Kalimantan Borneo ~ Sangatta

I have been thinking about my whole trip myself after Simone and I separated. I try my best of luck down by the memory lane and write about the trip before arriving in Kuching. To make the story more interesting to my dear readers, I will write it topless.

Since Simone left I was just trying to calm down, relax and get better. Before she went on her way, we did another trip to another hospital and to yet another doctor. THE hospital was one of the most expensive in town, with a nice lake inside the building, swan boats, fountains etc. The female doctor made the dame examination as the previous one, gave me a prescription, and this time the medication was mixed by hand and then put into small capsules, to be enjoyed 3 times a day. Unfortunately it was not that easy.

The next day I was still weak an my head was only slightly better. During my stay, I had been to Pondok Bambu- restaurant down the road next to our hotel, and got to know Helena who run the restaurant. After Helena, I met his brother Tommy, later another bro Hanz and their mother... They all suggested me to see a lady who is good in curing illnesses using traditional methods. There I went.

The modest Muslim lady was concerned about my situation and really wanted to cure me. She gave ma a good traditional massage with herb oils and some chanting. Later she took me into their living room saying she wants to give some more treatments. Tommy translated to me that she was asking what have I had wrong with my stomach lately... The lady took some more oils, herbs, vegetables like onion and carrots and made a mixture of these. With the mixture she then treated my joints and ears and finally pulled the bad spirits out of me. She told me that I had been crossing some bad energies on my way in Borneo and those had started to follow me, that was the reason of the headache. The next morning I should feel better and if not, she would treat me again. She also said that if I did not come to see her now, my travel would have stopped there.

The next morning the headache was gone, and still is.

The rest of the time in Sangatta continued with good conversations, drinking good coffee with friendly laughters. I was totally adopted by this wonderful Chinese family and the sisters from Warung Bone3. I was almost spoiled, getting free coffee, breakfast, food, took me to fishing, gave me rides on scooter...you name it. I wish I am able to give as much of myself when I have some visitors the next time!

On my last night I wanted to help on my own to promote Pondok Bambu. I told Helena to ask her youngest brother to make some flyers that I could give to people while walking to the hotspot with my laptop. People were REALLY amazed to see a WHITE person handing out something and they were curious...I haven´t heard yet if someone came after the promotion but I hope to find out soon. I mean, what the heck- those people were shouting after me anyway, why not get some fun out of it.

~ ~ ~

The day when I left came too soon. I was crying on my way in the bus, because it was again a stress to be moving after such a nice time in a small town, even if I did not see the orangutans - I got something 10 times better; FRIENDS.

Sangatta fishing trip

Bus from Berau to Samarinda

09062010 Sangatta blog entry

Life takes surprising turns.
Our morning duties included a stroll to post office. We were not lucky. The prices to send a parcel to Europe were outrageous; a letter 100g was “only” 13€...and not to mention my snorkeling equipment that would have been 91,05€. Insanity. Not even in Finland mailing stuff is that expensive.

Later, in a good faith, we took the bus from Berau to Samarinda, but ended up having a ride from HELL. Sitting our way on the front seat, we were able to keep our eye on the road too clearly. Pavement ended every 20m, the mud holes were huge and there was one retard-(un)helping hand-mechanic-type of thing sitting next to the driver and laughing all the time when we hit the ditches and he also surely needed a hearing aid based by the loudness he used his voice. Our driver maybe had won his drivers license from the lottery of the mentally AND physically challenged people, where he probably got his car helper as a bonus gift. Anyway, he had some talent indeed. He mastered skillfully to aim the bus to every single hole on the road. He also started racing with another bus driver, almost hit the other bus and in the end hit a massive ditch that made the passengers to be thrown all over. Finally he hit another big ditch and broke the bus. It was of course nice to see the milky way again for the 45 minutes they fixed the engine.

Simone took tranquilizers for the rest of the trip and we decided to take the next stop at Sangatta to sleep over. The total travel time by this far had been 14 hours. My headache had gone worse (had had it for 5 days already) and I wanted to get some medicine prescribed by a doctor. We stopped at a small restaurant. At that moment I could not even think anymore. We asked everyone for help, and the only answer we got from men, was that there is no hospital in the town (...where there was a big company for the coal mining industry?!?). The restaurant girls were a lot more helpful; they gave us the address and phone number for a hospital and after a minute told to give me a ride to there! Leni drove me with her scooter to the hospital and waited for the whole examination before drove back to the restaurant. I got the medicine and was offered a bed to sleep while waiting for Simone.

Meanwhile Simone had been eating, having a coffee, talking with the girls and arranging a hotel room with the help of these nice ladies. She was awake more than 24 hours. We slept quite ok from that afternoon until next morning.

