Carrying Joy, Finding Adventure: Kalimantan Cruise: Orangutans

The main event during the Kalimantan cruise is the sighting of monkeys... mainly orangutans. I learned so much about these wonderful creatures during this time. Firstly, the name orangutan actually is an Indonesian word! It means man of the jungle. Who would have thought that the entire world uses an Indonesian word. Kalimantan is one of the only places in the world that still has orangutans in the wild. The other place is, I believe, Sumatra, another Indonesian island.

Our boat would arrive at a dock, where ten other boats would be docked. We would hop from boat to boat since they were all double parked along the river bank and meet up with the rest of the vacationers, trek into the jungle to watch the orangutans.

Each of the kinds of monkeys that we saw seem to have their own way of getting around, and it was hysterical to watch them all! The orangutans were climbers, and I now understand why we call kids who like climbing on things monkeys. You could see them coming from a ways away because the trees would be bending and swaying as they swung from branch to branch. It was as if they said, "Here's a branch that is the size of my little finger. I'll go ahead and let it support my full body weight as I swing from tree to tree. And you know what, I think I just want to stay here and eat my sugarcane. Good thing these branches can hold me. And good thing I have four arms."

There was actually a large group from SPH Kemang Village that was on a cruise, so we got to meet up with them multiple times a day. And my friend Janna was also on their trip, so I got to see her quite often!

One time, our boat was stopped, but it wasn't time for the feeding yet, so we just chilled on the boat. And right next to us was a monkey chillin along the water. Monkey's without tails cannot swim, so as our guide threw him little pieces of fruit, we watched the monkey maneuver through the branches along the water to retrieve the snacks.

Our guide was raised in the jungle, and he's been a guide for a number of years since returning to Kalimantan after studying in Bali. So he is friends with some of the orangutans at one of the areas we stopped. So he called them over and we got to give them little peanuts.

We got to see a few other monkeys. This little funky guy that was like a comic show. He sneaked around the orangutans eating the food, but always seeming like he new he was breaking a rule.

As we drove down the river, we passed a lot of monkeys in the trees, mostly proboscis monkeys. It was funny to pass by and see them hanging out and jumping from tree to tree. While the orangutans "gracefully" climbed from tree-top to tree-top, the proboscis monkeys jumped. It wasn't like a ballerina jump. It was a "let's throw myself off of this branch towards another tree and hope that I am close enough to grasp onto a branch at the last second." Very un-graceful. But very fun to watch. And... this it was fun to watch the other people who were watching the monkeys.