So after an obvious Asian airport delay I finally arrived in Borneo woo hoo. I am in Kalimantan which is the Indoesian part of Borneo. I basically slept the whole way waking up only to eat my free lunch which I was super grateful for. At the airport when we landed I feared the Malaria situation as due to me to deciding to come to Borneo last minute I didnt really have time to sort any anti malarials out and also dont forget I was in Indonesia land of the most unhelpful, rude people ever so I doubt even if i'd had time to get them I would have managed it anyways to be fair. So I fear the situation as when I land and get off the plane there is about ten billion mosquitos flying round me so I quickly put my shirt on which pains me as its sweat your t*** off weather. I already have my thai pants on so legs and feet are sorted. I meet a miserable Czech couple who end up getting in my taxi to Kumai as none of us have accomadation. I tell the driver to take us some where very cheap and instead he takes us to a Losmen (guesthouse) which is still in the middle of being built. The rooms are huge and o expensive. We are not impressed, of course our taxi driver has drove off so we are now just standed in Kumai which is not so big and just one street. So we are a bit like... hmmm now what. And then a angel arrives from heaven in the form of a guy called Usup. He ends up taking us to a chea Losmen yey. It is almost perfect, its like $2 a night my own double bed and private room with a fan its lovely. I then see the shared bathrooms which are squatter toilets and bucket showers, as if i have to share a squatter toilet haha the life of a backpacker is so glamorous.

So we are now all checked in and Usup is like 'have you guys eaten yet?' as our flight was so delayed we have arrived after 8pm and now it is almost 9pm and pitch black, he tells us all the street food (no restaurants here) will be closed at 9. So we demand food asap and he takes me and team miserable for some mie goreng (fried noodles) its lovely. I ask for water and then instantly regret it as she gives me a glass of water which comes from some dirty ass container, this has to be tap water which is definitely not safe! so I take a sip as I am so thirsty but hope to buddha I dont die from it. It of course turns out Usup is a tour guide, he is so lovely. His english is absolutely perfect. I tell him he is the nicest Indonesian I have met so far and he tells me he is Malaysian haha explains everything really. I tell him I want to go to the jungle for one day as I am short on time and cash so want to get to Camp Leakey for sure as that is the main camp to the orangutans. He is also not pushy at all about hiring him but I tell him if I book the trip through him I want him to be my guide as I just love him already.

So we organise for me to go on the trip the next day with Usup via speedboat as my time is short speedboat is more efficient as it means I will get too two of the camps including Camp Leakey which is cool. It means I should catch 2 feedings so that makes you have more chance of seeing the orangutans. So now thats sorted he takes us to the hotel and shows me where the safe cash point is as I need to pay for my trip in the morning. So I get back into my room and I then have a sudden dread that my charger for my iPhone and camera was not going to fit in the plugs and despite how many adapters I had none of then would fit the plug socket which was very bad as I was about to embark on to the trip of a lifetime into the Jungle to see the Orangutans and I wouldnt get no photos! s***! So I run downstairs to see if Usup is still there and I explain my dilemma to him so he says no worries give me basically 20p and he says he will fix it. And off he goes and comes back with the perfect adaptor and change. I told you I love this guy.

So the next day I get up shower (from a bucket...) and then wonder why I wasted my time as I am already a hot sweaty mess 3 minutes later. I have some chocolate bread for breakfast woo hoo. Then I head downstiars and Usup is waiting for me, he takes me to his bosses house where I pay up for my amazing trip, he leaves me there while he gets our lunch sorted and some drinks for the day (water and coke as no beer at all in Kalimantan) I chat to his boss who is a lovely lady a bit younger than me and her kids entertain me for a little bit and then we are off. Get in my very own chartered speedboat complete with driver and guide (Usup).woo hoo. Usup has already been to see the police with my visa and passport photocopy as you need to be stamped off by them before you are allowed into Tanjung National Park which is known as the number 1 most likely place to spot an Orangutan in the world - My life is awesome!!!

So off we go through the jungle, the speedboat is awesome fun and the scenery is just so beautiful. There is also tons of birds here, I'm not massively into birds as I don't really like them but there is so many of them which are beautiful so it's lovely. I am just basically loving life feeling like a female James Bond. We go through the almost border control section where they check my paper work and I am in I have officially entered Tanjung National Park! I am buzzing. We speed on straight down to the first camp of course by now we are late but its ok as Usup tells me the orangutans will not be on time. The feedings happen once a day in each camp however it's the season where there is plenty food on the trees, so the orangutans don't particularly need to come for food from the feedings so there isn't a guarantee they will come out for food as they don't need it. Even in the season where there isn't anything on the trees they aren't guaranteed to come out. They are wild animals and actually it's bad if they start to depend on the food. Which actually after my time there I realised they are just not arsed about the free food at all which is good bless them. So we arrive at the camp and do a big run for about 5 mins through the jungle to get to the feeding station. We can hear the fake monkey noises that the staff who work for the national park are making to attract the orangutans. There is just about 8 other people there waiting patiently. We wait for ages I get bitten alive off some random bug? I have big red itchy marks on my arm instantly oops. Despite the fact I was on the speedboat for like 45 minutes minimum and I had plenty time to sort myself out I end up still wearing my flip flops through into the jungle instead of my new cheap fake skeets. Doh! Major Fail. So when I arrive to the camp I get my trainers on to save my feet from leeches and also possible malaria.

