We were in Banjarbaru for the celebration of Indonesian independence from the Dutch. The day before, we'd driven by a huge school parade on our way out to see Trigona bees. It was pretty impressive and went on for blocks. In retrospect we should have asked if they could stop the car a bit for us to watch for a bit. It seemed like every class had a different theme. So there were kids dressed in the colors of the flag (red and white) and kids dressed like native Dyak, kids in military uniforms carrying pretty realistic gun replicas, and, my favorite, kids dressed as Dutchmen and -women. Those were maybe the creepiest of the whole parade.
After realizing that someone from ULM was going to have to spend their holiday entertaining us, we offered to self-entertain and give everyone a day off. It turned out to be a great day. We went to Pasar Matapura (just outside Banjarbaru). We took a cab right after breakfast and it turned out we got to the pasar (market) too early! Most of the shops were closed when we got there but things gradually opened as we walked through all the covered-up stalls and by the time we left in the afternoon, things were in full swing.
After realizing that someone from ULM was going to have to spend their holiday entertaining us, we offered to self-entertain and give everyone a day off. It turned out to be a great day. We went to Pasar Matapura (just outside Banjarbaru). We took a cab right after breakfast and it turned out we got to the pasar (market) too early! Most of the shops were closed when we got there but things gradually opened as we walked through all the covered-up stalls and by the time we left in the afternoon, things were in full swing.
Pasar Matapura (Matapura Market) is a huge traditional market that is mostly known for its gem-sellers. The Cempaka Diamond Fields lie right outside Banjarbaru/Matapura (and I got to see part of it over the weekend, that will be in the next round of the Kalimantan blog) and this area has been a large gemstone and gold market for a really long time.
Now, like I said, we got there early and not much was open (the wet market was surely open but that wasn't where we dropped off). So we wandered and the first thing we found were the fisherman supplies sellers -- too bad I don't know how to throw, because they had some pretty cool traditional nets.
Next we wandered up some stairs and found ourselves in the handmade wedding dress section. And let me say, Kalimantan women are spoiled for choice when it comes to wedding gowns. They were all drop-dead gorgeous. Most of the sellers weren't there yet, but they had left the maniquins with dresses up overnight or were just starting to pull everything out for display or something. We passed one shop where the whole family was sitting on the ground sewing beads onto dresses. I stopped and talked to them for awhile but didn't think to take a photo of the amazing work they were doing. If I ever decide to get rid of Tim and have another wedding, I'm coming back here for my dress!
From the dusty upper floor we also got a pretty good view of the vendors beginning to set up below.
But, still, no gems. No gold, no jewelry. Not even costume jewellery. We walked a long time before we finally got to a section where old men were selling polished and cuts stones. In addition to diamonds, the Cempaka fields are famous for amethyst. And all of the quartz stones from the area are called 'amethyst' So there is amethyst (purple), water amethyst (clear), coffee amethyst (black) and tea amethyst (yellowish). Plus a lot of other stones, some from Kalimantan, some from elsewhere in the world. It was pretty cool. I was loving all the rocks and Tim was quickly tiring of me talking to all the vendors about them.
As the day went on, we went further and further into the pasar, crossed some roads and got helplessly lost (I was really, really proud of myself when we finally made it back to a ring vendor we'd met at the very beginning right before it was time to catch a cab home).
We found some food vendors just as we were starting to feel really hungry and stopped for some excellent local fish grill (ikan patin which we think is "iridescent shark catfish") at one of the little stands. I am very sure that bule do not stop to eat at dusty pasar eateries very often. No one could believe we were there (except the cat, who was very happy to see us and clean our bones for us). The fish was really tasty with a delicious spicy herb marinade. We also tried the two drinks that they had for sale. One was very red and the other very purple.
After filling our bellies, we asked about Independence Day celebrations. Someone told us about a competition where people had to race up greased coconut palms. That sounded excellent and they said it started in 40 minutes "over that way." So, over that way we went. We came across a big town square all dolled up in Red and White and figured we'd found the place. We were part of the early crowd there and (again) people we amazed that we had come to this celebration. It turned out not to be the place with the greased tree climbing competitions (we never did figure out where that was) but was the site of lots of long speeches by politicians from the dias, marching by schoolkids, soldiers and public servants, and a few dances. Not the most exciting celebrations (esp for those who struggle with understanding the Indonesian speeches) but the crowd was a blast and we had fun talking to all the people around us. Although it was really empty when we got there, by the time we decided to leave (an hour or two?) it was so packed that we had trouble getting past people and back to the road. But I had brought water and was near passing out with dehydration so willing to be a little more obvious and insistent about climbing over people to leave that I would have otherwise felt comfortable.