Solo (Last Day) - Solo Car Free Day

  Welcome to day-3 of #rsolotravelog

Day 3, in the morning, we went to Solo's Car Free Day. It was fun! Seeing how the people enjoying Sunday morning with their loved ones. The weather was pretty good too!

To reach this street, we ought to pass the alun-alun kidul first, and passing some of the buildings of Keraton Solo.

One of the interesting thing for me was the wall that surrounding the keraton. Saya copas dari wiki aja ya, males nerjemahinnya.

Kompleks keraton ini dikelilingi dengan baluwarti, sebuah dinding pertahanan dengan tinggi sekitar tiga sampai lima meter dan tebal sekitar satu meter tanpa anjungan. Dinding ini melingkungi sebuah daerah dengan bentuk persegi panjang. Daerah itu berukuran lebar sekitar lima ratus meter dan panjang sekitar tujuh ratus meter.

Patung Slamet Riyadi ini memang salah satu icon kota Solo dan berada di lokasi yang sangat strategis. Nah, berhubung penasaran siapa sih beliau ini. Mari kita simak hasil copas saya :p.

Bernama lengkap Ignatius Slamet Riyadi, Riyadi lahir di Surakarta dari pasangan Idris Prawiropralebdo dan Soetati yang tinggal di Kampung Danukusuman, Surakarta, Jawa Tengah.

Sang ayah merupakan seorang abdi dalem prajurit Kraton Kasunanan Surakarta dan ibunya seorang pedagang buah-buahan di pasar.

Ketika kecil Riyadi bernama Soekamto, hingga tak berselang lama dirinya mengalami kecelakaan yaitu jatuh dari gendongan ibunya.

Pasca kejadian tersebut Soekamto sering mengalami berbagai macam penyakit.
Menurut adat istiadat Jawa, Soekamto kecil harus disembuhkan dengan cara 'dibeli', maka dibelilah dia oleh pamannya dan namanya diganti menjadi Slamet Riyadi, supaya menyelamatkannya hingga kelak dewasa.

Riyadi meninggal di usia belia, 23 tahun.

Source: https://solo.tribunnews.com/amp/2020/03/29/sejarah-patung-slamet-riyadi-solo-ternyata-ini-kisah-di-balik-pose-sang-brigjen-acungkan-pistol?page=4

Actually really interested to explore this place, but it was closed due to a private event.

Fort Vastenburg (Dutch "Fort Steadfast"), also Fort Surakarta, is an 18th-century Dutch fort located in Gladak, Surakarta, Indonesia.

Fort Vastenburg is a square shaped fort with four bastions. It is surrounded by 6 meter high bearing wall and dry moat. Three portals providing entrance to the fort from the east, west, and north. A draw bridge used to provide access point to the fort's western main portal, however this has been demolished.

Most agreed that Fort Vastenburg was constructed in 1743 and was completed in 1745, following the order of Governor-General Baron van Imhoff. First named de Grootmoedigheid ("magnanimity"), later the fort name was renamed to Vastenburg ("steadfast") (1750).

The main function of the fort was to house the resident (colonial administrator) and the Dutch East Indies garrison for the region of Central Java. The fort maintained order in Surakarta, especially between the royalties.

Memasuki area Keraton Surakarta dari arah utara, kami melalui Gapura Gladag. Kesan yang saya dapatkan adalah sesungguhnya "gerbang" sesungguhnya bukanlah gerbang buatan manusia yang berwarna putih gading tersebut, tetapi lebih ke pohon beringin sangat rimbun yang ada di dekatnya. It gives you chills and different atmosphere. Kebetulan saja saat itu memang sedang ramai dan di pusat kota. Kalau sepi, hmm.

Eh, tumben pake bahasa Indo? Iya, soalnya saya mau copas keterangan dari wiki, dan ga nemu yang bahasa Indonesianya. Atau terlalu malas untuk mencarinya.

