a winner
...
Pela
where i’ve landed right on my hapless blundering feet
for somehow
the processes of logic have led me to a
wonderful place...
every choice was the product of the
situation created by the
previous choice
and all these choices have led me
via a dilapidated town
and two hovels
to
…
Pela
on stilts
a mile or so of longhouses
on stilts
strung along a wooden boardwalk
on stilts
where all the houses face across the walk
onto the water
and where the stilts are five or twenty foot
above the uneven levee
and the risen lake of imminent “monsun”
...
where i wonder if
come the Monsoon
all the land disappears underwater
and you just have the boardwalk
and the houses
above the stretching flat lake
...
Pela
where the very sight of me brings out smiles and grins
and laughter
...
Pela
baking in the high heat
below the permanent thinning or fattening layer of smog and cloud
from the many agro-industrial fires out there somewhere
...
Pela
friendly
easy
safe
where i don’t lock my door
...
Pela
together
tidy
square
well-appointed
in dark brown wood
...
Pela
dogless
fruitless
lockless
beerless
mosquitoeless
carless
where motorbikes rattle the large girders of the wide sturdy boardwalk
and sound like a squall coming in
...
Pela
where it could, ahem
be described as Travelling Genius
that i’ve wound up in Pela
one of the best places i have ever EVER found
...
yet, really
each choice has been the obvious response to the
consequences of
the last choice
...
for, once in Samarinda
having made the seemingly smart decision to
head inland on the Mahakam River
well, the bus upcountry would be a
dreadfully dull thing to do
when you can get a boat every day
so the double-decker narrowboat was a go
while Kota Bagung, half a day up
is the obvious first place to get off
yet, on arriving in Kota Bagung
anyone would see fast that
it ain’t that nice
while the two hotels were pretty grim
even by my unhigh standards
one was a proper hovel
yet getting back on that boat just ain’t that easy
and well, i had time
so looking around for other nearby possibilities
would be a sensible thing to do for any traveller
and where just a few seconds scanning the map
chiefly the river and lake system on that map
is going to bring most eyes to
Pela
which has a Homestay
shown on maps.me, if not Google
and this chain of reasoning would bring the
most hapless unplanning traveller to
Homestay Aina
where
your luck is in
...
while this village
along the banks of the shortish [20k?] Pela River
is much more together than i would have expected
...
most of these houses are nice
unpainted dark wood
largeish windows
deep verandahs
most with subtle small-scale wood carving
some with florally-patterned coloured glass
...
and its all more together than the photos make it look
for this village is not ramshackle or dilapidated or run-down
...
while its long enough for three small mosques
with at least ten tiny house-front shops
...
and its all notably neater than the nearby town, 4k off
Kota Bangun
with its rusting its bent its corrugated its dilapidated
its bowed its twisted its broken
...
while i expect villages to usually be poorer than the towns
but... not this time
...
Pela
it will be hard to leave
and likely hard to find anywhere so perfect again soon
as its the first genuinely nice place i’ve found in Kalimantan
Indonesian Borneo
after 8 days in unfabulous cities and towns
so, why leave...
...
while i have not seen ONE SINGLE foreigner
since i arrived in this country
...
Pela
where one day became three
became six
has become eight
will become nine
while whatever i do next is gonna involve some
unsimple
stretches of hours
and a probably 3 a m arrival in an unknown riverport
...
though i am rather limited for activity in
Pela
for no long walks are possible
the boardwalk ends abruptly at both ends
with no path running on... they take boats i guess
...
while there are no paths into the greenery behind
like none
which is a first
for there are always paths into the greenery from villages
but here?
it would seem not
...
which must mean the whole focus of the village is on the river
the river full of fish
...
Pela
is near the lip of the lake
Danau Semayang
so lakeside was the obvious direction for a long walk
yet my chief attempt failed
on the extending cracked-mud lakebed
[see photo]
where walking was hot joyless and not easy
...
while i have easily my nicest room yet
though its fan not aircon
and its very VERY hot here
so each time i leave the localised sanctuary of the fan i
turn into a human sponge
squeezing out sweat
though it has rained a little some nights
cooling it down
and where the river then began to run the other way
away from the Mahakam
up this tributary towards the lake
while without the fan my room
which heats up from having a hot body in it, mine
would be unbearable
...
yet its ten quid a night
all in
including three good meals a day
where the spicy sauces here are gorgeous
maybe the best in the world
which is what i thought last time i was in Indonesia
yet those sauces were usually tamarind
where here there’s no tamarind
yet they are pretty wonderful here too
while i can’t find one of my favourites here on the interweb
its spicy black fried ground small-fish, i think
[with tamarind in it?]
served as a side dish
while Pela is friendly
though i can only communicate via Google Translate
which functions OK for the important
yet is severely limiting
...
so i’m pretty silent
writing
ambling
and sitting on the wooden steps
hoping the dolphins will show up
because this stretch of the short Pela River is
i was surprised to learn
the last refuge of the Mahakam river dolphins
of which there are apparently just 66 left
though i haven’t seen any
though i have seen Stork-Billed Kingfishers
like the photo
...
