We Made It! 7/21/16

After 24 hours in the air and a beautiful 2 hour boat ride, we finally arrived to camp.  I’m usually someone who can’t sleep on planes, however due to three amazing seats to myself I somehow was capable of catching a few z’s. The most interesting part of the flight was flying over the North Pole. Never in my life would I have imagined going anywhere remotely close to the North Pole, but due to this extensive journey I can now add this to my list of cool things that I’ve done.

Once we arrived to Palangkaraya we went straight to camp, also known as Tuanan Orangutan Research Project (TORP). Although we went directly to base, this entailed a two-hour car drive to a river bank in order to get on a small boat with 12 other people for another two hours. In spite of the sun beating down and slightly singeing my skin, I enjoyed the greenery as I slowly passed by. Time flew by as I was hypnotized by the red water, which for some reason reminded me of Coca-Cola.

Once we got off the boat we were kindly greeted by the local village who were curious to know more about the students. I was taken back by how kind the locals were. They wanted to help in anything and everything. At one point one of our bags fell in the water and without hesitation three children jumped in the water to retrieve it from the bottom. The kids didn’t expect any kind of reward, they simply wanted to help. Their kindness brought a big smile to my face and reminded that being selfless is a reward in itself.