Sunda Kelapa Harbour, Java, Indonesia

4The_Pale_Ridah 5:00 PM Apr 10, 2013

The gritty life of a sea mariner
Sunda Kelapa is pretty much the type of place upper-middle class tourists are afraid of. It is a gritty dirty place without any refined café’s, bright lights or cute young shop assistants around, where the work is tough & the people rough. Sunda Kelapa isn’t a tourist attraction but a rewarding destination. It’s a working port for its transport fleet of pinissei ships from Sulawesi. These double-masted ships still use canvass sails to catch wind as their main source of power. Today they are used to transport goods cheaply between the islands of the republic as they have been doing for almost 500 years. The Indonesians here work cheaply, transporting 10 tons of cheap toilet paper from Sumatran jungles can actually earn you a nice profit. Much activity surrounds these ships as their cargo is loaded & unloaded mostly by labour & off the backs of workers who are paid peanuts. Guys walking impossibly narrow gangplanks in between ships & across the filthy water to dry land is cool to watch, there’s always hope that you’ll see some skinny guy carrying 50kgs of rice on his head slip off the edge with a shriek & a splash. Most modern people lack such skill & balance, eating & drinking too much does that to you. The life of a pirate is pretty cool. Guides & skiff owners will try & sell you a ride on the water. The beauty of this leisurely skiff ride is getting down onto the water below the pinissei ships which tower above the waterline. Here you can see more of the life of a sea mariner. Some ships are undergoing repairs, hulls are being replaced, engines are reconditioned & decks are hosed down. This is the sort of common sight fast disappearing in our modern world, the skills to navigate the seas via the heavens is also fast disappearing as a skill & being replaced by GPS & satellite phones. There is an option to go back to the dock or get off at the shanty fishing village nearby. The stilt-house village is your typical slum type area full of narrow passageways stacked with goods, hole-in-the-wall snack stores, drying fish & children running around a concoction of chaos. Many many great photo opportunities here, it’s a gritty place, a humble place that was probably very much like what the clan houses in Penang used to look like. The passages all lead out to dry land near the maritime museum & old watch tower. You wont encounter any guys with hook arms drinking rum here, its fairly safe so take your time & explore someone else’s world. Sunda Kelapa was also once the port of the Hindu Kingdom of Sunda in the 4th century when London was still a fishing village. The Kingdom of Sunda’s eventually became a part of the Majapahit Empire whose decline coincided with the rise of Islam in Java after the famous Chinese Muslim Admiral Zheng He established Chinese & Arab Muslim communities on the north coast of Java planting the seeds of decline to the great Majapahit Empire which at its height was larger than modern Indonesia & included parts of southern Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, Papua New Guinea & the Southern Philippines.

4RAKID 5:00 PM Aug 30, 2007

See traditional commercial sailing boats at work.
Sunda Kelapa is an impressive sight, possibly the world's largest commercial sailing port. Perhaps 50 "phinisi" line up along the wharf. These are traditional sailing boats, though these days they have diesel engines as well as sails. The larger ones are perhaps 30M or so long. Generally they bring in timber (wood) from other islands, especially Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi, etc. They return with cargos of rice, cooking oil, building materials and I have even seen a small truck being loaded.. The dock workers have a hard life, loading and unloading cargo by hand, running up and down wooden planks onto the ships. Near the entry to the port there is (or was when I last visited) a cafe and bar, where you can get a cool drink. There are usually several guys with small canoes who offer trips round the harbour for a dollar or so. I won't say it is totally pleasant considering the water quality, but it is interesting. If you are lucky you may be invited on board one of the ships for a chat. If you have some cigarettes or something healthier to share, it will be appreciated. I have been offered a ride on a ship going to Kalimantan, which sadly I did not have the time - or nerve - to do. The main entry says Sunda Kelapa was "..Once known as Pasar Ikan (Fish Market)". Wrong. Pasar Ikan is a different place and it is still there and is still a fish market, just across the waterway from Sunda Kelapa, perhaps 5-10 min walk. It is best visited early morning.