Monkey Business

Were back to Benjamarsin and we made it in one piece surprisingly! We had the most miserable travel experience to Pankalam Bun (Spelling?) which is on the south western side of Borneo. We started our day at 8:30 am and went to the bus station to catch our 9am bus. We got to the station and as usual people acted as if we were famous, wanting to take pictures with us, shake our hands as well as the good old fashion open mouth stares. We thought that maybe its been a while since they last saw a westerner here. Anyway by 8:30 am were already dripping wet with sweat and were about to board a non air conditioned bus. Ok we get on and its completely packed and denise and I are sitting on these leather seats that are half the size of our western asses. Needless to say our arms were touching which was really uncomfortable. But on we went with a 25 cent fan that we both shared. With in the first hour of our trip Denise had already said how horrible this was maybe 15 times and I literally thought that this trip was going to be the end of her sanity. We were already thinking about the massages we would get once we got back to Benjamarsin. Both of us reading our books that we brought...thankfully we had some sort of entertainment. Our first stop was after 4 grueling hours of bumpy roads. Then we waited 2 hours for another bigger bus to arrive and take us to our final destination, which we had no idea was going to be a whopping 16 hour long bus ride...making our entire trip 20 hours!!!! Can you believe that???? When we arrived neither one of us believed that we had actually made it through.

Let me tell you about the ride...the roads were horrible...I cant believe that the bus actually made it there, due to all the holes in the road and constant swerving on and off the road...crazy! Oh and instead of worrying that the driver (which looked like he just got his drivers license) was going to fall asleep we had to fall asleep ourselves, which was at times a bit difficult due to the extremely loud techno music that these drivers love to listen to. Except its not like the techno Im used to. It sounds more like the chipmunks on crack!

But we made it there...it was 3am and our guide picked us up with his wife and child...his wife was 19 and his kid was 3...and that is common here! We got picked up at the bus station and went to a hotel which we would normally snub our noses at, but due to the fact that we had just spent 20 hours sitting upright we were more then happy to break out our sarongs and lay down on the bed (oh and it was only 6 bucks for the night).

Our day started at 10am when the guide picked us back up at the hotel and dropped us off at at dock where we boarded our boat that we would call home for the next 2 nights and 3 days. It was a plain two level boat with the bottom being for the crew (which was our guide/ driver and the cook/ assisstant), and the top level was for Denise and I. On the back of the boat was our bathroom, which surprisingly had a western toilet emptying out into the river below and a shower head which I sadly found out the next morning, was not connected to anything. We actually felt like Queens, being on our private boat, getting catered to with amazing food etc.

It was a great start! We started off down the river which was very similar to the Amazon in Peru...very lush and green with small waterways. Then after about an hour or two down the river, only seeing 3 or 4 tourist boats like ours, we arrived at the first camp to see a feeding for wild Orangutans. Since the feedings at all these camps are once a day at a specific time of day we had to wait another hour or so before we would venture into the camp and check it out. So we ate a delicious lunch and layed on our deck of the boat chatting with our guide to pass the time. When we went into the camp it consisted of about 2 small houses and a visitors center with loads of info about the forests here, the orangs and the other animals we would see during our time in the jungle.

Then it was just Denise, our guide, myself and the ranger going to feed the Orangs...so exciting...it was like our own private feeding session! Sooo cool! We took about a ten minute walk into the jungle from where the camp was and along the way we saw one of the bigger adult males (boss man) of the camp. Supposedly there is a hierarchy among these animals. Especially the males! There is one boss man, and he has his own territory with almost like a herem of female orangs and their babies. Anyway this Orang was enormous...and had the most amazing face...with great fatty cheeks. He was actually following us to the feeding platform...he had obviously done this before. So off we went with this gigantic Orang following us. When we arrived at the feeding station the ranger put bananas on the platform and milk with sugar added in a container for them to drink. He made a whooping call and here they came. First you would hear noises of leaves, branches braking and trees shaking then you would see the trees move and there they were. There were about 5 or 6 that were brave enough to come although that at this particular camp there were supposed to be about 200 Orangs living there. But this was the most wild camp, where the animals were not as social with people as the other camps that we went to. But we saw them...they are just gorgeous and amazing creatures! Swinging through the trees as easily as we walk down the sidewalk. Their arms and legs so flexible...it was incredible!

