Borneo’s Heart: A Journey up the Kahayan River

By Michael Travers

I’d come to Kalimantan to scratch an itch I’d had for a long time – to travel the long and slow coffee-coloured rivers that feed the vast peatland jungles of Borneo. The orangutans were the draw, that’s for sure, but the real magic I found on this trip wasn’t just in the trees, but in the slow and constant flow of the river itself, and the many quiet moments of introspection and quietude it afforded that is missing in my western world.

Onboard the Rahai’i Pangun

For four days, we travelled on the Rahai’i Pangun, a beautifully restored ex-floating market boat that once brought local commerce to the small and isolated communities that line the Kahayan River. Our guide told us that her name loosely means “resurrected man,” and in her new incarnation as we moved downstream along the wild expanse of water, I began to understand that this link with the people and the forest is as important as ever.

The Kayahan River runs 650km from source to sea, and here in the middle of Borneo it moves slowly with a quiet strength. Wow Borneo! are our hosts, and they are the only cruising company operating in this part of Kalimantan, and that is a joy. We (four guests, four crew and two guides) had no other tourists in view for four days as we cruised down the river.

Encounter the Bornean Orangutans

The promised bornean orangutans appeared front of stage on the first day as we visited a sanctuary island run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), where rescued orangutans are prepared for life in the wild again. There were eight of them in varying stages of maturity who had come down to the water’s edge to feed on corn and melons provided by the rangers: adult and juvenile females, adolescent males, and a couple of ornery old males with the characteristic face folds and huge girth, all nonchalantly feeding in the morning light, impervious to our presence.

Each morning on the boat started before the sun. The jungle stood still around us, ancient and watchful. Birdsong echoed each morning through the mist, and now and then, a flash of colour as or a rustle in the canopy reminded us how alive it all was. Hornbills shimmered past and we yelled in delight. Proboscis monkeys sat in family silhouette against the changing dawn light in the trees.

Meet the Lovely People of Borneo

Along the way, we moored up and visited riverside villages. We met a man raising catfish, and an elderly couple growing oyster mushrooms thanks to technology brought to them by their scientist son-in-law. We met women making bags and drinking straws out of rattan and the wild grasses that grow on the riverside, and were welcomed into their home, treated to some local songs while we drank local hooch – fire water brewed from the local palm and enough to put you on your arse, but makes you want to come back for more. Like everywhere, hospitality is key and, as it is the world over, a smile and toast are the ultimate gestures of friendship and respect.

Human and Nature Connection in Borneo

Later that day we turned off the main river into a side channel, maybe 15 or 20 metres wide, which extended down through the peatlands in a series of heavily forested islands, where we could reach out and touch the jungle as it sidled by close to the boat on either side. Macaques and proboscis monkeys moved through the canopy, birds sang, and monitor lizards and snakes swam across our bow. Coming around a river bend we saw two orangutans on the waters’ edge, four in the trees, and a lazy orange arm outstretched in a ‘next’ high in the canopy.

It may feel like it is from the tree-lined river, but this isn’t the Garden of Eden, and decades of human extraction and exploitation have left its mark. Palm oil, gold dredging, rubber, and illegal logging are all evidence, and it’s visible as you drive across the countryside. But here on the river, nature is resilient. It has a strong foothold and isn’t letting go – albeit with a healthy amount of assistance by the likes of BOS, Wow Borneo!, and the local Dayak people themselves, who fight the good fight to keep their forests intact as an integral part of their way of life. The experience to me is one of community innovation rooted in care for both land and future.

Stories from the Kahayan River of Borneo

All up, we saw 34 orangutans on our journey, in various stages of the rehabilitation process. Many will be released back into the virgin forest hundreds of kilometres up stream. Some will stay here and end their days in the safety of the small islands, fed by rangers and protected. When I met the gaze of the big male as we floated by, and he held it — calm, steady, unafraid. In that moment, I felt a strange and beautiful clarity: not pity, but respect. This was not a creature clinging to survival. This was a being still being, in spite of everything. Not all would return to the forest, but all were safe. And that, in itself, was a powerful kind of triumph.

The Kahayan is a river of stories carried in rubber sap, in gold, in palm oil, in the green hush of the forest, the booming cry of the hornbills, the chatter of monkeys, the outboards of the local boats, and the quiet presence of the orangutan. I came seeking stillness, and I found it. But I also found something more profound: a deeper connection to this living, breathing place. Because the stillness of the jungle isn’t silence – it’s alive with the sounds of resilience and strength.

Into the Borneo’s Heart with Us

If you’d like to to do river cruise with SeaTrek and Wow Borneo! to experience Kalimantan’s rivers and orangutans, enquire about our Orangutans & Dragons cruises that run between April and August each year.