When I was a kid I had a Curious George stuffed monkey that was my absolute favourite.  George kept me safe in those dangerous times after lights out, and he gave me a lot of opportunity to imagine myself as a monkey. 

There we’d be, George and little monkey Doug, soaring through the treetops, throwing back bananas.  Just two monkeys living the dream…

Back in my adult reality, Mandolyn had arrived on the island of Borneo!  We anchored off the city of Kumai, near Tanjung Puting National Park, where we hoped to travel up a river to see some orangutans.

You’re not allowed to take your own boat into the national park, so we booked an overnight trip on a klotok.  These locally built wooden river boats originally had very simple engines that made a ‘klotok’ sound.

On the arranged day we were introduced to our particular klotok, named “Rambo 3”.  We loaded our gear, met the crew, and set off into the jungle.

After an hour or so riding Rambo up the river we spotted our first wild monkeys.  Macaques, like we had seen in Bali.  Cute, but I remain suspicious.  I kept one hand on my wallet.

A little further and we encountered a large troupe of Proboscus Monkeys.  Now we’re talking!  Rambo pulled over to the riverbank so we could observe these masters of the jungle.  The proboscus troupe soared through the trees like…   hmmm.  It honestly looked like it was their very first day in a tree.  

When there was a leap to be made they would gather nervously looking at the gap.  Then they might pump their tree back and forth a little to try to narrow the jump.  Sometimes they’d make their landing, but not always.  Sometimes they accidentally catapulted a friend off into space.  It was overall a very unprofessional operation, nothing at all like George and little monkey Doug.

Which reminds me, whatever happened to my Curious George stuffy, Mom?  Why don’t I still have it?

A couple more hours on the river brought us to our first Orangutan camp.  These are sites where orangutans who had been rescued from illegal captivity were retrained to live in the wild, and then released.  The rangers at these camps lay out a daily buffet of bananas to ease the transition back to the wild.  These feeding stations have a few rows of benches for tourists to observe the daily meal.

The orangutans were impressive.  They have a certain charisma and some very human mannerisms.  The rangers knew the names of each individual.  The large alpha male “Roger” at this first camp was particularly impressive.

Majestic as they were, when you saw them moving through the trees you sort of had the impression they were a little…  too big?  Although they moved with grace, the trees bent and creaked under their weight.  They had to take it slow for safety sake, unlike the high flying antics of George and LMD.

Ah George, where did you go?  Did my sister take you?  Erika did you take my Curious George stuffie?

On the second and final day we were at our last stop, Camp Leakey.  This station was the oldest and hadn’t released anyone for some time.  Most of its graduates had transitioned fully to the wild and no longer visited the banana buffet, but a few individuals stopped by.

The tour was winding down, and I was ready to concede that being a monkey wasn’t quite what I had imagined.  The macaques are delinquent, the orangutans are slow, and the proboscus are dangerously underqualified.

A lady beside me gasped and a murmur ran through the small crowd of onlookers.  Something was coming towards us through the treetops, and coming fast.  This newcomer absolutely soared, covering a hundred meters of jungle in just a few graceful arcs.

I was standing next to a guide at this time.  “Who is that?” I asked, awestruck.  

Please say george, or doug, or george.

“That’s Bob.  He’s a gibbon.”

Bob!  It doesn’t have the exotic mystique of ‘George’ or ‘Doug’, but what a legend!

Bob swooped down to the buffet, grabbed a bunch of bananas, then pranced effortlessly back to the treetops, one hand still full of bananas.  Bob was the primate I’d always imagined.  

This was a great final encounter to wrap up the trip.  This happened weeks ago and I still vividly picture the way he moved.  There’s Bob, soaring through the canopy.  Oh, and look who’s with him, it’s George and little monkey Doug, keeping pace, throwing back bananas.  

Three monkeys living the dream.

Erika, call me after you read this, I want answers.

And some more photos…