Day 1- Once in a lifetime river cruise to heart of one of worlds largest rain forests with highest concentration of Orangutans in the world in their natural habitat.

 Editor's Comments:

 Normally twice a year during school vacations we fly to various places around the world.

The last time I remember vividly when we were in Switzerland and preparing to fly back to Bali.

We started reading about this new pendant this coronavirus seem to be spreading pass fast in China at the time.

 

It was a full three months before the first coronavirus renamed Covid 19 hit Bali.

 

Since then we have not been able to fly Internationally from here until the last few months.

 My begining of the year predictions of a full recovery for our Bali Luxury Villa Rentals since the reopening a few months ago has even been better than my expectations.

We enjoyed a 73% occupancy rate in May which is 13% above pre-pandemic.

 

One thing I learned in life is to follow the philosophy of Napoleon Hill that says that "every adversity has a within it the seed of an equal greater benefit".

 Over the past two years since we couldn't fly anywhere we decided to visit all the main attractions that we had not ever visited in my 23 years of living in Bali, because they're always too busy with tourists.

We went to places like Lovina where there was barely a restaurant open.

and managed to arrive at the reopening of a major waterfall there in the first minutes of its reopening after a year and a half clousure.

Thus we were the first tourists to be there for over a year and a half.

Their staff and my family were estatic having the beautiful waterfalls all to our self.

We also did this with temples and attractions such as the Elephant Safari Park up in Taro owned by the famous Yannie & Nigel Mason family.

They used a large portion of their life savings to pay for staff, expenses and feeding of over 20 monstrous elephants during the two and one half-year closure.

Payment for a couple nights accommodations there was our way of helping.

We certainly will never forget literally having private elephants who were just as interested in seeing us as we were them.

Only two other tourists there made it really special.

 Now that tourists have returned to Bali I had to find something else.

I thought maybe we will go visit Bali's Neigbour Island Kalimantan as a potential investment in real estate. The federal government under Pres. Jokowi has announced they are going to make it the seat of government for all Indonesia since Jakarta is sinking and heavily polluted. 

When I started googling Kalimantan what popped out immediately was a jungle cruise sponsored by Be Borneo.

 According to their web site Tanjung Puting National Park Orangutan Private Trip 3D2N

Tanjung Puting National Park (TNTP) is a place in Kalimantan where you can meet directly with the Orangutan, the ruler of the forest.  Not only that, but you will also enjoy a panoramic view along the pristine Sekonyer River, see monkeys hanging freely from the top of the klotok, Proboscis monkeys shamelessly showing their golden fur, enjoying the food of fireflies that perch on trees. at night, even see crocodiles basking on the river bank.

Being a former yacht captain and having sailed from Hawaii to here for three years I certainly needed to have my desire for being on a boat filled.

My former Yacht LovebirdPpart of our Bali Yacht Charters for five years Bali

 So I decided to utilize my status as a hotel Owner an Maj. blogger to negotiate very attractive prices for a private 16 meter jungle boat to take us up the rivers just for the four of us.

So then the question was when to go because after two years of no buisness it was getting so busy I felt we better getaway before July and the end of our boys school holiday.

 

So finally I found an opportunity in between the major Balinese holidays of Galungan and Kuningan to slip away for five days and four nights.

Airline Bookings:

Booking airlines became a huge chore.

 It wasn't so hard to book going over there by flying Lion Air to Surabaya with a 1 1/2 HR wait and then fly Wings Air on large prop plane to Iskander Airport, home of the largest Air Force Base in Indonesia by Sq. Kilometers .

Then a short 20 minute taxi drive to the hotel at Grand Kecubun Hotel.

Check In at Airport:

 Everything looked great and it was certainly a wonderful feeling arriving Bali's recntly built modern airport for the first time in 2.5 Years.

Because we weren't quite sure how they were going to handle Covid-19 protocol we arrived an hour early.

In the end we discovered so long as you have two vacinations for everyone you don't need anything else except your vaccination card.

It was interesting as we checked in to see quite a few people there.

A lot of them were first-time or very inexperienced travellers and didn't have a clue about how much baggage that could check and therefore creating long lines.

I almost called security on one young obnoxius Russian man who was giving complete hell to the check-in clerk regarding his massive surfboard that he didn't have proper documentation for. 

He continued to argue and hold up the line to the point where everybody was getting ready to let him have it verbally.

 Unfortunately Lion Air, an airline I normally try to avoid was the only airlines available for this trip.

My wife Azizah is a professional Notaris and has  plenty of experience travelling with me  which made the process go very quickly. 

She had packed and weighed our bags impeccably to standards set by the the Airline of 20 kg check-in baggage and 7 kg carry-on.

Then off to the Departure lounge stopping at a restaurant for breakfast and waiting for our 11:30 flight. 

We finally  checked in and did our obligatory selfie with the current Pres.of Indonesia Jokowi.

In my mind he has been one of the best presidents ever and should hopefully be re-elected again.

 

When checking in the clerk advised us the flight would be a half-hour late which would still allow us to arrive in in Surabaya to catch our connecting flight with one hour to spare.

 Airline Hell:

We could see our plane on the runway and were wondering why it was taking so long?

One half hour soon became 1 hr and the finally two hours before we walked down the ramp and boarded a bus to drive to the plane and board.

Even after we boarded the plane waited another 15 to 20 minutes. 

Then I discovered the the reason was that fights before from other areas had been very late and our plane was held up two hours waiting for them. Talk about a domino effect.

When I watched the final family to board taking selfies on the runway I almost loss my temper. 

 Our departure was actually later than when our next departure from Surabaya was which meant  we were probably going to miss our flight.

It meant arriving in Kalimantan the next day and missing our departure for our rented jungle cruise.
 

Horid Visions came to my mind of them putting us up in a very low class hotel for the night.

I advised Azizah that we would be the first ones to the ticket counter to book the next a flight to make sure that we can get on the next day.

It was only three quarters through the flight that  Azizah talk to the flight attendant and they said maybe they will hold it up.

 

 I thought sarcastically sure they can hold up our connecting flight for two hours! 

Guess what? They did.

We were estatic when we got off the plane and were escorted quickly through security etc. to board a large Wing Air prop plane. 

I usually book front row seats on a small planes  and I was feeling great we will make.

Then after 20 minuteswith no AC it got harder and harder to breathe

Finally the captain announced there was a mechanical problem and we will have have to switch planes.

The next plane was soon to take off.

 When we finally arrived there 1.5 hrs later than our original plans we  stressed but happy to be there.

At the airport they told us  they had to have two cars for four of us with small bags and small wife. 

I protested loudly enough that they only charged for one car which was around Rp 90,000 or seven dollars to go 20 minutes.Very fair.

 When we arrived at the hotel I took the hotel as it on the advice of the owner of the tour company Indra and I was it was far beyond my expectations very professional relatively new and I had read a little bit of the testimonials realize that I want to be in the new wing with their pool view which is exactly what we got for extremely low price for two rooms.

 We checked in turned on our rooms truned on the Wi-Fi's and air-conditioners and that was about it for the evening.

 Azizah went out with Xander and purchased some delicous take away food which she and the boys love. We all ate it Asian style with our hands.  

We all crashed watching netflicks with my special attachments I always bring.

See Day 2 - Including our first of three visits to dozens of Organutansin the wild at a feeding station.

See the whole five day trip Video on Utube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF7U5LK7nXI