Malaysia to Indonesia: July 21st

 Our transition from Malaysia to Indonesia took place on the east coast of Borneo.  Borneo is a giant island that’s mostly Kalimantan (a province of Indonesia) with a strip across the north which is two provinces of Malaysia.  Going from one country to the other can be done on either the east or west coasts, since the middle of the island is full of jungle with few roads.  On the west side, you can take buses, and on the east there’s a boat. 

Getting on the boat

 This boat goes between a town called Tawau (Malaysia) and an island called Tarakan (Indonesia).  It’s a pretty neat boat and boat ride.  The boat looks exactly like an inter-city bus inside, with two rows of two seats, which are in reality under water.  There’s a little staircase up that goes to a little covered place with a few seats, fresh air, and loads of boxes and luggage.  The boat had sporadic difficulties, would stop and drift for a few minutes, and then start again.  Otherwise it was all great.  Oh, except for the fact that Sean and I got on the boat without going through immigration.  On the Malaysian side, we just rocked up to this building with a waiting room, and asked someone where we should wait for the boat.  This guy walked us through a door, down a hallway, and right by a queue with a sign that said “immigration” and through another gate to a room with chairs.  We asked him about going through immigration and he said, no it’s okay. 

Ummmm, I don’t think it’s okay.  We bought some 5RM tickets which are I guess the boat tax, from a guy at a counter, who I also asked about going through immigration.  He also said, don’t worry it’s okay.  Even after I insisted that I really think that it would be a great idea for me to go through it, he insisted that, really, it’s not necessary. 

Uh, yeah it is.  But when I grabbed my passport and headed there, he insisted that I don’t have to go there.  Well, I went and sat down and chilled out.  After all, what could possibly go wrong?  Well, eventually our boat arrived, got loaded with unbelievable quantities of stuff, and then we got on.  Into the sea-bus to find that 90% of the passengers are not only foreigners, but also specifically from France.  What are the chances?  Apparently East Kalimantan is a really popular destination for the French folk.  As we got talking with all these guys, we discovered that it’s not only East Kalimantan that’s popular with the French, but more specifically an island called Derawan.  We’d never heard of this place, but most of the people on our boat were going there.  So we had an instant change of plan.  After Tarakan, we’re going to Tanjung Selor, and then to Derawan! 

Fishing platforms, complete with little suspended house

This boat ride was something like three or four hours, I forget, and we spent some time down below in the bus-like part and some time upstairs to get fresh air.  As we approached Indonesia, we saw something that I’d never seen before.  From far away it looked like clusters of pillars coming out of the sea.  As we got closer, we could see that each cluster of wooden 15m pillars had a house suspended about 5m above the water.  I thought, huh, maybe these are fishing villages of sorts?  Maybe people live there for a little while, spend time fishing, and then sell it on land when they’ve got enough?  It’s really quite a site, they’re all spread out for a while and then there are clusters of dozens of them all together.  They’ve got huge nets underwater with huge numbers of fish in them, and when the fish are big enough, they bring them up, put them on boats, take them to land, and sell them. 

Arriving in Tarakan

When everyone got off the boat, we were at the end of a very long wharf.  So we walked towards land, hoping that immigration would present itself.  Sean and I had plans with a Couch Surfing host, and were hoping that he’d still be there even though our boat was two hours late.  While we were walking along the wharf, Yosie ran up to us and introduced himself.  We apologised profusely and thanked him for waiting, and he didn’t seem to mind too much.  After going through immigration, who didn’t even notice that I’d not been stamped out of Malaysia, we met Yosie and his friend, jumped on scooters, said goodbye to our new friends, and headed to our new home. 

Home in Tarakan was awkwardly not Yosie’s house, but his friend’s house… his friend who didn’t speak English at all.  Well after bathing (Indonesians insist that everyone bathes at least fifty seven times every day) and unpacking a bit, we sat around in his friend’s living room with his wife and kids.  And we had our very first opportunity to see if you really can speak Bahasa Malaysia in Indonesia.  Turns out that you can!  It seems like the two languages are as similar as Canadian and British English; in the same way that us Canadians find it funny that British people call the bathroom the ‘loo’, Indonesians think it’s funny that the Malaysian word for bathroom is ‘tandas’ instead of ‘WC’.  So we can use Bahasa Malaysia, but we just use funny words for stuff. 