So anyways back on track we cant see any but Usup feels like a wander in the jungle as he's like 'clearly they don't hang around the feeding stations' cos they know humans will be there so off we go into the jungle looking for some. And guess what? We find some!! They is rustling in the trees and we get dead excited and look everywhere and then we finally see one. It's a mother with her baby she's making kissing noises and throwing bits of tree at us - friendly or what? She is absolutely beautiful. I'm a little scared and also just mesmorized. Seeing an orangutan in the wild is like basically my biggest dream come true so I'm so happy but she is seeming quite aggressive so I'm a little nervous as they are very strong animals. Usup says she is just warning us as she is being protective of her young and apparently she is ex captivity as Usup has done this job for years he recognizes all of the orangutans and knows all their names and historys which is super cool. So by now the others have realised that we have found some exciting orangutans so they also enter the jungle to find us.

The jungle is accessible to people who enter the national park but only if you are with a guide. You cannot come to the national park unless you come with a guide anyways though, you are just not allowed in to wander round at your hearts content which is good and it keeps the orangutans safer. So everyone comes and sees, the poor orangutan mammy is getting a bit more stressed so we head back to the feeding station as we figure they will head over to there next. And they do but she is really nervous so comes every now and again grabs a banana and drinks a bit of milk and then heads back up a tree to safety and then comes back for more of the same. It's just so cute to see her drinking the milk from the bowl, they only have milk out every now and again as it's just to help the babies but they don't want them to rely on it so it's super cute. That is our show orangutan for this feeding time as we have now been there over an hour and we were late so it's showtime over and off we get back in the boat to the next camp. Some other people end up hitching a lift with me to a different camp as their boat has broken down so it's a tight squeeze for 10 mins or so but it's cool, they're a nice young Asian couple.

We end up at the next camp eventually after another lovely hour or so on the speedboat I spend my time orangutan hunting and also looking for crocodiles as they are active in the water here but I don't see any all day which is a shame. I do see tons of stuff this day though including, Kingfisher bird, Lizard, Gibbon (woohoo) woodpecker, wild pigs (warthogs), Long tail monkeys and of course the orangutans. When we get to the camp we're early for the feeding time so we have our lunch which is some spicy chicken rice salady type meal it's really good and we pull up next to one of the klotok boats which is the real preferable transport option there as they aren't fast so you spend minimum 2 nights on them and the engines are quiet so you don't scare the animals off. I already know by this point I definitely want to return to Borneo to do this overnight boating option. The boat we pull up to is Usup's companies boat so I can use their toilet wahey!! I wasn't fancying the pissing in the jungle next to the orangutans and monkeys option. So we finally went on in to the camp sometime the cute little orangutan wait on the pier for everyone apparently of course this didn't happen today but we on in and went round the information centre which is dead cool with loadsa information and lovely little pictures and stories of some of the orangutans they have there.

On the way to the feeding me and Usup went the jungle route again and not the footpath and we saw a another mother orangutan with her baby. Usup was like let's get closer and I was petrified and he was all like no its Pippa she's nice and friendly don't worry! So we let her come really close to us so then it wasn't us harrassing her she came to like a metre away it was just amazing and she had her hand out to hold mine it was so lovely. She was such a placid happy little orangutan it was just one of those moments in life when you really appreciate life. You don't get moments like this by sitting at home and going to greece your whole life. More proof that the world is a big place where amazing things can happen. I am so glad I am following my dreams here and just day dreaming about what I wish I could do. I'm glad I'm a do it girl.

So when feeding was on only one orangutan came with her baby again but that's when we saw the gibbon and the warthogs so it was well exciting. The orangutan also came straight through our small group when she was wanting to leave it was very cute.

On the way back to the boat we spotted another one up in the tree it was a cheeky girl and she was posing for us for ages and then did a huge poo whilst eyeballing us (there was me, Usup and this Aussie guy who had lost his tour guide) it was so funny are cheeky little monkeys!! Super cute eww moment.

We headed back Kumai and on the way it started raining and we saw the most beautiful sunset and we spotted tons of long tail monkeys and I then spotted a orangutan in the trees as we left that was a lovely little moment. We saw tons of them so was good value for money!! Definitely one of the best thing I have ever done in my life. It probably was the best day of my life basically. Amazing.

That night I had some more lovely street food and had a early night as I was shattered. The next day I went on over to the main town where I was to stay somewhere nicer for one night before I left I ended up in a business hotel (shared squatter toilet and bucket shower still) what kind of business people stay here?! The hotel porter asked if he could sleep with me that night so I kicked off at reception and told the lady behind the desk she was to keep him away from me or I would be taking it further haha. So I never saw him again. I basically spent my day in my room watching national geographic channel it was awesome. I did go out a few times but the people in Indonesian Borneo are also typical Indonesian sexist a*******s so in the morning I was happy to heading back to Jakarta - NOT. By this point I had decided I was not doing Indonesia any more I was going to Bali. So I got to Jakarta airport and booked myself on the first flight out to Bali which was an hour later. But of course that is another story… xxxx