Tanjung Puting is one of the natural wonders of the world! You may not believe this after you have been there only two days or three days, but after the fourth or fifth day something happens. You are captivated completely by the purity of the air, the openness of the night sky with the most remarkable view of the Milky Way, the magnificence and dignity of the gentle orangutans, the thundering downpours that instantly cool the air, and the clarity of the brilliant crimson sunsets.

Tanjung Puting is the largest and most diverse protected example of extensive coastal tropical health and peat swamp forest which used to cover much of southern Borneo. The area was originally declared as a game reserve in 1935 and a National Park in 1982. While the Park has a checkered history of weak protection, nonetheless, it remains substantially wild and natural.

Tanjung Puting is covered by a complex mosaic of diverse lowland habitats. It contains 3,040 km2 (or 1,174 square miles) of low lying swampy terrain punctuated by black water rivers which flow into the Java Sea. At the mouth of these rivers and along the sea coast are found nipah / mangrove swamps. Mangroves teem with animal life. Tanjung Puting also includes tall dry ground tropical rain forest, primarily tropical heath forest, with a canopy of 30 meters (approximately 100 feet) with “emergents” exceeding 50 meters (approximately 165 ft) in height, seasonally inundated peat swamp forest with peat in layers two or more meters (approximately 7 feet) deep, open depression lakes formed by fire, and open areas of abandoned dry rice fields now covered with elephant grass and ferns. The tropical heath forest which is called “kerangas” in parts of Borneo, is only found on very poor, typically white-sandy soils and is characterized by medium-sized trees.

“Clouded leopards, civets, and Malaysian sun bears cavort in the park as do mouse deer, barking deer, sambar deer, and the wild cattle known as banteng.”