As commuting goes, it doesn’t get much easier.
Wildlife expert Ganyah Goldstein’s “office” is just two steps from her rainforest research camp.
The 24-year-old graduated as a wildlife biologist from the Royal Veterinary College in London in 2023 and has spent the last few years living in remote areas of the world, researching wild animals.
He currently works at a research camp in Sebengau National Park in Borneo, where he works with orangutans. She documents her experiences living in the natural world on TikTok (@ganyahgold), where he has gained 70,500 followers.
Here, Ganyah reveals the realities of living in the jungle, from falling asleep under “thousands of stars” and having breakfast with butterflies and lizards, to dealing with painful bites from poisonous bugs. She also remembers encounters with animals that “changed her forever.”
Ganyah Goldstein graduated as a wildlife biologist from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2019 and has spent the last few years living in remote areas of the world.
Ganyah currently works at a research camp in Sebengau National Park in Borneo, where she works with orangutans. She documents her experiences living in the natural world on TikTok.
Ganyah, of Canadian and Moroccan descent, told MailOnline Travel that living in the jungle is a “dream come true”.
She said: ‘I wake up to the calls of gibbons, and the first thing I see when I get out of bed and go out are blue butterflies and tall green trees.
‘During breakfast, I sometimes see a monitor lizard swimming around.
‘I love the fact that my commute is literally two steps and I’m in the rainforest. It’s very quiet here and when you’re not working it’s a very relaxing place to live.
‘You never know how lucky you may be either. One morning, you might spot a pigtail macaque or red langar monkey high in the trees.
“Plus, there is little to no light pollution, so seeing thousands of stars at night or watching the craziest storms is always very exciting.”
He pointed to two encounters with orangutans that he had as one of his best moments in the jungle.
One took place at 5 a.m., when an orangutan named Georgia stopped and stared at her.
Ganyah told MailOnline Travel: “The first thing I see when I get out of bed and go out are blue butterflies and tall green trees.”
Ganyah said living in the jungle is a “dream come true.” She said Borneo is a “very peaceful” and “relaxing” place to live.
“It was that moment when I realized that we recognized each other as other beings,” Ganyah said. “It was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.”
The other memorable moment was when a baby orangutan named Gus ate jelly bark upside down while staring at it.
“I lay in my hammock looking at Gus,” Ganyah said, “and we enjoyed each other’s company for the next 10 minutes.”
One of the moments Ganyah said ‘changed her life’ was ‘connecting’ with a wild giraffe in Africa.
She recalled: ‘The wildlife professional I was working with had rescued, rehabilitated and released a female giraffe as a baby. Her name was Ayana. Every time we drove through the game reserve where Ayana lived, she would come running out of nowhere towards us in the vehicle.
‘She looked me right in the face and kept getting really close. This happened almost every day for a month. The beauty of an animal that remembers a human forever.’
Ganyah had a similar experience while volunteering at a rescue center in Costa Rica, where she worked with sloths, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, raccoons, opossums, and kinkajous.
On her last day, while cleaning the baby howler monkey’s enclosure, she said the monkey put its legs and arms around her legs and looked at her.
‘She didn’t let go of me for at least five minutes. We just looked at each other and I felt like she knew she was leaving me,” Ganyah said.
Ganyah said: “I love the fact that my commute is literally two steps and I’m in the rainforest.”
Ganyah said: “During breakfast, sometimes I see a monitor lizard swimming.” She is pictured above hanging laundry at the research field.
One of the moments Ganyah said “changed her life” was “connecting” with a wild giraffe in Africa named Ayana (pictured left). She said there is beauty in “an animal that remembers a human forever.”
Another life-changing moment took place in Uganda, in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where Ganyah worked with mountain gorillas.
She said: ‘A silverback passed my feet. We always have to keep our distance, but when the gorillas decide to walk past you, you must stay still. I cried afterwards.
‘I watched these two cheeky gorillas playing in the tree, as if they were pulling a rope, before one of them fell from about three meters high. You saw how the green leaves below were like cushions when it fell. The mother was nearby and she didn’t seem upset at all, and she was confident that they would be okay. However, the following fall, the little boy ran back into his mother’s arms for comfort.
‘When you look at gorillas, you realize how similar we are.
‘People don’t understand gorillas. They see them as big and scary, I see them as gentle, affectionate and herbivorous.’
While Ganyah claims she is not afraid of any animals, she has had some terrifying experiences, including coming face to face with an angry male macaque.
She said: ‘(The macaque) immediately threatened me by opening its mouth and showing me those two huge sharp teeth. I crouched down and hid my face to avoid eye contact and appear as unthreatening as possible. Once he backed away, I was able to slowly walk away.
While Ganyah claims she is not afraid of any animals, she has had some terrifying experiences, including coming face to face with an angry male macaque.
A life-changing moment for Ganyah was working in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with mountain gorillas. While some people see them as “big and scary,” she sees them as “gentle, loving and herbivorous.”
And Ganyah explained that the jungle is not always a bed of roses.
She revealed that she was bitten on the arm by a poisonous centipede, and that the “shooting pain” from the attack lasted for “two tortuous hours.”
Other dangers could include encountering king cobras or “a mother sun bear with her cubs,” although “both of those things have a very low chance of happening, because if they hear you, they’ll be the ones to run away.”
Living in so many different places, Ganyah has learned to pack light and advises anyone traveling to the jungle to do the same.
She suggests packing all your clothes in cubes so you can easily access them while you’re on the go. She advises travelers to bring many different brands of mosquito repellents and antihistamines and invest in “high-quality outdoor clothing.”
And he adds: ‘Bring some ambient light. I have a sunset lamp that is super lightweight and very quickly makes the room feel good.’
To see more from Ganyah, visit her on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@ganyahgoldor Instagram on www.instagram.com/gardenofganyah/.
