Straddling the forest-fringed Arut River on the southern edge of Indonesian Borneo, Pangkalan Bun is mostly seen as a steppingstone for launching adventures into the undiscovered wilds of Central Kalimantan. It's conveniently served by the Iskandar Airport, has a clutch of good guesthouses and shopping areas. Pangkalan Bun tour guides are experts on the old-growth rainforests of the nearby national parks.

Of those, it's undoubtedly the vast Tanjung Puting National Park that tops the charts. An intrepid traveller's dream come true, it spreads out on the edge of the Java Sea in a patchwork of slow-moving rivers, peats, and swamps. Multi-day tours depart for the wilds from Pangkalan Bun throughout the year, offering days of boating through the primaeval forests, spotting gibbons, proboscis monkeys and more.

Along the way, the Orangutan Care Center Quarantine is a likely stop on most itineraries. It's one of the other great ecotourists draws around Pangkalan Bun, that has been rescuing and rehabilitating captive orangutans since 1998. Head there to glimpse the red-haired simians in their own enclave of old-growth rainforest.