Gladag yang sekarang dikenal dengan Perempatan Gladag di Jalan Slamet Riyadi Solo. Pada zaman dahulu, space area di sekitar Gladag dan gapura kedua dipakai sebagai tempat menyimpan binatang hasil buruan sebelum digladag (dipaksa) dan disembelih di tempat penyembelihan. Wujud arsitektur pada kawasan Gladag ini mengandung arti simbolis ajaran langkah pertama dalam usaha seseorang untuk mencapai tujuan ke arah Manunggaling Kawula Gusti (Bersatunya Rakyat dengan Raja).

Shakespeare, Copernicus, Galileli, Da Vinci. Nama-nama tersebut hidup di abad 16, saat di mana Sultan Agung memerintah Kerajaan Mataram, yang menjadi cikal bakal Keraton Solo dan Yogya.

Jadi, terkadang saya saat melihat bangunan-bangunan ini secara langsung, juga mencoba membayangkan bagaimana situasi dan suasana 500 tahun lalu.

Bangunan di slide 1 adalah Sasana Sumewa yang merupakan bangunan utama terdepan di Keraton Surakarta. Tempat ini pada zamannya digunakan sebagai tempat untuk menghadap para punggawa (pejabat menengah ke atas) dalam upacara resmi kerajaan.

Di kompleks ini terdapat sejumlah meriam diantaranya diberi nama Kyai Pancawura atau Kyai Sapu Jagad. Meriam berbahan perunggu ini dibuat pada masa pemerintahan Sultan Agung.

Berhubung ke sininya pas lagi lari pagi, jadinya memamg mengunjungi objek yang ada secara mandiri, bisa atur pace tapi jadi ga banyak dapet info.

Sebenernya secara sejarah dan arsitektur sanhat menarik, tapi kurang terawat sayangnya.

Saya suka dengan kombinasi warna putih dan biru yang mendominasi bangunan Keraton Surakarta ini.

Keraton Surakarta tidaklah dibangun serentak pada 1744-1745, namun dibangun secara bertahap dengan mempertahankan pola dasar tata ruang yang tetap sama dengan awalnya. Pembangunan dan restorasi secara besar-besaran terakhir dilakukan oleh Susuhunan Pakubuwana X yang bertahta 1893-1939. Kata wiki.

Nah, terus saya kurang tau apakah karena alasan itu juga, sehingga terdapat bangunan khusus PB X ini, atau yang lainnya juga ada tapi saya saja yang tidak melihatnya.

Kori Kamandungan. Kori ini mempunyai ukuran yang besar. Hal ini untuk menunjukkan kewibawaan raja, keagungan kraton, dan kemegahan kraton. Selain itu, juga untuk memunculkan rasa hormat kepada kraton. Hmm, saya sendiri ga tau artinya kori itu apa ya :p.

Masjid Agung Kraton Surakarta, dibangun oleh Sunan Pakubuwono III tahun 1763. Tidak lama setelah itu, negara Amerika baru terbentuk, hehe. Entahlah, bagi saya membayangkan situasi tiap wilayah di bumi pada periode yang sama itu menarik. Apalagi pada saat itu, satu wilayah dengan wilayah lain kan "less connected" ya.

Ohya, di gambar pertama, terdapat gapura yang megah, berbentuk paduraksa. Paduraksa adalah bangunan berbentuk gapura yang memiliki atap penutup, yang lazim ditemukan dalam arsitektur kuno dan klasik di Jawa dan Bali.

Menara masjid, mempunyai corak arsitektur terinsirasi dari Qutub Minar di Delhi, India. Berdiri di atas lahan seluas hampir 1 hektare, bangunan utama masjid mampu menampung sekitar 2.000 jamaah.

And that's it! Foto terakhir untuk #rsolotravelog kali ini. Singkat bukan? Sampai jumpa di travelog selanjutnya, dimana kita akan ke beberapa tempat, yang diawali dengan ke kota Medan.

Solo Day 2 - Sangiran UNESCO Heritage Site

 Welcome to day-2 of #rsolotravelog

Day 2 of #rsolotravelog. Eh, kok udah hari ke-2 aja? Bukannya hari pertama baru 2 postingan? Ya, saya sendiri juga bingung, hari pertama itu ngapain aja ya saya? Apa malem2 tepar di penginapan? Saya sungguh lupa.

