pot holes in the travel trail

8-4-09 Both Hugo and I agreed that Kalimantan has been a bit of a disappointment. There is basically no tourist infrastructure set up, which of course makes things difficult. Then the language barrier is huge and even more noticeabe when there is no tourist infrastructure b/c then communication becomes so important. And the slow travel is quite frustrating as well. It's never very good to be travelling much longer than you are seeing or doing things, which is definitely the case here. And we hadn't been doing much, but we were both exhausted from the travelling as this sort of travelling wears on you. Our guidebooks, as any guidebook trying to sell an area do, talks wonderfully about kalimantan, but I wished they would just be honest and say that indonesian borneo can't compare to malaysian borneo, so if you've been to sarawak or sabah, there is no sense going to kalimantan unless you really like hardship and don't want to see any tourists. B/c on top of being tough to travel in, indonesia is much worse at it's environmental protection, so almost all the forest is gone here and you really need lots of time (and by this read weeks, not hours or days) to get to pristine forest. The way to travel here would be to do a private tour. Hugo had seen a thing back in holland for like 17 days that does a good job of seeing kalimantan. But then of course you have private cars and planes and such, so the whole trip costs like 4000 dollars (1/3 of my years budget). Being that this area hardly gets any westerners at all, you get lots of attention in the city. No matter where you are, this can be wearing on you, but here where you can't even talk to them, it's worse. As you walk down the street there is a constant chorus of "Hey Mr." But that's all they can say (in fact it's the same thing they say if it's a woman as well as the frenchies attested to), so you can't talk to the people or anything and get to know them. Actually, when you look at the indonesians more objectively, they are very friendly and smiling lots and quite curious. However being the frustrated travellers that we have been, we're in a more difficult mood that makes it harder to be objective and then of course their bad habits (spitting everywhere, farmer blowing everywhere, throwing trash everywhere, and the worst, smoking non-stop) just bother me. Especially the smoking! The guy across from me right now, in this tiny little room, has smoked at least 4 cigarettes in the 48 minutes my computer says I've been here!! Blowing the smoke right in my face and just smiling like nothing is going on. arghh! In addition to the constant hey mr's, the bemo drivers always pull right up to you and look at you and point into the bemo and just follow you so expectantly. This too gets annoying as you just want to walk in peace and of course we're thinking that if we need a ride, of course we'll hail one, we don't need to be followed everywhere and have traffic stopped just so a bemo can sit there where we are standing and hassle us to get in. Hugo's frustration showed as we were waiting to cross a street to go get some food and a bemo guy just stopped and kept pointing and saying something to get in the bemo. Hugo said something sarcastic that was pretty funny, and I could feel his frustration.

Anyways, though, I was getting ready to move on. I was in a good mood and excited to be moving on. Figuring things would get better at the next place. Plus it's a rainforest, so no bemo drivers, less smoke etc. Hugo let me shower and clean up in his room (he had to stay one more night) and I was looking forward to moving on. Batu our guide said they had non-smoking aircon busses for the 15 hour bus ride to banjarmasin, so I was looking forward to just relaxing, reading, and listening to music on the bus. To get to the bus station you had to take a like 200m boat ride across the river. Batu had said the cost is 5000rp, so as a whitey I was expecting a mark up to say 20,000 or something, but the guys were asking 100,000rp to take me across, which I thought was ridiculous. I don't mind getting ripped off a bit, but that much of a markup to just go 200m across the river. And I was totally willing to pay 20,000, a handsome profit for them. But instead I saw some other indonesians getting in a different boat and jumped on with them, and I just paid the normal fair that way. That's what those guys get for trying to rip me off so bad, nothing. But whatever, onto the bus...
Now let me set this up a bit. It's 5 o'clock and Batu had said several times that the buses to banjarmasin leave every 1/2 hour until 7. But to be safe I went at 5 b/c I know all to well about asian busses and I desperately wanted to get out of the city for several reasons, including that hugo took the last do-able room in the city to stay at. I had asked Batu several times to call to book a seat for me, but he said no need. I had originally tried to fly, but as I mentioned in my earlier blog, the airline, DAS, that used to fly to where I was going was shut down by the government, for probably too many crashes. I got to the terminal and the guys said the dreaded word. "FULL" Great, what was I going to do? I was hoping there was some language barrier going on and that maybe there was a later bus or another company, so I had them call batu's cell phone. Sure enough it was the last bus, but batu said he had arranged to get me a seat. Well, by seat, it means he had gotten me a stool to sit on in the middle of the aisle.

