There were always a few places that seemed to exist at the edges of maps. Anything beyond was off the map, terra incognito. Those places also had the reputation of being somewhat harsh and inhospitable. The only task more onerous than reaching them was staying alive once you had. Timbuktu, the original "Sheltering Sky" backdrop, had its scorching heat where withering took place in nanoseconds. A place like Tibet had its paralyzing cold. To get an idea of what that was like, watch the first half of "Seven Years in Tibet," the part before the country realized it was Brad Pitt who'd arrived and then spent half its GDP on tailoring him. Few destinations, however, could compete with Borneo for sheer terrors, real or imagined.

Past visitors might have felt inconvenienced by the presence of 160 snake species. That only a few of these could radically affect one's life expectancy was often forgotten. Then there were those reports of mysterious, orange, ape-like creatures called orangutans. These animals were said to have once been men whose present form was the result of punishment for blasphemy. More worrying was a local custom in the interior. It seemed that severed heads, properly prepared, were playing a useful religious and decorative role. Borneo was one place where the idiom, "Sorry, I lost my head," might not be understood as an apology.

No doubt many early travelers embellished their accounts but Borneo was a difficult place to travel about. This has changed somewhat in the last few decades. Airplanes connect the cities and towns and even some of the more remote settlements. All manner of boats ply the rivers and there are even a few sealed highways. Easy and comfortable it still is not. If air-conditioned tropical luxury, world-class cuisine, and packaged culture are what you are after, then Bali is the place for you. Should you want something a little more adventurous and don't mind making friends with the occasional leech, then a stay in Borneo might be recommended.

A good place to get your feet wet, and more than just figuratively, would be at Banjarmasin. Located in South Kalimantan, in the Indonesian part of the island, Banjarmasin is the largest city on Borneo. It is often called the "Venice of Borneo." Now, you might say in exasperation, there are heaps of places claiming to be the Venice of this or the Paris of that. Comparison gets out of hand. Someone even told me with a straight face that Chiba City was the "Oslo of Japan." But no, Banjarmasin can make a good case here.

Bisected by rivers and channels, the city is close enough (22 km.) to the sea that it averages 1.5 meters below sea level. Fifty percent of the money spent on houses goes for foundations. Along the waterways you see houses on stilts as well as a variety of businesses, floating and moored. Most of the houses are of wood. This may be why Banjarmasin has 35 fire brigades. "We do have a problem with fire," I was told.

The highlight of any trip to Banjarmasin is its pasar terapung, or floating market. Since the market's finished by 9 AM it's rather an early highlight. There is no need to worry about alarm clocks or paying someone in advance to throw a bucket of cold water on your head. Banjarmasin has four districts. Each district has 2000 mosques. Many of these have loudspeakers to call the faithful to prayer. You will be wide awake without fail.

The best way to get to the market is to get to one of the city's rivers and hire a small boat, called a klotok. You can also take a guide if you like, to explain local customs and words for this and that. Depending on where you begin, the trip to the market offers a good look at river life, even if at that time of day this also includes such mundane activities as teeth brushing.

The market itself is situated on the Barito River, one of Borneo's largest. Many of the buyers and sellers paddle around in small dugout canoes called jukang. The women in particular are colorful. They wear huge tanggui, semicircular bamboo headpieces. These seem designed not just to keep out the sun, but rain, wind, hailstones and anything else like that which might lead to a headache. There are roughly separate (after all, everything is floating) areas for vegetables, rice, and various sundry items.

There are also floating breakfast restaurants. They are not of the type where you sit on rattan chairs and gaze serenely over your table at a plate of scrambled eggs. We are talking basic and unpretentious here. Think of a drive-in restaurant you've been to and now imagine a small float-by one.

Those boats are called ronbong and are typically passed on from father to son. Ronbong are not very big, but have a covered midsection in which the choices: fruits, cakes, and other servings, are laid out below the covering. Customers are given a long stick with a nail at the end of it. You simply spear what you want and pay when you're done. A Japanese woman friend and I each had a cake and a hot drink. The total cost was 1000 rupiah, roughly 15 yen.

600,000 people live in the Banjarmasin area and there is a good reason why it was once a relatively wealthy place. The key word is diamonds, in fact Kalimantan means "river of diamonds." Some 45 kilometers from the city center are the Cempaka diamond fields. Although a Thai-owned syndicate has begun a small operation there, Cempaka is not the preserve of large companies but of families and communities, passed down through the years.

The fields are in a large muddy field. The work is hard and appears at first glance oppressive. One technique is to slowly dig a one-meter wide hole in the ground, as deep as ten meters. We saw some people working in groups of three. Someone would scrape the muck at the bottom, a woman would carry (all carriers are women) it to the top and a man would wash it in the river. Straw and small logs were used to keep the walls from caving in and there were sometimes air pumps to help the scrapers breathe. The washers stood, up to shoulder high in nearby streams, for hours at a time to complete the panning. When it began to rain, the overall effect was sobering. The next time you want to complain about having to stand during a subway ride to your job, think about a new career as a diamond miner.

Traditional beliefs are very important at Cempaka. Before the digging of a new hole, a holy man is approached to select the best spot. He is believed to possess a sixth sense in these matters. There can also be no negative talk during the working day. Everyone talks of happy matters to keep the demons at bay. Here, a diamond is referred to as a galuh, or "lady." Even on Borneo the stone is a woman's best friend.

Occasionally, the hard work and the keeping to local custom pay off. While a typical find is only one small stone every three days or so, there have been some monster discoveries. The biggest was the 166.75 carat Trisaki (Thrice Blessed) stone found in 1965. Unfortunately, the only gleam larger than the one this stone made was the one in the eyes of greedy government officials. The work crew who found it were given some small advance payments and received free pilgrimages to Mecca. Further promises of more money and ones to support the crew members' families for seven generations were broken. They now live in poverty and their children wander about, trying to sell uncut gems to visitors.

With its diamonds and markets, Banjarmasin is certainly a fascinating destination in its own right. Still, there is more to Borneo. After a few days it seemed to be time to head upriver and learn more about gibbons, leeches, the affect of mud on shoes and clothing, humidity, and others related topics. But that's another story.

*no republication without the permission of the copyright holder (RH)