Banjarmasin - our entry point to Kalimantan

It is 24 km from the airport to the centre of Banjarmasin it is interesting your first impressions on the trip from the airport. There are lots of trucks, on the back of minibuses, the only ads I have seen are for chain saws, at the petrol stations there are huge queues.

As we look for accommodation we hear this constant electronic sound of birds and as we look skyward we see lots of razor wire around the tops of buildings. We find out it is the sound of swallows ( the swallow nests are used for a special chinese delicacy –bird nest soup) so houses for swallows at the tops of buidings are built and their nests are harvested regularly.

Mosques – they are everywhere. There are many things about Islam that is interesting such as Ramadan where people use this month to reflect on and give money to the poor, the trip to Mecca – The Haj where everyone wears the same clothes and walks the same trail rich/poor alike.

But what is it with the singing that is everywhere on loud speakers at many times of the day?

Why are the women so covered up – it is just so hot!!! 

There are just some things that I find difficult to undersand.

The only other whiteys we have seen were a couple in the airport. Most of the hotels we try are full – it is high season so there are many domestic tourists. There must be a spotting fee for tour guides as it doesn’t take long before Tailah finds us– a guide mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide book. We organise a floating market tour, short trip to the Loksodo area for some walking, staying in a long house and a bamboo raft trip. We seem to be spending a lot of money in Kalimantan – plane trips, guides trips etc. because they are comparatively expensive

Transport in Kalimantan in days gone by was predominantly water based – up and down rivers and then to the sea. Mining (coal, diamonds, gold), palm-oil plantations, forestry, transmigration, and in general exploiting the natural environment (as we do in Australia) has resulted in opening up Kalimantan to land based transport.

When going on a trip to the floating markets it is interesting to see all the houses that are built on the river. There is a land frontage and the back section is built on ironwood supports with usually a boat tied up to landing platform. People are washing themselves, their clothes or just getting moving early in the morning. The trip gave me an emotional understanding of how people from Kalimantan’s lives are bound to the rivers.

Even in the smaller rives the water is brown. It has come a long way and there is lots of activity upstream. When we are on the main river that enters to the sea we see large sea-going vessels, coal is floating down the river on huge barges, there are huge stockpiles of wood and timber machine factories on either side of the aprox 200m wide river and in amongst all of this there is a floating fruit and vegetable market.

We buy rambutans and think about breakfast (we got up at 5am) and then a little tea and coffee shop floats by!!!! Sweet tea and cakes selected with a long piece of wood with a nail.

Islam,  floating markets.  river transport,