Teritip Crocodile Breeding Farm (Penangkaran Buaya Teritip)

Next destination was to go see the crocodiles at Teritip Crocodile Breeding Farm. East Kalimantan is also famous with the crocodiles and in this farm, you can see many kinds of crocodilians of varying sizes and ages. 

The farm is not far from Samboja Lodge; it takes more or less 35 mins. The entrance ticket is Rp. 15,000 ($1) each, doesn't matter whether you're domestic or international tourist. It was pouring rain when we got there but that wasn't going to stop us from witnessing these beasts. The crocodiles reside in water pens. There are probably more than 30 young crocodiles in one pen.

Baby crocs

This is also considered "baby"

It was really sad to see because each water pen is too small for the crocs and this place is overpopulated, even though it is actually 5 hectares wide. The guides do not speak English so it is hard to get an explanation if you didn't speak Bahasa Indonesia. Joe was offered to feed the baby crocodiles with chicken (dead chicken) and it costs Rp.  10,000 (80¢) for one chicken and we bought 5 chickens. 

The guide then offered us the opportunity to see the adult crocodiles in the creek first and feed them there. Even though the idea was rather intimidating because they are WILD, we agreed out of adventurous curious, plus they assured us that it is SAFE. The guides called the crocs by letting out a series of tongue rolling and started to use sticks to shake the water. He threw one chicken in the mud and one of  the crocodiles swam closer to the bridge we were standing on. It was shocking to see how freaking big they are, THEY ARE EXTREMELY HUGE, and that was when Ayu got scared for her life and kept screaming to stay safe. The guide threw another chicken and the crocodiles were then thrashing about and fighting to get it. And yep, we didn't wanna spend too long there, the crocodiles scared the hell out of one of us. 

Couldn't even take a picture to show how HUGE they are because of we were close and they were hungry

We then went to feed the baby crocodiles in the water pen. The are few officers cleaning near the bridge where the adult crocodiles live and there is a door that separated the creek and the water pens. Joe finally decided to get his hands dirty and throw a chicken to the inside of the water pen. We had 3 more chicken left and Joe threw the chicken to the baby crocs. As soon as the chicken hit the water, the crocs went absolutely berserk. We watched as they thrashed and fiercely competed for the snack. The guide said there are thousands of crocodiles live there and it is a private farm and he also explained about how many chickens they feed the crocs in a day but we didn't remember the exact figure, but they go through a LOT of chickens each day. 

They also sell crocodile skin products like belts, wallets, etc, and crocodile meat, including penis and testicles in a jar of brine. Apparently, people drink the water for stamina in the bedroom. The guide grinned and offered Joe a drink of the tonic to which he laughed and politely refused. 

They have separate pens for crocodiles specifically set aside which are intended for meat and skin they used to make the products. We didn't see the slaughterhouse where those crocodiles are processed. Every weekend, they offer visitors a photo session with baby crocodiles with its mouth taped for Rp. 10,000 (80¢). We were not there during weekend so a picture with them was out of the question. We also visited a confirmed man-eater, this crocodile ate a human somewhere in Kalimantan and it made headlines. They called it Monster of Sangatta. We are not really sure about the authenticity of this news though. 

Monster of Sangatta

Gharials

The guys who work in this farm actually clean the pens without any safety equipment. Our guide who also often cleans the pen said that he was a little bit afraid every time he does that but he believes that God will protect him. He also takes the eggs and put them in the safe place because the male crocodiles will eat the eggs. What a high-risk job and the salary is not even worth it.

Joe (of course) took a chance to try the crocodile satay and said it tasted like rough, stringy chicken. While Joe was enjoying his satay, we saw two elephants walking across the satay place and sadly they were chained.

There were also few monkeys in a cage and they were very aggressive. We're not sure why they put them there, but probably because there is no zoo in Kalimantan, they use this place as a small zoo for visitors. Visiting this place was an unforgettable memory leaving a lot of mixed feelings.