Orangutans are AMAZING!

June 11, 2011

Tanjung Puting National Park is unbelievable. We left the first site after watching an orangutan feeding where, on our way to the feeding area, an orangutan came up to the raised boardwalk that went above the swamp (so we could avoid crocodiles) and stole Meaghan's water bottle. Then, at the actual feeding location, we watched two orangutans stuff bananas in their mouths. These distant yet remarkably close relatives of ours are so amazing that we left thinking if these were the only orangutans we saw on our trip, if this was the only event on our trip, it was all more than worth it. But from there, it only got so much better. Leaving now, headed back to Kumai and recounting everything...

• We slept beneath mosquito nets on the deck of our boat, settled at the river's edge, trees overhanging, with proboscis monkeys nestled into the branches. they would growl and/or bark and shake the trees violently every time we laughed too loud r accidentally banged or knocked the platform.
• During long boat rides upriver to the next site, or in the evenings after our day in the jungle, we played hearts and crazy 8's (the only game the captain who spoke no English and our guide who spoke limited English all knew), all whilst sipping on bootleg rice wine and susu machan (susu= milk, machan=tiger).
• Hiking through the last of the primary rainforest on Borneo, we drank water that magically came from the branch of a tree, ate wild and tart mangosteens, balanced precariously on planks laid down across the leech-filled swamp and still managed to get leeches on ourselves (my biggest freak-out moment), and walked among beautiful butterflies of every shape and color.
• We got to watch macaques playing in the trees and dive into the water next to our boat. It was fun to watch them live amongst the other monkey species in the forest (although they seemed to steer clear of the apes).

All that would have been enough. But then there's the experience with the oranguatans....

• We met orangutan families, watched as the mothers balanced their babies, and as their babies held on to their sides or underbellies, while they moved from tree to tree, going from the very top of the rainforest to the very bottom with ease. The trees are peppered with orangutan nests- they make new ones daily, as they move from place to place.
• It was a progression- first we observed from afar, and then somehow we became more and more comfortable with each other, so that by the end they were digging through our pockets and grabbing hold of our hands. Pan, a particularly vivacious, ostentatious, ape walked side-by-side with us to his feeding, making sure we were coming with him by grabbing our hands and pulling us along. He chose to walk upright, on two legs, holding onto us for support, almost the entire walk. We were blown away. Then, he got a little bit tired, I suppose, because after a while, he turned in front of me, stopped, and wrapped his arms around me then put his feet on my forearms, absolutely, 100% in an effort to try to get me to carry him. As much as I wanted to, carrying him was not an option- he was HUGE!
• On our last day, we finally saw a gibbon. He was at the Leakey Camp, in the trees and playing with a young orangutan right above our heads- we could touch his tail, he was that close. We also got to watch wild pigs and orangutan interacting. We also saw the rare and few purely wild orangutans, sitting in the trees and looking on at us as we began to head back downriver. It was a perfect final goodbye.

I just don't think much else can compare with this. Looking into their eyes, seeing their expressions- you feel their happiness and their sadness, you see it in their posture and their eyes. They are just so similar to us, so beautful, so AMAZING. Sally is already dead-set on coming back next year as a vounteer with the orangutan rehab project that all of these orangutans are a part of. And in the back of my mind, every time I was blown away by yet something else in this crazy place, I thought about how thankful and lucky I am to get to see all of this... before it is gone. Especially before the orangutans are gone. Logging and other deforestation is still taking place all the time in the forest, and the population of the orangutan continues to decline.
Let's be honest- while the experience was utterly fantastic, I should not be having an orangutan climbing on me and trying to get me to carry him to his banana feeding.These are orangutans that have been displaced and are being rehabilitated, but they are still completely dependent on humans. There's a very fine line... and I go on and on about this in my journal, but in addition to the experience, what I am taking away from this adventure is this: 

Now that I have had this opportunity to learn about orangutans, their habitat, and the limitations this species faces, what am I going to do to help? You cannot come here and leave unaffected. There is a certain responsibility I feel. I know that I can start by sharing the experience and by sharing resources to get more information.

• Orangutan Foundation International (the person I talked to the most about the orangutans, their life, and the project was from this organization): www.orangutan.org
• Friends of the National Parks Foundation: www.fnpf.org
• Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation: www.orangutan.or.id

I will NOT forget my trip to Borneo.... indescribable. Hence, why I overuse the word amazing. I'm simply at a loss.


