Borneo Orangutans, Toraja Lands & Komodo Dragons (11D/10N)

After breakfast, at the appointed time the hotel’s driver will take you to the airport to catch your flight to Pangkalan Bun, Borneo. Upon arrival in Pangkalan Bun, your guide will transfer you to the port of Kumai in about 15-20 minutes by car where you will board our traditional wooden boat called a klotok. Once everything is ready, the cruise upstream starts on the famous Sekonyer river abroad the klotok.

If your flight arrives early (before 12 PM), we can arrive on time at the Tanjung Harapan rehabilitation centre. There at 3 in the afternoon, the orangutans are fed by the rangers of the national park and you can have the first close encounters with them. The literal translation of Tanjung Harapan is Cape of Hope. This first camp has more wetlands and therefore has more mosquitoes in the afternoon. Make sure you put on enough mosquito repellent. After visiting this camp, you will continue your journey upriver resting on the boat while observing animals in the sides of Sekonyer River.

In the afternoon it is very common to see groups of proboscis monkey and macaques in the treetops, jumping from one tree branch to another. Also, see if you can find crocodiles or lizards in the shallow waters on the sides of the river. Prepare for the sunset and enjoy the exquisite food prepared by our jungle crew. The boat is moored on the side of the river to spend the night.

Optional: Tonight, we can take a walk through the jungle to look for nocturnal animals such as snakes and tarantulas. If we are lucky, we can find luminescent mushrooms or tarsier monkeys as well.

Meals: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner

Accommodation: Klotok

Today you will wake up with the sounds and the colours of the jungle. Without a doubt, you will never forget how you woke up on the river, surrounded by the overflowing nature.

Pondok Tangguy

After an extraordinary breakfast on board, we will arrive on time to visit Pondok Tangguy camp at the feeding time for animals (9AM).

Little by little, you will see how the treetops begin to move and then you will see the silhouettes of the orangutans gradually reaching the feeding platform. Tangguy was a release camp for young orangutans that had been rehabilitated. It prevented them from moving away due to lack of food and ending up outside the national park, with the following risks of falling into traps of settlers or palm oil plantations. After the orangutans begin to leave the camp, you will return to the klotok to continue further upstream. You will witness how the colour of the river changes and you will have the opportunity to see crocodiles and large monitor lizards, along with Gibbons and proboscis monkeys. Of course, you will enjoy your lunch in this lovely setting.

Camp Leakey

You will arrive at Camp Leakey, the old orangutan rehabilitation centre. It was founded in 1971, when a student from UCLA University in Los Angeles named Birutte Galdikas, began studying the orangutans there. The name Camp Leakey came from Birutte’s own professor, paleo-anthropologist Louis Leakey. At least 200 orangutans have already been cured and returned to the jungle thanks to this centre. However, since 1995 the Indonesian government banned the introduction of more orangutans in this camp, so the orangutans are increasingly adapting to freedom. Today, this camp is used for behavioural and feeding research for orangutans. You can also visit the small museum built by the scientist Dr. Birutte Galdikas.

After finishing the observing of orangutans in this camp, we will do a gentle trekking through the jungle back to the boat to search for free orangutans and other animals, if the weather conditions permit. We will have the opportunity to learn a lot about the jungle from our local guides, of which some of them were born in the jungle. They’ll explain how to look for animals or plants, and you can listen to their experience of life in the jungle. The jungles of Borneo have given life and shelter to its inhabitants for million of years. They are jungles that under the watch of their ancestors are capable of fulfilling every single individual’s needs. Food, water, medicines, etc. But never throw anything in your mouth without your guide’s recommendation.

In the afternoon if it does not rain, the boat will be docked near a swarm of fireflies and you can enjoy the show of its luminescence.

Meals: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner  

Accommodation: Klotok

In the early morning, we will enjoy the last moments of the sounds of the jungle before going to the port to be transferred to the airport. We continue the adventure with the direction to Makassar. You will take the flight to Makassar via Surabaya.

Welcome to the island of Sulawesi, an exotic and wild island with a very particular shape. Sulawesi has an impressive variety of animal species, tropical plants, and two extravagant ethnic groups. The mountainous Toraja, and the Bugis sailors. Upon arrival, a representative of the hotel will be waiting for you for the transfer and check in. The rest of the day for you.

Meals: Breakfast 

Accommodation: Melia Hotel Makassar – Superior Room

After enjoying your breakfast at the hotel, your guide will pick you up by car to Toraja Lands. The route, about 310 km is full of rice fields, Bugis towns, who are the owners of the famous and traditional Phinisi ships and for that reason they are better known as “sailors”. It will be 9 hours by car, so you will make a stop halfway for lunch or dinner. Arrival at the hotel, have a well-deserved rest after the long journey.

