Borneo Day 7: Thursday, July 27, 2017
Models of a traditional Banjar house and a royal barge, at the food court in the Duta Mall in Banjarmasin.
We left the school at the end of the school day after having taught for about five hours total today. We were tired, and rested for a time in our rooms. Knowing that we needed to make an early start, Nazar made no plans for us this evening, but we decided to go out exploring the town for supper. I also needed to get some more rupiah, as the amount needed to pay for our trip tomorrow was more than my cash on hand. I looked up Star networked ATMs in the city, which my wife said should work with my credit cards (I had had some trouble with my Visa card in Jakarta). One was located near the Duta Mall, so I looked up maps and drew one out for the easiest route to get there from the hotel.
Our walking route from our hotel to the Duta Mall in downtown Banjarmasin. The numbers are ATMs with the Star Network. I needed to get more money out for our trip the next day.
I knocked on Craig’s door at about 7:00 and we walked out to the street, called Jalan Pengeran Antasari. We walked east-southeast to the intersection of Jalan Kolonel Sugiono and turned north. I was getting quite hungry and needed something immediately, so we stopped at an Alpha Mart and got a Hungry Cow. We passed over a canal, then came to Jalan A. Yani. This is a larger road, and we followed the lead of a lady who was crossing, as we didn’t want to get hit. We turned east and soon came to the ATM, a bank of three in a glass booth near the road leading into the mall parking lot. My regular Visa still wouldn’t work – I think the PIN number was accidently reset when I tried it at the hotel in Jakarta because I didn’t know the correct PIN until I my wife e-mailed it to me. My USAA Visa did work, fortunately, and I got more money out for tomorrow and the next few days. When I get out 240,000 rupiah, it seems like a lot of money but it is really only about $20. I got out a bit more than that.
This was the meat lover’s pizza. The pepperoni wasn’t pork, and it needed a bit more cheese, but it was pretty tasty.
We walked into the main entrance of the Duta Mall and found many shops and stores selling electronics, toys, and other goods. There was a food court, and we decided to get pizza, which was OK but needed more cheese. The pepperoni was a bit chewy. We had to get food cards at a central kiosk and use them to pay for the meal. It is the same scheme as used in carnivals – you always have some leftover tickets, so that the carnival gets more money than you actually use on rides.
I’m not sure if I want to eat this or not, but at least the kentang goreng (fired potatoes or french fries) look good.
We walked up an escalator and discovered other food choices on the second floor: A & W, Baskin Robbins, and Pizza Hut. Oh well! We looked around a few minutes and explored through a large supermarket. There were interesting food choices such as live eels (snakes?), snake fruit, dragon fruit, Sponge Crunch, and green tea Kit Kats. After buying a few snacks for tomorrow, we headed back to the hotel the way we had come. The narrow road of Jalan Kolonel Sugiono was a bit hard to navigate at night. Without sidewalks, it is hard to know which is safer – to walk with traffic but not be able to see it coming, or to walk against traffic so we can dodge if needed.
After eating supper we wandered through eel infested waters in the mall’s supermarket looking for snacks for tomorrow’s trip. That was the obscure movie quote for the day . . .
I got my camera batteries charged up and uploaded all photos. I e-mailed some to my wife and children along with descriptions of my day, as I have been doing every night. My wife has been reposting some of the photos I send on her Facebook page.
After supper we explored the mall and a large supermarket, which sold everything from live eels to snake fruit and dragon fruit to these mushrooms. There was no durian fruit, thankfully.
Green tea flavor is very big here. It’s not a flavor I would choose for chocolate, but there is it.
Something isn’t quite right here – I thought sponges were – well, spongy. So how do you make them crunchy?
The Elements Unearthed 