princess used to wait on the dock for visitors. She was in the orangutan hospital with a shoulder injury during our visit so apparently Peta was minding the family business while she was away.
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| Peta and baby meeting us on the dock! |
We hiked about a kilometer through the forest towards the feeding station for Camp Leakey, a wooden platform in a small clearing. About halfway to the station our guide spotted a gibbon (another from the ape family - this one a "lesser ape" vs a "great ape") and the kids coaxed it down from the tree with an offering of some apples.
As we arrived at the station, the park rangers laid out bananas and fresh milk and called out to the surrounding orangutans. Waiting for them to arrive was my favorite part of the day. You could hear them in the distance and see the trees bend a little more than they normally do from the wind as they approached. There was a rope that prevented us from getting closer than about 10 meters from the station, but the orangutans didn't seem to notice as some of them came right through the gathered observers to get to the platform.
Initially, only females came to feed but after about 20 minutes or so, one of the larger males in the area came to the platform. He was--simply put--one great big ape. Males are typically a lot larger than females and as they become dominant they develop enlarged cheek pads that aid in their long calling and are a sign of their status. As big as this guy was, he was not even the king for that area. We never did get to meet the king, Tom, but we were treated to about a 30 second all out brawl between the larger male and a smaller one that was trying to make his way to the feeding station. I've never been on an NFL field but I imagine that offensive lineman move with the same unexpected speed and ferocity. (Some friends we met on another klotok did get to meet Tom. As they left the feeding station they found him enjoying a meal in the park ranger's kitchen! When a king orangutan invites himself over for dinner, you welcome him in...)
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| This male was not even the biggest in the area! |
My favorite part of the day happened while we were docked at the second station waiting to hike into the feeding platform. A young male sat in a tree by the dock. As Violet and I approached he slowly came down towards the ground. We stood there for about 10 minutes watching each other from about 5 meters away until he yawned and showed us his rather large teeth. We decided to slowly back away (Tyler, who had joined us about halfway through ran backwards faster than I thought humanly possible - he had learned from our guide not to turn your back and run from an orangutan since that is a sign of weakness).
We still had about 30 minutes until the hike so Tyler and I joined a soccer game of tourists vs. park rangers (plus a really fast Australian kid). Needless to say the predominantly American team with the two baseball guys got smoked, although I did manage to steal the ball from a ranger (but promptly kicked it into the river when I got too excited). Mary was too busy eating delicious fried bananas with our new Australian friends to take any pics.
The last feeding station might have been my favorite. Everyone left after about twenty minutes because it was rainy, hot and really mosquito-filled. As we turned to leave, Violet grabbed my arm and asked if I would stay with her. After bathing in DEET we sat together watching Orangutans for almost an hour. It was awesome.
Back on the boat we prepared to celebrate Christmas Eve. We anchored on the shoreline about 20 meters from a group of proboscis monkeys and watched as they jockeyed for position in the trees as the sun began to set. There were 3 males in the troop that were in a constant battle to get to the top of the tallest tree. Best TV show I've ever watched.
I read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' as the guides cleared the dinner table. After dinner we had a rousing round of Christmas carols with our surprisingly well-versed non-Christian friends! We also played some Christmas Bon Jovi. (From Mary: Our murderous attempt of Stairway to Heaven was my highlight!) (From Brian: Stairway to Heaven is not Bon Jovi, it's Led Zeppelin.) (Mary: Thank you anthropologist, that didn't know a gibbon was a lesser ape, but please do recall we played a diverse collection of songs that evening, including Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, the Beatles, and Billy Joel.)
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| Well, maybe Tyler wasn't so roused by the caroling... |
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| Our guide Poncho was fantastic with the kids and made the trip simply outstanding! He even showed them how to weave palm fronds and carve animals from fruit with a pocket knife. |
After breakfast we started out on our 4 hr return journey back to Pangkalan Bun. Christmas night was fairly low key. Our hotel had a Christmas dinner complete with an Indonesian acoustic rock band (for those of you who knew me in college, remember Danny Taylor and Brian Garibaldi as "Acoustic Rain"?). We decided to try to explore the city and walked down the hill to a local restaurant. I was super excited to order the duck for Christmas dinner a la "A Christmas Story." When the tiny black, charred thing came out on a small platter I politely inquired what had happened to the duck. The waiter responded in surprisingly good English - "No duck tonight, only pigeon." The rest of the dinner pretty much followed suit.
After we arrived back at the hotel, we said goodbye to the Miller-Wiener clan since they had to leave at 4 am the next morning to get back to KL. We then proceeded down to the hotel Christmas party to celebrate the end of the first leg of our fantastic holiday journey! The Indonesian acoustic rock band did a not to shabby version of Holy Night. The hotel didn't serve beer but we paid the waitress on the side to bring us some of her stash of Bintang (a local Pilsener). After 4 days without alcohol (long story but the Wieners thought we had gone to duty free in KL and we thought the same about them...) it was nice to have some Christmas cheer.
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| Santa passing out chocolates. |
A belated Merry Christmas to everyone!
Love,
Brian, Mary, Violet and Tyler
AMAZING! A truely incredible experience. Violet and Tyler seem like they have become great travelers. Keep the posts coming! We enjoy reading them.
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