My classmates couldn’t believe what they heard, “Seriously, you wanna go to Kalimantan for this holiday? Why? Isn’t it dangerous to be out there – in the Borneo’s forest, jungle and wilderness?”
My foreign pen pal even wrote “please be careful, we’ve heard there are so many head hunters and man eaters there.”
Well, the more they doubted and worried about it, the more I felt so enthusiast about my adventure there. I wanted to see and prove it with my own eyes that Kalimantan was beautiful and safe despite of what the rumors said.
We arranged our itinerary few weeks in advance. We also consulted with our distant relatives, who originally came from Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan). My uncle gave us the long list of must-visit places of interest and must-try local food in Banjarmasin and its suburbs.
We arrived at the Syamsuddin Noor Airport. My uncle’s friends picked us up and drove us to the city. It took about half to an hour ride to the downtown.
I noticed the unique traditional houses along our way from the airport to the city. Their houses were called ‘Rumah Panggung’(Stilted House). They built the wooden houses several meters above the ground in order to keep them save from the wild animals (such as tigers or snakes) and the natural disaster (such as flood). They used the ground level to keep their livestock as well.
The older generation of Dayak tribe women had a tradition of weighting their ears. Their ear lobes would be drawn longer as the years went by. It was an old custom and today's younger generations were reluctant and refuse to do so.
I noted an interesting fact that many Dayak women (the older one) smoked cigarette/tobacco and chewed betel leaf on daily basis.
The rivers (big and small) run through various cities and villages in Kalimantan and it became the main transportation. Somehow I felt like being in Venice. 
We went places by small boats - the difference was: the rivers here were brown colored.
We had to wake up early in the morning to see the ‘floating market’. It was actually the usual traditional market that sold fruits, vegetables, fishes, spices and other groceries. The sellers and the buyers were using boats as their transportation system and their kiosks as well. The trading was literally done on the boats (from dawn until 9 am).
I've heard there are only 2 locations of these floating market in the world, the one in Thailand and the other one is here in Banjarmasin (CMIIW).
We’ve tried few local cuisines, such as:
- Soto Banjar (some kind of soup from Banjar area - with hard boiled egg, chicken slices, rice noodle, fried shallot, lime, fried potato cake..etc). My aunt could cook this meal but to taste the meal at its original place was one of a real treasure!
- Bingka. I didn’t know much about Bingka at that time. It was quite funny because I remember having Bingka not in Kalimantan, but in Bandung instead.
- Dodol and Ketupat Kandangan. My uncle persuaded us to have the specialty snack food of Kandangan (suburb of Banjarmasin). Since I was not very fond of the sweetness, sticky and gummy texture of Dodol, at least I’ve tried it though. I prefer the Ketupat and its hearty soup.
- Ayam Masak Habang (means Chicken cooked with reddish spices). I thought the red color came from chili – but it was not! It was made from tomato I think. Not so hot and spicy as I thought it would be.
- Prawns and freshwater Fishes. I really adore Banjarmasin’s Prawn. They were so huge and cooked in delicious spices. Whether they were fried or charcoal grilled. They were very tasty! (well, size did matter indeed! 
). I can’t find those gigantic yet cheap prawns like them in Jakarta.
- Freshwater turtles soup (Sop Bulus) were available in certain restaurants. Many people also used the oil for the health/medication purpose.
Although we went to Kuala Kapuas (in central Kalimantan), Kandangan, Martapura and other towns as well, but our base camp was in Banjarmasin (except when we visited Loksado, we had to spend a night in the village nearby).
We stayed in Kalimantan Hotel (if I’m not mistaken) but sadly enough it was burned out few years ago. I don’t know whether it is being rebuilt once again or not.
I will post the Martapura, Loksado and Kuala Kapuas travel stories in the separate blog entries.
PS: Since I have lost almost all of my old photographs, so I downloaded few images from the internet and I quoted the original sources below.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjarmasin
http://www.banjarmasin.go.id/
http://www.ychi.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=1
Photo Sources:
http://www.banjarmasin.go.id/gambar/galeri/pasar_apung01.JPG
http://www.melayuonline.com/image/kuliner/kul-ketupatkandangan.jpg
http://www.acrossindonesia.com/Dayak%20Woman.jpg
http://www.ratuadventuretravel.ca/images/Dayak%20house.jpg
http://k53.pbase.com/o4/57/606057/1/53370774.3.Baritoriver.Banjarmasin.jpg
