Dec 04 2009 – Pontiak Kalamantan Indonesia – Another in the Borneo Series

Shannon Bushman | December 14, 2009 | 0 Comments

I have important news. Michael Jackson is not dead, he is Indonesian, I met him at the airport.

Yesterday we left Jakarta for Borneo, our destination was the city of Pontinaka, it’s on the west coast of Borneo. While it is quite large (4 Million) it appears there is not a building over 4 stories to be found. Our hotel was selected specifically for the guarded parking lot that is now a workshop for the 28 big rigs and soon my Polaris RZR S. The word is it will arrive via ferry from Jakarta around noon. Last minute work has occupied the teams and the lack of a vehicle has frustrated me, since I’ll only have a half day to finish a lot of work. I suspect another late night is in order, pretty much par for this course.

We had an adventure in shopping at HyperMart today. Hypermarts are Indonesias version of WalMart. Some of everything all under one large roof. After securing what I hope is enough food to get me to the next reload in a week we made a trip to the “Money Changer”. Money changing in Indonesia is interesting in itself. Here is a tip. Only bring NEW money, meaning look at the date on your bills and make sure they are recent. If you try to change anything older than 2006 it likely won’t be accepted anywhere. I am not sure the exact issue with “old” money but they don’t like it. Also you should know that smaller bills, $10, $20 are exchanged at a lower rate than $100 and $50. Even those will be exchanged at a lower rate if the bill is not in good condition. A hard crease or bent corner and a bit of pocket wear will devalue your money, so bring the good stuff.

Last night, in an attempt to get a bit of Internet time, I hiked down the street and found a cafe that promised free Wi-Fi. Apparently, that does not mean Internet access since we never managed to get it to work, so I had a beer while the power went out three times in the same time frame. I suspect this was a common occurrence since none of the proprietors even made a comment when it happened. We all sat in the dark watching headlights go by on the street for about five minutes until one of them would walk forward to the corner of the room and throw a large breaker. Ah lights, for a few minutes anyway.

The BEE09 registration desk presented me with a huge pile of stickers from the event sponsors. Pretty much enough to cover the RZR three times over. This, on top of the stickers I brought with me will bury the RZR. Since tomorrow will be spent trying to get my final work done on the RZR, I expect a bunch of volunteers all wanting to apply stickers.

It’s pretty clear the RZR is the truly odd duck amongst the vehicles. Most of the other drivers have never heard of Polaris or seen a RZR. A few are familiar with the Rhino. I showed pictures of the rig around and a most seemed interested but skeptical, I will be a burden on the expedition. Tomorrow we will go to the port and retrieve her from the ferry, it looks to be at least three vehicles full of curious drivers that can’t wait to get a good look.

I am making friends fast, adventure offroading attracts a very friendly and helpful crowd regardless of the language barriers. I am lucky, nearly everyone I meet speaks English. Local shop owners not so much, but pointing and smiling will get even the dumbest American just about anything we need.

The majority of participants are from Asia but there are few of us from the west, more or less. Allen and Karen, owners of JeepKonection.com.au, from Australia shipped their nicely equipped Jeep. They regularly compete in the Outback Challenge and several other extreme offroading events in Australia. Melbourne is home. Fred is the itinerant offroad journalist that assisted my attending the event. He attends 6-8 similar events each year including the Dakar Ralley. Fred is from Holland and has attended previous offroad events throughout Asia and everyone loves him here. D’Amiono is from Italy. He is traveling with Fred shooting video and practicing his Indonesian. They both speak English and a few other languages. Hey, I’m just glad I am not the only one here who speaks barely a word of Indonesian.