The undisputed highlight of our trip to Kalimantan was the 3 weeks where we undertook an incredible
trip up and down the Mahakam River- one of the longest rivers in Kalimantan. For travellers, the river
is an easy and relatively cheap way to experience a little bit of what life
must have been like here many years ago, with public ferries (kapal biasa) plying the waters every
day, and stopping in at most villages, big and small. Many dayak (original inhabitants of Borneo)
people reside along the river, and it is one of the few places to see some of
their culture.
After thoroughly checking out which boat went where at the
harbour in Samarinda, we decided on
the easiest option of a public ferry boat upriver to the end of the line to a
small village called LongBangun. We were extremely lucky that
the boats to the far reaches of the river had only begun with the monsoon
weather about a week before. Visiting communities further upriver from Long Bangun is possible, but as there
is no access by public ferry, prices for chartering small motorised canoes are
high.
Ferry boats in Samarinda port
We turned up at 6.00 am, were shown to the spacious, organized
and rain-proof sleeping quarters, with fans, mattresses, pillows, and windows
that opened (always a bonus in Indonesia!)
by the shyly friendly crew. A look around took in the large kitchen (complete
with food bubbling on the stove, a fridge with cold drinks, snacks, drinking water,
and table and stools), clean toilets, and a large, open downstairs area for
people on shorter journeys to sit or lie. We settled in for a long wait as
people and their possessions boarded, and were very surprised when the boat
began to pull out at the actual departure time of 7am!
Lower deck
Upper deck
Kitchen
Toilet/bathroom
The journey could not have been more different to our preceding ones in Kalimantan. We knew we had two days and two nights aboard, so we settled in, found a great place to sit up the
front of the boat, made friends with the lovely crew, ate rice soup, and slept
when we were tired in our extremely comfortable beds.
Captain
Richard amusing himself
Contemplative Rich
Our sleeping space
Sal on poop deck
For the firsttwo
days, the scenery was a mixture of industry (first huge coal barges up and down
along side us, and then logging tug boats towing vast rafts of hundreds of
logs) and towns filled with precarious stilt house over the river, women
washing clothes, kids playing in the river, and mosques wailing in the
background. We loved sitting up the front and watching all this life and
activity.
Coal barge
Logging boats
Scenery out of Samarinda
Life on the river
Goods waiting to board
But when we woke up after the second night, we found we had
mostly left the industry behind, and had entered a narrower part of the river,
where the forests and mangroves came down to the river side, the captain had to
negotiate rapids in the river, giant limestone cliffs filled with graves loomed
over us, and the villages became smaller and more rustic. This remarkable part of
the Mahakam is only accessed by boat, and it was what we had come to see.
Forested river banks
Mahakam River scenery
Dramatic sky over river
Typical river dwelling
Sunset from back deck
Misty morning
River life
Canoes on the river
Giant cliffs
Having read a bit about this river trip on travel forums, it
appeared to be the number one attraction that brought tourists to Kalimantan, and we were expecting a
much more touristy experience than what we encountered. Apart from the crew not
sure what to make of us, the passing boats and people on the banks of the river
stared at us with the wonder we are now used to, and many of our fellow
passengers approached us to see how much info they could pump out of us with
our limited Indonesian.
SIDE NOTE- The top 10 questions asked of us by most
Indonesians we have just met (in order):
1.Where are you from?
2.Where are you going?
3.Do you speak Indonesian?
4.How old are you?
5.Is that your husband/wife?
6.Do you have children?
7.How long have you been married? (This is in
confusion to us not having any kids)
8.What is your name?
9.What is your religion?
10. What you doing in Indonesia?
Arriving at the dayak village of LongBangun in the afternoon of day three, even after 54 hours onboard, we definitely did not want to get off, although the village looked attractive. We were sad to leave our little viewing balcony, and the crew, and the wonderful peaceful feeling of travelling on the waters.
"Our" boat, the Akbar Amanda, from the penginapan
We found a penginapan (boarding house) on the river, and were surprised to bump into one of two bule (foreigner) couples we met along the river.
Outside the longhouse, Long Bangun
Outside the longhouse, Long Bangun
Outside the longhouse, Long Bangun
Local cuties
Village houses
Church carving,Long Bangun
Local girl
We were very fortunate to be in time for a “huduq” festival the next day. Because no one speaks English, and our Indonesian is limited, we were only able to find out it was something to do with the rice planting season. It was a fantastic affair, with young boys rhythmically banging on long drums and a gong for hours, before an old lady in traditional costume lead young girls around in a sort of dance in front of the village long house (place for gatherings). The real feature came down the road in the form of men dressed as creatures unknown to us. We had seen people making the costumes the day before, but couldn’t have dreamed the dramatic affect it would have when it all came together. Small children were running scared, as the creatures danced and strutted their way down the street. Everything moved inside the longhouse, and continued for a couple of hours, when suddenly the music stopped, and everyone left in a matter of seconds!