Meals: Breakfast – Lunch

Accommodation: Santai Hotel / Misiliana Hotel / or similar

We will have two days of adventure in the Toraja Lands. It will be two days of exploring not only its incredible landscapes but its strange culture. And it is time to discover it during our stay in this magical land. The local people, mostly although Christians, still practice animism according to their original religion called Aluk Todolo.

Are you ready to soak up the Toraja culture? We will visit Lemo with the cemetery on the rock walls and all the wooden statues called Tau-Tau representing their deceased. The town of Ke’te Kesu, one of the oldest in Toraja where you will see the typical houses called Tongkonan. You will also see other hanging tombs in one of its caves. And in the villages of Bori, Nanggala, Suaya, there are the baby graves in the trees. It may seem strange to us but it is something that is part of this ancient culture.

During your stay in this land of spirits with “luck”, we can see up close their funeral rites. These picturesque funerals are frequent but not every day, so we cannot assure that we see them. When we attend them, as an Offering to the family tourists are asked to donate around 100,000 Rupiah.

In addition to these, we will visit its attractive markets where local people carry out their transactions daily. On Tuesdays and Thursdays a bigger market develops.

We return to the hotel to rest.

Meals: Breakfast – Lunch

Accommodation: Santai Hotel / Misiliana Hotel / or similar

Today is our last day in this very special area of ​​Indonesia. The land of the spirits. Again we prepare the suitcases to leave, since after breakfast we will have a transfer to the Palopo airport (2 hours). Here we will take the flight to Denpasar (via Makassar). Upon your arrival at Denpasar airport, we will be waiting for you with a sign with your name to take you to your transit hotel in the Kuta area. Welcome to the Island of the Gods.

Meals: Breakfast 

Accommodation:

A. The Vira Hotel – Superior Room  

Ready the suitcase, your adventure continues. You will enjoy your well-deserved breakfast at the hotel. At the indicated time, depending on the time of your flight, you will have the transfer to Denpasar airport to take the direct flight to Labuan Bajo.

Upon arrival at the airport, your guide will wait for you to go on your boat and begin the adventure in the Komodo National Park. From the airport to the port it is only 15 minutes. Today we will go to see the Komodo Dragons. For that we go first to Rinca Island, where in addition to Komodo dragons in their natural environment. We will be able to see Water buffalo, macaque monkeys, cockatoos, wild horses, etc. We will have lunch on the boat.

Enjoy the trekking around the island from the hands of a ranger in the national park. Then in the afternoon, the boat is anchored next to some mangroves, to see how millions of bats take flight at sunset. A spectacle of nature that you will never forget.

Meals: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner

Accommodation:

A. Traditional Boat (Standard AC Cabin)

B. Traditional Boat (Standard non-AC Cabin)

C. Traditional Boat (Standard non-AC Cabin)

You will be in the middle of the ​​Flores sea, in the middle of tiny islands surrounded by white sand. The crew will prepare breakfast as we sail to Loh Liang, the Rangers station on Komodo Island. During the 3 and a half hours of cruising, we will realize that the sea is like a great lake dotted with hundreds of tiny islands. Most of them uninhabited or with only a few fishermen moored in them to rest or spend the night.

Once on the island, we have to enter the office of the rangers to register and pay the national park fee. There we will be assigned a ranger who will accompany us at all times while we are inside the island.  

Safety information

Rangers always carry a long pole with a V-shaped tip, to make dragons keep their distance from us. They will give us a brief explanation of behavior in the park and what we can see. The dragons may sometimes make sudden moves so opening your eyes and keeping silent will always be the best advice.  Watch your back as there might be also one behind you or up on the trees. The Ranger will always be leading the group, showing us all the species that he sees during the trekking. 

In addition to the Komodo dragons, we can see Timor Deer, wild pigs and various types of running hens as well as sulfur cockatoos, snakes, etc.

At the end of the trek, we head back to the port and continue the cruise. After a short while, we will reach Pantai Merah (Pink Beach) where we can do snorkeling in the middle of coral reefs full of life. Did you know that Indonesia is the most important center of marine biodiversity in the world? It is where the species of the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean come together with the endemic species of Indonesia. It makes Indonesia have the largest number of underwater species in the world. Well, you will be swimming in the middle of all that.

In the afternoon we head to the port of Labuan Bajo and from there to your hotel to rest after this adventure.

Meals: Breakfast – Lunch

Accommodation:

A. Bintang Flores Hotel – Deluxe Room

B. Puri Sari Hotel – Superior Room

C. Golo Hill Top – Standard Room

After breakfast, we will go to see Batu Cermin or the cave of mirrors (situational). This depends on how much time you have until your flight departure. After finish exploring this cave in the middle of the day we continue to Labuan Bajo airport to take the direct flight to Bali. Thank you for having this adventure with us. Sampai Jumpa!

Meals: Breakfast 

Accommodation: –