From Long Hubung, we again took a kapal biasa to Long Iram, a slightly bigger town, that was Muslim and not dayak (the dayaks are mostly Catholic or Protestant, being converted to Christianity by missionaries in the early 20th century). It was in this small town we had our worst room, although the family who ran it were so over-the-top welcoming- even bringing us huge plates of fresh, hot donuts and coffee in the mornings (would have been good if it wasn’t at 6 am!), that we still enjoyed it.
Here is video of our dumpy accommodation
Long Iram kids
Strange statue, Long Iram
Long Iram kids
House, Long Iram
On one of our long, hot walks around town, we were surprised to come across another long-eared woman sitting out the front of a house, this being a Muslim town. This woman’s earlobes were only a few inches long, and she said a straight out no to a photo, but didn’t mind us stopping for a chat to escape the heat for a few minutes.
We spent a day visiting a nearby dayak village called Tering Lama. The village was quite interesting, with an marvelous church with totem poles out the front showing a pictorial history of the village (except it only started when the missionaries arrived!), and lots of what were now becoming familiar cute wooden house, with flower gardens out the front. The most remarkable part was the slip-sliding along the muddy path for nine kms to reach Tering Lama, and as a result we decided to splurge on the way back with a ces boat (motorised taxi canoe) for 100,000 rup (AU$10), and enjoy the river scenery.
Dayak statue, Tering Lama
Dayak statue, Tering Lama
Tering Lama
Outside church, Tering Lama
Biblical carvings, church, Tering Lama
Carvings outside church, Tering Lama
The coming of the missionaries carvings, Tering Lama
Missionary speaking to dayaks, Tering Lama
Church, Tering Lama
Tering Lama house and garden
Ces ride back to Long Iram
Every evening in LongIram we loved going down to the river, and soaking our dirty, tired feet in the waters, whilst watching the kids have their mad half hour playing and washing before it got dark.
Pushing the limits of our camera lens!
Long Iram
School boys, Long Iram
Sunset, Long Iram
Only one kapalbiasa travels the upper Mahakam each way every day, so the time was bound to come on our slow trip back that would arrive in the middle of the night somewhere, and Muara Muntai, the next town, was that place. Arriving at 3am, and finding a completely shut up town, we decided to sleep the rest of the night on the pier.
Bed for the night, Muara Muntai
Dawn, Muara Muntai
A somewhat bigger town, Muara Muntai is interesting in that it is set entirely on boardwalks. It’s quite amazing to see huge houses and shops on what at first glance appears to be an ordinary street. Many motorbikes whizz up and down these, and we had to accustom ourselves to “traffic” again. We luxuriated in 24 hour electricity, with a fan in our room and cold drinks in the shop's fridges.
Rich, Muara Muntai
Big house built on boardwalk, Muara Muntai
Boardwalk, Muara Muntai
Muara Muntai
Schoolkids, Muara Muntai- notice the interesting hand signs!
Boardwalks, Muara Muntai
Ridiculously photogenic kid
Basket maker, Muara Muntai
Again, we were fortunate with our timing to visit two different weddings along the boardwalk in one day! Although the reception wasn’t quite as over the top as our experiences in Aceh and Sulawesi, we were still treated to some delicious food, and posed for numerous photos with the bride and groom. The second wedding had some dubious entertainment in the form of two scantily clad (for here) women dancing and singing very sexually- the kids seemed to enjoy it, though!
Groom with scary bride
Well fed at wedding, Muara Muntai
Who invited them?!
Floor show, wedding, Muara Muntai
Due to the kapalbiasa departing in the middle of the night, we opted for the shared speedboat to our next destination, Kota Bangun. Unfortunately, when the vessel came it was so overloaded there wasn’t room for us to join them, so we were happy when a ces driver offered to take for the same price. The back jolting one and a half hour journey was not the most comfortable, but it was fast.
Kota Bangun was the biggest town on the Mahakam so far. The losmen across the river from where we were dropped off was great for the price (50,000 rup/AU$5), and we met two bule (foreign) women travelling upriver, so we chatted our hearts out for the few hours they were in town. Our main aim in visiting Kota Bangun was to connect to a town slightly further north, where we hoped to take another river trip up north. Information was very hard to come by, our lack of Indonesian being particularly frustrating at this point in the trip. Eventually we found out what we needed to know, and set off (at 4 am!) for Muara Kaman.
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