So now picture this. Most people would find any of the following scenarios uncomfortable: 1. Staying up all night for 15 hours after waking up at 6am that previous morning. 2. sitting on a bus, comfortable seat or not, for 15 hours. 3. sitting on a stool without a back for 15 hours (and include an incredibly bumpy road and swervey road). 4. sitting on a non air-con bus in the tropics with just a few small windows at the top of the bus (this really was of no concern to me as this is standard except in malaysia) 5. sitting on a bus with tiny windows for 15 hours with 30 other chain smokers.

One of those would be enough for most people, but I was looking at all of them. I didn't see much of another choice b/c I really wanted to move on, didn't fancy running around the city looking for more accomadation and this appeared to be the only bus until the next day. Plus all my bags were packed and I had been shown my seat. So there I was sitting on this tiny stool with no back, on this cramped smokey, hot bus. And I knew I had to stay awake for the 15 hours b/c how can you fall asleep while sitting on a small stool? Of course I didn't know it at the time, but the 15 hours the book said would turn out to be 19 actual hours. Knowing all of this lay ahead, my mood instantly changed. Anger, frustration, you name it. This is just not what I wanted to happen. And then everyone is just staring at me as we sit there. Normally I could care less, but at this moment it felt so rude. Just staring at me with weird smiles and mouths open. Like how we'd stare maybe if a unicorn walked onto a plane. Amused, amazed, in awe. At that moment I did something completely out of character for me (guess says how frustrated I was), but I raised my voice considerably and said, "ohh, wow, it's a white boy on a bus, never seen that before. let's all stare" Of course I knew no one would understand anyways, so perhaps that's why i did it, and really it just caused everyone to laugh. Usually I'm very kind on busses and tolerate a lot. But not on this bus, not in my state. I guarded my space. Guys behind me tried to put their dirty bare feet on the back of my stool and on my back...they got pushed off, the guy next to me fell asleep and fellt onto my shoulder...he got woken up (yea I know, I was quite terrible and I feel bad, but imagine looking ahead to the most uncomfortable bus ride ever with no sleeping). A guy to my side who had a real seat tried to spread his legs out into the aisle...I regained my territory, and another guy held his cigarette over the aisle when he wasn't taking a drag, and I quickly pushed his hand so his cigarette was over him. I was just boiling with frustration, not at any one person, but just at the whole situation. I couldn't believe a bus company wouldn't just send another bus or something as there were 10 other poor souls like me sitting on stools in the aisle. Especially after a few hours in my back ached, my neck ached, and I was fighting so hard to stay awake so that I wouldn't fall asleep and fall over...and it was only 11pm. I had until 10am to do this. I got some respite when we had a 1.5 hr ferry ride where I could leave the bus and sleep on the designated sleeping floor of the ferry. And actually, luckily, halway into the trip, sometime in the middle of the night a seat opened up after a stop, and I took it, which vastly improved things, though not the increasing blackening of my lungs.
When daylight came, I eagerly awaited reaching benjarmasin so I could get on a flight and head to panglakan bun. But it quickly became apparent when it was 10am (we had left at 6pm) and there was a sign that said another 109km, that this was not a 15 hour bus ride. Now I was thinking I wouldn't make my flight either as I had been told before it left either at 11 or 1. And once the bus arrived at the terminal I would have to take a bemo to this one road and then take an ojek (motorbike) to the airport. About 12:30 though, I saw the airport and signaled for the bus driver to stop (rapping on something metal with coins). I hopped off and started walking for the airport thinking my luck was going to change and I was just going to catch it. I arrived at about 1 to the ticketing counter which said the flight is scheduled to leave at 12:45. Well, it hadn't left yet, so I was still feeling like I would have luck. But the guy at the kalstar desk informed me that the plane was full. In fact it was full for the next 6 days!! This most likely due to the fact that DAS no longer flies and that the other airline that is supposed to fly from there, batavia, had cancelled all its flights. So there I was screwed again. You may wonder about my approach to flying there by showing up the day of to buy the ticket. Well that's kind of how you do it here in indonesia with domestic flights. If you book in advance, it can be hard to re-confirm, and flights are often cancelled. Plus, with the way travel is here, it can be impossible to predict when you will be flying. If I had booked my flight for when I thought I would be leaving when I had first arrived in samarinda, I would have been a day off b/c our guide had postponed the trip by a day. And then as I saw with the bus ride, even though I allowed plenty of time to catch a bus and then plenty of time to get to the airport on time, I still arrived past the scheduled departure time. In truth, the domestic airlines here act more like bus stations anyways. Most people tend to buy the ticket the day of, a few hours before, and then the plane usually makes several stops before going to your destination, dropping passengers off and picking more up, just like a bus. For example if going from benjarmasin to pontianak by a kalstar plane, you stop at 4 places in between, making what should be a 1 hour flight, almost 3.

