Floating market and Monkey Island!

6th October 2011

Floating Market

Got up at 4am and went to catch a boat to go to the floating market at about 5am. Banjarmasin is known as the city of a thousand rivers because there is so much water around, lots of canals and rivers throughout the city. Many people here live all along the edge of the rivers, much like I saw in Kerala (India), with their houses built on stilts. Their toilets drop straight into the river, people bathe and swim in the river, brush their teeth in the river and I even saw someone drinking from the river - you can see it all in one glance, I don't know how they're not all seriously ill! The water was filthy!

The boat took us for maybe 20 mins down the river until we saw the candle lights that indicate the start of the floating market. The floating market is held on a stretch of the river marked by large candles where lots of traders meet using small boats laden with fruit, veg and cooked snacks to sell. You go by boat to bargain with the traders, many people using similar small boats but some go aboard larger motor boats like us.

Its still pretty dark at 5am so the traders use torches to help you see what they have for sale. When we arrived the traders rowed towards us and offered us their stock, we bargained for some bananas and oranges to feed to the monkeys on a nearby island where we would go later on after the floating market.

 

 

Monkey Island

On the way back from the floating market we went to a small island called Pulau Kembang (flower island), but I like to think of it as monkey island. Its covered with trees and there are no human inhabitants, just lots of monkeys! Theres a little pier with a couple of huts there, and some people work there to basically get money from the tourists. You pay to go beyond the pier onto the island, and they accompany you.

So as we approach the pier I can see lots of monkeys.. as we got nearer the monkeys all jumped aboard before we had even docked and stole the bag of bananas we intended to feed them! I managed to save the bag of oranges though, for a moment!

I climbed off the boat onto the pier and started to try and feed the oranges to the monkeys one at a time, but the monkeys basically attacked me! They climbed all over me, up my back, along my arms to the bag and tore it to shreds to get the tasty treats within! I was left with part of the handle of a carrier bag! They also tried to steal my glasses which I managed to save and stash in my pocket! It was comedy!

We went onto the island and the monkeys followed us as the guides threw handfuls of nuts for them. There were so many monkeys!

A lot of games fans will know of a classic game called The Secret of Monkey Island.. Well, now I can say I've been there! And I didn't even need to use a rubber chicken! :P


Traditional Indonesia House

Next stop was a 200 year old traditional Indonesian house. There are not many examples of these left and although the government doesn't own it they are helping to preserve it. The owner is almost 100 years old and still lives there with her daughter. Its huge inside. We went in and had a look around and chatted to the owners for a while.

Durian Fail

I am intent on trying the legendary Durian fruit while I'm in Indonesia so we stopped on the way home at a couple of places to try and buy some. However, Durian fruit is very expensive and having a 6 foot white guy with you is not the best bargaining tool so we couldn't get a good price. Will have to wait til later, and maybe I'll hide!

Busy day!



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Made it to Banjarmasin alive!

5th October 2011

We arrived in Banjarmasin at 11am - alive! Iwan picked us up and we went to Iwan and Indah's house where we would stay for a few days. I was so tired I went to bed at 2pm after some lunch and didnt wake up til 7pm.

The reason we went to Banjarmasin is because one of the family, Harwin, is getting married in November and its traditional in Indonesia for the two families to meet, introduce themselves and give their permission for the wedding to go ahead and discuss it over dinner. I was invited to go along to see some sights in Banjarmasin and also went to the family dinner. Pak Surachmad is the most senior family member so he lead the discussion. We sat and drank teh panas and Iwan translated a bit for me so I could understand a little of what was going on. For dinner we had soto Banjar, it was enak (delicious)!

When we got home I went straight to bed as we planned to get up at 4am to go and see the floating market which would start at 5am!

zzZZ

The road to Banjarmasin

4th October 2011

Today at 18:00 we took a 15 hour bus journey to Banjarmasin. Well, I say bus journey but a few hours in it turned into a kind of death rally as the driver (sporting a mullet akin to that of Rambo from Rambo 3) and his 2 co-drivers took us along the worst road I've ever seen. It was so rough and bumpy and very narrow I couldn't believe they even considered driving a huge coach along it - I started to wonder what was in the cigarettes they were chain smoking.

I'll never complain about pot holes again! The co-drivers were giving guidance as to which way to go to avoid the worst of the bumps, trenches and oncoming traffic while the driver swerved and drove into the better of the bumps and trenches as fast as possible.