Today I have been talking with the sisters who helped us, with the help a dictionary and drawing. I also went to eat to a nearby restaurant and met there a wonderful Chinese Indonesian lady who spoke good English. She told that the word had been spread over that there are 2 Western women in the town. I was also talking the local police officer and we even discussed beyond the normal small talk- more than countries, climate, my age, my health, my marital status...we talked about money, traveling, planting trees for a safe income in the future, racism against the Chinese community in here etc.

And when I got back to the hotel, Simone called me that she saw a mother orangutang with a baby!

From Tawau to Pulau Derawan

03.06.2010 Pulau Derawan

Route so far with Simone;
Tawau (boat, 130 riggit) →
Tarakan (speed boat, 80 000 IDR) →
Tanjung Selor (kijang, shared 70 000 IDR) →
Berau (kijang, 50 000 IDR) →
Tanjung Batu (speed boat, shared 50 000 IDR) →
Pulau Derawan

The route less traveled, not anyway to the direction we are on our way. I feel it harder to trust people after Malaysia where a traveler was only a dollar sign on locals eyes. The trip went fine, and people are more trustworthy and in Berau we really felt like home. The town was very well coming, people as sunny as the weather and helpful even without a common language. We were able to find a nice net place (NetBoyz) where I sent my last blog entries. When we got back from our mission to find working fast internet we found a karaoke place that sold beer. There we went. The beer was warm, of course, cost us 35 000 rupees a bottle and the place was dark, of course on that as well, and the people were singing well. And of course the karaoke videos were the same awful as in every country, cheesy with all effects you can get from the editing program. The karaoke lady had an extremely tight outfit for her age but she was nice to ask if we wanted to sing. We did not. Later the singing turned to a disc with some ok electronic music and strobe lights. A young female approached us and asked us to dance. We did not do that either and soon it was the time to go because it was closing time at midnight.

The next morning we had good luck. We were standing with our equipment outside and trying to decide the direction to walk. A car stopped, a man rolled the window open and asked where we were heading to. He took us to the kijang stop without taking money from us and organized us a ride with some locals. The kijangs in Berau leave from the same spot as they used to, in front of the Hotel Central Graha that was at the time under construction. The trip this time was cheaper than noted in LP.

The kijang ride to Tanjung Selor was a long one. It felt like being back home a driving through the rough hilly and curvy roads in Eastern Finland country side! Only the trees were bigger and the jungle was taking over the road where it could. In Tanjung Selor our driver and the locals arranged us in the same speed boat with them.

In Derawan we first met a guy, John, we met on the boat from Tarakan. John got us to stay 3 nights (50 000Rs per person, per night with breakfast) in a home stay at his sisters house. The reason for this was the long weekend holiday, and the 200 people visiting from Tarakan. The house was nice, our host an d her kids friendly, and in the toilet (in here, toilet with a pool of water is called mandi) pool they had fish to keep it clean.

Derawan is a small island and one can walk around in less than in a hour. The electricity runs only from 18.00 to 06.00 and mostly people hang out on their porches before the tv´s are switched on. The local spare time event for women is volleyball (on main street there´s one field) and the guys play soccer. Kids seems to be very hooked on colorful plastic hula-hoops and running around greeting the visitors (Hello Mister). Atmosphere is totally laid back, palm trees, giant bats, turtles (Hawkbill) in the water, full moon etc. A little paradise. And the ice cream man driving around with his scooter and sound system. There is a small amount of trash in the water, but in basic the water is very clean.

We also wanted to see some other islands and do some good snorkeling, and when I met and American couple, we came up with a plan and John helped us out. We paid 450 000Rs per head on a trip of 3 days on a fishing boat. Normally a speed boat for a day would be something like 800 000Rs..so we got a good deal for that one. Douglas was speaking Indonesian and we rolled up the anchor.

Even though we did not get too friendly with the Americans we had an excellent trip! Our first stop was Pulau Sangalagi. We stopped twice to snorkel and the second time was a dream come true - we swam with Manta Rays!! Not with one or two, but there were tens of them! Flying easily through the blue, right next to us and then diving again. Our captain and his son were good in spotting interesting things and tell us about islands (through Douglas). In Sangalagi we confronted THE LOST. There has once been a fine dive resort, but for some official hassle with permissions and money the place was closed down, but it was like a ghost town. The only occupants were lizards and insects, as well as hawkbill turtles that arrive every night to lay their eggs on the island. There is a hand full of inhabitants taking care of the turtle nests and the hatchlings and to keep eye on the visitors. It is not allowed to sleep on the island, but somehow we got the permission (thanks John!) and we slept on the jetty, under the milky way and full moon, and under us on the water was some glittering shining plankton as if the stardust had fallen from the skies. Big small things. I was happy. And Simone smoking a cigarette in the night next to me was happy too.

