Kalimantan Honey
The Kapuas River runs 1,143 kilometres from the Muller Mountain Range to the South China Sea without once leaving West Kalimantan. It is Indonesia’s longest river, and for most of the communities along its upper reaches it is still the primary road. The road ends well before the forest does.
Kalimantan is Indonesian Borneo – three-quarters of the world’s third largest island, governed from five provincial capitals that are small relative to the territory they administer. Getting here is straightforward. Getting into it takes time and a tolerance for slow boats. Both are worth it. The further upriver you go, the more accurately the landscape begins to match what Borneo looked like before the palm oil concessions arrived. What rewards the effort is not scenery but specificity: wildlife that behaves as if you are not there, communities whose relationship with the forest is functional rather than ceremonial, and food that tastes like it was made from whatever was at hand rather than whatever was in a supply chain.
West Kalimantan: Pontianak to the Upper Kapuas
Pontianak is built on the equator. There is a monument to this fact near the city center, and you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere, which is the kind of thing that sounds small until you do it. The city itself is a functional trading port – Chinese shophouses, a busy waterfront, a floating mosque on the Kapuas estuary, and a food scene that runs to coto Banjar from street carts at midnight. It is the entry point for West Kalimantan, not the destination.
The Chinese merchant city that grew around the first Pontianak sultan, and why the Kapuas delta still smells of pepper
The Sultanate of Pontianak was founded in 1771 by the Arab-Malay aristocrat Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie, who chose the confluence of the Kapuas and Landak rivers because of its trading position. Within a generation, Chinese merchants from the Hakka communities of Guangdong had established kongsi (cooperative mining) operations in the interior at Mandor, Monterado, and Sambas, producing gold that moved through Pontianak to Batavia and beyond. The Chinese kongsi system was one of the first large-scale self-governing commercial enterprises in the archipelago, and its suppression by the Dutch in 1854 at Mandor ended the most significant period of autonomous Chinese political organisation in Kalimantan.
The pepper trade followed the gold. West Kalimantan pepper -- white pepper from Bangka and black from the interior -- has been a regional export since the eighteenth century, and the smell of it still comes off the docks when the bags move. The city's Chinatown district, Jalan Gajahmada, has preserved the shophouse architecture of the trading period better than most Indonesian port cities. The Kapuas River waterfront at dusk, with the fishing boats coming in and the floating restaurants lighting up, is the best single hour in the city.
The upper Kapuas – Kapuas Hulu, the regency at the headwaters – is a different matter. The road from Pontianak to Putussibau, the regency capital, takes twelve hours on a good day. Most people fly. From Putussibau, the meaningful part of Kapuas Hulu is reached by river. The Heart of Borneo tri-national conservation area covers most of the upper watershed, and the two national parks that anchor it – Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum – between them protect one of the most significant freshwater and forest ecosystems in Southeast Asia.
Why the Danau Sentarum wetland floods for ten months of the year, and what that cycle produces
Danau Sentarum is a system of interconnected seasonal lakes in the floodplain of the upper Kapuas, covering 132,000 hectares. The lake floods ten months of the year, retreating during the dry season to isolated pools that concentrate the aquatic life -- 265 freshwater fish species, including the Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus), the only place in Indonesia where the Clown Loach is found wild, and Irrawaddy dolphins in the connecting channels. When the rains return, the water spreads into the forest, the trees bloom in sequence, and the Apis dorsata colonies arrive from elsewhere in Borneo to work the flower season.
The Iban and Malay communities who live in and around the park have organised their relationship with this cycle into a governance structure called the periau -- a village-level collective of honey farmers who manage their tikung boards in the flooded forest and coordinate their harvests. The system works because the forest is worth more standing than cleared: a periau family's tikung income depends entirely on the bees returning each season, and the bees return because the forest does. Riak Bumi runs houseboat package tours into the park from the village of Lanjak, following the same river routes the honey boats use.
Danau Sentarum forest honey is the only Borneo honey with certified organic status and a documented cooperative supply chain. The full production story -- tikung tradition, APDS cooperative, seasonal harvest window -- is on the honey page.
Danau Sentarum Forest Honey – tikung tradition, APDS cooperative, BIOCert organic
The Dayak Iban of Kapuas Hulu are known for their traditional ikat cloth, pua kumbu, woven on backstrap looms and patterned with figures that carry specific ceremonial meaning. The cloth was historically a mark of status tied to headhunting – the right to certain patterns was earned through specific acts – and the tradition survives now as an art form, with weavers in villages along the Leboyan River producing cloth that has no equivalent in Indonesian textile culture. Riak Bumi supports weaving groups in the Pengerak village area; the cloth is sold at community demonstrations and through the NGO’s network.
The Forest Interior: Tanjung Puting and East Kalimantan
Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan is the single most visited place in Kalimantan, and its reputation is earned. The park covers 415,000 hectares of coastal peat swamp and lowland forest at the base of the Kalimantan peninsula, and the standard way to see it is by klotok – a river houseboat about twelve meters long, with a covered deck, a cook, and a guide. You charter the boat in Kumai, motor up the Sekonyer River into the park, sleep on the deck, and spend several days watching orangutans at the feeding platforms.
