Hey Shelby. I completely agree with you and I also tend to not be keen on taking tours. As you say, there is often a lot of time waiting around, gimmicks and being taken to restaurants and shops and such. In this case, it was a very different experience. It’s not possible to enter the National Park without a klotok (boat) or a speedboat – though it is possible to rent one and organise your trip in a more DIY style. Unfortunately, this way is much more difficult, especially if you don’t speak the local language or if you don’t have some time beforehand in the local area. The orangutan feeding stations are only open at specific intervals and the tours are planned around these times, rather than having lots of groups of tourists traipsing through the jungle and disturbing orangutans.