Monday, April 30, 2007

Jungle remedies


Visiting the riverside village Sei Gohong yesterday, we sat down at a warung or little shop, we were joined by a dukun, someone who knows traditional remedies. This woman daily collects remedies from the jungle, and had come with a bag full of dried roots, leaves and branches. Throwing it down on the ground, she kept our company enthralled for an hour with her stories and recipes for cures for asthma, cancer, diabetes, malaria and stomach problems. Only problem is most of the cures require steeping the dried plants in boiling water and then drinking the fantastically bitter brew.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Indonesian media visit

Going on the Rungan River in small traditional canoes with film teams and their heavy equipment to watch orangutans, is all in a days work for us at Kalimantan Tourism Development. Arranging the schedules, finding the best Palangkaraya hotel, getting the right permits in advance, and the best transport is only part of the challenge. Central Kalimantan is just opening its doors to tourism, and so each trip is an adventure, like looking at a new world.