We sat and watched these amazing animals and got to be so close to them. This is what we came all this way for! We had one more day full of feeding times at two other camps and this is how we passed the time on the river in Borneo. Sooo cool! At the last camp we visited we actually got to sit and hang with about 4 orangs that wanted to get really close to you...they were not afraid. Actually at the last camp we were at the population of the orangs are booming. This we heard was both a good thing and a bad thing. There is now a lot more competition among the Orangs for territory and food now with the growing numbers of them. But it is also a good thing to have more orangs in the area b/c as we have told you, Borneo and Summatra are the only two places in the world where you'll see wild Orangutans. Amazingly, I got to see both this trip!

After two great nights on the boat, we knew that on the third day we would have to once again board the non airconditioned bus at take our marathon ride back to Benjamarsin. Which we did...but, happily we made it in one piece and were both "sane", I think! Were off to have lunch and then were off to Singapore tomorrow to spend our last few days of our vacation. Then sadly back home on the 22nd. Ok Lots of love to everyone...well post some pictures of our trip tonight.

Whew! We just returned to the hotel from a long couple of days! We are now in Kalimantan, the Indonesian section of Borneo. We wanted to see what the native Dayak culture was like so we found Tailah (a guide that was highly recommended in the Lonely Planet). He has set us up.

First, yesterday morning we drove 4 hours northeast to the jungle. We were dropped off at the side of the rode and began an arduous 4+ hour trek parallel to a river. He speaks pretty good English, so he pointed out lots of plants along the way and explained how the Dayak people use them daily. Peanuts, the cinnamon tree, rubber trees, ginseng, and cotton were a few. We stopped at many different villages during the hike, but when we arrived at the family's village we were sleeping in, it was the best greeting!

We had candy and toys for the little kids and Tailah insisted we buy some clove cigarettes for the elders of the tribe. Party! They loved us! I braided all of the little girls hair while Keva tried to beat the men at dominoes. And yep, we slept in a traditional Dayak longhouse...Not the 1,000 thread count sheets we have become accustomed to, to say the least. Will post some pics later to help describe the indescribable.

The next morning, we brushed our teeth in the river, and applied more deoderant in attempt to cover our "sweet smell." Then we set off on another jaunt through the dense forest. To end the trip, Tailah has a bamboo raft tailor made for us with a driver:) It was a beautiful adventure....90 degrees going down the crystal clear cool and cool river. UNTIL....Montezuma struck! Poor Keva kept wondering, "What in the heck did I eat?" We didn't see much wildlife but tomorrow we are on our way to see some.


Indonesia houses the only 2 places in the world where wild orang-utans live, on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The Tanjung National Park is also known for probiscus monkeys, macaws, and other Junglebook creatures. But to get there it will take 16 hours! YIKES! Selamat Malam!

Bali

Sorry that we've neglected to blog recently...We've been on the move. We spent a few nights in Sanur, Bali relaxing at the resort beach. Massages daily:) Next we rode bicycles from the top of Gunung Batir (near the crater) down into the cultural capitol of the island, Ubud. There we shopped, ate, got massaged, slept. As you can see it has been a busy couple of weeks! Now we are in the Gili Islands, just off the coast of Lombok. We went diving yesterday in Gili Trawnagan and saw 3 giant sea turtles! The reefs here are sad due to years of dynamite fishing, but still teeming with life. Maybe today we'll catch sight of a white tipped shark.

Pictures are on the way!