Anyway, on the second say, we went to the wedding of our friends, Hendra and Dyta in, umm, forgot the exact town. Sragen? What I remember, it's nearby Sangiran.

I picked Ade, Agung, and Naufal at their accommodation, then heading to the wedding venue using g*car.

It's kinda far from Solo, but thankfully we didnt get lost. Alhamdulillah. When we arrived, it's already on the commencement speech part. Each guest has their own seat and table, and then the food, drink, and snack were delivered by the servers.

Most of the guests were the neighbors I guess. And they were raving about Hendra, as a super smart guy who got scholarship abroad (with perfect GPA), yet staying very humble, well-mannered, and religious. They talk about him proudly with sparkling eyes.

Do you know that Sangiran Early Man Site is 1 out of (only) 9 UNESCO Heritage Sites in Indonesia? and Hendra's house is pretty close with Sangiran Museum, perhaps only 5 mins by car.

After the wedding, we went to Hendra's house, and ate (again), hehe. We initially wanted to go back immediately to Solo, but my inner traveling heart saying that we needed to go to the museum. Kapan lagi cobaaa.

I only knew about Sangiran because it's told over and over again in History subject at junior high school. Personally, I was not interested on archaeological thingies, but since it's recognized by UNESCO, I thought I should give it a visit.

ohya, other than Sangiran, other UNESCO Heritage Sites in Indonesia are Borobudur Temple Compounds (v), Prambanan Temple Compounds (v), Lorentz National Park in Papua, Komodo National Park (v), Ujung Kulon National Park (forgot), The Subak System in Bali (v), Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, and the latest one: Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto.

So, how much the entrance fee? It's only IDR 5000, or around USD 0.35, or EUR 0.31. Super cheap! I know that some tourism objects such as Ragunan Zoo also imposed pretty low price, but it's still shocking everytime I find one. Since I guess no one would wanna go there if it puts a hefty price tag. But as a UNESCO site, thought the price would be tad higher.

Expectation: low quality of museum, with fossils covered with dust, dirts around the corner of the rooms, some lamps couldn't be turned on, non functional air conditioner, and bad smells.

Hmm, but the lobby looked promising with very clean area, and a nice design. The parking lot seemed very empty though.

Before entering the first room, we can see one of the interesting things there, which is a place that contains ancient lava which is almost two million years old. The said lava is derived from the eruption of Mount Lawu that occurred millions of years ago.

For a museum located in a small town, I think this is pretty good! I think even better than some museums in Jakarta. Nothing that I expected, written in the previous post, found here.

They have very informative and well-arranged artifacts. Well, sometimes it's very detailed that I didnt really comprehend that. Lol.

After doing research for decades, the Sangiran Museum has collected 13,809 fossils. This figure is certainly the largest amount among the history of the museums in Indonesia. In fact, this museum is said to be the most complete museum in all of the region of Asia. Some say that the Sangiran Museum is the largest site in the whole world.

I didn't expect that we could see variety of fossils here, from t-rex, ancient elephants, sea animals, and so on. Not sure whether they were just replica or the real things.

The description from UNESCO in the Internet mentions about how Sangiran is such a special place, that I won't be surprised if those fossils are real.

There is a very significant geological sequence from the upper Pliocene until the end of Middle Pleistocene by depicting the human, faunal, and cultural evolutions within the last 2.4 million years. The property also yields important archaeological occupation floors dating back to the Lower Pleistocene around 1.2 million years ago.

The macrofossils that appear abundantly from the layers provide a detailed and clear record of many faunal elements, while the property reveals more than 100 individuals of Homo erectus, dating back to at least 1.5 million years ago. These fossils show human evolution process during the Pleistocene period, particularly from 1.5 to 0.4 million years ago.

Inhabited for the past one and a half million years, Sangiran is one of the key sites for the understanding of human evolution. More discoveries of stone tools have been made since. These human, fauna, and stone tool materials were deposited within its unbroken stratigrafical layers.

