Borneo: Tanjung Puting orangutans by river boat

1. Day 1: Arrive in Pangkalan Bun

   Iskandar Airport (PKN) to your hotel in Pangkalan Bun

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Pangkalan Bun
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Iskandar Airport in Pangkalan Bun, the small gateway town for Tanjung Puting, on a connection from Jakarta (about an hour and a half) or from Bali via Jakarta or Surabaya. A driver meets every flight and takes you the few kilometres to your hotel in the centre of town, so it does not matter whether you land in the morning or late afternoon. If you arrive early, the afternoon is free: rest after the journey, or walk down to the Arut River, where wooden houses stand on stilts over the water. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the days ahead: how life on the boat works, what to pack in a day bag, how to behave at the feeding platforms, and why we keep our voices low and our distance from the orangutans. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner in town.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Iskandar Airport (PKN), Pangkalan Bun
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 4 pm to join the briefing; later arrivals are met and briefed by the guide.

2. Day 2: Kumai, the Sekonyer River and Tanjung Harapan

   Pangkalan Bun to Kumai port, then by klotok up the Sekonyer River to Tanjung Harapan

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Klotok on the Sekonyer River
   Day 2 details

   After breakfast we drive about 40 minutes to Kumai, a busy fishing port on the Kumai River, where our klotok is waiting at the jetty. A klotok is a wooden river boat named after the sound of its engine; for the next three nights it is our home, with a crew of captain, cook and deckhand and the upper deck all to ourselves. We cross the wide mouth of the river and turn into the Sekonyer, which marks the edge of Tanjung Puting National Park, and lunch is served on deck as the nipa palms give way to forest. In the afternoon we tie up at Tanjung Harapan, the first station, and walk in to the platform for the afternoon feeding, at about 3 pm, when rangers bring bananas and milk and orangutans come down through the trees. At dusk watch the riverbank for proboscis monkeys settling for the night. After dinner on board, a ranger leads a short night walk to look for tarsiers, insects and sleeping birds.

   Included

   • Drive from Pangkalan Bun to Kumai port
   • Klotok cruise up the Sekonyer River
   • Tanjung Harapan feeding station, afternoon feeding
   • Dusk on the river for proboscis monkeys
   • Night walk with a ranger at Tanjung Harapan
   • Lunch and dinner on board

   Easier option: Skip the night walk and stay on deck with the crew.

   Activity: Feeding times are set by the park and can change; the walk in is about 15 minutes on a flat path.

   

3. Day 3: Pondok Tanggui and Camp Leakey

   Tanjung Harapan up the Sekonyer River to Pondok Tanggui, then to Camp Leakey

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Klotok on the Sekonyer River
   Day 3 details

   Wake on deck to gibbons calling from across the water, with breakfast as the boat gets under way. About an hour upriver we stop at Pondok Tanggui for the morning feeding, at about 9 am, a quieter station where a large adult male often appears and mothers bring young ones down to the platform. Back on board, the river narrows and turns from brown to the dark, tea-coloured black water of the upper Sekonyer, still enough to hold the reflection of every tree; watch for kingfishers, hornbills and the occasional false gharial. Lunch is on deck as we travel. In the afternoon we reach Camp Leakey, the research station founded in 1971 by Birute Galdikas, where the information centre tells the story of decades of orangutan study and rehabilitation. The feeding there, at about 2 pm, is the best known in the park. We moor nearby for the night, so the evening on the black water is ours.

   Included

   • Pondok Tanggui feeding station, morning feeding
   • Cruise up the black-water stretch of the Sekonyer River
   • Camp Leakey, its information centre and the afternoon feeding
   • All meals on board

   Easier option: Watch the afternoon from the deck instead of walking in to Camp Leakey's platform.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening on the boat

   Activity: The walk to each platform is about 10 to 30 minutes on boardwalk and forest path; wear closed shoes and repellent.

   

4. Day 4: A morning at Camp Leakey, a slow day downriver

   Camp Leakey and back down the Sekonyer River towards Tanjung Harapan

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Klotok on the Sekonyer River
   Day 4 details

   This is the day most short trips do not have. At about 7 am, before the day boats come up from Kumai, a ranger leads an optional walk on the forest trails behind Camp Leakey: listen for gibbons, look for wild orangutans in their night nests, and learn which trees they feed from. Back on board for a late breakfast, then we drift slowly downriver with no fixed timetable, stopping wherever the crew spots something in the trees. In the early afternoon we visit the Pesalat reforestation area, where land burned in past fires is being replanted, and each guest plants a seedling. Late in the day the light drops low across the water and the proboscis monkeys gather in the riverside trees to sleep, a long dusk worth watching from the deck. We moor near Tanjung Harapan, and after dinner the crew cuts the engine near the trees where fireflies blink in the dark.