Our next day started early around seven o´clock. Anchor up, and to see some more islands. Kakaban was our destination. An island with a lake inside that hosts millions of non-stingy jellyfish. An adventure, a weird little ecosystem. It felt like floating in outer space, the skin colored jellyfish all around, big and small making their way up and down and all the directions and the sun rays making lines between them. Snorkeling through the mangrove roots is another story to tell. We were lucky to reach this destination before the Chinese divers who were loud. Later we docked on Maratua island for the night and some more snorkeling. This time we swam with green turtles and slept on a jetty again, without the plankton but with some local youngsters playing guitar next to us, and one eagle ray swimming by our boat. That evening we had a good night story together with the Americans by discussing the cultural differences.

Back in Derawan we changed our home stay to a guesthouse on the water. A bunch of colorful little huts on stilts (shared room with own toilet with shower 150 000Rs per room). Daily sights on turtles, grabs, trumpet fish, juvenile bat fish, lion fish under our housing and not to mention the most romantic sunsets, while we are washing our laundry... On our first night though the laundry was not so easy task, since the house keepers are renovation for the high season and the water was off due to some plumbing experiments.

From Tarakan to Berau

27.05.2010 Berau

Our trip continued this morning from Tarakan. Again, do not trust LP. After finding out the previous night that the maps are totally shit and apparently the writers have never been to Indonesian Borneo, we were “German” enough to get out boat tickets on the previous day. We signed in a hotel ( Hotel Taufiq, shared double 50 000 Rp) on the main road quite near the harbor where the local boats leaves.

Wake up at six, to the boat at 07.00. The taxi took us the long way to the pier and tried to get 30 000rp instead of the 6000 plus entry fee 2000 to area. Boat Tarakan- Tanjung Selor took about 1 ½ hours.

At Tanjung Selor we were told that there was no frequent bus service anymore to Berau (after 2008) and all we could do was to get a kijang- shared car with multiple seats to our next destination. It was 70 000Rp per person and that included our “foreign bonus”, locals paid 50 0000Rp. The ride was nice through the curvy jungle road and one eating stop in between. During the stop we got offers to be photographed again, and some even took photos of us without our promision. I took the liberty to get angry, because the locals do not do that to anyone else...I should think about saying that Finnish culture or religion forbids to take photos of people. The ride took us 3 ½ hours approximately.

In Berau we tried to get to a nice hotel by the river bank, but it was closed and on construction. After the lunch I ran around for a place to sleep and found one posh hotel (read, expensive) Hotel Berau Plaza...but, air condition and A REAL SHOWER ( very refreshing) made me sleep a 5 hour nap after 2 very sleepless and very very sweaty nights. Tonight we walked to a local eatery and had nice dishes of Gado-Gado, a plate filled with vedgies, boiled egg, chips, tofu, rice cake and topped with spicy peanut sauce. A good evening dish, nothing too heavy and I have to say that the evening is cool and the people are much friendlier than in the previous towns, AND we are forced to learn Bahasa Indonesia.

Tarakan

26.05.2010 Tarakan, Indonesia

I promised to write about the trip information to the Indonesian side.
DO NOT TRUST LONELY PLANET BORNEO.

In Tawau Indonesian Embassy I met my new travel friend Simone. A nice German girl and we kinda run into each other many times and I decided to go with her straight to Tarakan and skip Nunukan all together. It was tough indeed to get the info about the boat to Tarakan. THE book (Lonely Planet obviously) told one thing and the people other. We went to harbor at 09.00, and there we were told that the boat does not leave until noon. It did not, so, both LP and internet info was wrong again. We went through the immigration and waited the rest of the time. Half past eleven we were loaded in the boat. It was the boat called Indomaya Tiga and the cost of the trip was 130 Ringgits. The trip took about 4 hours, a bit less.


Today we went to a park really in the middle of the city. 9 hectares mangrove forest with shady benches and wooden walks. At first we were upset to see one monkey in a cage and then another, probosics monkey, in the cage...but then, we saw some real things. THE MUD CRAWLER! A bit later I confronted some monkeys that were really nasty. One jumped to hang from my backpack and tried to bite me, but let go when it ripped a small towel pouch out. We were almost done with the forets when ge encountered the ones we were there for; the famous Dutchmen (the locals call probosics monkey the Dutchman because of the appearance) with their pot bellies and big noses, right after we had thought they only said there to be ones, just to get people coming to the park. I was super happy!

I am getting annoyed by the men in in here. It seems again that everyone wants money from you or to take a photo of you without even asking your name or telling theirs first. “Hello mister” is the normal greeting in here for us both, Simone and me.

Top five ways to start a conversation with a Westerner female.
1.“Hello Mister!”
2.“I love you”
3.“Where you go?”
4.“Which country?”
5.“ a photo?”


We also got our brand new Indonesian Idol phone cards.