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Set down in southeast Kalimantan, on the closet part of the island to Java, BANJARMASIN 's history involves centuries of vigorous dealings with the outside world, and the city has emerged with a strong sense of its own identity. Over ninety percent of residents are Muslim, and Banjarmasin's focus is the marble-and-bronze Masjid Raya Sabilal Muhtadin , the Grand Mosque, built in 1981 on the west bank of Sungai Martapura just above the city centre; you can look around outside the main prayer times, provided you dress conservatively. For real off-the-cuff entertainment head 1.5km east across the river down Jalan Antasari, past the Mitra Plaza and white Masjid Agung, to Pasar Antasari , a market and circus rolled into one. You can spend hours here among hawkers and hustlers of every description, though beware of pickpockets. From sunrise, the covered market inside is packed with trays of cheap gems, watches, medicinal spices and trinkets; in the evening, the forecourt fills up with clothing stalls and warung. But the highlight are the street performers : musclemen who break coconuts with their heads, chew glass or hammer nails up their noses, and quacks, like the one who piles up cases of poisonous snakes and sits astride a live crocodile while proclaiming the virtues of his reptile oil (a big aid to male virility). Half of Banjarmasin's population spend their days on wooden porches overlooking the water, and you can catch all this by taking a klotok (Rp7000-10,000 an hour from Jalan Hasanuddin bridge) to one of Banjarmasin's famous pasar terapang, or floating markets . The largest is at Kuin, about 4km northeast of the centre (30 min from Jalan Yani bridge), starting daily at dawn and effectively over by 8am. As you approach the market, you find yourself in a jam of small boats, full of shoppers in klotok and dugouts and vendors selling everything from medicines and bricks of fermented prawn trasi, to piles of pineapples, beans or watermelons. There are even floating warung , where you can have a breakfast of coffee and cakes by tying up alongside and hooking your choice of pastry with a pole-and-nail.
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