Tanjung Puting

Anyone been to the Tanjung Puting National Park in Kalimantan? I%26#39;m interested in suggestions for 1) how best to get there; 2) where to stay; and 3) good local travel assistance for local travel arrangements.

Oh, and by the way: if you%26#39;ve been, what do you recommend, or not....?

Tanjung Puting

Hi,

I would say Tanjung Punting is probably the best thing I have done in 10 trips and three years of living in Indonesia. It was really a great experience.

The best way to get their depends on where you are coming from, so if you could me some more information I can answer that question for you.

As for accommodation, the best place to stay is on the houseboat that you hire to take you into the national park. You organise that in the small town of Kumai which is at the entrance to the park. There are a number of small hotels in Kumai for a night or so at the beginning and end of your trip.

I%26#39;m not sure what you mean by good local travel assistance, but if you can clarify I%26#39;ll try and answer.

Tanjung Puting

Likely coming from Jakarta. I know you can fly to Balikpapan, or Palangkaraya but I presume you then must take either another commercial flight or a charter to some point closer to the park.

And by ';local travel assistance'; I meant exactly the sort of houseboat arrangements you say you made -- I guess my question is whether those arrangements can be made in advance --say, through an agent in Jakarta -- rather than waiting until on site.

Happy to hear you thought it was worth the trip!

Hi,

If you are coming from Jakarta you could fly to Pontianak, Palangkaraya, or Banjarmarsin. I recommend Banjarmarsin as it is an interesting place in it%26#39;s own right. It%26#39;s a city built around canals so you can see floating markets, mosques and houses and just generally watch life float by. Balikpapan is much further away.

From Banjarmarsin, you can fly to Pangkalanbun or take a bus. The bus takes about 16 hours. Pangkalanbun is about 30 mintes from Kumai, which is at the entrance to the park.

As far as I know it is not possible to organise the houseboats in advance. As long as you aren%26#39;t there at Lebaran or Christmas though, the are loads more boats than passengers so it%26#39;s easy to organize something when you arrive.

Got it. I was actually thinking of Banjarmasin, not Balikpapan -- I just mis-spoke.

16 hours on a Kalimantan motor coach does not appeal to me. Are the flights to Pangkalanbun on a regular, commercial schedule, or would they be private charters? Or is there an option to do either?

And I assume that once in Pankalanbun one hires a driver to get to Kumai?

Taxis meet arriving flights at Pangkalanbun airport. You need to stop off at the police station and then the National Park office before going to Kumai. The taxi drivers are aware of this.

There are scheduled flights on Dirgantara Air Services. I don%26#39;t know anything about air charters sorry.

I just remembered there are also flights to Pangkalanbun from Jakarta via Semarang on Linus Airways now as well. So that%26#39;s a faster option.

OK thanks much. Very useful information.

Hi,

I was in Pangkalanbun in December. There are daily flights from Pangkalanbun to Banjarmasin for 599,700Rp on Kalstar Aviation or you can get a direct flight from Jakarta to Pangkalanbun for 927,500Rp on Linus Air.

Hope this helps.

Scott