Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2019 | Page 103

Travel | Sebangau
After our night in the forest cabin, we head
out by canoe the next day to explore the small creeks
and visit one of the large blackwater lakes.
Travelling upriver in search of
orangutans.
we can just make out a very faint sound, which
our guide identifies as the call of a southern
pig-tailed macaque. I am amazed at his skill in
being able to pick it up. As we continue listening,
he excitedly points to the upper branches of
a nearby tree, where high above us we can just
make out the form of an orangutan climbing
up into the top canopy of the forest.
Further along, we hear the very distinctive shrill
call of a proboscis, or long-nosed, monkey. “This is
probably a mother proboscis calling in her wayward
family to come home and settle in for the evening,”
the guide explains. Taking the cue, we too head
back to our temporary home; tonight, we are
sleeping in a national park forest cabin. After
a hearty meal cooked by locals, we turn in,
to a loud chorus of insects and the odd bird call.
This very remote spot in the national park is
accessed via Palangkaraya, the capital of Central
Kalimantan, commonly known as Central Borneo.
5 Senses – Taste
DAYAK CUISINE
The Dayaks are renowned
for being wonderful cooks, and,
when you visit the local villages,
there is always something
cooking in the pot or directly
over a fire. One of 37 fish in
the catfish family, tahoman
is a very popular local river fish
because of its soft white meat.
My first tahoman was grilled
and absolutely delicious.
However, locals often use
it in soup and cure it.
Orang Dayak terkenal jago
memasak dan saat saya
mengunjungi desa-desa
setempat, selalu ada sesuatu
yang sedang dimasak di dalam
panci atau langsung di atas api.
Tahoman, salah satu dari 37 jenis
ikan lele, adalah ikan sungai
lokal yang sangat terkenal
dengan dagingnya yang putih
lembut. Tahoman pertama saya
dipanggang dan rasanya
benar-benar lezat. Namun,
penduduk setempat lebih sering
memasaknya dalam sup dan kari.
To get here, we travelled four hours in
a comfortable air-conditioned van from
1
101
Palangkaraya Airport to the port of Jahanjang,
on the Katingan River, where we boarded the
magnificent Spirit of Kalimantan, which took us
to Sebangau to spend three nights on the river.
The Spirit is a beautifully refurbished traditional
Kalimantan barge, part of the WOW Borneo fleet
operated by Gaye Thavisin, an Australian who
has lived in Central Kalimantan for some 20 years,
and her business partner, Lorna Dowson-Collins.
After our night in the forest cabin, we head
out by canoe the next day to explore the small
creeks and visit one of the large blackwater
lakes. En route, we are excited to spot a group of
proboscis monkeys. Approaching quietly by water,
we are able to get very close. We spend several
minutes watching the members of this large and
raucous family launching themselves astounding
distances between trees, then swinging with great
ease between sometimes very flimsy branches.
As we get chatting to the boatman, he explains
how many of the local villagers have been trained
by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in all areas of
forest preservation. He himself was born in a small
village nearby, called Karuing. “I have been with
WWF for eight years now,” he says proudly. “They
handed over the National Park Service temporarily
as a transition arrangement, and now the care
of the park and all duties are handled by our
local community. We all love it here, working
on a rotation so all of us get more experience
recording scientific data, tracking migratory
wildlife and monitoring other forest activities.
We have turned to ecotourism for our future
because it is sustainable.”