Samarinda to Berau
May 27, 2009 by Luka
After leaving Tanjung Puting National Park, where we met Orangutans, we headed to the East of Borneo, to Derawan island. The way there is not as straight-forward as it looks. We needed to get from the park headquarters In Kumai to Pangkalan Bun airport. Then we flew back to Banjarmasin. From Banjarmasin we took a night bus to Samarinda, which took us around 15 hours. We were exhausted and decided to stay one night to relax in Samarinda.
Samarinda as a city is nothing special. There are no sights apart from a few mosques, but the city makes a good base to explore the interior of Kalimatan (Indonesian part of Borneo). It was really hard to find a money changer, because the banks didn’t accept Euros. Also ATMs did not accept my bank cards. Luckily I found a money changer in some shopping mall and I was able to change money.
Take my advice; bring Dollars, but the banknotes should be newer than 3 years! Older ones will not be accepted by banks.
Next day we wanted to fly to Berau, but unfortunately the flight was full. Reading Lonely Planet Borneo
When we got to the bus station they told us, that the bus is not going either that day. There was only Kijang (minivan) service available. Kijang means a deer in Bahasa Indonesia and it is usually a Toyota or Nissan Minivan which operates like shared taxi. After four hours waiting that the Kijang was full, we departed. The car was registered for seven passengers, but we were nine – with all the luggage! Imagine yourself being 20cm taller than most of Indonesians and you can understand I wasn’t really feeling comfortable:)
First couple of hours were quite encouraging and by myself I was hoping we could really make it in 16 hours or less.
Then it started to rain…
A car in front of us was stuck, we were stuck and so was everybody else! As soon as I stepped out of the car I was soaked wet, muddy and it was damn cold…
Wearing the shoes was not an option…
We were pushing the cars all night and the whole next day, a car in front of us, our car, the car(s) behind us.. Every hundred metres the same old story. As nobody spoke English, hands and a few words in Bahasa were the only way to communicate. But people were nice. Everybody was smiling, relaxed. This was already a routine for them…
Surprisingly big trucks were able to get further than most of the cars. But even for the big guys mud was a challenge.
We met a wonderful guy Arif, who was managing one of the numerous logging camps. He told us, that his workers found an Orangutan orphan and that we could see it at their camp which was in the vicinity.
We visited their camp and spent there a whole day. They were really hospitable; we could use their facilities and they invited us for a lunch and dinner. We even played badminton with them!
Neja’s heart was broken when she saw the orphan – she spent the whole day with this lovely baby and we promised that we will do all we can to save it. Right now, we are cooperating with Centre for Orangutan Protection to get Peter (Orangutan’s name) to rehabilitation centre.
During our stay I had mixed feelings. We met wonderful people, friendly, generous, hospitable but on the other hand they are cutting rainforest. I understand the local people why are they doing this – it is the only source of income that is available to them. But this is day to day living. In a long term the forest will be gone and their quality of life will be even worse than it is now.
Instead of 16 hours as it was advised by LP we needed almost 65 hours to get from Samarinda to Berau. Although it was very rough ride it was a wonderful experience where we got to know Borneo from a total different perspective. Now I know how difficult is for the people to live in this part of the world, that there is no easy solution to stop deforestation and that people who try to save wild animals do a terrific job which is usually ignored.
And here is some literature we read during our trip:
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glad u had this kind of experiences.. it was all difficult and complicated when you talk about economic needs and environmental issues in Indosnesia..
hope that we can keep our forests..
Hii..nice reading your story. I’m as a local people live in West Kutai Regency,exactly in SENDAWAR,it takes 6 hours travelling by cars/bus from SAMARINDA,Let’s me telling you that we’ve varieties of interesting cultures where many tourists were visited us and even stayed here for several years.In this case,I invite you to visit us anytime you may come here.Regards,Yordan
nice info guys..
thank you so much — we have been following the (very inaccurate) lp as well – both borneo & indonesia (which — if you are only traveling indonesian borneo – the former is a complete waste of money), & were about to go hire a kijang ourselves to do the route backwards. after spending new years on derawan island — amongst huge piles of garbage, insanely rude indonesian travelers, & inhospitable locals we are now very unsure of how to spend our next week before we fly to sulawesi…
it wasn’t all bad (derawan i mean) & we will be posting a huge post about our trip later — highlighting many inaccuracies with the lp’s.
ps just a head’s up — tarakan is AWFUL — it is NOT a ‘little singapore’ — and is not clean or friendly. budget accomidation is non-existent ; expect to pay 150,000rp for a room with no running water & rude staff. also –if you visit the mangrove park you will see stunning wildlife… in TINY cages crying for you to let them free.
safe travels all,
the evil v
Hey guys
I’m just planning to visit Borneo this August. I’ve been to Indonesia several times and I also speek some Bahasa Indonesia. I really would like to combine Derawan Islands and a Kutai National Park. Unfortunately, I hate flying and would prefer to travel overland from Balikpapan to Berau. Would you recommend this? August is not rainy season, so this journey could be manageable in 20hours? Another problem is that we only have around 2weeks for Borneo…so planned are 4-5 days on Derawan and the rest on the way… I’m really looking forward to hear your advices.
Thanks a lot
Carol
What can i say Carol? You’ve read that we were totally surprised by these events on the route you want to travel. I can’t say for granted you will have the weather. Its certainly doable if weather holds, but if it rains I suggest flying. even if you don’t like it its moer convenient, especially when you are short with time.
Safe trip!
Me again
Thank you for your answer… Do you think it could be a possibility to charter a (speed)boat from Sangatta (or Sangkulirang or another place there) directly to Derawan Islands? Or is this an absolutely stupied and impossible alternative?