So there I was with no option to fly and looking at what the book said is a 20 hours (so mostly likely 30hour) smokey, rough bus ride to panglakan bun. I was just standing there in disbelief watching a big group of what appeared to be italian tourists (only the 4th group of westerners I had seen since being in kalimantan: hugo, the frenchies, and the german before that) in a packaged tour wishing I was on that when one of the women collapsed to the floor and a white liquid starting coming out of her mouth like she was puking. None of the indonesians were doing anything and the rest of the italians were just kind of staring in disbelief. She was on her back and what looked like unconscious. From what I can remember from first aid training, it's not good to be puking and on your back as you can suffocate, so I ran over to put her on her side to clear the airway. As soon as I did that she stoop up and laughed. Apparently it was some prank and bet her and her boyfriend had put on the group with yoghurt. I didn't find it so funny. Well in the mean time an indonesian guy and his girlfriend (who actually spoke english) were at the kalstar office. They had apparently booked the flight to panglakan bun earlier, but for some reason the reservation hadn't held. They told me you could go by these van things to get to where I wanted to go. The van is a bit more expensive than a bus, but would be leaving that afternoon (the bus wouldn't be leaving until the next morning) and would be smoke free and more comfortable, so I was all for it. So we took a taxi to where the place was. Turns out you have to pay like 6 times more than a flight to charter your own van, but you could ride in the regular service for not too bad of a price, so that is what I chose to do. Today you take the van for 4 hours to Palangka raya and then i'm staying overnight here, where ever that is. Tomorrow I am supposedly (fingers crossed) getting picked up at my hotel and then going 4 hours to sampit. I change vans there and then go the 6 hours to Panglakan Bun. From where I can take a bus for the short ride to kumai and then a boat to finally get to tanjung puting national park. it better be worth it! I don't even want to think about trying to leave kalimantan right now as that could be a 2 month ordeal (haha...just kidding, or kind of!), but that's what I'm doing next after tanjung puting.

Lately I've been having my strongest feelings of coming home. I really only had really strong feelings that way one other time and that was in Thailand when I got bit by a rat, had a week of terrible weather, and had been having bad luck with things breaking (including my camera and hard drive). Part of it is b/c I have been spending 90% of my time in kalimantan either in smoke filled public transportation or in dumpy hotels and dirty cities, so there's lots of time to think. Hugo and I were talking about this b/c we both felt the same way, but this is the first time I definitely wished I was home and not in kalimantan. A lot of it obviously has to do with how I'm not really seeing anything cool here or doing anything fun, and suffering a lot on travelling, but also a lot b/c it's August and summer back home. A beautiful time of year. Just heard from my bro that he's been cleared to start racing bikes again after his blownout knee, so he's been doing some races through wyoming. And then he's taking his girlfriend (whom I have yet to meet and approve of) on a climbing, biking, sea kayaking trip through washington and beautiful british columbia. And my parents are on vacation in lovely lake city and crested butte, CO probably doing some biking, hiking, and camping. Sherman's doing a roadtrip through the SW, maybe one of my favorite places with it's huge open spaces, tall mountains, and intertwined deserts and forests. Yosh is most likely attending a plethora of summer concerts and playing beer pong with a new partner. And he told me he was going to go tonya harding style and take out the knees of the guy who beat me last year in the boise triathlon, but now he says it would only just leave a bad dent on his bat. My roomies at the house of sin are having waterfights while washing their bikes to keep cool and then jumping in the boise river for tubing and cheyne is leading up an ultimate frisbee team without me. And of course the labor day lake bash edition 3 is likely being planned by the jovial bison, the gibster, and his hairness who can completely clear the wake even with a two day old lucious beard. It's difficult to give meaningful eye contact from across the pacific. It's peach season back home and the buffs are getting ready for their walloping of the rammies this year. If this was how the majority of the travel was, I'd definitely be changing my flight and coming home. But the good news is that I know it won't stay like this. I'll be out of kalimantan soon and good reports are coming back about the rest of indonesia from people I've met along the way

