Aini and a driver come to pick us up from the Eco Lodge for the 1hr drive to Kasongan. There a boat will be leaving to reach Baun Bago, one of the entrances for Sebangau National Park. We have reserved 3 seats on a wooden boat of 12 and the trip downstream will take 5 hours. We had the choice of chartering a private speed boat earlier in the plan, but quickly decided that we were not in that much of a hurry to get there. I have already had the experience of taking a speed boat between the border of Cambodia and Laos and vowed to myself that I would not do that again. The water was very low at the time and the boatman was going extremely fast, almost racing the other boats. I am rarely scared, but then I thought those would be my final minutes alive… Even if Indonesian boats are supposed to be slower, the normal boat will do just fine.
Families, young people and children on the boat are going home to their villages located along the Katingan River. This river is like the others we have seen so far, wide and brown. The boat has a blue tarp over the top to shelter us from the sun and water splashing over the sides when the boatman turns a corner. Once in a while you can see blue and white signs indicating if there is a curve, but only in one direction. Forest lies on each side of the river and every now and then a village appears. We pass by fishermen near the banks in tiny wooden boats. Some are busy are setting up their big rectangular fishing traps.
As we start getting closer to some of the villages you can see floating docks in front of each house. Aini explains to us that these are the Dayak style toilets! I have never seen this before and am quite intrigued… Some of them are quite nicely decorated with plants and flowers. The level of the water is quite low now (it is dry season) and there are long ladders that lead up from the river towards each house. You have to be quick going up the ladder to not loose your balance or miss a step. These structures often do not look very secure. Needless to say climbing up the ladder is a lot easier that coming down. After a few trials I have mastered a technique of going down frontwards, at least I can see where I am going.
We reach Baun Bango by 2 p.m. The local guide comes to meet us, we will be having lunch at his house. His name is Surahmansyah and takes researchers twice a month into Sebangau National Park and works with the WWF. His house is made of wood with a tin roof and on stilts like the others in Baun Bango. We are ushered into the kitchen area and sit down for lunch on the floor. We are quite hungry from the trip and the fried fish, rice and vegetables and tea is very welcoming. I love the taste of the river fish here. It is salted and dried in the sun in big woven baskets.
After lunch Aini and Surahmansyah start discussing how and when we will go inside Sebangau. He seems a bit worried that the ranger from the forest departement has not arrived yet. Aini had tried calling him from Kasongan, but had no answer. The problem is that there is only one boat per day and we were on it... Surahmansyah seems to think that we have to wait for the ranger to come before being able to enter the park. That means we would have to stay in the village for a full 24 hours waiting until 2 p.m. tomorrow. We agree to spend the afternoon visiting, as we don’t seem to have much choice, but specify that we have a 3 day permit to the park and that we would really like to go in tomorrow morning. Here again you should be flexible and ready for any kind of hidden surprises…
Like in many small villages of Indonesia we are required to go and introduce ourselves to the kepala desa (village head) as soon as we arrive. Baun Bago has about 300 inhabitants. They have a school, radio station, clinic, police station and one guesthouse. As we pass by the small clinic we can hear someone crying. They explain to us that a woman is dying and the kepala desa has come to visit her.
He soon comes out with a smile and greets us. He is a big, jolly and impressive man. He welcomes us and offers to show us the pride of his village. To one end of the town there is a long boarded walkway, built by the helpf of all the villagers that leads to a lake. The pretty walkway was recently finshed and has beautiful big trees left and right of it. It is simply beautiful and very peaceful here. Some come here to fish in the shallow waters. The kepala desa tells that he would like build an eco lodge on the edge of the lake to help develop ecotourism. They recently voted on this, but the idea fell through. The villagers are worried of the changes tourism will bring them and are perhaps not yet ready.
Later we have tea and fried bananas at the only losmen (guest house) of the village. The couple running the place is very kind and welcome us, asking where we are from. Their motto is to treat everyone the same, despite where they come from. They did not have many tourists yet, except for the researchers that sometimes stay here before going into the park.We will be sleeping upstairs in the airy part of the house, with a view on the river. The only problem is that here too the roof is made of tin and gets very hot up during the day… As we enter the room and see the amount of moskitos (knowing that there is malaria) we have no other choice than to sleep in our moskito nets and we are lucky, there is a fan in our room. As we settle in we begin by lighting one of the coils to try do discourage some of the moskitos. After hearing and reading stories about malaria, we know that we must be careful, as we are not taking any medication.
As we have our tea we see a big wooden boat that has docked by the guesthouse. It is a traveling store! We go down and see what they have on board. It is mostly dried goods like rice, flour, cookies, salty things, etc. We decide to try some cookies and dried bakmi or mie goreng soup for our time in the park. It has taken them a week to reach Baun Bango from Banjarmasin, stoping in each village to sell their stock. We can see now how the little shops in the villages get some of the food and drinks they sell.
We are also looking at the floating toilet by the river trying to think of how we will be able to wash ourselves. Aini goes down to check and comes back with a big smile on her face. She tells us that there is mandi for us downstairs and that we don’t have to go down to the river… Are we ever relieved! This must be the only house in the whole village to have its own private mandi next to the house.
In the mandi there is big container of water with a plastic bucket in one corner and a squat toilet in the other. There is a nail in the door to hang up your towel and clothes. Wonderful! We were a bit worried of having to wash in the river since we are not used to the bacterias. Even it even the brown water looked very inviting after a hot day! Here, just like in the Mekong, people use the river for everything…
After a delicious dinner at the losmen we take a walk around the town. We can stay out until just before it gets dark and then we should be indoors. We walk to the end of the village on the only main road until we reach an interesting building, Radio Asbun, the local radio station. A young couple (he is from Java and she is from Baun Bango) runs the radio station. As we stand in front of the house, they notice us, smile and welcome us inside. The evening programm consists mainly of music an is less work. In the morning and early afternoon they do the regional news. We are impressed to see a radio station in a village this size.
He explains how he came over from Java years ago and married a local. We go past all his radio equipment as we are invited into the living room. I can’t help noticing the big TV screen that is on as we sit and talk and have tea. His wife programms a new song and comes to sit with us as well. He tells us about his ideas to help develop the village. He would like to teach some of the women to make batik. He went to Java to learn the technique and brought back some examples of drawings and tools. If it works he will be able to see their work on the market in Kasongan and help bring in some extra money to the famillies. I am often impressed at how entrepreneurial the Javanese seem to be. I guess this comes from being from such a populated island. To survive you need to have a few tricks and original ideas up your sleeve.
It is getting late and time for us to go. At this end of town there is also a wooden walkway. We pass by a Christian church with a big wooden statue of Jesus hanging over the doorway. Nearby is the the big school. Surrounded by tress, it looks like a pleasant place to study. Soon we are back at the losmen. Tomorrow morning Surahmansyah will come to pick us up with his boat to take us into Sebangau National Park.