A short video of the festivities (unfortunately you can’t hear the great drumming, but gives some idea)
Long drums,Long Bangun
Long house,Long Bangun
Dayak festival, Long Bangun
Dayak festival, Long Bangun
Dayak festival, Long Bangun
Dayak festival, Long Bangun
Dayak festival, Long Bangun
Dayak festival, Long Bangun
Dayak festival, Long Bangun
“Our” boat was leaving the following day, so we decided to leave with them and start our cruise slowly back down the Mahakam stopping at some small places on the way. This time, we were to sit on the bottom deck with the short trip passengers, which was interesting as we could see the loading and unloading procedure.
River scenery
Beautiful river
Boat floor
Long Hubung was next, and although we knew it was a small dayak village, we didn’t realize quite how tiny, and that a stay at the local penginapan would involve an hour’s “conversation” with the friendly owner, before being showed to a basic, but clean room with only mattresses on the floor above his shop. It was almost an impossible challenge for Sally to keep up with him, but he definitely expected us to know some of his language, which is fair enough.
Our host with his whiskey concoction- we declined a taste
Our room Long Hubung
We loved the little village, especially when we finally found the one warung (eating place) in town, and spent a couple of days wandering around the limited tracks enjoying the local’s smiles and the brilliant carvings- both outside the local church, and people’s houses. Being Christians, there was a church, pigs, and dogs galore- these were mostly scabby specimens that should have put out of their misery. Dodging the shit all over the paths was not a highlight. The men of the village whizzed around on motorbikes, with traditional round hats on, and home carved knife sheaths in their belts.
Totem outside house,Long Hubung
Totem,Long Hubung
Totem,Long Hubung
Old woman, Long Hubung
Long Hubung house
We were especially lucky here to see an old woman with earlobes stretched down past her shoulders, filled with multiple silver hoops, and tattoos on her wrists and ankles. There are only a few of these women left, and although we asked her politely in Indonesian for a photo, she wasn’t keen, so we respected that, even though we were disappointed. However, it won’t be hard to remember her lovely, smiley, wrinkled face with red stained teeth, and her amazing ears and tattoos.
One strange thing happened on our departure from the floating warung at the pier in Long Hubung. The grandmother of the family we had made friends with held out the back of the baby’s nappy and asked us to spit down it! Apparently it’s good luck- that’s a first!
Warung, Long Hubung
LeavingLong Hubung
Baby carrier, boat toLong Iram
Boat to Long Iram
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.
It was a relief to return to Banjarmasin and escape the smoky air of Central Kalimantan, and prepare for our river trip to the village
of Negara. It was exciting for us,
not just because we were looking forward to the journey, but also because something
we wanted to do was finally coming to fruition! We were glad we had arrived
early at the wharf to nab a spot on the strangely sloping and low-ceilinged
sleeping platform on the boat, and we watched the skinny guys work under the
boiling sun loading up the vessel. The boat filled up with very curious (about
us!) country folk, and was only a few hours late leaving. Sitting outside on
the front of the boat watching village life and the agricultural scenery
gliding by was so tranquil, and at night we reluctantly moved inside to
“sleep”, due to inadequate room on the outside deck (the boat was primarily a
cargo boat, stacked from floor to ceiling with goods). The usual Indonesian
habits of closing all the windows in a vehicle, chain-smoking, talking at the
tops of their voices, and blasting out bad karaoke were all in evidence on this
trip, so needless to say, we didn’t get a lot of sleep. As we grew closer to Negara, the vessel stopped more and
more often, dropping off and picking up people and goods, and our approach
appeared to be imminent (we had absolutely no idea when the journey would end!)
As much as we were looking forward to the next part of our trip, we were sad to
be concluding the first pleasurable transport experience in Kalimantan! Amazingly, this eventful
and pleasant 20 hour boat trip was 20,000 rupiah, or AU$2.
Sleeping quarters, Negara boat
Negara boat
Negara boat
Negara boat
Waterways
Typical river-dweller's home
Villages along the river
No privacy- bathing in the river
For some reason Negara
appeared to have a very high proportion of the mentally challenged, all of whom
seemed to make a bee line for us. We made a quick exit to Kandangan where we spent another night- this time without bed bugs.
The journey to the port town of Batulicin was long, hot, dusty and tiring (that actually sums up
all our bus travel to date in Kalimantan!)
