Tanjung Puting: Three Days on a Borneo Riverboat with Orangutans

3 DAYS 1 place by WaTrips

A klotok houseboat up the Sekonyer River, feeding time at Camp Leakey and proboscis monkeys at dusk.

Tanjung Puting is one of the best places on Earth to see orangutans. Fly to Pangkalan Bun and board a klotok, a wooden houseboat where you eat, sleep and travel. Drift up the Sekonyer River through the forest, stop at the feeding platforms and spend time at Camp Leakey, the research station founded in 1971, where big males come out of the trees. At dusk, proboscis monkeys gather on the riverbanks and fireflies light up the trees. It's good all year; June to September is driest.

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Tanjung Puting National Park

Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan protects peat swamp and lowland forest on Borneo. It is one of the best places in the world to see orangutans. Visitors travel up the Sekonyer River on klotok riverboats, sleeping on deck, to feeding stations such as Camp Leakey, a research site founded in 1971 by the scientist Birute Galdikas.

Best weather: Jul – Sep Heavy rain: Nov – Apr

Seasons from 20 years of NASA POWER climate data.

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