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Published: March 10th 2013
Samarinda
River viewsThe Mahakam River is long, obviously not nearly as long as the great rivers of the world, but long enough to do some cruising. It reaches right up into the heart of Kalimantan, and though it sounds like a ‘Heart of Darkness’ experience, it isn’t. Being rather big means all kind of river traffic can make its way up, and that in turn makes it easy to exploit the natural resources along it. And exploited they have been and are still being. Coal is the main resource, followed by timber, and, so it seems, gold.
With rapids only really restricting access to the last third, the rest has been up for grabs. As you take a passenger ferry up or down it you will pass a lot of coal barges, and a lot ports serving the coal mines in the hinterlands. You will also regularly pass logging camps.
Unfortunately the cheap public ferries also only go as far as the rapids, after that you need to charter longboats or speed boats which are expensive, whichever way you look at it. So basically to see the most natural part you need money. Since I am low on cold hard cash
Samarinda
Boats for crossing to the other side I decided to go as far as the ‘kapal biasa’ or ‘regular boats’ in English, would take me which, during rainy season, is Long Bagun.
I can assure, despite all the exploitation, it is still a worthwhile and pleasant journey. Especially if you, like me, can speak some Indonesian and get to talk to the locals. People from all over the archipelago are making their way up or down, because as I was told many a time, there is money to be made. Gold-panners from Lombok, Sulawesi and Java are trying their luck, others set up shops or restaurants catering to those fortune seekers and yet others are travelling salesmen, selling of all things, kitchen machines and appliances.
But I am getting ahead of myself and should start at the beginning. And the beginning of this journey started in Samarinda, gateway to the Mahakam. For a city of more or less four hundred thousand souls it is remarkably low-key. Since I didn’t really have any plans on how to tackle the river, I decided to make one while in Samarinda, which had me not tackle it at all to begin with. Instead I decided to take the bus
as far as it would take me up the river, which is Melak. You see I decided I didn’t really fancy going all the way up and then all the way down again via the same route, in other words, via the river. This would also save some time, as river travel, especially up-river is slow.
So, first stop Melak, a coal mining port and nothing to write home about. But it served as a base to visit some Dayak communities nearby, with some very beautiful longhouses. No public transport goes there so I hired an ‘ojek’ for half a day, which is a motorcycle taxi and instead of having him drop me off back in Melak, I had him drop me off in Long Iram which has a road, more or less, leading to it and would shave off another five hours of the up-river trip. It is about as far as roads up the river lead. Back to my ojek driver, who happened to be Batman. Yes, you read it right, Batman is an ojek driver in Kalimantan these days. I guess crime fighting just doesn’t pay the bills.
Batman spoke a little English, but
Samarinda
Islamic center his Indonesian was better, and thus that was the way we communicated. First community was Eheng with a fine longhouse and a sick chief. As I stumbled into his longhouse, I noticed this shrine in the centre full of flowers and fruit. After asking its purpose I discovered it was set up to aid in the recovery of the poor chief. Offerings to the gods I suppose, however it didn’t seem to be doing the trick, because he told me he had been ill for a month already. So I gave him a little money and told him to use it to buy some medicine, not sure if he will. Perhaps he will just keep it and hope for the best with the flowers and the fruit.
Next up Engkuni, Batman’s choice, it was nice, though not as elaborate as the one at Eheng. Finally a rough road led us to Benung’s longhouse, which has some interesting statuary outside, including of a man with a microphone presumably singing karaoke. You gotta love those modern touches. No more serpents and mythical beast snaking around a disfigured warrior, but a dude with microphone!
Batman wasn’t using his normal Bat-mobile as
Samarinda
Reflections at Mesjid Raya Darussalam I already explained, but a motorcycle. It was an unfortunate choice, as his bike was clearly not quite up to scratch. We got a flat tire on our way to Long Iram and without automatic pump-up action as I am sure the Bat-mobile would have, we were stuck. Along came two young school kids, who Batman chartered to take me the rest of the way. So it was me with my bags, and two giggling boys on their bike with their schoolbags, somehow we all fitted on.
Long Iram was, as it turned out, on the other side of the river, so we needed to cross it with a barge to get there. The place itself is nothing special and my accommodation very, very basic, but nearby was Tering Lama (Old Tering) which has an interesting church with the main themes of the bible carved out on the pillars of its clock tower. More importantly though was the fact that Long Iram was the place where I would catch my boat to Long Bagun.
Thus, at long last, I found myself on the boat and on the river. A simple boat, no matrasses on the upper deck as
Samarinda
Street outside my hotel the Lonely Planet claimed and I had actually read on the internet, but a nice perch for me to sit and admire the scenery. I discovered on the way down, why my boat didn’t have any bedding. It turns out there are two kind of boats, short distance ones, called ‘kapal taxi’ which means ‘taxi boat’ and the long distance ones.
I was on the short distance one, which was indeed like a taxi as it stopped at every house along the way. Despite that it was still faster than I had expected, and we arrived the same evening, instead of the next morning which I thought we would. This however turned out to be inconvenient, since by the time we arrived the guest house was closed, which meant I had to sleep on the boat anyway, an uncomfortable night on a linoleum floor. Don’t get me wrong though, I am grateful that they let me stay the night on their boat, they could also have told me to stuff it and find somewhere under a tree to sleep.
Next morning Long Bagun and an interesting guesthouse, full of Dayak paraphernalia. The place itself is friendly and nice,
Eheng
Longhouse at Eheng though there is nothing especially much to do there if you don’t have the money to go further up river or do some trekking. So, I just sat on the balcony of my hotel and watched the river go by, soon I would be on it again, back down, passed Long Iram, passed Melak, down to Tenggarong near Samarinda.
And what do you know, I find myself on the same damned taxi boat! As we are making our way out of Long Bagun I see the regular boat right behind us. All I can do is wistfully stare at it from the back of my boat. It looks so big and I am sure there upper deck does have matrasses, even the front perch looks better than mine.
But as I said, taxi boats are only short distance carriers, and so my boat goes no further than Tering, where I change onto… the regular boat which was sailing behind us. And lo and behold, there are matrasses and a mighty fine deck to view the river from and I don’t have to bend over double when walking around the upper deck. But I will miss the crew from
Eheng
Entrance to the chiefs quarter my little taxi boat, they were so very friendly.
I finally get to spend a night on the river, a stormy rain filled night with lightning and thunder. And the next day it keeps on raining until we reach Tenggarong, once a mighty Sultanate, now no more than a sleepy town, with a museum housed in the former palace. It is of minor interest, but a great way to get out of the rain. Another good way is to get a bus out of there, which I also did, and go to Balikpapan.
And on this bus I meet my first Indonesian who speaks good English, in Kalimantan. After a week and a half of only speaking Indonesian it is nice not to have to think whenever I want to say something. He is an accountant from Bandung working for a coal mining company. It is his first time away from his home, and he knows less than me about Kalimantan.
Good thing a friend is waiting for him in Balikpapan. I on the other hand have no friends here, and so I take a bus into town and get a room with a view on the
Eheng
Shrine of flowers and fruit ocean. It is expensive, but I don’t care, I just want a nice room for a couple of days. Kalimantan does that to you.
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Jenny adams
non-member comment
nice work
love the reflections shot miss ya! I'm back stateside and hating it. There are no water buffalos, food costs actual money and the beer is freezing cold. Ok, that last part is alright, but the rest is no bueno