Sulawesi (1) - The Long Trek to the Togean Islands via Ampana

The noisy mosque in Berau

We braced ourselves for the gruelling 3 day journey from Pulau Derawan to our first destination in the Togean Islands.  Needless to say we weren’t looking forward to it.  We travelled as far as Balikpapan with Boris and Léa who were heading to Flores from there.

First we left Pulau Derawan by speedboat, a 30 minute journey followed by 3 hours in a kijang to Berau which seemed to pass painfully slowly. 

Once we arrived in Berau we all checked into the same hotel.  Paul and I opted for the deluxe room but all this meant was that we had a window which wouldn’t shut.  Unfortunately this also meant that we heard the call to prayer loud and clear from the mosque about 50 metres down the road which on occasion had to compete with some kind of Indonesian rave music played by the people next door.

Borneo (6) - Pulau Derawan - Turtles and Clownfish Galore

Our pier

It had stopped raining by the time we arrived on the island at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and the weather was clearing up nicely.  We started to investigate our new surroundings and wandered up and down the pier gazing into the sea searching for sea life, in particularly the famous turtles.  The first thing we saw was a huge puffer fish just by the pier, lionfish  and soon we were spotting turtles left, right and centre.  Pulau Derawan certainly delivered on the turtle front.

That afternoon, Paul and Boris went for a snorkel off the pier where we were staying.  Léa and I chose to relax on the veranda.  The boys returned with tales of coral, fish and masses of turtles.

Borneo (5) - Berau and the Journey to Pulau Derawan

Paul in First Class luxury

Our next destination was Pulau Derawan, a small island off the east coast of Kalimantan which involved flying from Pangkalan Bun to Berau with a 4 hour stopover at Balikpapan.  As we would be arriving quite late at Berau we would need to stay overnight before travelling by kijang (basically, a 4WD car) Tanjung Putin and then speedboat to Pulau Derawan.

Everything went smoothly at Banjamarsin Airport and in fact we were given seats in first class (again, it was noted that Paul is quite long) which meant that we had more room travelling than we had had since we travelled by sleeper train.  If only this happened on long flights!  However, this flight was only 40 minutes which was a shame really because it was so much more comfortable that flying by our usual cattle class.

On the flight across the south east of Kalimantan it became clear just how much of the land is used for palm oil and why it is such a threat to the indigenous wildlife.  For a large part of the trip we could see nothing out of the window except a patchwork of palm oil fields stretching as far as they eye could see.  It is alarming just how much of this beautiful island has been stripped to grow this crop which saps the land and leaves it worthless after just a few years.  The palm oil producers continued to inch their way even into protected areas (money talks in Indonesia) and threatening, most famously, the orangutans and many other creatures.  You can only hope there are enough people like our guide Jenie who realise what is at stake.

Borneo (4) - Two Sides of Banjamarsin

One of the many mosques on the riverside

We flew from Pangkalan Bun to Banjamarsin direct.  We were given seats by the emergency exit because the flight crew noted that Paul was "very long" so it was a very comfortable flight.

We arrived at the Hotel Regenerasi, the hotel we had booked online via Booking.com, and it was at this point that I started to dislike the place intensely.  The manager spoke quite good English, having been educated at Leeds University and we suspect he came from Java.  It is a common cause for resentment among the local people on Kalimantan that people from Java, who tend to be better educated and have more money to begin with, come over and take all the good jobs in tourism.  It seems the Javanese are not well liked throughout the rest of Indonesia.

Borneo (3) - Just Passing Through Pangkalan Bun

One of the many mosques
along the riverside

We only planned to spend a night Pangkalan Bun as it would be easier to get to the nearby airport where we were catching our next flight to Banjamarsin.  Jenie insisted on paying for the taxi as part of the service he provided when we arranged the Tanjung Putin trip with him.

It was Jenie who wanted us to visit his sister's school (but he applied no pressure) and he was also keen to take us on a short tour around the river in Pangkalan Bun because he said he wanted us to make the most of our stay in his local area and see as much as we could in the short space of time we were there but he wanted no extra payment.  We really could not have asked for a better guide.

Borneo (2) - Meeting the Schoolkids and a Boat Trip in Pangkalan Bun

Our colourful hotel in Kumai
on a hot morning

After three days living on a boat on a river in the jungle watching the wildlife up close, Jenie arranged for us to stay one night at an hotel in his village where we would be able to freshen up a little (facilities were limited on the boat and after three days trekking through the jungle we needed a bit of a scrub).  The following day we would visit his sister’s school in Kumai before heading to Pangkalan Bun.

Jenie’s sister, Raya, teaches at a local elementary school while at the same time continuing her studies at university before becoming fully qualified.  It soon became clear once we met Raya and watched her in action at the school with the children that she had a passion for her job and her young students.

Kumai village is quite small, the people on the street very friendly and we enjoyed long hot showers and a good night’s sleep before getting up to meet Jenie and his sister at 8.00am when they would take us to the school on their motorbikes.  Unfortunately, we used my mobile phone as an alarm clock which for some reason known only to my phone had decided to turn back its clock one hour so we were actually waiting outside the hotel at 7.00am instead.  By the time we thought it was 8.30am we were getting a bit worried when Jenie turned up on his scooter.  When we eventually established that he was actually half an hour early and not half an hour late there was much hilarity at my expense. 

Borneo (1) - Tanjung Putin National Park and Orangutans

Settled at the table

We were visiting Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, less infrastructure than Malaysian Borneo (Sarawak) but fewer tourists.

We wanted to take a trip around Tanjung Putin National Park on a klotok, a type of traditional boat, but it is quite expensive and there so many tourist companies and individual guides to choose from we were spoilt for choice (read: confused as hell).  Luckily, however, we had met an Australian couple very briefly at a hotel in Saigon and they had just returned from Borneo and taken a klotok trip with a local guide called Jenie Subaru.   They absolutely raved about him and could not recommend him highly enough so about a week before we wanted to take a trip we contacted him by email, agreed a price (cheaper than the Australian couple had told us) and it was all arranged for him to meet us at the airport and take us straight to the boat for our trip in the Tanjung Putin National Park, primarily to see the orang-utans.