....our previous blog post on our unique experience on the Mighty Mahakam River......
The only mention Lonely Planet makes of Muara Kaman is to say that there is a lake nearby, and that the losmen there is particularly dismal, so our
expectations weren’t high. However, the six days we spent there were among the
most memorable of our trip.
We had stopped in the village to try to catch another boat
up a smaller tributary of the Mahakam River. Arriving at 6 am, we asked around
about the boat, and were directed to a pier in the village. Several people
ensured us it would come, and although we were dead tired, we hung around at
the friendly warung for the day. At
around 7pm, it was pretty clear it wasn’t coming, and with assurances of a
vessel the next day, we were generously offered a bed for the night on the
floor of the warung family, alongside
the married couple and baby.
This was our first experience staying in an Indonesian
family home, and to say it was an eye-opener is an understatement. They were
not poor, with the requisite big screen TV in the front of their two big rooms,
but some things about the way they lived perplexed us. Firstly, the house was
absolutely stifling, but all the doors and windows were closed, and the fan we
wistfully stared at was not to be used. We were offered use of the mandi (bathroom), and weren’t sure what
to do to shield ourselves from the street, which was in full view. We realized
afterwards, they must squat down to shower. We were embarrassed to ask, but had
to, where to pee in the night, as there was no toilet, and were shown a hole
the size of a tennis ball in the middle of the kitchen floor- we never did find
out where the family went when they needed a dump! Of course, we were very
grateful for their hospitality, and happily adjusted to their way of doing
things, even though it was a bit bizarre!
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| Warung family's front room, Muara Kaman |
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| Warung family in the warung |
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| Fun at the warung, Muara Kaman |
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| Our hosts, Muara Kaman |
Anyway, the next day, we waited again for the boat, and once
again it didn’t show up. We decided to check into the local losmen (nothing particularly dismal
about it), and hang around for a while. We ditched the idea of going up river,
as the unpredictability of that route schedule had us worried for getting back
in time for our flight. This turned out to be a good move, as the boat never
showed up.
Tourists don’t stop at this village, because, although the
public ferry passes here, it doesn’t officially stop here- something we found
out when we wanted to leave. We were lucky to get a nice captain on our inward
journey, who made the stop. It’s just an ordinary, Muslim village, with no
sights or dayak highlights. The
people of Muara Kaman, which is only
a few hours away from the big city of Samarinda,
are so sincere, welcoming and generous- we had several offers to stay at
people’s houses while we were there.
We once again stumbled across another wedding- this one
quite fancy, and we felt like the stars of the show- quite embarrassing! Luckily
one of the family members spoke English (the only person in the village that we
came across), and we spent hours answering questions, had fun taking photos
with the crazy older women, and literally being dragged up on to the stage to
dance to the awful, loud music.
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| Wedding family, Muara Kaman |
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| Wedding guests, Muara Kaman |
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| Instant new friends |
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| With Dad in the bridal suite! |
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| Funny lady, Muara Kaman wedding |
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| Posers |
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| Cuties at Muara Kaman wedding |
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| Wedding guest |
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| Wedding guest |
Another memorable experience was being taken out on sunset ces (motorised canoe) trip with the
warung family brothers and seeing several of the endangered pesut (freshwater dolphins) very close
to the boat.
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| Starting our sunset cruise |
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| Dolphin chasers, Muara Kaman |
The down side of being famous and unusual in the village,
was that everyone wanted us, and wanted us to do things with them, and we
didn’t have much time by ourselves. The warung
family was so devastated we had moved to the losmen after the first night with them, we had to promise to
spend another night with them before we left.
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| Local wood carver, Muara Kaman |
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| Rainstorm, Muara Kaman |
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| Cuties, Muara Kaman |
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| Crazy kids, Muara Kaman |
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| Exhausted by the attention!! |
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| Sunday market produce, Muara Kaman |
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| Fish guts for sale, Muara Kaman |
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| Typical "dunny" on the river- most residents have one like this |
The morning of our escape (oh, I mean departure), we were
told there was a boat at dawn. Of course, this didn’t work out, with the vessel
steaming past us as we waved madly for it to stop. Fortunately, there was a colt (minibus) leaving within minutes,
and although we were disappointed not to be able to finish our Mahakam travels
by boat, we were glad to return to Samarinda
on that day. The colt ride was
atrocious on terrible roads in an extremely uncomfortable squeeze, and it did
make us appreciate how wonderful our river travels had been.
