What's a trip to Borneo without a healthy chunk of time bushwacking through the jungle for Orang-utans.
Orang-utans translated in malay is Jungle People. 100 years ago they were 250,000 strong on the Island. Today they are endangered and numbers hover around 10-15 thousand.
Their land is being consumed by the palm oil plantations which employ a large part of the Island (Palm oil is one of the primary exports of Borneo).
We spent some time cruising the rivers of Ratabangan searching for these apes in the wild. The sides of the river are lined with old growth rain forest, but clear cut behind to allow for the Palm Tree Plantations.
A team was filming next to us on the River from National Geographic. They were filming the Probiscus monkey, a wild creature that is unique to this part of the world. They apparently thought it would be really successful to recreate a cheesy version of one of the monkey's face on the end of a pole to lure them down. We couldn't stop laughing. Who knew Natinoal Geographic operated with Halloween masks.
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