What the Borneo orangutan is doing in Tanjung Puting that the Sumatran orangutan cannot do anywhere else
The Borneo orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) and its Sumatran cousin (Pongo abelii) separated into distinct species approximately 400,000 years ago when rising sea levels isolated Borneo from Sumatra. The Borneo species is somewhat larger, rounder-faced, and more terrestrial -- it spends more time on the ground than the Sumatran, which is an adaptation to a forest with more ground predators in its evolutionary history. The Tanjung Puting population includes both wild individuals and former captives being rehabilitated by Camp Leakey, the research station founded by Birute Galdikas in 1971 and still active. Galdikas is one of the three primatologists -- with Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey -- who transformed the scientific understanding of great ape cognition in the late twentieth century. The camp is a working research station; the feeding platforms bring semi-wild animals to a predictable location for study, not performance.
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) runs the Samboja Lestari sanctuary in East Kalimantan, which also holds the largest rescue program for Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) in the world. Both programs accept conservation volunteers for extended stays. The Samboja Lestari site is forty minutes by road from Balikpapan airport, making it a practical add-on to any East Kalimantan itinerary.
The old-growth forest of Central and East Kalimantan supports Apis dorsata populations in the canopy, but honey from this territory reaches buyers through informal channels without cooperative infrastructure. The benchmark for certified Kalimantan forest honey is documented in the west.
Danau Sentarum Forest Honey – the certified reference point for wild Kalimantan honey
East Kalimantan has two distinct things that are worth a journey: the Derawan Archipelago off the coast of Berau, and the ongoing construction of Nusantara, Indonesia’s new capital city. The Derawan Islands – thirty-one islands between Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo – are built around four main destinations. Sangalaki island has one of the world’s largest concentrations of nesting green sea turtles. Kakaban’s landlocked lake holds millions of stingless jellyfish that have evolved without venom because they have no predators; swimming among them is a specific experience that belongs in this specific place. Maratua has a long coral reef, a lagoon, and overwater bungalows for those who want them. Derawan itself is the base, accessible by speedboat from Berau.
Nusantara is something else: the site where Indonesia is building its replacement for Jakarta, on a logged hillside in Penajam Paser Utara district, three hours from Balikpapan. The project began formally in 2022 and proceeds in stages. The government administrative complex is under construction; the first wave of civil servants has arrived. Whether it becomes what its planners intended is a long question. That the third largest island in the world is now also the site of a national capital construction project – while simultaneously the focus of the largest biodiversity conservation effort in the region – is the defining tension of contemporary Kalimantan.
South Kalimantan: Banjarmasin and the Delta
Banjarmasin is built on islands in the delta of the Barito and Martapura rivers, and the city’s relationship with water is not decorative – it is structural. The canal system is still active; the klotok taxis that take people between neighborhoods leave from wooden piers and are cheaper than motorbike taxis. The Lok Baintan floating market on the Martapura River is gone by eight in the morning: canoes selling produce, cooked food, live chickens, and whatever the seller grew or caught. The market has been there for centuries in one form or another. The vendors are mostly women. The boats are paddled, not motored.
Why Banjarmasin became one of the most significant pepper ports in Southeast Asia, and what the Banjar community built with the proceeds
The Sultanate of Banjar controlled the pepper trade of southern Kalimantan from the sixteenth century and became wealthy enough to build the Masjid Sultan Suriansyah -- the oldest mosque in Kalimantan, dating to the early 1500s -- and to maintain a sophisticated textile and diamond trade with Javanese and Chinese merchants. Martapura, thirty kilometres east of Banjarmasin, remains the center of the Kalimantan diamond-cutting industry; the stones come from alluvial deposits in the Meratus Mountains and have been worked here since before the sultanate. The gemstone market in Martapura is still a functioning trade market, not a tourist reconstruction.
Soto Banjar is the food that came out of this culture: a clear chicken broth spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, lemongrass, and lime leaves, served with potato patties, rice cakes, and half-boiled egg. The spice profile reflects the Banjar trade connections -- those aromatics came through the Sulawesi and Maluku networks and were absorbed into local cooking. It is the thing to eat in South Kalimantan and the thing to miss when you leave. The best versions are at market stalls that open at five in the morning and are gone by nine.
Wild honey from Apis dorsata colonies in the Meratus Mountains is present in South Kalimantan markets but moves through local channels without documented supply chains. For certified and traceable Kalimantan forest honey, the production territory is in the west.
Danau Sentarum Forest Honey – certified organic, cooperative-managed, traceable to harvest
The Meratus Mountains north of Banjarmasin are home to the Dayak Meratus, who practice the Aruh Ganal harvest rituals and maintain longhouse settlements in the forested ridges. The bamboo rafting routes along the Amandit River pass through their territory. This is not remote – the road from Banjarmasin reaches Loksado in three hours – but it is a genuine encounter with a way of life organized around agricultural cycles and oral tradition rather than urban commerce.