June 22, 2011

I am currently in Ubud, Bali. Bali is absolutely the kind of place that steals hour heart and soul. It is beautiful, breathtakingly so. I am in love with Bali! Since leaving Borneo, we have traveled to the Gili Islands.
On Gili T. I started feeling very strange- disoriented and dizzy, and then before I knew it, my temperature skyrocketed. I was freezing cold yet it was sunny and hot. Of course, I took no malaria medication in the malaria-infested rural jungles of Borneo. So I went to the best clinic on the island... let's just say it was the best of the worst. He didn't even take my temperature and told me Gili doesn't have malaria, so it couldn't be malaria. "Right, I know that, but two days ago I was in Borneo..." "Oh, yes, that has malaria." I couldn't get a boat out to the nearest hospital in Lombok that night, so I had to stay on the island. According to CDC and LP and my first-aid book and everything else I was scaring myself with, any signs of sickness should be treated as malaria until proven otherwise. I mentally counted all the mosquito bites I received while in borneo (too many too count) and how the deet repellent didn't work- I put it on and wore long leeves and pants and was still bit to oblivion. My fever wouldn't break, even with medication, and I was so completely delirious and disoriented and achy, vomiting, horrible cramping, and I was scared. In the morning, Allan went with me to the hospital, where they did blood tests. Not malaria! Not Dengue! But, some kind of horrible virus. I had to stay for two days in Lombok to make sure that I did not have malaria/dengue and to get more bloodwork done, because my lymphocytes (spell check?) were very low and so was my blood pressure. The two diseases could have been hiding still. But, on the third day, my fever finally broke and I started feeling better. the doctor looked at my bloodwork and gave me the okay to see the Komodo dragons, armed with malaria meds, and although mystomach was still uneasy, I left on the cruise! In Lombok, we embarked on another live-aboard cruise to travel to Komodo and Flores to see the majestic dragons. We didn't see them until the last day of our horrid, horrid live-aboard experience. They were the saving grace of that trip. If we had it to do again, we would have flown to flores, stayed for a few days there, and taken day-trips to Komodo and Rinca for diving and hiking to see the dragons. Please, if you are considering this "cruise", don't do it. It is recommended by Lonely Planet, but is 100% should not be. We ended it as soon as we could reach civilization on Flores, were refunded our money (at least 3 other people from our boat did this as well- maybe 6 others making 11 total out of 30 who were so incredibly displeased), and flew to Bali the next day. 
Bali is a godsend. I am still working this dumb virus out of my body- still very sensitive stomach- but I am getting better. Dear Pat in Korea, thank you for talking to the Dr.s at your base for me while I was stuck on Gili. You are a good, good friend. And I owe you. Again.
Off to the monkey forest, then a Balinese massage and a Dr. Fish pedicure... :)

Introduction to my SEA summer holiday...

I ended school on June 1, and at noon on June 2, I left Nakhon for the remainder of the month, embarking on a little trek around SE Asia. My plan was to keep a journal and update my blog whenever I got to the internet, thus keeping my friends and family informed that not only am I still alive, but that I am thriving on this experience. However, with sparkling waters, warm weather, and one-in-a-lifetime opportunities for adventure beckoning me every time I turn toward the internet cafe, I have found it quite difficult to do this.
I was also planning to upload photos, but forgot the cable for my camera... so you will have to use your imagination until I figure something out... hopefully photos will be coming shortly!
Our first stop was in Kuala Lumpur for one night, then to Singapore for three. It was a great start to a trip that clearly would only get better. On June 7th, we departed Singapore and headed to Indonesia, where the bulk of our journey will be taking place. After landing in Jakarta and gathering our wits, we planned our next move- BORNEO!

June 8th, 2011
Location: En Route from Benjarmasin to Pangkalan Bun, Kalimantan, Indonesia (Borneo)

