Crossing Kalimantan

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jorgito135
jorgito135

Hi, am travelling now for more than 4 months in Indonesia and my last adventure here will be to cross Kalimantan from east to west.

So will go tomorrow with the Pelni ship from Makassar to Balikpapan and from there go up to Samarinda.

Some questions:
1. Is it worth going to Kutai NP north of Samarinda before starting the upriver journey to cross Kalimantan? Am interested a lot in wildlife like monkeys, etc... Or any other good place for wildlife nearby?
2. Has anybody done this journey recently before to give me some information?
3. Have heard it takes around 7 days on the river to get into the centre, any tips for from where to where each day?
4. I speak some Bahasa after more than 4 months... Is it easy to arrange a guide or porter before trekking over Muller mountains starts? If yes, where can this best done? Or does anybody know a guide or porter to do the trek which you can recommend me?
5. After the Muller mountains I will either go down to Pontianak by ship or by bus, not sure yet, any recommendations?
6. How much time should I plan in for this trip at least?
7. Any recommendations for side trips on this route? I still have some time...
8. How much money should I approximately bring with me for this trip as I have heard in the centre there will be no ATMs anymore?
9. How will the weather be most likely there now in August/September? For sure, just estimates...
10. Any recommendations for a cheap and good place to stay in Balikpapan, Samarinda, on the way and Pontianak?

Many thanks for your help and advice, Georg.

Edited by jorgito135
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shr01
shr01

Hi, I did the cross Borneo trek last year. It is not a trek where you can just show up and start walking, it takes some preparation (guide/porters, food, canoe to pick you up at the other side of the jungle etc.). I would advice to arrange the trek in advance. Also you won't regret taking a hammock with a rain cover, otherwise you'll be sleeping on the jungle floor. Also definitely need a water filter. We used Kompakh for our west to east trek. Took less then 2 weeks to get from Putusibau to Balikpapan. Flying from Putussibau to Pontianak is pretty cheap and much faster then the bus (which probably is cheaper). To see wildlife a Tanjung Puting river cruise is very good (semi wild orang utan, proboscis monkeys, tarsiers, macaques, lots of birds). Closer to Putussibau is the Danau Sentarum NP (didn't visit) which has a orang utan population.

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