The one and only traditional market in Balikpapan
Traditional thing is such an exotic thing. I really enjoyed being somewhere that I’ve never been before or just a place that I’ve never been explored. Klandasan Traditional Market is located in Balikpapan, East Borneo, Indonesia. They open from 5 am til 6 pm. I’ve explored this market around 3 hours, now let’s see what I’ve got!
The fish section
I arrived around 9 am and straight to the fish section. I was looking around the fishes, crabs, prawns, chickens and etc. It’s just so fresh! and so crowded inside. Maybe, because I came at 9 am, I bet it will be more crowded before 9. I saw the seller took fishes from the fisherman outside, because the right behind the market is a sea. So, it’s easy to find some fisherman dropped their fish to the market.
The unique thing when there’s a customer who enter this fish section, each seller will shout to the customer like “Come on, Mam, we sell fresh fish, fresh crab” and etc, so they will come to their booth.
Nice trick!
The vegetables & salted fish section
After the fish section, I came into the vegetables section. Actually, just like the other traditional market, vegetables section always have the longest booth. You can find any vegetables with any price. Sometimes, you’ll find the salted fish seller opposite the vegetables seller. If you come to Borneo, you should buy the salted fish. It’s really good! You can choose by your taste, they have some species like, gabus, jambal, kering and sepat.
The food section
My favorite section in every place. Because, whenever you travel you need to try the traditional food. The picture above is a herbalist. Yup, she sell herbs or Indonesian called it as “Jamu”. It’s really healthy and cheap. The taste is so good. You can choose what you want. They made of herbs, like gingers. Just tell her what you wanna buy and she’ll take the bottle and shake it, she’ll definitely will shake the bottle just like a bartender. After that she’ll deserve you with a glass of herbs. I talked to this herbalist and she said some tourist also come to her to take a picture or just buy a glass of herbs, a must try drink!
Gado-gado is mixed vegetables with peanut sauces. Actually, it’s kinda like salad. But, Indonesian most of the times combine gado-gado with rice or lontong. Not only in traditional market, right now you can find gado-gado also in a restaurant, but the tasted is kinda different. I prefer to buy in the traditional market one. It’s so delicious!
The fruit section
You can find the fruit section on east and west gate in Klandasan Traditional Market. They sell some fruits like pineapple, papaya, jackfruit, pomelo and many more. The price is cheap and the quality of its fruit is great. They came from some places around 30 til 50 kilometers from the market. They took the fruit from their farm and sell it.
/// Written by Nindya Putri, Indonesia
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