Floating Market - Banjarmasin

11th November, 2011

Take two - Breakfast at the 'Floating Market' in Banjarmasin

The alarm went off at 5am and although I felt shocking, I forced myself to get up. I headed out onto the street, in the dark, on a mission to find/get to the floating market!


A bajaj (three-wheeled motorised transport, commonly found in Jakarta) was coming past, so I waved him down. I asked him about the floating market...my plan was to try and go as close to the market as possible by land. I was not keen to get on another boat...hahaha! He took me to a small port, the last point to get a boat to the floating market - Pasar Terapung. I tried to bargain for the boat but didn't get him down. Prices seem to be pretty standard here. We agreed to Rp100.000 to Pasar Terapung, so we headed off, a much nicer boat than yesterday! The skyline was pretty with the early morning sunshine.

The ship in the background was bound for Surabaya but burnt down one week ago, many people died!

It wasn't too far away and before too long we were in the middle of the floating market! It was busy and there were all sorts of different boats and they were all selling all sorts of different things...pumpkins, fruit like bananas, rambutan, pineapple etc, they even had boats that were like a restaurant - 'Banjar Soto'.

Eventually we stopped next to a boat that was selling all sorts of things...like a breakfast smorgasbord! The man on the boat was selling...kopi (coffee), nasi kuning (yellow rice), donut (doughnuts), tahu isi (tofu stuffed with vegies)...and lots of other different snacks! I couldn't resist trying the donut with coconut and palm sugar inside - it was so yummy! 

You use a long wooden stick handle, with a big nail on the end of it to stab the food that you want!

After taking a lot of photos and videos, and eating breaky, we headed back to the port. So glad that I made the effort to get up and make it to the market, it was great! I actually felt like I was somewhere else, it was all quite surreal!

From the port, I decided to walk back to the hotel, it took quite a while, probably about 1.5 - 2 hours, although that included a short chat with a Balinese policeman that wanted to take me shopping for gem stones, since he noticed I was wearing several big gem stones! ;) And also a stop at the ATM to stock up on cash...and although it was 7.30am - it was already stinking hot!

Back at the hotel, I had a much needed shower and packed up my stuff. I headed back out for another look around, as I still had a couple of hours to kill before I had to go to the airport. I wandered around the market...looking for Dayak souvenirs but couldn't seem to find any traditional crafts. After asking around a bit, I was told to go to 'Kampung Melayu'....so when I saw an ojek (motorbike for rent) stand, I bargained for a bike and jumped on the back of the bike and headed to Kampung Melayu (where ever that might be..?!)...and found a small shop selling 'kain Dayak' - the traditional Dayak material is tie-dyed! Cool! So of course I had to buy a few pieces of the traditional kain! ;)

I got the ojek to take me back to the Hotel Roditha, I had lunch at the hotel restaurant and finished packing up my stuff and checked out....ready to head to the airport! My flight was over one hour late, so I had a while to wander around Banjarmasin airport and check out the shops! :)

Finally they called my flight...and I boarded the Trigana Air flight to Balikpapan, where I had a 20 minute transit and then I was to fly on to Berau.