ToujoursVoyager

Hello,

We have already received wonderful advice. We have decided to do two separate trips, one for Indonesia and one for South East Asia.

We are going in July 2018. 4 adults and 2 children.

After a week in Ubud, we are considering traveling to Camp Leaky to see the wild Orangutans. We would be sleeping on a houseboat. The airport is Palangkaraya (PKY).

Coming back from Palangkaraya, there is a direct flight into Solo on Java (1 hour) versus taking a connection into Yogyakarta (5 hours). Is it better to hire a driver in Solo and just drive us to Borobudur? Or take the train from Solo to Yogyakarta? Or I should just fly into Yogyakarta even with the connection ? What is the less painful option? How is the trafic in Solo?

We are still not sure if we want to take this side trip into Borneo because of how time consuming it is. On the other hand, it has the potential for some amazing memories. To paraphrase Dr. Galdikas, wild Orangutans may cease to exist in 10 years if nothing is done to protect them.

Kathie

Getting to where you can see orangutans in Indonesian Borneo is more complicated than seeing orangutans in Malaysian Borneo.

It makes more sense for you to fly into Solo and hire a car and driver from there. You might have the driver just take you to Yogyakarta (under an hour) or the two hours to Borobudur. The traffic in Yogyakarta and Solo is bad, but that means it's now an hour from one to the other as opposed to 20 minutes when I first visited 20+ years ago.

To get to the orangutans in Malaysian Borneo (Sabah), you would fly into Lahad Datu. We flew from KL to Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu. We were then picked up by the folks at Borneo Rainforest Lodge and taken 2+ hours into the primary rainforest. It was a fabulous trip!

marmot

I believe the non-stop from Palangka Raya to Solo is on Lion Air and the flight from PYK to Yogya with a stop in Jakarta is on Garuda. Difficult decision. Garuda is a better airline and more likely to be on time. If it were me, I'd take a chance on Lion Air, but don't be surprised if you encounter delay.

Solo airport is about 2 hours from the center of Yogyakarta. Yogya is quite spread out, so travel time (and traffic) depends on your destination. Taking the train from Solo to Yogya is possible, but a car and driver would be a whole lot easier.

Solo airport is quite close to Prambanan temple which is a good stopping off point on the way to Yogya.

If you go directly to Borobudur from Solo airport the travel time is about 2.5 hours. There's a highly scenic drive around Mt. Merapi which most drivers will know.

If you visualize a clock face, Solo airport would be at 3:00, Yogya at 6:00 and Borobudur at 9:00. Merapi would be in the center.

ToujoursVoyager

Thank you! That is exactly the kind of information I needed! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

I have not had a chance to look at the Malaysia side of Orangutans seeing; I will look to see if it fits our travel plans better. If we go with the Indonesian Orangutans, after sightseeing, we will probably fly direct into Solo and hire a driver; we will have decide if we want to go to Borobudur first or Prambanan.

There is so much to see. Hard but exciting decisions to make.

It is based on your recommendations that we looked into Como Shambhala; it seems to fit our needs perfectly especially with my father being a Hata Yoga teacher and he loves to meditate.

mlgb

The closestt airport for Camp Leakey is Pangkalan Bun, PKN.

ToujoursVoyager

Ok. Thank you. I will look at that airport also.