There's an exhibition asking us to touch an ancient elephant fossil. Then again, not sure it's a real one or what. Perhaps the fossil is not that scarce and not fragile at all to be touched by many guests.

But what I like is that it's asking to FEEL the sensation. I mean, oftentimes we were asked to think only. Thinking without feeling, in my opinion, is kind of bland and shallow. It's like going to museum to just read the text, then, so what? You need to feel and sense with your soul, and sometimes heart. Well, it depends on the museum of course. But to really appreciate something, we need to use more than just brain.

Inhabited for the past 1.5 MILLION years, Sangiran is one of the key sites for the understanding of human evolution.

50 fossils of Meganthropus palaeo and Pithecanthropus erectus/Homo erectus were found – HALF of all the world's known hominid fossils.

Skeleton Bridge, or whatever

Jadi, pas mau foto-foto di sini terus tiba-tiba hujan 😅

In the backyard of the museum, there's a beautiful joglo house, that I guess could be used as event venue.

But basically, we had visited all parts of the museum. Anyway, looking in the Internet,
there are four thematica clusters are developed, namely the Krikilan Cluster (as visitor center, which we visited that day), Ngebung Cluster (the history of site’s discovery), Bukuran Cluster (human evolution), and Dayu Cluster (modern research).

Regarding tourism management, the four clusters will be connected by means of a special tourism route. People are expected to visit all clusters which will take more than one day. So, there will be next time perhaps :).

Btw, kami sempat terjebak hujan jadi ga bisa pulang. Coba order grabcar dan gocar, but none nearby. Jadilah minta tolong Hendra dan saudaranya untuk jemput. Dan alhamdulillah keluarganya Dyta jg mau ke aiport via Solo jadi bisa nebeng, hehe.

Solo Day 1 - Selat Solo Mbak Lies

 Welcome to day-1 of #rsolotravelog.

Another travelog series: #rsolotravelog. Well, even prior posting this, when I said I was gonna post about Solo, I already received comments like, "ya elah, ke Solo aja ngapain sih pake bikin travelog?"

Well, that was my first time going to Solo, so I'd like to document it a bit. And I went to Sangiran too, and that's exciting! However, this series won't be a long one I guess.

Arriving at Adi Sumarmo. The airport was quite new, and it's already integrated with TransSolo, which is pretty handy for tourist (hemat) like me.

It's always tricky to use public transportation in cities in Indonesia. Fortunately, there's Batik Solo Trans and ride hailing like gojek and grab that made my life easier. So I only need to choose which Solo Trans bus stop the most convenient for me, and taking the ride hailing from there.

How to do it? Kira2 aja, liat bus stop yang ada di mana aja, terus diukur jaraknya yang paling deket dari hotel satu per satu. hehe. And I chose Solo Balapan train station as my stop.

Taking the ride hailing, I just need the driver to take care from there, since I had zero idea on the route. But sometimes I memorize one or two street names, so I can say something like "boleh lewat jalan A atau jalan B, tapi terserah mas aja lewat mana". lol.

13:26. I did some research on food recommendation in Solo, and the closest one to my accommodation was Selat Solo Mbak Lies

Yeah, since it's near, so I tried to go there by walking. Dan capek cuy! Near on the maps, but not that near in actual. Plus, the pedestrian was not good, like every other cities in Indonesia.

It's located inside of an aisle, in a residential area, and I thought I was lost. Bahkan di gang tersebut hanya muat untuk 1 mobil saja. Tapi ternyata bener di situ.

Finally, arrived at the restaurant. The place was very unique, especially its decoration. It reminds me of Warung Mbah Jingkrak Setiabudi somehow. It's hard to describe. It's kinda ethnique, but in a unique way.

The food was good! although they put too many raw onions. and I hate raw onions. I love the sosis solo!

Tanjung Puting Day 3 (Last Day) - Desa Adat Pasir Panjang

Last Day of #rtanjungputingtravelog.

