Batukajang adventures

De said that I should not be afraid because some of the elite tribesmen in the Dayak tribe can smell the other person and can tell if he belongs to the enemy tribe or not. Dayak tribesmen are mystic. I said, I can even show my passport if their sense of smell fail them. Dayak tribe in east Kalimantan area in Jakarta had declared war with another tribe. And people said that there will be bloodshed even on the highway connecting Batukajang and Balikpapan. They said we should leave Balikpapan immediately – even as soon as tonight.
We were in Batukajang just for two days and a half. The overall work was not finished yet. We could have used one more day there. I could not even visit the mine because of the security clearance issue. What’s the point of putting on safety jacket and helmet and the long & heavy safety shoes?
The guest house was small but very tidy. The staff was efficient and there were posters reminding everybody of the overall objectives of the year. The great thing was the pick-up truck. I think Mitsubishi. It looked like a hunk. The flag in the front was fifteen feet tall and the purpose was to make sure that the ‘hunk’ does not get crushed by one of the elephants - big excavators. The life in the mine is tough. The long road leading to the mine reminds me of the movie ‘The Jurassic Park’. Especially when the morning mist engulfs the surrounding jungle and the make-shift road becomes wet in moisture. You can hear explosions in the mine to break the rocky surface. I wonder how do they prevent the coal to catch fire after one such explosion?
The city Batukajang is described as agropoliton by p.Adi – Agriculture – Metropolitan. The wide range of fields that you see on the way to Batukajang confirms that name. Banana plantations, Palm trees, pineapple and some more strange tropical fruits. One of the strange fruit I saw was snake-fruit.

We had our lunch at a small restaurant on the way to Batukajang. It was quite filling and satisfying. The road from the ferry to the city is more or less smooth in the beginning. It’s a hybrid between a coastal town of Spain and coastal town of SE Asia. Many small buildings with red color tiled roofs looks like they are directly imported from old Spain. Whereas, the wooden houses erected on the top of wooden scaffolding are typicl of SE Asia. You can see fishing gears near almost all of the houses. Even the inland houses have fish ponds in the verandah. Fish ponds for food not so decorative. Another surprising thing about the area is that you see houses on both side of the road throughout the way from the Ferry to Batukajang city – its around 70Km. But hardly find any village or town.
I guess the most interesting part of this journey was the ferry ride. The boat can carry around twenty cars and a few truck with its load. The passengers can seat on the upper deck. The ferry sails through very interesting landscape, resulting in enjoyable journey. The water is muddy at places and blue aqua marine at some other place. You can clearly see ‘patches’ of colors in the water. I wonder how is that possible. The boat is never too far from the land and hence you can always observe some activity on the land on either side. There are oil drilling activities on one shore and coal loading on the other. The place has wonderful natural resources. And as it happens at many places in the world, there is constant friction between the tribals and the government. One of the tribe is Dayak tribe. ‘Semi-mystic’ people who can accurately throw their matchet very long distance to chop the head of their enemies. Something to fear. Also the black-magic. De said there are many testimonials of such black-magic. And hence he believes it. These are the primary reason why we started to flee from Batukajang late that night. Better safe to be sorry.