Tanjung Puting National Park Tanjung Putting National Park is an internationally famous ecotourism destination, which is located in the southwest of Central Kal

Tanjung Puting National Park

Tanjung Putting National Park is an internationally famous

ecotourism destination, which is located in the southwest of Central

Kalimantan peninsula. Visitors from foreign countries come to this

park because of its amazing nature. This is called a park, but unlike

any park that you have seen in your city, this is a jungle! It is a real

jungle, which is home to the most interesting animal in the world:

orangutans.

Though the park is home to many animals, seeing orangutans is

usually the visitors’ main reason to visit the park. Orangutans, which

literally mean, the man of the forest, are the largest arboreal animal

on the planet. Most of their lives are spent in trees where orangutans

travel from branch to branch by climbing or swinging with their long

arms.

To see orangutans, we should go to Camp Leakey, which is

located in the heart of Tanjung Putting National Park. Camp Leaky is a

rehabilitation place for ex-captive orang utans and also a preservation

site. It is also a famous center for research about orangutans which

has been conducted by the famous primatologist Dr Birute Galdikas

since 1971. Here visitors can see daily feedings to orangutans at jungle

platforms as part of the rehabilitation process to their natural habitat.

This event gives them opportunity to see orangutans up close.

To reach the place, we should

take a boat down Sekonyer river.

The boat is popularly called perahu

klotok which is a boathouse that can

accommodate four people. The trip by

the boat to Camp Leaky takes three

days and two nights. You sleep, cook,

and eat in that klotok, night and day

during your journey into the jungle.

The traveling in the boat offers an

unforgettable experience. In daylight,

on your way to Camp Leaky, you can

see trees filled with proboscis monkeys,

monkeys that have enormous snout

which can only be found in Kalimantan.

The monkeys anxiously await klotok

arrivals. A troop of 30 light-brown monkeys may plunge from branches 10 meters or higher into the river

and cross directly in front of the boat. These monkeys know that the

boat’s engine noise and the threat of its propeller scare crocodiles,

which find these chubby monkeys delicious. At night, you can enjoy

the clear sky and the amazingly bright stars as the only lights for the

night.

With such exotic nature, no wonder many tourists from foreign

countries who love ecotourism frequently visit Tanjung Puting National

Park. What about you?

Text sources: 1. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia/tanjung-putingnational-park/sights/natural-parks-forests/tanjung-puting-national-park 2. www.

Indonesian.travel.com, 3. www.