Camp Leakey

 

DAY 1

The gang, Tim, Sarah, Rachel, and I, went to the famous Camp Leakey for a three-day trip last week. Camp Leakey is where Dr. Galdikas first did her orangutan research back in the 70s. It’s a very famous place, and one that I have known about for about forever, so I was thrilled to be going. Our first day was mostly spent getting there. This involves driving to the next town over on the water, and getting our boat from there. The boat, where we spent most of the time hanging out and eating and even sleeping, is called a klotok. After some coffee and breakfast we were off across the Java Sea and down the Sekonyer River. We all brought out our books and music and sat in the sun (yay for getting more tan!) and soon enough, drinking some beer. As we made our way down the river we saw some great birds, proboscis monkeys, and macaques. The river is beautiful. The first part of the river is brackish and brown, but further in it becomes what they call ‘the blackwater’. This, of course, had us Game of Thrones fans geeking out a bit.

We arrived at Camp Leakey at around 2pm. We soon joined a number of other klotoks and tourists at the feeding site. Here the wild orangutans, and a gibbon, are fed in the afternoon so the tourists can see them. It was pretty cool actually. You get within a few meters of some big wild orangutans. After a couple hours there we headed back to our klotok. We patiently waited while the other boats moved on until it was just us. Then we did something you’re really not supposed to do. We jumped in the river. You’re not supposed to do this because there are in fact crocodiles. Oh well. Our guide let us jump in and then quickly climb back out, no swimming around. It was incredibly refreshing and fun. We jumped off the dock a few times before finally leaving. We moved downriver a bit to tie up for the night as we watched some proboscis monkeys do the same in the trees on the riverbank. We continued to drink more beer, listen to music, and have a great time. The dinner was delicious, just some regular Indonesian food, lots of rice. At dust, we saw bats flying around and probably the biggest bat I’ve ever seen in my life. Its wingspan must’ve been at least a meter across. It was insane. That first night though, I started to feel quite seasick (the large amounts of beer didn’t help) but the rocking of boat was making me feel a bit queasy. We slept right up there on the deck of the klotok. They set us up with some mattresses and mosquito nets; it was all really quite lovely. We fell asleep listening to the wildlife, the gentle rain, and watching the cool lightning.

DAY 2

We woke up on Day 2 to the sounds of the forest, gibbons and macaques and birds. After a leisurely breakfast, and another ill-advised swim, we set out on a little forest hike. We walked for a couple of hours through the Camp Leakey forest. We saw wild orchids, cool mushrooms, vines, huuuuuuge trees, swamp, and just beautiful forest scenery. My favorite things were the ‘fisher plants’, a really cool carnivorous plant.

We walked around the Camp, seeing where Dr. Galdikas first lived and worked back in the day. It was quite cool to be standing where I’ve only read about. Unfortunately during this hike, my camera batteries completely died. I was very very upset about this. I thought I had charged them fully but I guess I didn’t. Oh well. Good thing I brought a little one for back up, but just didn’t get some shots I would’ve liked.

Then back to the klotok for lunch, a tan, and a nap, then to another orangutan feeding. In the afternoon we travelled downriver to another research site. We took a short walk here and went to a tower, up up up a steep ladder, that let us see the whole forest for miles and miles. After a lovely candlelit dinner back on the klotok, we headed back into the forest for a night walk. With our guide and just a couple of torches we wandered through the forest looking for anything and listening to the sounds. We didn’t see much but we did hear a barking deer. I’m not even sure what that is, but that’s what we heard. The stars were really pretty that night with more lightning in the distance.

DAY 3

Our last morning on the klotok took us to the Tanjung Harupan village. Our guide took us on a little walk of the place and it was just beautiful. Right on the river this little village held about 50 families. There was a canal that ran through the main part of town with houses and rice fields on either side. Our last afternoon found us a bit lazy, as we decided to skip the touristy feeding and just chill out on our boat. Our guide took us to a small place off the river where we could swim, but really, it was a kind of cesspool pond. Not very nice at all. But we did take a dip to cool off. We slowly meandered back down the river, back onto the brackish water, stopping for a while to look at some proboscis monkeys. They are so cool, but quite unattractive. I’ve always wanted to see them and now here they were! We spent a couple hours enjoying the beautiful sunset on the way back to the shore and then back home. All in all a wonderful trip! We all get along so well and we just have a great time hanging out together and in such a beautiful place. Couldn’t have asked for a better few days!!

Weddings

Some exciting events took place in the tiny village of Pasir Panjang last week, TWO weddings. One was a lavish affair of the daughter of a couple people who work here. The front of the house, which is across the street from mine, was transformed with tables and colorful tents. There were people coming and going, and eating, all day at the house. I was awoken very early (like 6am) by the Muslim morning prayers that were blasting from speakers. All the volunteers and I went over to the wedding celebration for dinner. We walked through the tunnel of brightly colored tapestries forming a little hallway, enjoying the large buffet of good food. We sat and ate and then went up to the stage area to congratulate the newlyweds and their parents, who were all lavishly dressed. It seemed like a tiresome ritual for them to be honest. They have to sit up there all night just shaking hands and saying thank you etc. The whole village and then some showed up. There was a stage with live music, dancing, and even some karaoke. One guy got up there to sing a delightful (re: terrible) rendition of Adele’s Someone Like You. It was definitely a good idea that the gang and I had some pre-wedding beers.