I was in the very front row of the bus and I had fallen asleep, but I woke up because of the noise of the bus being shaken to pieces and then watched the show/ feared for my life for the duration of the journey. Being at the front and having no seat belt I imagined myself being the one to break the glass and fly through the air in the event of a crash, I thought if I got a good roll into the landing I might come out unscathed.

It seemed impossible but someone near the back of the bus was spark out asleep, snoring loudly despite the noise and bouncing around. I tried to film the road but it was too dark for my camera to pick up any images, however, the sound depicts it pretty well I think.



Near the beginning of the journey we took a ferry for 1 hour, during the ferry ride I was entertained by the co-drivers who set about the task of super gluing a home DVD player to the dash board of the bus. The dodgey wiring they put in was sparking all over the place! After they finally got it stuck down and working properly I imagined we would watch a few films on the samsung flat screen hanging from the roof, but instead they put on some depressing film which one of them had obviously downloaded that seemed to be about religion and war and children with guns, all backed by some horrendous music made worse by the distortion - lovely. After that fantastic piece of film finished they played karaoke DVDs for the remaining 10 hours of the journey, from where I was sitting it was impossible to drown out the sound with my iPod. :(

We stopped along the way a few times to eat and use the toilet as there wasn't a toilet on the bus. I came across possibly the worst toilet I've ever had the pleasure of using, I had to take a picture. Mada assures me its not the worst toilet in Indonesia and pointed out that the water is still clear, so I guess I can look forward to seeing worse.




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Table etiquette

During breakfast one morning Pak Surachmad struck up a conversation about table etiquette and we established the following things that I thought I would share with you;

• Slurping food or drink at the table is considered rude in Indonesia and England.
• Picking your teeth at the table is considered rude in Indonesia and England unless you cover your mouth and use a toothpick.
• Spitting at the table is considered rude in Indonesia and England, but spitting when not at the table is ok in Indonesia - in England spitting is always considered to be rude and dirty.
• Burping at the table is considered rude in England, but only loud burping is considered rude in Indonesia - a casual low volume burp is ok, perhaps showing appreciation of the meal you have just consumed.
• Farting at the table is considered rude in Indonesia and England.

BIEC activity day at the green

2nd October 2011

Today I helped out with an activity day at the green for the kids from the BIEC. The activity days are optional but count towards their grades. The students are divided into groups and play various word games and other activities. Points are awarded to the students depending on how well their team does overall. The lowest each student can get for the day is 60 points, which is a pass, but the better your team does the more points the team members are awarded. Its a chance for them to practice their English and learn outside of the confines of a school classroom and have some fun.

There were 4 teams and I was the blue team leader. There was a kind of treasure hunt where they were given clues in English that would lead them to find several keys, the first team to find all the keys wins. Then there were a few word games and some races to fill bottles with water. Then a strange take on football, where there were 2 balls, the girls played with one ball and the boys played with the other but both at the same time! Finally there was a quiz, where the kids had to guess what I was describing and then run to get the prize when they knew the answer.

It was a funny morning and my team came first overall. All the kids were crowding around to practice their English and wanted photos with the weird tall guy.

On the way home we went past a crazy house that had a huge pouncing wolf built into the roof, strange!!

:)

Truth or Lie?

30th September 2011

Today the class I went into was a group I have seen before so I thought I would try and find a game to play to get the students more active, so I decided to play "truth or lie".

I thought of 30 questions that all start "have you ever..", such as; have you ever met a famous person?, have you ever won some money?, have you ever jumped out of an airplane?, have you ever had a strange pet?.. etc.

Each student would go to the front of the class and the others would choose a question from the list to ask that student. The student at the front of the class must answer "yes" regardless of whether it is true or not. Then all the other students may ask any questions they like to determine if they think the person is telling the truth or lying. After a few minutes (or until the questions ran out) we would take a vote.

It was hilarious to listen to the students make up stories about the time they swam with dolphins or the time they won some money! They all really got into it and had a laugh! The class went by really quickly and everyone had fun (I think!). It was a really successful way to get everyone talking! Will definately do it again!

Also, I now have a geeky project on the go to put a system in place at the language school to read completed feedback questionnaires and process the results automatically. Looking at open source OMR software at the moment. :D