Life on 'the island'

Borneo is not what I thought it would be. Having read so much about the island, I felt I would have a good sense of what to expect when I arrived. Lots of forest, lots of deforested areas and villages and towns sitting at the edge of the jungle. While much of this is what you will find here, I was misled by the place I had imagined that Borneo would be. When I say the word – firmly pressing my lips together, quickly drawing them inward before forcefully pushing out to pronounce the ‘B’, and letting the rest of the word rise and then fall out of my mouth – I can't help but conjure up images of half-dressed natives in steamy jungles crawling with too many deadly insects, reptiles, mammals and diseases to comprehend. It just feels exotic saying it. While for many years this has been the only reality, for many of the nearly 18 million people living on the island now, this is not the world they live in.

Having been here on the island – however, being the world’s third largest and covering an area of 740,000km2, it doesn’t always have the island feeling – for about 30 days now, I have had a good spread of surprises from my time spent in a number of different sized towns and cities along its eastern coast. Samarinda surprised me with its (disproportionately distributed) wealth; mansions to rival those of Palm Springs, Florida. Kota Kinabalu, and much of Sabah, had smooth paved roads, luxury cars with few motor bikes with much of the infrastructure, goods and services you would find in a small Western city (albeit, one situated in the incredibly beautiful scenery of white sand beaches, small remote islands, rain forests, mountains and azure waters). The prevalence and capability of Malaysians to speak English – amongst the multicultural setting of its Chinese, Malay, Indian (and many Western and Asian tourists and ex-pats) residents – made me feel as if I was back in the Canada (if only because my presence here was not a novelty, as it is elsewhere in the region). And the innumerable goods in the (predominantly Chinese owned) shops of Tawau, Sabah or the presence of satellite dishes, Blackberry’s™, and plasma televisions in the Houston, Texas-like oil city of Balikpapan and in Sekerat, Kalimantan, the ‘remote’ rural village where I’m living that is yet to have electricity (generators only) and only a few years ago received a small water sanitation facility (relying before on boiled rain and river water), have been just a few of the realities rattling my former notions of what life in Borneo is like.


That being said, much of what I had previously thought of Borneo is still what you will find here. On my numerous bus and minibus trips, lasting between 2 and 9 hours in duration, the hilly and pot-hole marked Trans-Borneo highway provides vistas of vast expanses of green dipterocarp canopy, flagged with the pale bark of protruding trees with canopy's extending up to 250ft into the bright blue skies. Many people still eat what they trap or fish out of the murky, coffee-and-cream coloured rivers each day. [On my first full day in Sekerat, we motored out some 2km in a 20-odd foot long boat onto the Makassar Strait separating Borneo from Sulawesi and caught about five hand-length fish (these count for Nippissing!) that were then grilled up for us 30 minutes after arriving back on shore.] Roads are still rough and are not extensive into the interior. Travelling remains difficult in many areas even when there are roads – the 30km from Sangatta to Sekerat took about 1.5hrs – and I was encouraged to carry a machete with me while walking around the outskirts of the village, in case I encounter “things” from the forest.

Aside from the physical environment, the people here have also made my experience quite unique. Always friendly and willing to chat, I have little problem making new friends. Walking through the streets, I receive quite a bit of attention. Sometimes times a glance, often an unabashed stare, other times a quick look and then a turn to a friend to share in the novelty of someone who looks markedly different than you. If these glances and stares came from only girls and not men as well, I’d think I was the most handsome man in the world (I still secretly think this). I keep looking at myself in the reflection of shop windows after each such encounter to make sure I don’t have something on my face or check my pants zipper, but it is only occasionally these things...the zipper on my shorts is broken, shut up! But regardless, my presence here is an oddity for local people. With very few people speaking English and little in the way of tourist destinations compared with other areas of the island, ‘tall’ people with white skin (as I’m often reminded that I have, in a humours recognition, in contrast to their ‘black’ skin) are unique.
Cultural note: There are many commercials promoting skin whitening creams as being a sure way for girls to get noticed by the boys. While I was first somewhat inclined to think this was part of a wider Western-cultural kick seen in the country (and the all over the world for that matter – a subject which, despite my interest in its underlying reasons, I shall leave aside here), it seems to be more an indicator of wealth or prestige than Western envy; more time working inside at more lucrative jobs in offices and stores (or not working at all) means less time out in the sun.

Elsewhere, I live on the beach!


Settling in with a local family (and stealing the bedroom of a daughter off studying in another town), we have been graciously welcomed by the community and have been able to get around and really start to get an idea of the kind of life people lead. While I will save a more detailed description for another post, one of the interesting things about this village and life in many towns and cities with minimal infrastructure is the use of fire. If water is the universal solvent, then fire is the universal problem solver. Raw meat too tough to chew and covered in deadly bacteria? Use fire! Is forest cover stopping you from growing crops or are trees are growing into your house? Use fire! Garbage piling up because there are no facilities where you can dispose of waste? Use fire! Tough math homework giving you headaches? Use fire! (just kidding kids, math is fun!) Nonetheless, the use of fire makes obvious many of the things I’ve taken for granted back home: waste disposal systems, clean burning fuels to heat homes and water, heavily manufactured landscapes, and calculators (damn you fractions!).

It’s funny how you can become blind to the things that you rely on in your everyday life. But I should end this post. I’ve got to go pay for my time here at the internet cafe. I have to figure out if my 10,000Rp note will be enough to pay for 1 ¼ hours of internet time at a rate of 7,000Rp/hour...ugh, where are my matches?