(Half) A day in Borneo, 21st December, 2008

It was after a quick long trip, to celebrate the end of the year and all my travels, that I
spent a joyful day doing ‘just nothing’. Well, half-a-day, really. Again, ‘doing
nothing!’ not really, as you will soon find out. Here is a brief description to share with
you all the things that I did and saw in that one (half) day at the end of my year.

I left sunny and pleasantly warm Canberra on the 13th evening to go to Tokyo, Japan,
to participate in an Asia-Pacific Water Forum meeting that was held as a preparation
for World water Forum that will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, in March 2009. I arrived
in Tokyo on the bitterly cold morning of 14th and on reaching the hotel at the heart of
Ginza area of Tokyo, learnt that I will need to hang around till 2pm. Since
surprisingly the hotel did not have a lobby or lounge, I went out to ‘explore’ the area.

Tokyo International Forum where our meeting took place and outside of which there
is a fair of Japanese food and other goodies.

At the meeting, with Dr Ravi Narayan, and other presenters

But alas, I had soon returned, drizzle-soaked and cold to the bone, and committed to
pay extra to get in my room to prepare my presentation to be delivered the next day.

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A few words need to be said about the room, in spite of the fact that hotel rooms in all
metropolises tend to be small. However, this particular room, on the 11th floor of the
tower, was exceptionally small. I soon learned that trying to move around is futile - I
am still nursing a sore knee – from trying to go near the window. I found the heated
commode seat and the various jets attached to its underside for personal washing the
most fascinating thing about the hotel.

The entire day on the 15th was spent in the meeting and the Japanese style dinner that
followed. Earlier in the day, the lunch was in every sense a ‘working lunch’ and many
like me I am sure remained unfulfilled if not starving, but the dinner was
accompanied by generous quantities of Sake supplied in porcelain containers.

Seafood and rice noodles being cooked on the table on left. Sake bottles adorning the
table with dry shoba (wheat) noodles and broadbeans peeping in the front.

Early next morning I left for Jakarta from where I flew to Balikpapan in Kalimantan.
Not many people have not heard of this little port town sitting on the coast of
Indonesian part of the Borneo Island in the province of East Kalimantan.
Balikpapan’s claim to history lies in the fact that it was one of the centres of heavy
warfare between the Japanese and the Allied Forces during the Second World War.
The memorial stones for the Australian and Japanese forces adorning the streets are
meant to remind us of that history. The 300 years of Dutch colonial rule has almost
been wiped out and it is not easy, unlike in India where we continue with many
British cultural traditions or infrastructural icons, to detect any of that past.

However, the most interesting feature about modern Balikpapan is the economic
boom that is so evidently derived from the abundant natural resources – oil, natural
gas, coal and gold - found in Kalimantan. I too am here in connection with my
research project in Sangatta on a minesite – an hour’s flight from Balikpapan across
(or over) the Equator (see www.empoweringcommunities.anu.edu.au for more on this
project). Here is a photo of the inside of the 16-seater that takes me to Sangatta.

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Normally on my way to Sangatta for work, when I need to spend a night in
Balikpapan, I stay at the plush Le Grandeur hotel. This time was no exception.

The grand hotel on the coast in Balikpapan.

As compared to the hotel in Tokyo, Le Grandeur indeed offers a grand experience –

its location on the coast overlooking the many boats passing along, its spacious rooms
with latest facilities and the great food and hospitality of Indonesian people. The
entire region being awash with money is dotted with multinational company offices
and advertisements for heavy machinery – logging equipment to cut trees, excavators
and earth moving equipment for mining companies and so on. Glimpses of enormous
tyres being carried on rag-tag lorries such as these are not uncommon.

A view of the gigantic tyres ‘on road’, and a glimpse of Balikpapan from the aircraft.