Temples, Temples and More Temples

We had a plan to do jogyjakarta in two days...but what we realized is plans are never definite. Finding flights is much more difficult then expected. We finally found a flight leaving from jogyjakarta to Bali but it was a day later then we wanted. In order to get this flight we had to either pay at the airport, at a travel agent or an ATM...strange! We decided to pay for the flights at the airport, so as to be totally sure we were at least paying for a flight and not for somebody's dinner. Thus begun our day of taking local bus transportation.

We started off at our hotel in Borabadour which literally overlooks the Buddhist temple called Borabadour. This is a world heritage site and is stated to be one of the 7 wonders of the world. Anyway people say this is indonesia's greatest tourist attraction. We stayed at this specific hotel so we could visit the temple at sunrise. That is supposedly the time to go and feel most enlightened and at peace. But b/c we werent leaving until the next night we didnt go to see the temple that day. We took off down the quaint main road in Borabadour to the bus terminal. just a quick note, we didnt see one westerner the entire day, not until that night for dinner. So needless to say all eyes were on us. Anyway we found a bus and met a very nice man who used to be a pilot for Garuda airlines who now is an english teacher. he has 9 children and 18 grandchildren...big family! That's pretty much the norm here. He and his wife helped us find our way to the airport...all by bus! That took about 2 hours to get to from the hotel. Bussing it is quite an interesting affair...denise will explain. But it is so much cheaper...maybe 1 dollar for 20 miles. Thats up my ally for sure.

After we paid for the plane ticket we set off for the hindu temple of Pramanan. There we found a guide that gave us loads of info on basic hindu mythology...so cool! We learned about Shiva..the most powerful god...the destroyer, his wife...with 8 arms and son...ganesh...with the elephant head, Brahma...the creator and Vishnu...the protector. Denise was pointing out a lot of similarity to the father the son and the holy spirit. Anyway so much info our minds were swelling, but so interesting. Saddly these temples, b/c of the earthquake that happened last year was closed on the inside, so all we could do was walk around the 6 temples and look at them from the outside. Our guide explained that we could get in to see the main temple of Shiva for a small price to the guards. Are you really shocked??? But unfortunatley we came during the siesta time and no one was there to let us in.

This temple was built in the 8th through 10th century and was completely abandoned and brought to rubble. The Dutch started to rebuild it in the late 1800's...and there are piles and piles of stone laying around that was not used to reconstruct a temple. They had to number each piece of stone and try to fit it back together where they thought it belonged...a lot of work! The guide said there used to be 200 temples in the area, but b/c of many earthquakes and natural disasters there are only 6. Some locals believe a story of an evil man who wanted to marry a princess. She was afraid of him b/c he had killed her father and she didnt want to marry the man. She told the evil man if he built 1000 temples in one night then she would marry him. The man contacted an evil spirit who went to work right away building the temples. Anyway she was getting nervous that he would succeed, so she asked the villagers to make a big fire and pretend it was morning in order to trick the evil spirit...the evil spirit was afraid of the day, so he stopped building the temples. he finished 999 temples...leaving one unfinished. The evil man got so mad at the girl that he turned her into stone. So the villagers here believe that these temples were built in one night. A lot of work to do in one night. Anyway Pramanan was fascinating! After we took another bus by way of the silver city, not a very exciting place back to our hotel in Borabadour to be ready for our sinrise experience at the Buddhist temple of Borabadour. A full day for sure. we didnt make it back to our hotel until 6'ish.

Today we woke up to a 4 am wakeup call in order to make it to Borobadour for sunrise. it was fantastic! Borabadour is supposed to signify the three levels up to enlightenment. many people make the long journey to worship at Borabadour. There are 508 carved buddha statues on the building. Quite a site! Some are enclosed in rock stuppahs. legend says that if you touch the hands or the feet of the buddha inside the rock stuppah then you will have good luck.

We learned so much information in the last two days...way too much to write. But it is abosolutely an amazing place. ok my fingers are hurting and im ready to go shopping in our last day at jogyjakarta. Tonight were in Bali sitting on the beach. love to everyone!!!