River canals of Banjarmasin

10th November, 2011

The alarm went off at 5am, although I had to press snooze a few times before I could actually surface! The plan was to go to the floating market, although I had no idea which one, as there are several! I also had no idea where to go or how to get there! This was going to be interesting! ;) 


So, I got up and walked out along the street towards one of the many rivers in Banjarmasin and hoped that a taxi would come by... but no taxi came by!

However, an older man on a bicycle came by and stopped to chat - Pak Joni said that he had a boat and could take me to the floating market. After I negotiated a price of Rp200.000, I started following him to where the boat was moored but by the time we had almost walked back to my hotel, we knew it was too late, it was almost 6.30am and my new friend, Pak Joni, said there would only be a few boats left so it wasn't worth it. Then he started talking about other river tours...'Pulau Kaget - Shocked Island' to see the Proboscis monkeys and also an afternoon river canal tour. Both sounded great to me! I wanted to see river life in this city, as that's what it's famous for and I also wanted to see the Proboscis monkey again. And I was happy to book something with Pak Joni, as I knew he was trying extremely hard to make some business with me today! He was very persistent! ;) I told him I would think about it and I would maybe see him in the afternoon.

I walked back to the river and crossed the bridge, accidentally finding the Chinese temple (there are two Chinese temples in Banjarmasin, the one I stumbled on is the newer one, I think!?)...so I took my shoes off (hoping they would be safe at this early hour of the morning!?) and went inside and had a look around and took some photos. After the Chinese temple, I continued to walk along the river side until I couldn't walk any further as the boardwalk stopped. So I walked all the way back to the hotel for breakfast.

Breakfast was a huge buffet banquet with Western and Indonesian food. I had an omelette  and then had some toast with vegemite (which I had taken from Melbourne airport! ;)) It was a little too early in the morning for rendang for me! But I enjoyed about 3 - 4 glasses of the watermelon juice...it was sooo good!

After breakfast, I headed out again...on a mission to find a new hotel for tonight, as the 'A Hotel Banjarmasin' was fully booked! Ahhh...I had to check out! So I wandered the streets and looked at a few cheap, locally run hotels/homestays, which looked ok....but continued walking. The locals were very friendly and there were lots of interesting sights to see along the streets in the centre of town! I could have wandered around for hours...except for the extreme heat that was pelting down!

Before too long, believe it or not, I bumped into my friend from this morning, Pak Joni! Hehehehe! Pak Joni was yet again very talkative and excited about a river canal tour...but I explained that I needed to find a hotel before I could think about a river tour. So, Pak Joni took me to Hotel Roditha, which was a very nice hotel and I had a look at a couple of rooms. I even met the Manager who told me he would give me a discount of Rp100.000 of the executive room...so I took it! Sold! hahaha!

I then followed Pak Joni to a travel agent, to check information and prices about domestic flights...I was contemplating flying from Banjarmasin to Berau; which has the closest airport to Pulau Derawan. A flight was looking like a good idea, as my original plan of going by land was going to take over 30 hours without stop overs! I was told by the travel agent that I could get a Trigana Air flight tomorrow for Rp1.100.000 from Banjarmasin to Balikpapan and then to Berau. And that the next two days all flights were fully booked out! I had to make a decision quick...before this ticket was booked too!... Why not?! I bought the ticket...had no idea where I was going...just a place name...Berau!

I headed back to my hotel and checked out and checked into the new hotel - Hotel Roditha! And headed off to meet Pak Joni...he took me to the boat, it was a small, dilapidated looking boat (sampan style), I wasn't too sure about this boat, but I got in it anyway and we took off down the river. It possibly took an hour or more to get to Pulau Kaget - Shocked Island, where I was to see the Proboscis monkeys. We went slowly circling around the island looking for the Proboscis monkeys and we eventually found some, jumping around in the trees!

Pak Joni was so determined for me to get that perfect photo of the Probosics monkey, that he ripped off his t.shirt and long trousers and jumped into the water in his undies, he instructed the young guy who was driving the boat, to turn off the motor, and Pak Joni dragged the boat towards the island and got as close to the island as possible. He really was very sweet...but he was so excited about the Probosics monkeys! More excited than me! hahaha! I took lots of photos of the monkeys and we stayed there for ages to try and get that perfect shot, but they were still too far away and the boat was rocking too! It didn't all make for the best photos! ;)

After a very long time of being out there, and the sun was burning hot down on us...I saw a huge black cloud coming our way. So, I told Pak Join that we should head back before it rains. So we finally started heading back to Banjarmasin, but we had only gone about 15 minutes when we could see that the city had disappeared behind black clouds and rain. We were headed straight into the eye of the storm!

Pak Joni started pulling out the tarp that was rolled up at the end of the boat, and he put it over us, even though the tarp was threat bare in parts and had some big holes in it too! I pulled it up over my head, over my waterproof jacket too! I couldn't see the stormy sky that we were heading towards, but I thought maybe it was best that I didn't see...

After quite some time under the tarp, the rain eased slightly so I lifted the tarp off my head so I could see where we were....we were in the middle of nowhere! Apparently we had to change course as we were heading into the eye of the storm. We were going down a river and it just had bush either side. Eventually we came across a house and Pak Joni called out to the local man that lived in the house, and asked him for directions back to the city. Great...Pak Joni and two young local guys...and none of them knew where we were! I then felt a little panicked...what if we were lost out on the river all night!?

After what felt like hours, and think literally was, we eventually started to pass some random houses and lots of small bridges...we were heading in the right direction and ended up going down a small river canal. As it was now dusk, all the local people were outside washing clothes, washing themselves or just lazing around talking on the edge of the river. All the local kids were jumping into the river and playing, and not to mention screaming out at us with excitement! It was really cool, this is exactly what I wanted to see and I was living it! =)

We didn't get back to town until after 6pm - it was a very, long river trip. I was exhausted and my bottom was killing me from sitting on a small plank of wood for five hours! But it was a great experience and to top it all off, there was an amazing sunset! I walked back to my hotel, exhausted and soaking wet!

Shower, food and sleep. What a looooooong day!
I set my alarm again...I still hadn't seen the floating market!