07:28. We had fried rice and egg as our breakfast, with ultra sweet orange syrup that I couldn't affort to drink it.

We also tried to eat our comfort food: pop mie, and also other snacks, so we didnt have to bring them to Jakarta. In the end, we gave some of the remaining untouched food to the crews.

Such a good breakfast experince.

09:42. Heading to Kumai. The water is not black anymore. and well, back to civilization, phone signal, and real life. Wait, it's kinda irony when I wrote real life. Does that mean the forest that I just visited wasnt real? Or I was just too naive and segregate between my usual daily life and wildlife, while they are actually interconnected in a way. Since forest is one of the core supports for our life, whether we wholeheartedly conscious about it or not.

10:35 Arrived at Desa Adat Pasir Panjang, Pangkalan Bun, where inhabited by Dayak Pasir Panjang tribe.

This village was located around 15 mins from thr airport. Btw, I didn't feel like I was in a village. Perhaps there were houses around there somewhere.

Anyway, this is inside Rumah Betang, where few families were lived in.

Okay, the next paragraphs are taken from Indonesia Tourism web article. I know my English is far from perfect, but this is another different level, wk.

Usually, Betang built in rather big size with about 30-150 meter length, 10-30 meter width and the mast about 3-5 meter height. Betang built using high quality wood, the ironwood.

This wood can stand over hundreds of years and anti termite. This is the real best wood.

Betang House common inhabited by 100-150 people and you may imagine how crowded inside. Betang can be said as tribe house because it led by a Pambakas Lewu (the tribe leader). Inside, you will meet several rooms that inhabited by each families.

Last pic: Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil.

Betang has its unique points that can see from the elongated shape and there are only a staircase and entrance into the Longhouse. The stair which is used for enter to the Longhouse called 'hejot'.

Betang has built in high position from the ground in order to avoid the trouble things for residents of the Longhouse, include avoiding enemies that can come suddenly, wild animals, or floods that sometimes hit the Longhouse. Almost all betang can be found on the outskirts of major rivers in Kalimantan.

Tanjung Puting Day 2 (Pondok Tanggui, Camp Leakey, Fireflies)

 

06:53. Day 2 of #rtanjungputingtravelog. Breakfast with a view. The breakfast was surprisingly and thankfully good! I enjoyed it. Perhaps the additional ingredients that made it special: the surroundings.

Do you ever wonder whether we took shower or not? Of course we did. There were two bathrooms in the boat where we could take shower as well as performing other rituals. Well, it's quite a clean one, but actually I didnt dare asking from where they could get the water. lol..

Nevertheless, taking a shower was necessary for me. Since well, we sweat a lot.

 

Pondok Tanggui

08:39. Arriving at our next destination: Pondok Tanggui. We came here to see, well, orangutan of course. It seems there were several klothok ahead of us! There was this elevated wooden platform where we walked on it that reminds of similar platform in Tarakan. It seems that it's built on top of swamp or mangrove. We had a brief halt at the ticketing office, I guess. Then entered the area to reach the feeding station.

08:55. Entering the forest. Well, it's clear that some part of the area was the result of reforestation, since the appearance was more like a garden, or field, instead of a forest, like low trees and shrubs. At the feeding station, there were already some people waiting. Waiting for orangutans of course, not us. A family of foreigner put some yellow sticker on the back side of their tshirts, that I guessed were mosquito repellent. I always curious on the effectiveness of this kind of repellent actually. Have you tried it?

9:07. Apparently, the orangutans hadn't been there. Well, we should be patiently waiting then. We saw some other guests heading to the right side, going a little bit far into the forest, perhaps around 200m. Being FOMO, so we followed them. and some others followed too! 

 

High above in the midst of leaves, there was an orangutan. I am not the kind of person who could easily spot an object from afar, so yeah, not easy to find the famous animal.

 

 I intentionally didn't post edited video with background music, since one of the special things of the forest atmosphere, for me is the sound of it. In the last 2 pics, there's a girl put a spider (I guess) on the palm of her hand. A brave one.