However, this time I was whisked off from the airport in a ‘Kijang’ – a people-mover
which seems to be most popular car in Indonesia – by Iqbal, my English-speaking
driver for the day. He is certainly the most talkative driver I have ever had in my
various trips. He kept me entertained with interesting descriptions of the personal
habits of people different nationalities that he has to drive around, Balikpapan being a
centre of great importance for trade. In particular, he described how the Indian
businesspeople look around for ‘curries’ and ‘daal’, finding Indonesian food of rice,
meat and fish too dry. Iqbal, however, has a distant connection with India: his
grandfather, he informed me, was from Kerala, who came to Balikpapan during the
s4econd world war via Singapore as a spy for the British army. He settled down with
Iqbal’s grandmother, a pretty girl from Sulawesi, who gave him a male child which he
has been seeking for some years. The ancestors of Iqbal’s Grandfather had come to
the Kerala coast of India from near Morocco, but not much is known in the family
about that part of the migration. Such cross-oceanic migration in this part of the world

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is neither unusual nor recent; many words in Bahasa Indonesian remind me of their
Sanskritic or Arabic origins. The term Bahasa itself is similar to Bhasa in Sanskrit.
But around the Second World War flux of racial mixing, I learnt that Iqbal’s family
was not the only one; apparently there were quite a few families with such mixed
cultural heritage. Over the years, they have merged culturally with rest of the
Indonesians and not much difference remains visible, excepting the odd longish nose,
bigger height or darker skin amongst some descendants.

Iqbal seeking permission to go into BOSF A shop (toko) in Balikpapan

Views of the jungle at BOSF

Towards the north of Balikpapan is the BOSF, Borneo Orangutan Survival

Foundation (see www.orangutan.or.id) that was established over a 20,000 hectare
block of land in 1991. The existence of orangutans is threatened by the massive
logging that the region has seen since the 1960s. Previously, the local indigenous
communities, the Dayaks, practiced a slash-and-burn cultivation which did not impact
so hugely on the local ecosystem because of their small numbers, and the great
regenerative capacity of the equatorial forests.

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 A Dayak girl, working for a mining company, as a ‘truck operator’

‘Orang’ in Indonesian language means ‘man’ and ‘utan’ is ‘forest’, meaning literally
the ‘man of the forest’. BOSF is the world’s largest primate conservation program in
which the orangutans are treated for various diseases such as Hepatitis, TB, Herpes,
and HIV, trained in socialisation skills, and then reintroduced into the forests.
However, most of the trees are of recent origin, and many dead stems still stand out
like white skeletons as the entire area was wiped out by the 1998 forest fire that swept
across Southeast Asia.

Samboja Lodge

The highest point in the sprawling forest area is commanded by Samboja Lodge
(www.sambojalodge.com) where one could spend a few days to experience the
‘tropical rainforest’. Like the Royal Bengal Tigers of the Sundarbans, orangutans are
seen as the anchor of the forest ecosystem, and hence the humankind’s ‘link to the

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future’. To see them playing around on hammocks or doing rope-tricks was quite
fascinating.

Orangutans in BOSF

From BOSF, Iqbal tried to take me to Tamang Bangkirai – another piece of dense
equatorial forest that has been left untouched. I have heard that it offers a ‘canopy
walk’ – a walk on a rope bridge over the top of the thick canopy that is formed by the
forest. But part of the road to Bangkirai was flooded – there had been some heavy
rains in the last few days in what is this equatorial region’s short ‘rainy season’ - so
we had to turn around and take another route. The topography of this part of
Kalimantan is undulating with low-rising hills separated by river valleys. The heavy
equatorial rains wash off an enormous amount of silt into these rivers, almost choking
them with mud and making the water unfit for human consumption. I do not know
what it used to be like when the forests were not entirely logged out, but currently
along the highways certainly, I did not see any tall and thick tree, raising the suspicion
that excessive logging may have a lot to do with such flooding.