So we spent some time with Yosie’s friend and our language book, and learned how to ask the very most basic questions, and how to sign some more abstract ones.  Indonesian people are really encouraging when it comes to learning Bahasa Indonesia.  They laugh and smile and teach new words at an alarming rate, and they’re really awesome when you remember some words and use them later.  And they have the patience to sit there repeating a word until you get it right, so that you don’t go trying to use it somewhere else sounding like you have apples in your cheeks.  So we learned to ask ‘where are you from’ instead of how we were improperly asking ‘where did you come from just now’, and learned that It’s difficult to ask, “Where did you and your wife meet?” without looking like a pervert. 

Can't pass off a photo op in Indonesia! 

 We spent a few days in Tarakan, mostly walking around and familiarising ourselves with the slight differences between Malaysia and Indonesia.  Some small things are done differently, and many things look different.  Indonesia has much less money than Malaysia; they weren’t blessed with oil money.  You can tell right away that there’s less money kicking around, by looking at the state of the roads and buildings, and the amount of trash around.  And you can tell right away that you’re closer to the equator, because as soon as you cross that border strangers are saying hello, asking you questions, making friends right away.  So as we walked around we were charmed by all the, “Hello mister!” shouts and all the, “Di mana?” questions.  Where are you going?!  Just walking, just walking.  The word in Bahasa for travelling is, literally, “road road,” – jalan jalan. 

Climbing the roots of the mangrove trees

The yellow ticket in my book is from a Konservasi Mangrove dan Bekantan.  I don’t know what Bekantan means, but you can guess the rest.  Yosie took us there and we walked around in the mangrove forest, which also happened to contain proboscis monkeys.  We broke the rules and climbed the roots of the trees, enjoyed the insanely bright crabs that crawl around in the mud, and laughed at some little creatures in the mud that made squirting noises.  Sean and Yosie had all sorts of political conversations about this and that, and I stared at the trees and took pictures of stuff. 

Multi coloured crabs of Tarakan's mangrove forest

Proboscis monkey

The little white sticker on the bottom right is my Indonesian phone number, and the orange SIM card at the top of the page is my old Malaysian one.  We get a new SIM card in every country so that we can get in touch with hosts, call hotels head, and keep in touch with the family. 

Useful Info:

Indonesian visa

Going into Indonesia, you need to have a visa ahead of time, and there’s all sorts of information that all conflicts all over the internet.  Sean and I got ours in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah.  It was easy and quick.  We arrived in the morning with our passports, passport pictures, and printouts of our onward travel, money, and modest clothes.  They don’t let you in unless your legs are quite covered and you have shoes on.  So we bought a one-dollar pair of ugly-pants for Sean, and I wrapped my sarong around my legs. 

We walked into the embassy and asked where we should go to apply.  The man working there, in fine Indonesian fashion, escorted us to the very front of a line-up, where we got papers to fill in and instructions to go to a bank to deposit the fee and get a receipt.  We handed over all our goods and were told to come back that very afternoon to pick up our brand new visas.  Sixty dollars and a few hours later, we had ourselves two two-month Indonesian visas.  Feeling good. 

You can get a visa in Tawau too, we’ve heard, but it seems to take longer and be more confusing. 

The boat

Finding the place to get tickets in Tawau is tricky.  It’s hard to explain where it is, but I swear there are places to get tickets, and the boat does exist, just walk around, persevere, and get directions every five steps.  Otherwise you might end up in adjacent neighbourhoods that look pretty unsafe. 

Money changing

Oh you will feel instantly rich when you change your few Ringgits into thousands of Indonesian Rupee.  Five hundred Ringgits becomes a million and a half Rupees.