09:53. Some people were rushing to go back to the feeding station. Woohoo, there's an orangutan coming. Well, almost an hour late, but what can you expect from orangutan?

It's enjoying its meal gently, unlike the one that we met in Tanjung Harapan, that ate like no tomorrow.

Well, I only brought my cellphone, and no sophisticated camera (since I didnt have it as well). So, it's kinda difficult to take good and sharp photos. But @ratri_kartika got a nice idea where she combined her camera and binocular. Btw, itu pake kamera belakang ya, wk.

After finishing its meal, the orangutan then climbed down the platform and went back to the forest.

Well, upon watching (and listening) to the videos, I just realized, and I'm quite amazed at how silent the people were. No one talking, and what we could hear was only careful steps.

The orangutan then peacefully back to the middle of the forest again.

10:27. We also saw the Kantung Semar plants, which was apparently quite abundant. I rarely see the plant in my normal days. Well, rarely seeing it with your own eyes, doesn't mean it's near extinction. In the classification, it's even least concern.

Nepenthes ampullaria (Latin ampulla meaning "flask", aka kantong air semacam botol) is a very distinctive and widespread species of tropical pitcher plant.

Unlike other members of its genus, has evolved away from carnivory and the plants are partly detritivores (aka pemakan bangkai. I had to google it since udah lupa artinya apa), collecting and digesting falling leaf litter in their pitchers. Altho in its appearance, it's still kinda scary, perhaps due to thorns on its side.

It was an exciting sight seeing this plant.

Sometimes seeing a huge branch crossed horizontally made me want to sit above it. Well, not so fast. Ants in the forest are noticeably large.
And they have this kind of red body. not all of its body, but the rear part only, but it's kinda terrifying. So need to double check prior sitting.

Do you know how the forest's floor like? There were parts that the falling leaves piling up over the years, that it feels bouncy when you stepped on it. Having writing that, I'm not sure whether it's the correct reason why it can be bouncy as that. lol.

Got lost? Umm, not really. That sometimes we ought to follow the not so obvious trail. That's why I think we shouldn't go without a guide.

Off we go out of Pondok Tanggui

10:50. Back to our klotok, floating on Sekonyer River. Who would have thought, arriving at the klothok, we were served with this fresh and cold drink! Alhamdulillah.

Altho not that difficult, but trekking surely was tiring. We charged our energy by eating none other than pop mie, while waiting our lunch.

On the left and right side, we often saw wild animals like bekantan and birds.

Occasionally, there were houses that I couldn't help wondering, how does it like living in the middle of nowhere like that.

Last pic: that was how the view from inside the klotok look like: jemuran everywhere.

 

Camp Leakey

11:41. Entering Camp Leakey, the final and furthermost destination among three stations that we visited during our trip.

Camp Leakey Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre was founded in 1971 as the first place in Indonesia to become a rehabilitation centre for orangutans at Tanjung Puting Park Central Kalimantan Indonesia.

Camp Leakey was established by Dr. Biruté Galdikas (photo #2) and former spouse Rod Brindamour.

It was named after the legendary paleo-anthropologist, Louis Leakey (photo #3), who was both mentor and an inspiration to Dr. Galdikas.

Famous blackwater river! I never knew or expected that the river located far in the middle of the forest could be black. I always thought that water would be crystal clear and pristine. Well, apparently that's not always the case. Black water might be pure in a sense that it's not polluted.

Blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. As vegetation decays, tannins (ini macam zat yg ada di akar atau batang tanaman) leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, resembling black tea. 

So, it really depends on the type of soil or plants surrounding the river.

Never thought that I would encounter traffic jam in this very place. The river was narrow and there were klotoks halted in the middle of the river.

Curious we were, what's the cause of the traffic jam. Well, apparently the klotoks' passengers were watching the main object of the national park: Orangutan.

Yes, finally we met orangutan outside the feeding station, it's sitting on a branch of a tree, watching upon us.

Can you spot it?

