The woman in the photo is holding binoculars, not her phone. She flew from somewhere in Europe, took a connecting flight to Pangkalan Bun, West Kalimantan, then boarded a narrow wooden klotok boat for hours along the Sekonyer River just to stand in a Bornean rainforest and look up.

What she came to see: a Bornean orangutan in the wild. No fence. No feeding schedule. Just a primate in its actual home.

What Is Tanjung Harapan — and Where Exactly Is It?

Tanjung Harapan is a feeding station and ranger post inside Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan. It sits at the southern entrance of the park, accessible by river from the port town of Kumai. It is part of a UNESCO-recognized ecosystem and one of three orangutan feeding sites in the park — alongside Camp Leakey and Pondok Tanggui — where semi-wild orangutans receive supplementary feeding twice daily.

The park itself covers over 15,000 square kilometers of lowland tropical rainforest, peat swamp, and coastal mangrove. It was first established as a reserve in 1936 and declared a national park in 1982. Entry requires a national park permit purchased at Kumai port, and travel inside is exclusively by klotok — the slow, open-sided wooden river boats that double as overnight accommodation.

Why Do Foreign Tourists Come All This Way ?

For wildlife. Tanjung Harapan and the surrounding forest are home to Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), proboscis monkeys — the long-nosed, pot-bellied primate found only in Borneo — long-tailed macaques, saltwater crocodiles, numerous hornbill species, and the persistent sound of gibbons calling across the treetops at dawn.

For a European traveler who grew up in cities where the most exotic wildlife is a city pigeon, seeing a mother orangutan descend from a 30-meter tree with an infant clinging to her back is genuinely life-altering. There is no zoo equivalent. Zoos can't replicate the 40% humidity, the smell of rotting wood and river mud, the 5 a.m. mist sitting flat on the Sekonyer River surface.

The Fact That Should Embarrass Us

The Bornean orangutan is classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. An estimated 11,000 remain in Kalimantan — down from roughly 148,500 a century ago. Deforestation, illegal hunting, and palm oil expansion have collapsed the population by over 90% in 100 years.

And yet most Indonesians aged 25–45 — educated, urban, mobile-first — have never visited Tanjung Puting. Many couldn't point to Pangkalan Bun on a map. Meanwhile, eco-tour operators in Kumai report that upwards of 60–70% of their klotok bookings in peak season come from foreign tourists, primarily from Europe, North America, and Australia.

How Much Does a Trip to Tanjung Harapan Cost?

A two-night klotok trip — the standard itinerary covering Tanjung Harapan, Pondok Tanggui, and Camp Leakey — typically costs between Rp 2.5 to 4.5 million per person when booked locally in Kumai, including meals, a guide, and park entry fees. Budget flights from Jakarta to Pangkalan Bun run Rp 700K–1.4 million one way. The full trip, including accommodation in Pangkalan Bun before departure, can be done for under Rp 7 million — less than a weekend staycation at a Bali resort.

The counterintuitive truth: the most globally coveted wildlife destination in Indonesia is also one of its most affordable.

What Else Is in Tanjung Puting Beyond Orangutans?

The park's biodiversity makes even naturalists pause. Proboscis monkeys gather in troops along the riverbank at dusk, their silhouettes unmistakable against the fading light. Rhinoceros hornbills sweep low over the water. At night, klotok guides cut the engine and let the forest sound take over — a wall of insect noise, occasional splash, the creak of the wooden hull. This is what "benar-benar hidup siang dan malam" means in practice.