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BANJARMASIN |
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Set down in southeast Kalimantan, on the closet part of the island
to Java, BANJARMASIN 's history involves centuries of vigorous dealings
with the outside world, and the city has emerged with a strong sense of
its own identity. Over ninety percent of residents are Muslim, and
Banjarmasin's focus is the marble-and-bronze Masjid Raya Sabilal
Muhtadin , the Grand Mosque, built in 1981 on the west bank of Sungai
Martapura just above the city centre; you can look around outside the
main prayer times, provided you dress conservatively.
For real off-the-cuff entertainment head 1.5km east across the river
down Jalan Antasari, past the Mitra Plaza and white Masjid Agung, to
Pasar Antasari , a market and circus rolled into one. You can spend
hours here among hawkers and hustlers of every description, though
beware of pickpockets. From sunrise, the covered market inside is packed
with trays of cheap gems, watches, medicinal spices and trinkets; in the
evening, the forecourt fills up with clothing stalls and warung. But the
highlight are the street performers : musclemen who break coconuts with
their heads, chew glass or hammer nails up their noses, and quacks, like
the one who piles up cases of poisonous snakes and sits astride a live
crocodile while proclaiming the virtues of his reptile oil (a big aid to
male virility).
Half of Banjarmasin's population spend their days on wooden porches
overlooking the water, and you can catch all this by taking a klotok
(Rp7000-10,000 an hour from Jalan Hasanuddin bridge) to one of
Banjarmasin's famous pasar terapang, or floating markets . The largest
is at Kuin, about 4km northeast of the centre (30 min from Jalan Yani
bridge), starting daily at dawn and effectively over by 8am. As you
approach the market, you find yourself in a jam of small boats, full of
shoppers in klotok and dugouts and vendors selling everything from
medicines and bricks of fermented prawn trasi, to piles of pineapples,
beans or watermelons. There are even floating warung , where you can
have a breakfast of coffee and cakes by tying up alongside and hooking
your choice of pastry with a pole-and-nail.
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