The second wedding was actually at my house. My homestay mother was marrying for the second time (her first husband passed away a year or so ago). This was a much less fancy wedding. The ceremony (I heard) was simple in the morning. Our house was only transformed a bit; all the furniture was moved out and the place was spotless. I spent the previous night at the other volunteers’ house because there were so many people going though my house. Lots of relatives and people cooking, etc. It was a bit overwhelming and quite noisy. The funniest thing was that I wasn’t 100% sure who the new husband was! She had a few suitors during my stay here so I wasn’t sure which was the lucky guy. But I soon found out that night. He’s a nice guy actually. The other volunteers and I went to my house just for dinner, where we sat on a nice rug on the floor and ate with some of the family, a low-key affair. The newlyweds looked very happy indeed. I’m glad that all the festivities are over though, it was getting quite hectic and noisy in the village for a while there.

Bodoh

-->

I have a dog here in Indonesia. A couple weeks after I arrived this dog, who really belongs to Dr. Galdikas’ ‘adopted son’ Randa, just showed up at my house and basically never left. She kept coming back every night and would be there in the morning. So basically she’s now my dog. Ruth named her Bodoh, which means stupid in Indonesian. This may seem mean, but she really is an idiot. We call her Dough or Doughy for short, which is a bit better. She’s a really nice dog, always playing and wagging her tail. She gets super excited when I come home at the end of the day running up to me and jumping about. She also has accompanied me running a few times which is great. Anyways, there was a vet visiting here from the states and we put her to the task of spaying and neutering the dogs and cats in the area. I carried my dog all the way to the clinic one morning. We kept her in the volunteer office, although she would cry every time I left the room. Clearly my day would be all about her. I stayed in the office with her to keep her calmed down. In the afternoon the vet set about doing the procedure. I watched the whole thing, which was very very cool. I love all that medical stuff. She took over an hour to wake up from the anesthesia and then I found a ride on a motorbike to take her home, where we sat for the rest of the night as she regained her senses. I’m happy to report that she is doing just fine post-surgery! So no little feral puppies for her! She really is a great dog, although she does not like the cat that also lives in my house. And she has fleas. But other than that, it’s nice to have a dog to follow me around!

The Lye Incident

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah and I ran into some trouble. We buy these blue barrels, which are recycled after their initial use, to make hammocks and swings and climbing structures for the orangutans. I went off to make some food enrichment while Sarah set to work cutting up the barrels. About 20 minutes into her work she called me over and started saying she felt some itching and burning on her hands and feet. She washed it off and we both decided it was no big deal and went back to working. A few minutes later she realized it was really burning, as some small blisters formed on her fingertips and small red dots appeared. I went over to the barrels and also got some on my hands and leg. Soon enough, yep!, it was burning. We called Rachel, who has a lot of medical know-how, to check it out. She said the barrels smelled like ammonia or acid and demanded that we go home immediately to shower and change our clothes. Sarah and I laughed all the way home at the absurdity of the situation. Acid!?!? What!?!? However, the first thing Sarah did when we walked through the door of her house was to sit down and eat a piece of pineapple. What a ridiculous thing; her skin is being corroded by some mysterious chemical, but first, we must eat this delicious piece of pineapple. We both got a good laugh out of that. After we showered (well, mandi-ed as it’s called here), changed clothes, ate lunch, and waited out a quick rainstorm, we returned to the clinic where Rachel had done some research. Based on the chemical letters on the barrels and our various symptoms, she deduced that the material in the barrels was lye. If you don’t watch as many crime-solving TV shows as I do, lye is the stuff they use to make bodies decompose faster. Of course, this was a concentrated dose, so not too much harm done. Lye, what are the chances! Definitely a 3-rd World Problem scenario right there.

Digging A Pit

Sarah, Tim, and I spent a day digging a bear pit. There are three sun bears here, Kevin, who’s in a cage by himself, and Hilda and Dessie, who share a cage. Sun bears love to dig in the wild, the rip up logs and dig up stuff in the mud and dirt. Kevin already has a digging pit cage but the girls did not. We spent a couple of days taking apart and moving a section of their cage and then digging a big hole that we could lower the cage into and then fill with dirt. This was some manual labor at its best. The pit was about 4 feet deep and 6 feet by 6 feet wide. We then flipped the cage into the pit and filled it with logs, dirt, and peanuts. We let the girl bears in and boy did they just love it! They spend most of every day in there digging away.

Sampit

Two months into my stay here in Indonesia meant that I had to renew my visa. Tim, Sarah, and I decided to take the trip together. This hassle of a day began at 5am. We had to drive 5 hours, down some of the worst roads I’ve ever been on full of potholes and sometimes barely wide enough for two cars to pass, to the larger town of Sampit. As far as I saw, there is nothing very special or interesting to do in Sampit. We all turned in our paperwork and passports and then we waited. And waited and waited. About 5 hours later, after a quick lunch across the street, getting a couple photos taken, watching some episode of Seinfeld and Ace Venture: When Nature Calls, they finally called our names to pick up our passports. Tired and cranky, the three of us piled back into the car we hired for another 5 hours back to Pasir Panjang. It was a long, tedious, boring day, but our visas were extended! Unfortunately I have to do this trip all over again next month.