   Included

   • Slow cruise down the Sekonyer River with wildlife stops
   • Pesalat reforestation area, with a seedling to plant
   • Dusk with the proboscis monkeys
   • An after-dark lookout for the firefly trees, where the park allows
   • All meals on board

   Optional experiences

   • Ranger-led morning forest walk at Camp Leakey, about 7 am (included, optional to join)

   Easier option: Skip the optional morning walk, sleep in and join the group for breakfast on deck.

   More active option: Join the optional morning walk: 2 to 3 hours on uneven, humid forest trails with a ranger.

   Free time: Late morning and midday on deck

5. Day 5: Ashore in Tanjung Harapan village

   Klotok to Tanjung Harapan village, across the river from the park

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tanjung Harapan village
   Day 5 details

   A last breakfast on the boat, then the klotok takes us across the river to Tanjung Harapan village, a small community of wooden houses on the bank opposite the park station. The crew stays with the boat, and we spend the day ashore with our hosts. A village guide walks us through the gardens and along the river, explaining how families here fish, tap rubber and grow fruit, and how the village has changed since the park brought visitors. Lunch is in the village. In the afternoon, for anyone who would like a second look, we cross back to the Tanjung Harapan station for the 3 pm feeding; by now you will recognise some of the orangutans. In the evening we cook dinner with the family that hosts us, learning a Dayak or Banjar dish, and eat together. The night is simple: mattresses, mosquito nets and the sound of the forest across the water.

   Included

   • Village walk with a local guide in Tanjung Harapan
   • Lunch in the village
   • Second visit to the Tanjung Harapan feeding station
   • Cooking session and dinner with your host family

   Easier option: Skip the second feeding and spend the afternoon resting in the village.

   Free time: Free time in the village in the afternoon

   Activity: Bathrooms in the village may be shared; bring a head torch.

6. Day 6: Back to Kumai and Pangkalan Bun

   Tanjung Harapan village by boat to Kumai, then by road to Pangkalan Bun

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Pangkalan Bun
   Day 6 details

   After breakfast with our hosts, the klotok picks us up for the last run down the Sekonyer and across the river mouth to Kumai, about two hours, with lunch on board and a last chance to scan the trees for hornbills and macaques. At Kumai we say goodbye to the crew and drive about 40 minutes back to Pangkalan Bun, arriving in the early afternoon. The rest of the afternoon is free for a hot shower, air-conditioning and a nap. Late in the day your guide takes anyone who would like to come to Istana Kuning, the yellow palace of the old Kotawaringin sultanate, a large wooden building rebuilt after a fire in 1986, and along the Arut River as the evening traffic of small boats comes home. We end the trip with a farewell dinner together in town.

   Included

   • Klotok back to Kumai, with lunch on board
   • Drive from Kumai to Pangkalan Bun
   • Istana Kuning and the Arut riverfront with your guide
   • Farewell dinner

   Easier option: Stay at the hotel in the afternoon and meet the group for dinner.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Pangkalan Bun

   

7. Day 7: Fly out of Pangkalan Bun

   Pangkalan Bun to Iskandar Airport (PKN)

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   The trip ends after breakfast. There is nothing planned this morning, so take a slow breakfast, walk once more along the Arut River or pick up local snacks for the journey. A driver takes you from the hotel to Iskandar Airport, a few minutes away, in time for your flight, and your guide checks your flight time with you the evening before so nobody waits at the airport longer than they need to. Most guests fly back to Jakarta, about an hour and a half, to connect home or to carry on to Java and Bali; flights to Surabaya are the other common route, and from there it is a short hop to Bali. Domestic flights from Pangkalan Bun are few and can change their schedule, so we suggest booking an onward international flight from Jakarta no earlier than the evening, or staying a night in Jakarta or Bali before flying home.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Iskandar Airport (PKN)

   Free time: Morning free until your transfer

   Activity: Book an international departure from Jakarta for the evening or the next day.

Wildlife and weather: May to October is the drier season: the river is lower, paths are less muddy and rain usually comes in short showers. Orangutans are wild or semi-wild, so how many come to each platform depends on the fruit in the forest; in a heavy fruiting season fewer come to feed, and no sighting is guaranteed. In some dry seasons smoke haze from land fires drifts over Kalimantan; we watch the outlook and tell you before you fly.

• Pangkalan Bun1 night
• Klotok on the Sekonyer River3 nights
• Tanjung Harapan village1 night
• Pangkalan Bun1 night