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 Kalimantan houses – note the flower gardens and the tyre acting as a pot

Waterlogged road on way to Bangkirai

We eventually arrived at the entrance of the Bangkirai reserve after several detours
and in spite of terrible roads. In several places Iqbal had to get off the car and with a
stick measure the depth of the potholes as in the following picture. Finally, on
reaching the gate at the reserve’s final climb, we were told that we are not allowed to
move any further as serious construction work was on progress.

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 The road ‘works’ in Indonesia, (in spite of the rains!)

Road condition on way to Bangkirai

A general view of the muddy hills and forests

A variety of dishes in Padang style are placed on the table for the customer to choose
from. (s)he pays for only those dishes consumed. Another favourite is grilled fish,
most restaurants offering an option of grilled or fried fish. Ikan Patin is a Kalimantan
specialty. A ‘Ikan Neela’ being grilled here for me.

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No story about Indonesia is complete without a description of Indonesian food, which
is heavenly and which forms such an important part of the culture of the country.
Each island or part of the island has its own distinctive food; Padang is a West
Sumatran type of food that is equivalent to Indonesian fast food or say Indonesian
dosa-idly. Padang outlets are ubiquitous, offering a variety of dishes of veggies
(capsicum, nangka or jackfruit), shrimps, chicken (or ayam) different kinds of fishes
(ikan) and beef supported by the usual prawn crackers, rice, fresh fruits and fresh-tea
(fresh-te) - comprising sumptuous meals that are slightly more hot and spicy and have
more gravy than the usual Indonesian meals.

Eating – even in roadside cafes and restaurants - is also done in great style, offering
an option of sitting cross-legged or on chairs.

Indonesian girls cooking meals at roadside restaurants (Sambal Olek is in the middle)

Indonesian economy is almost entirely run by women, although high social and
political positions are most commonly held by men, who are also considered as ‘Head
of the Household’ legally. Women are respectfully called as ‘Ibu’ – a mother – and
marriage and motherhood is of great importance to Indonesian women. Yet, travelling
through the country, the first thing one notices is the great presence of women at work
outside of home, although in many small businesses run from home, the difference
between home and the shop is quite blurred.

Indonesian language too is interesting, always evolving and adopting words not only
from other languages (such as ‘condisi’ to mean ‘condition’) but also creating new
words from acronyms or by joining the initials to reflect the diversity of cultures that
is Indonesia (for example, rumah meaning house and toko meaning the shop has been

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joined together as ‘ruko’ to mean the house-cum-shop). Most cooking, even in
restaurants, is done by women. The sambal-olek – the hot chilly chutney – is another
important ingredient of Indonesian food.

Before I conclude, I must also tell my readers that I caught a glimpse of some ‘mean
machines’ in a car rally in Balikpapan on my way back, and although most
Indonesians do not publicly drink, quite a few looked inebriated. Must be the
excitement! Or was it the ‘bule’s (white men) having all the fun?! The car rally
seemed half-real, thinking that I was on Borneo Island where even those working on
mines greet me by saying, ‘welcome to the jungle!’ The natural resources of
Kalimantan – the wood of the forests, the fish from the seas, and the minerals like
gold, coal, oil and gas under the earth - have brought the world at the doorsteps of this
remote place. As if by magic the Djinn’s lamp has brought modernity to a fragile
ecology that is finding hard to cope with the sudden burst of economic activity that
has accompanied the change. My driver Iqbal is thrilled to bits by this change – he
enjoys the machines as much as the quick cash this new economy has given him
access to.

A crowd watching the cars burning their tyres

There is no wonder then that Kalimantan is one of the poorest areas of Indonesia, and
is a region where the Indonesian vices of KKN (Korruption-Kolusi-Nepotisma,
meaning corruption, collusion and nepotism) is rife. Yet, there are signs of hope in the
works of groups (such as BOSF) which are working tirelessly to create a better future
for the region.

With that, I will end my note. Hope you enjoyed the day with me. I must now get
ready to go home to my family.

Wish you all the best for the New Year.

Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

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