12:54. Arriving at Camp Leakey. We saw some signages (good that nothing too glossy here), telling that we shouldn't swim on the river, since there're lots of crocodiles. Whoa! I knew that the guides told us that there were crocodiles. Some of us had already seen them as well. I hadn't seen it myself. And, reading the warning was just like confirming that the crocs were real!

To my surprise, many visitors were ahead of us. Not the fact that they were ahead of us, but seeing that actually MANY people in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE was just unbelievable. I mean, from the way they acted, it's like they were Jakartans going to Taman Mini or Ragunan. Soo casual.

Well, perhaps for them, it's not that rural I guess.

Originally consisting of just two huts, Camp Leakey is now an assemblage of permanent wooden structures designed to provide a base for scientists, staff, students, and Park Rangers (kata wiki).

Carolyn Townson Information Center. There's a small building constructed as information center. I've tried to googling who Carolyn Townson is, but cannot find satisfying answer.

So, inside the information center, we found the facts about orangutan, as the result of research that has been held over decades.

There's an interesting family tree of orangutan, complete with their photographs, with very diverse names, from Robert to Siswoyo, from Princess to Siswi.

13:45. Heading to the feeding station. As mentioned before, the camp was founded by Galdikas. Do you know how it started? The first book she borrowed from the Toronto Public Library was a tale about a mischievous little monkey named Curious George. As a young child, her head was filled with visions of far off forests and exotic creatures.

Galdikas is graduated from UCLA, and a Professor at Simon Fraser University. In the field of primatology, Galdikas is recognized as a leading authority on orangutans.Prior to her field study of orangutans, scientists knew little about the species.

Leakey (her mentor) and the National Geographic Society agreed to establish a research facility in Borneo.

On the way to the feeding station, we did some foraging, lol. Of course our guide was the one who pointed out which plants or fruits that were edible.

Anyway, foraging (bhs Indo: meramban), is the activity of obtaining or seeking food, in this context, in forest.

Arrived at the feeding station, many people were already there. It was the largest crowd among 3 feeding stations that we visited during the trip. Maybe because it's Sunday? So the families were on holiday.

Waiting, waiting, and waiting.

The ones coming unfortunately not orangutan, but, celeng aka wild boar. Huft. And after looking some blog posts about Camp Leakey, it seems that wild boars are regular visitors at this feeding station.

15:29. One hour and a half from the schedule of feeding time (14:00). No orangutan was seen. I, and I guessed everyone, got bored.

I tried to read my kindle, then sat on my sandals, but still no orangutan. Some people then went back to their klotok. Sooo, now there's vacant chair for me.

I used the chair for lying down. Enjoying the moment, where I could stare at the sky in the middle of forest, listening to the sound of the birds and insects (and also the rangers who still tried calling the orangutan).

15:53. We gave up! Back to our klotok. On the way, saw a signage warned us to see orangutan encounter. Well, didnt see one. Anyway, thanks Camp Leakey!

16:10. NAT GEO moment! Swipe to see a crocodile eating a biawak! (what's english for biawak?). Yes, it's biawak, not chicken like when you feed crocs in croc park. We accidentally spotted it when our klotok was moving.

I really enjoyed my klotok lyfe, lying on a hammock, looking at the black water and plants on the riverside.

17:46. Chasing sunset

18:01. Such a beautiful sky, in a magnificent setting. and there was few minutes of "party" where like all insects and birds were shouting and chirping just before the night came. such a humbling experience

 

Fireflies

 

Chasing FIREFLIES aka kunang-kunang! There were thousands and thousands of fireflies decorating the Nypa trees on both sides of the river. Sooo beautiful. Twinkling and dancing in the dark of the night. and that night, we saw them A LOT. When was the last time you see fireflies?

I was aware that with regular camera phone, I wouldnt be able to capture it properly. So I didnt even bother.

and do you know the family of fireflies is called Lampyridae?

Moreover, I dont know whether it impacts the phototaking or not, but fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. Umm, should be fine kali ya. lol.

So we were singing, then, sleeping. lol. Of course with mosquito net, that preventing not only mosquito but all kind of strangers animals to sleep together with us.