What the Forests Produce
Kalimantan is the only part of Indonesia where wild honey production reached the level of institutional documentation: a certified organic cooperative, a national NGO network, a Ramsar wetland as the production landscape, and an organic standard administered by the same body that audits the country’s other certified agricultural products. The honey here is forest honey in the strictest sense – Apis dorsata, the giant honeybee that nests in open comb in the canopy and will not enter an enclosed hive. The tikung plank system that gives the Danau Sentarum periau their managed production is not beekeeping in the conventional sense. The bees choose whether to arrive each season. The harvester installs the plank, sings the timang, and waits.
The periau governance structure – families holding tenure over specific tikung trees, coordinating harvests through the village collective, selling through the APDS cooperative – is the economic logic that has kept the wetland forest standing where palm oil has taken the rest of the lowland. The honey is the conservation argument made edible.
The Honey Road
One route. The honey is the reason to go. The wetland is what the route passes through.
Pontianak -- year-round (city gateway)
Riak Bumi, the NGO that manages the JMHI network and built the supply chain for Danau Sentarum honey, is based in Pontianak at Jalan Putri Dara Hitam. Their honey is available in the city through partner retail channels. The city is the practical gateway to everything upstream -- flights to Putussibau leave from Supadio Airport; the road to the Kapuas Hulu border posts is the alternative for those with time. The Riak Bumi website (riakbumi.or.id) is the starting point for anyone wanting to connect with the production network.
Kapuas Hulu / Danau Sentarum -- October through March (field stop)
The APDS cooperative is at Semangit village, accessible from Lanjak by riverboat. This is where the honey is dehumidified and packaged before it leaves the wetland. Riak Bumi runs houseboat tours into the park from Lanjak; a two- to three-day tour follows the same river channels the honey collectors use. The tikung boards hang in the forest. Whether the bees are there depends on the season -- the colonies arrive with the rains in September and October and can be harvested from December through March. The tour is as close as any visitor gets to watching the system work. Advance booking through Riak Bumi is required; groups are small and availability is limited by the park's access protocols.
East Java and Co (Singapore and international)
For buyers outside Indonesia, East Java and Co (eastjavaco.com) is the most reliable international retail channel. Their Kalimantan Raw Forest Honey is sourced from the APDS/JMHI network, BPOM certified, and ships internationally. The label says what the honey is and where it comes from.
Getting Here
The practical entry points to Kalimantan are Balikpapan (Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Airport, the main international hub, with connections to Jakarta, Surabaya, Makassar, and Singapore) and Pontianak (Supadio Airport, direct flights from Jakarta). Banjarmasin (Syamsudin Noor Airport) and Palangka Raya (Tjilik Riwut Airport) are served by domestic routes from Jakarta and Surabaya.
From Balikpapan, road and river access runs northeast to Berau (for the Derawan Archipelago) and north toward the Mahakam River corridor. From Pontianak, the road west reaches Kuching in Sarawak; the road east heads toward Kapuas Hulu, with a domestic flight to Putussibau as the faster option. Tanjung Puting is reached via Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan – fly from Jakarta or Surabaya, arrange a klotok in Kumai.
Interior Kalimantan moves by river. Travel times that look manageable on a map are not. Build in extra days.
Seasonal Events Not to Miss
Gawai Dayak (June, across Kalimantan) – The Dayak harvest festival marking the end of the rice season. Celebrated across Kalimantan by Iban, Bidayuh, and other Dayak communities with longhouse gatherings, traditional music, and rice wine. The Iban communities of Kapuas Hulu hold some of the least-touristed versions; the festival runs for several days and visitors are generally welcomed if they arrive through established contacts.
The honey season (October to March, Kapuas Hulu) – The Apis dorsata colonies arrive with the rains in September-October and build through November. First harvest is in December. A sustainable head-only harvest allows the colony to be taken again in February or March. This is the window for a houseboat trip into Danau Sentarum that coincides with active honey production.
Aruh Ganal harvest festival (September-November, South Kalimantan) – The Dayak Meratus agricultural ceremony in the Meratus Mountains near Loksado, timed to the rice harvest. Dates vary by village and by the agricultural calendar; local guides in Loksado can give current-year timing.
Lok Baintan floating market (daily, Banjarmasin) – Not seasonal, but timed to early morning. The market is most active between 6 and 8 AM; canoes start dispersing after that. Market days are daily except during Eid al-Fitr.
Where to Buy Honey
At the source: APDS at Semangit village, Kapuas Hulu. Direct purchase from the cooperative. Accessible on a guided houseboat tour from Lanjak; not independently navigable without local knowledge.
In Pontianak: Riak Bumi network partners. Contact Riak Bumi directly (riakbumi.or.id) for current retail outlets in the city.
Internationally: East Java and Co (Singapore and worldwide). Certified organic, BPOM registered, ships from Singapore.