Lok Baintan Floating Market

It was my first time ever visiting Banjarmasin for my business trip. To our surprise, our friends in Banjarmasin had organized visiting the famous Lok Baintan floating market. I have been to Damnoen Saduak floating market before, but really, the Lokbai Intan floating market is much more beautiful! Let me share my pictures (this time taken by myself not by Rene:p) to show you how beautiful it was.

We were picked up at 5.30 at Mercure Banjarmasin, and went to one area where our boat was there waiting for us. Too bad as everything was organized by our friends in Banjarmasin, I could not tell you where to rent the boat and how much it was.

I love sunset and also sunrise, but I haven't seen many sunrise before. So the experience of waiting for sunrise in the Martapura river is a WOW experience for me!

After watching the sunrise, we went inside the boat to have breakfast. Our friends prepared the best nasi kuning ever (or maybe because we were too hungry?:p). After our breakfast I went outside the boat again to see how Martapura river looks like after the sunrise.

Then we saw the Lok Baintan floating market from our boat..and everyone went out of the boat, ready to take beautiful pictures!

So, this is the Lok Baintan floating market. All the lady were selling fruits, foods, tshirts, and also rice. Our friends said that many village people have left the Lok Baintan and moved to the normal market. What a pity..

The lady use money to do the transaction, but also many of them still exchange their stuff to gets the stuff they need.

We met also other group hiring a boat just to take pictures of this colorful market.

Too bad that this place is not yet as famous as the Damnoen Saduak in Thailand. I think many Indonesian have seen this place before on TV (yes the "RCTI Ok"), but don't know what the name of the place. I hope after reading this post you will put Lok Baintan as one of your holiday bucketlist. Indonesia is dangerously beautiful!

Special thanks to our friend in Trio Motor Banjarmasin, who has organized the trip to Lok Baintan for us. It was really a trip to remember.

written on July 9, 2012