...
yet i keep thinking that
if i sit long enough on the wooden steps or the bench
writing, reading, on laptop, or tablet...
sooner or later some dolphins must show up
as i gaze out into the wideish river
and the trees and wetland beyond
for here is not, i was again surprised to learn, jungle
its wetland, with marsh grass
...
Pela
one misguided choice
in trying to get here
was a walk, with bags,
down a road on the map which was not there
a walk so hot i almost got heatstroke
...
but did wealed by the fierce whip of the tail of a
four foot Asian Water Monitor Lizard
a whip so fast i didn’t see it
and wondered where the sudden pain came from
and only when Mr Lizard tried it again
did i see what happened
...
Pela
no visible or audible acrimony in the whole place
at least, not in any form that i can recognise
...
yet
Pela
the downer is the...
smog
the cloud
the lack of blue
the lack of stars
for there are many many forest fires on this huge island
many will have been started deliberately, agro-industrially
and the smoke has united with the cloud
to form a pretty unbroken layer of smog
so all horizons are hazy
unless they are actually invisible
while i couldn’t tell you what is cloud
what, in the morning, is mist
and what is smog
...
the mists of morning are sometimes so thick
that the far banks
100-150 metres away
are barely visible
...
while this smog will, i suspect
be a feature all the way up the river
...
for this is just my second staging post
and i will be moving farther and deeper
up the Mahakam
to Melak and the fabulously named Long Wai
or as far as there is water in the dry-season river
to take the river buses further on
likely on the same double-decker chug-chug chugging narrowboat
the KM Karya Utama
which i arrived on
...
and where i strongly suspect it was a
damn sight easier to get off that boat than
it will be to
get back on it
because...
maybe it arrives in Kota Bagung at 2pm
or 5pm
or whenever
yet it does not actually stop
so i have to have a tiny boat ready to
take me out to it when the river ferry does show up
yet i don’t speak any Bahasa...
...
while, yes, it theoretically arrives in Melak at
errr
a most inconvenient
2-3 a m
...
but
in the mean time
its the boardwalk
made of thick girders and planks
to carry motorbikes but not cars
...
its Pela
where my laptop and my tablet disagree as to which time-zone i’m in
which has never happened before
...
its Pela
where’s there’s no dogs
there’s a few cats
there’s an enormous pelican tied up
and some wild moneys among the stilts
and on the far banks
but zero dogs
...
Pela
buzzing fishing boats
twittering birds
rumbling motorbikes
three simultaneous Calls To Prayer
squealing children
...
and a pretty weird place to be sat
on the wooden steps
above the river
failing to spot a dolphin
while indistinctly hearing a distant song
one in English
and struggling to identify that song
until finally realising its
When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
...
from an unseen child’s toy
...
followed by
The Wheels On The Bus
...
Pela
a complete winner
where persistence and accident has paid off again
...
so here i am
grabbing the good bits
...
is it foolish to leave?
will i find a spot so cushty again?
maybe not
though the Rainy Season cometh
yet this ain’t jungle
so i gotta try
...
but in the meantime
another day, two
in Pela
...
...
...
...
...
in other news
best breakfast ever
eight dishes
all homecooking, except maybe the tempe
...
spicy chicken necks in spicy sauce
Leher Ayam Pedas
...
Abon Ikan
which translates as “Fish floss”
“dried, shredded fish seasoned with local spices,
coconut milk, and aromatics,
then roasted or fried until dry and fluffy”
which comes with every meal
and i finish it every time
...
fish eggs / Indonesian caviar
looking online, i’m not sure what this is
its related to Oseng Telur Ikan Biawan
while its not in the photo because i ate it all
...
tempe
...
fried eggs
...
spicy sauce
with every meal
hot spicy
gorgeous
...
plus
...
kropok
giant prawn [?] crackers
...
noodles
...
rice, which i don’t touch
...
three similar meals every day
every meal is fabulous
...
...
...
...
in other news
its not a great place to feel forced to reread
two ungreat books on the War of 1812
for poetic purposes
...
if they were good books this would be different
...
and, as they weren’t great the first time
i guess i should buy a third...
...
...
...
...
in other news
i can always come back here on my way back down this river