8-6
Well the van did end up picking me up in palangka raya, though it was not near as nice as the first one which was non-smoking and the driver played soft music. The van to sampit was full of smokers and the driver blared crazy indo pop so loud that the car vibrated. In sampit, I saw the bus pull up and it was a non-smoking bus, so instead of taking the van I took the bus. The bus had broken AC and got a flat tire,but i could care less b/c it allowed my lungs to air out a bit. Got into panglakan bun around 8:30 and walked around and found a place to stay. I splurged and got an aircon room(which meant itkept out the smoke from all the smokers in the lobby out as opposed to the fan rooms) and a tv with hbo, which was good b/c I spent a lot of time in the room. The cities here aren't so interesting to explore. In the morning I got up early to see a tour agent for trips to tanjung puting NP. I hired an ojek (motorbike) driver to take me to the tour place, but he couldn't find it. We had a number though and then sent a guy to my losmen (hotel) to talk with me. The guy didn't have much information other than it would cost me 450 us dollars to hire the boat for the 3 day tour, which is out of my price range. But I was hoping he could help me find some other tourists. This is supposedly the biggest tourist attraction in kalimantan, but still no other tourists in this town. He told me his boss would come and talk to me about it. He said in like an hour, so I waited, and waited, and finally by1:30 (the guy had left around 10) I called, frustrated, to see what was going on. This was why it was good I had HBO. The owner told me he could come by tonight, which wasn't acceptable to me b/c I had hoped to have everything arranged in order to leave tomorrow (as I have an arranged tour in malaysian borneo to make it to) for the tour. So we talked on the phone and he said that he had no other tourists to hook me up with as he dealt with private tours of families and groups who booked ahead. hmm...would have loved to know that earlier so that I could have gone to kumai in the morning to look for fellow backpackers there. Well he sent out another one of his employees to talk to me. The guy was nice and drove me the 15km to kumai and introduced me to his friend who was also a tour guide. This guy, mahjic, had a small group coming in to the airport and said I could join them, which meant that price would be in my range. I was lucky to meet him b/c he knew good english and was very nice. He invited me into his house and his wife fed me lychees and lunch. He also called around and booked me a flight to pontianak, which I was worried about getting, as flying is the only way to get there and that's the gateway to kuching, malaysia. He then had a friend in pontianak who booked me a bus ticket for the overnight journey to malaysia. He then took me around kumai to find a place to stay and also to an internet place, where I currently have a watchful eye on a couple of rats running around the room. 2nd time I've seen rats in a building (they're common on the streets in the garbate and sewage areas) today. The other was in the middle of eating mee goreng (fried noodles with egg, which is the meal you eat 3 times a day here, unless you want to go crazy with variety and get nasi goreng (fried rice),I saw a couple rats running along the walls of the kitchen. mmm...mee goreng never tasted so good. Mahjic invited me to a muslim party tonight which I'll be going to b/c, well there is nothing else going on here. Still no tourists in this small town, which is adjacent to the park. Mahjic said it's b/c almost everyone who comes here is on a package or pre-arranged tour and they just getpicked up from the airport and transferred directly to the boat. Ican't say I blame them!