The town itself was small and uneventful, but we had a charming room, which, at
AU$5, happened to be our cheapest yet, and enjoyed some of the best fish we’ve
had in Kalimantan.
It looked much better in real life!!
Enjoying a refreshing mango shake
We were hoping to catch the twice monthly Pelni ferry from
here to Samarinda, a big town in East Kalimantan, and for once luck was
on our side- there was a ferry leaving in a few days time. The down side was
the trip was via Pare Pare on the
west coast of Sulawesi, a slight
detour of a mere 22 hours, but we decided it would be an experience to spend
two days and two nights on a big ferry, and went for it. We may have rethought
that if we knew what we were in for!!
Sal taking our gear to the Pelni ferry
Having being on one Pelni ship before- last year in Sulawesi, we were under no illusions
about the standard of the ship. They are certainly not luxury vessels, and the
KM Binaiya from Batulicin to ParePare was a big, old, dirty beast.
Half of the Pelni ship
The boarding process was not too chaotic, and we scored back
to back wooden seats under cover at the back of the boat, where we could spread
our stuff out, and enjoy the fresh air. As in Sulawesi, we opted
out of an inside mattress, finding the stifling air, cigarette smoke and noise from
mobile phones too much to bear.
Our bed on the Pelni
"Down below"- ekonomi class
Scene from ship
Of course, the fares are not expensive, but for 515,000
rupiah/AU$50, we thought we should at least be entitled to running water in the
taps, and more than four working toilets for the hundreds of economy passengers.
As grim as the facilities were, we enjoyed the trip greatly, looking out the
back at the island scenery, and then the open water, having our photos taken
dozens of times, and many hesitant conversations.
Pelni toilets
Pelni kitchen
Sunset from deck
Boys on the ship
One of hundreds of photo posing sessions
·Richard’s progressive photos of the running of
the porters, as we arrived in Pare Pare:
The majority of the passengers were disembarking in Pare Pare (everyone thought we were completely
mad choosing to stay on for another 24 hours!), and we spend time planning
whether we should stay in our seats for the next journey portion, or change to
a different part of the boat. It turned out to be irrelevant, when we were
informed that the ship was not going to Samarinda
as scheduled (due to engine problems), and we were requested to change to a
non-Pelni ferry, the “Prince Soya” for the remaining part of the journey. The
only thing majestic about this heap of crap was the name (it made the Pelni
seem like pure opulence), and we were hoping it would make it the 24 hours back
over the Makassar Straights to Samarinda.
We could have put up with the sardine-type mattress structure on the floor,
with people walking all over the beds in their shoes, and turned a blind eye to
the crappy life boat filled with holes, the stuffy, cigarette smoked filled
air, and also the fact that we didn’t leave until five hours after the Pelni was
supposed to, but when we met (with very unfortunate timing) the start of the
monsoon, and the entire boat began leaking from the roof and soaking everyone
and everything, Sal lost it a bit. Eventually realizing this was our only
option for returning to Kalimantan
and continuing our journey, we settled down, tried to sleep, and dodge the
subsequent downpours.
Prince Soya sleeping deck
Cargo/sleeping area on Prince Soya
The solo highlight of the trip was the entry from the sea
into Samarinda’s river, and watching
the industry and river dwellers from the back of the boat. It could have also been
that were just very relieved to be so close to our destination!
Industry around Samarinda
Coming into Samarinda
Coming into Samarinda
Disembarking the Prince Soya
Needless to say, we were relieved to finally arrive in Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan two days and two nights
after starting from Batulicin in the
south. I have new found respect for those of my parent’s generation, who braved
the open seas for weeks at a time to get to Europe and back! Despite the turmoil, we were still glad we took
the boat- the idea being sea travel is more pleasant, but much longer, than
land travel on the rough Kalimantan
roads.
Samarinda was
just what we needed. A clean room with our own bathroom to scrub up in, WIFI to
catch up on badly needed internet stuff, and a choice of great street food, or
a modern mall for Western treats and a supermarket. We recharged our batteries
for a few days before yet another watery expedition.
Now showing at a Samarinda cinema
Fallen away road, Samarinda
Latest fashions, Samarinda
Mango man, Samarinda
Rain shower, Samarinda
Local girls, Samarinda
The morning market was possibly one of the bloodiest we have
seen, with happy men waving around fish and various meat parts for us to look
at.
A visit to the stunning Islamic Centre was a must- we love mosque architecture, and Richard has enjoyed photographing the many different styles here. This one is suppose to be the biggest in South-east Asia, but we think the blue mosque in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpar would give it a run for its money.