Watching the sun set from the bus this evening was beautiful. I woke from a little afternoon nap to a golden sky with wisps of white curling up, like a reverse wave. As the sun sank lower and lower, the water below the stilted houses lining the road blackened and was so still it looked thick and glossy, so that it resembled dark pools of oil. As we passed villages and homes along the roadside, women and children began to gather on the front stoops, children far outnumbering the adults present. They darted from house to house while the women, presumably their mothers and maybe aunts sat, perched on the steps, either leaning forward with elbows resting on their knees and hands clasped in front of them or leaning back against the banisters or doorways, legs stretched out and ankles crossed, taking in this moment of relaxation at the end of the day.
Most of the homes are ramshackle, made from 2x2 pieces of wood, sometimes painted bright turquoise or yellow, sometimes unpainted with the wood bleached out by the sun, turned a colorless gray. Almost all have tin roofs and sit on stilts, with little boardwalks made from the street to the doorstep in order to get past the water. Rice paddies and thick jungle provide the backdrop for these homes. What a contrast to anything and everything I am familiar with. What do these women do all day, out in the middle of nowhere, with all these children? Suddenly, I find myself wanting to spend a day in their life here, to know what they do and how they do it, to see where our lives contrast with one another, and where they are similar.
There are two different yet related aspects of this traveling experience. One is the land- the flora and the fauna, the landscape, topography, the sky and the earth- which is overhwhelming and beautiful on its own. Then, there are the people- their culture, language, customs, the food, etc.- equally overwhelming and beautiful. Then there is the observation of the way the land and the people interact- how each is profoundly affected by the other. The geography of a place impacts the culture of the people, and the way the people live on the land impacts the environment.
We have already observed areas of forest cleared away, seen piles of trash waiting to be burned along roadsides and in front of houses. With all these houses over the water, there is one guess as to where human waste goes. And few houses have separate water supply tanks for drinking. And we have already seen many children being bathed in the water in front of the houses. Human waste has a very visible impact, even here. So I suppose that what I am trying to say is that from my vantage point thus far, there is this overwhelming beauty of land and people here on Borneo, but I cannot deny the level of poverty of the people, nor the clearly visible impact humans have on the environment, even when living a more simplistic lifestyle, sans cars and urban consumerism and in some cases even electricity. This is visible in Thailand as well, but watching from a window as I pass by it is somehow making it more apparent. Being a part of it makes you realize this with clarity, and yet another overwhelming aspect of travel arises. When I go to the islands, its easy to get lost in the tourism and the higher standard of living that the tourists demand. But at the end of the day, the Thais go home to the same thrid world standards many of them are used to. It's easy to look the other way, to not aknowledge the pile of trash burning out behind the hotel, smoke blowing straight into workers' homes. But it's easy to see if you get past your own good time. And then you have to ask yourself- what can you do about it? How can I enjoy this paradise that I am in to the fullest, yet not promote the environmental devastation that is ocurring simultaneously?

June 9, 2011
Location: Kumai, Borneo

We are on our live-aboard, headed upriver to Tanjung Puting National Park. Even as I sit here aboard this slow-moving klotok, staring out at the muddy river, low palms and mangroves lining the edges, I cannot seem to grasp that I am really here.
Our arrival at 4am left us groggy and not in the best of moods, after a 16 hour bus ride filled with jostles and bumps that were extremely hard to sleep through. Harry, the coordinator for our trip, picked us up from the station, and he took us to the port, where we boarded our boat, slept for a few hours, and then embarked on our cruise to see the orangutans.
It's surreal here. This journey upriver reminds me of making our way through the mangroves off the coast of Belize- same same, but different. Our slow-moving boat's motor is the only motor. The water is placid except for our miniscule wake and sights of civilization are nil. The insects are so loud that you can hear their chirping and buzzing over the noise of the boat. While sights of civilization are non-existent, signs of it are not. Foamy boat trails and some iridescent film along the top of the thick, soupy looking brown water are reminders that we are not the first and nor will we be the last to use this pathway to the preserved jungle rain forest. Certain areas of the shore have been plucked bare of vegetation for various reason- perhaps for the illegal loggers to gain access to the land or to make way for palm leaf and oil harvesting.
Looking through LP this morning, it comments on much of what I was wondering about last night with regards to depletion of natural resources and pollution. Our guide, Azi, has also been able to fill us in on some of the issues that seem to be staring this beautiful land in the face only to receive a casual, quick, sideways glance in return.
LP says, "environmental awareness is nascent at best"- rampant depletion of natural resources, mainly the rain forest itself and ill-managed waste removal services contaminating virtually all the water on this island, result in a paradise soon-to-be lost, which is terrifying and all too apparent. When you look at it from the perspective of a single, foreign, displaced person observing it all, this bewildered anxiety creeps in. Where do you start? How do you fix it? How did it get to be that the only two itty bitty places on earth orangutans continue to exist in the wild (but are still closely monitored and supported by humans) are here in Indonesia?
Finally, we are at park headquarters, where we will stop for lunch. It is a small compound of green buildings, along the shore, and we pull up and tie our boat to the dock. Chickens follow a lone rooster, clucking after him and pecking at the ground beneath the gargantuan sign that maps out the park. Here we are.
Tanjung Puting National Park is supposed to be the best place in the world to see orangutans. There are three different camps here who study these primates, luring them in by providing them with a plentiful supply of bananas at scheduled feeding times. This provides researchers and scientists with a way to monitor the progress or lack thereof of rehabilitated orangutans, see how families are coming along, make sure everyone is still around, etc. But in this preserve, orangutans aren't the only sight. there are also gibbons, macacques, sun bears, proboscus monkeys, crocodiles, and so many different birds and butterflies, not to mention primary rainforest filled with all kinds of strange and exotic flora. Already there have been some amazing butterflies fluttering in and around our boat. I cannot wait to get off and explore!!

Quick Update....

About to head into the jungles of Borneo for 3-4 days... hopefully will be able to update when I get back- so much to write about!!