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	Samarinda and up the Mahakam River to Mancong
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Samarinda and our slow boat through Borneo On approach to landing at Samarinda,a riverside city in the Mahakam River Delta we realised that the runway doubled as a soccer pitch for the local kids who had their game interrupted as we touched down. We were met by our Borneo guides Jailani and Rusli who had been recomended in the Lonely Planet Guide for this area. This recommendation was reinforced by their professionalism and extreme helpfulness on this leg of our journey . E-mail Jailani & Rusli We stayed in Samarinda that night and strolled the markets and watched the riverside activities . Once again we visited a local live music night spot to savour the local talent and enjoy a few cold beers.
	Up the River The next morning we visited a few of the local street markets again and headed off to load onto our boat for a river journey to visit a Dayak village 320 km up the river. We loaded our gear onto a 72 foot timber boat with a comfortable airconditioned sleeping area up stairs and an open dinning area below.
First Day on the Mahakam As part of our tour, our guide Rusli had organised this boat for our trip. All we needed to supply was some beer. The first thing to do after we departed was to find a couple of cartons of Bintang in the portside towns as we headed up river. Alcohol proved to be difficult to find, but after a couple of interesting stops along the river and searches of the stalls we acquired our supplies for the journey. That afternoon, we relaxed on our boat and watched the riverlife go by . Most of the the vessels we observed were involved with transportation of Borneo's rich resourrces. Borneo is a huge export "cashcow" for the Indonesian economy . In the Delta region are oil and gas rigs . Inland are diamond ,gold and coal mines . We saw dozens of massive rafts of tethered logs from the Rainforest being shunted and pushed by smaller boats and large tugs. Most of the timber from the huge softwood rainforest trees is processed into plywood at riverside factories to be sent to the USA for building materials.The log rafts being sent down river were said to contain one million cubic metres of timber. Hardwood species are milled at riverside mills. Shanty like structures fringe the river for hundreds of kilometres giving us a passing glimpes of the life of a local. Our boat glided past the evening household activities of washing and bathing at the floating riverside bathrooms and laundries. We did a brief stop at a shipyard in the late evening. Under construction where the hulls of six 80 foot long timber trawlers or fishing boats. Constructed of local hard woods these huge boats could be purchased without fittings or engines for about ,500 AUD. As the sunset, we continued our journey into the night and enjoyed a sumptuous feast prepared onboard and watched the riverside towns glide by.
	Muara Muntai We arrived early in the morning at the town of Muara Muntai after steaming through the night. The town is famous for its tidy and well maintained board walks that serve as streets and roads for the town. We spent the morning wandering around the town and visited the Hospital and the High School and spoke to a few of the local kids about where we were from and what we were doing. We then loaded onto a couple of motorised canoes for our trip across a huge lake to visit a Dayak village.
Shallow lakes and floating houses Our 2 hour trip across the large lakes was an ever changing vista of water life and activities. In the middle of the lake, floating villages built on logs house the lakes fishermen. As it was the dry season, some of the areas in the middle of the lake were only a couple of feet deep. There were a number of contraptions employed for gathering the fish of the lakes ,from scoop nets on the front of boats to counterbalanced nets such as the one in the photo below. Fishing nets are everywhere, and tiny salt fish were drying on most spare areas and decks of the floating houses.
	Dayak Ceremony After lunch at a long house we noticed the gathering throng of locals in the ceremonial courtyard. We noticed dozens of kids arriving in colouful traditional clothing for what turned out to be a welcoming ceremony and display of Dayak dancing and culture for our benefit.
The Ceremony Witin 20 minutes the villagers had gathered together a troop of 50-60 musicians and dancers to give us a traditional welcome to their village. The performers ranged in age from 3 years old to about 65. We were all given red and white head bands and dabbed with fragrant rice water. We were led into the dancegrounds by the junior performers after Rod had severed a vine [bridge oppening style] at the gates to the long house ceremony area.
	Protection for our journey After nearly an hour of traditional Dayak music, dancing and ceromonies we were invited into the longhouse to share tea and sweet biscuits with the villagers. Each of us was given a bead necklace to protect us for our next leg of our visit to a neighbouring village on the back of motorcyces. The neclaces fortunataly did work . Suprisingly, none of us fell off or died on our 20 km bumpy ride to the next village over deeply eroded logging tracks through the recently cleared rainforests.
The Longhouse of Mancong We arrived in Mancong and were given a guided tour of one of the finest examples of a traditional timber Long House in Borneo. The Dayaks who are the indigenous inhabitants of the island, lived in these massive constructions . The house we visited was built in the style of a motel, with a common enclosed passageway and rooms that housed 16 families under the one roof.
	The Changing life of the Dayaks As loggers continue their advancment across Borneo the Dayaks are selling their Rainforests - their traditional hunting and gathering grounds. Now most of them live in multi roomed timber houses in the middle of the clear felled and logged areas . The nearest rainforests now hundreds of miles away , tradititional ways are being lost.
Back to Samarinda We returned to Muntai Muria by motorised canoes across the lakes. We boarded our boat again and headed back down stream . That evening once again we enjoying a sumptuous feast of river prawns and other Indonesian delicacies prepared in the boats galley. We did a late night stop at a riverside town to look at a fair and mingle with the locals. In the morning we did a quick tour of a palace and museum and then drove back to Samarinda for our departure to Pontianak in the far west of Borneo.