To sum up, our Kalimantan
travels can be neatly divided into two parts. The first month was at times more
frustrating and hard going than other places in Indonesia we have visited, but ultimately rewarding, as we had to
work hard to get results. In many of the areas we visited the combination of
logging, burning off cleared areas of land, roads full of polluting trucks and
the ever-present rubbish was a less than pleasant scene, but it did make the
more peaceful areas even more special. The second month was mainly on the
Mahakam River trip and was one of the best experiences we have had travelling,
and definitely the most enjoyable time we had in Kalimantan.
A few more notes
on travel in Kalimantan:
Kalimantan is
majority Muslim, with many charmingly different mosque designs, including some unusual
types without domes. There are many Christians, especially in Central Kalimantan and along the
Mahakam River, and their churches are often built to a traditional style. We
were surprised, too, to come across a few scattered Hindu communities, complete
with puras (temples), around Palangka Raya and Samarinda.
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| Banjarmasin mosque |
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| Martapura mosque |
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| Palangka Raya mosque |
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| Simple mosque on the Mahakam River |
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| Mosque, Muara Muntai |
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| Mosque, Muara Kaman |
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| Church, Palangka Raya |
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| Long Bangun church |
Generally, the smaller the town in Indonesia, the more basic the food is. We tried to look out for BBQ
fish warungs (food stalls) on the
coast. Combined with rice, greens and sambal
(chilli sauce), this was our favourite meal. In bigger cities, Padang food
was another preferred fodder, with the delicious beef rendang a hit with us both. A new find was lalapan ayam, a dish of
plain rice with a piece of spiced chicken, grilled eggplant, tofu, tempe (fermented bean curd) and sambal. Otherwise, we lived on basic
rice/soup/noodle dishes, and the occasional satay
meal.
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| Typical meal for us |
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| Messy, delicious Padang feast, Samarinda |
Accommodation was slightly more expensive than other parts
of Indonesia we have visited. We
always managed to find a cheap room, but the choice is small, and the quality
is definitely lower than elsewhere in Indonesia
we have been. On average we paid 100,000 rup (AU$10) a night for a fan room,
sometimes with breakfast included, sometimes with a shared bathroom, and always
with happily stunned staff.
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| Terrible bathroom, Long Bangun |
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| Room Muara Kaman |
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| Posh Banjarmasin room |
Land transport in Kalimantan
is frankly terrible. The roads are atrocious mainly due to the prevalence of
large scale mines, and their enormous mining vehicles. They create pot holes
and chew up the whole road. Richard made a good point, comparing how the mining
companies in Australia are made to
pay for roads and road maintenance, or build rail lines to transport their
goods. Such a marked difference to here. On the road, we took buses- either
big, old heat boxes, or smaller “Colts”-
a minibus-type of vehicle. There were also Kijangs
available (see Sulawesi blogs for
information about these), but the price tended to be much higher, so we tended
to stick to the buses. Angkots (minibuses
with seats in the back facing each
other) were available very cheaply for short trips around town, as were becaks, cycle rickshaws just big enough
for two Western bums. The second part of our journey in Kalimantan was
overwhelmingly boats, with our aquatic trips varied from tiny, rickety canoes
for river crossings, to the great large wooden river boats and the huge Pelni
fleet.
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| River boat Banjarmasin to Negara |
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| Becak (cycle rickshaw) |
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| "Colt" minibus |
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| "Ces" boats, motorised canoes |
Kalimantan is one
place especially where the inhabitants (reconfirming Indonesians place as the
friendliest people in Asia), and the
actual journeys (always interesting, if not always pleasurable) that were the
highlights for us. This quote by Robert Louis Stevenson is especially relative
for this journey of ours:
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I
travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
PS After what seems like a long two months in
Kalimantan, we are heading for the
beach- to be more specific Southern
Thailand, to a favourite place from past years, and we intend to fish
(Richard), sun our pale bodies, eat yummy Thai food, relax, and not write any blogs
for at least two months! So stay tuned at the end of January for what we’ve got
planned next.......
