"Person of the Forest"

(All about watching orangutans in Borneo!!) It just keeps getting better. I am not sure I have ever been happier than when I am tripping and sweating through the jungle. We booked a tour provided by Adventure Indonesia. If you are headed this way, I can't recommend them enough. Check them out! Our accommodation consisted of a simple boat. At night, mattresses were laid out on the deck and bug nets strung up and we got to fall asleep listening to the sound of the water, bats, bugs and sometimes monkeys! The service was amazing, cruise ship worthy. When we returned from hiking there was cold water, cold towels and deep fried snacks waiting for us. The meals were delicious, and in my mind redeemed Indonesian food, which I wasn't really enjoying much in Bali, after eating Thai, but of course everything is better deep fried. The meals were huge and consisted of many different dishes, the only caveat being that they kept serving me fish with faces.

Our daily activity mostly consisted of walking through the jungle with the eventual destination being the feeding stations of "semi-wild" orangutans. The Orangutans that are being fed on a daily basis, are once captive/domesticated orangutans who are being rehabilitated back to the jungle. They are being fed as long as they need to be, in order to reduce their stress about finding food, but also to reduce the stress on the feeding areas of the wild orangutans. You got to stand in a certain area behind a rope, supposedly silent (but I have learned that Spanish people NEVER shut up). The national park rangers bring out big backpacks filled with bananas and dump them on a platform. Then they stand around performing a series of hooting calls, intended to tell the orangutans that food is available if they want it. Then you wait. Sometimes the apes are there waiting, once they look almost an hour to show up. They hop up on the platform and you get to see a good look at these magnificent creatures, while they stuff their face full of bananas. There were plenty to see. Females with babies, young makes and females, and a couple times the massive gigantic (King Louie) alpha male. It was very cool to see their interactions between the adults. Wary of each other when alone, social when the king was present. Cute to see the babies tottering along. What I loved the best was watching their agility in the trees. It's like they have studied rock climbing, they never leap into the air to travel like monkeys, they always maintain three points of contact, and they would ace every trigonometry test, as they can calculate the arc of a young tree bending, and exactly at what point on it, they need to be in order to be able to step off onto the next one. A-maz-ing!!

Other primate highlights we saw was a couple, agile and gracious gibbons, with beautiful, thoughtful faces. One we got a good look at, hung out on the periphery of a feeding area.

Wild macaques, who are still jerks, because they hang out by the shore, waiting, and then leap onto passing boats in hopes to steal something. Very entertaining to watch a quiet boat suddenly erupt in yells and activity.

Wild orangutans who were very disturbed by our presence and made lots of kissing, blowing and tree branch throwing to demonstrate their perturbance.

Lastly, and most abundantly we saw lots of proboscis monkeys, endemic to Borneo, with their loooooooong noses. Looong limbs. Looooong fingers. You would think they would be harder to see because they would be hiding over their ridiculous appearance. I loved watching those families, where the male's nose hangs down, the female's points up, and they communicate in a silly, naisily, throaty grunt.

We also saw the ugly bush pig, covered in mud from rooting around. A few birds. We heard a hornbill a couple times, but never saw it. Bats and swallows at night made the evening atmosphere alive.

We got off the river at one point and walked around a village of 200 people. Consisting of fishermen, some farmers and palm oil workers, it's always neat to get a wee glimpse into how other people live.

Speaking of palm oil, I am convinced now to strategically buy items that do NOT contain it. It's always a hard thought. According to Ahdi, our guide, the companies do provide jobs and support the economy, but jungle is being decimated at a rate of 10 soccer fields per day, on Borneo, for palm tree planting. The island is not that big! This is reducing habitat for the orangutan, as well if the orangutans get into the fields, they will be hunted and killed. Also, babies are still being stolen and exported as pets and for zoos. When one baby orangutan is successfully exported, alive, this means that up to 8 of them have died. So sad. One can see how you would want a baby though. They are so cute!!

We did stop at a reforestation area, where we made the "very significant" impact of planting one tree. Quite meagre in the face of 10 soccer fields per day, but still fun because we got to hear about the 9 different tree options and choose for ourselves which one we wanted. All of our choices are ones that orangutans will enjoy eating in one way or another. And, our monetary donation will go to pay for the salaries of university students who will be planting the rest, beyond our one, so I can be happy with that.

I write you from the plane, on the way out. I just got a look at myself in the mirror, on the plane for the first time in 4 days. Yikes!! Borneo is a kind of place that I am never happy to leave, but I am excited to be spending the night in a nice hotel! And, you know you have been roughing it in the jungle when you are calling the Days Inn, a nice hotel! I always feel a little pang of sadness when I am leaving a country for the last time, and I feel it now, but I am looking forward to the next and last leg of this trip in Cambodia, where we are going to get to see our Kiwi friends!! I leave you with a jungle tiger cat.