Our transition from
Getting on the boat |
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! |
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.