Hit the Dance Floor in Pampang Village, Samarinda - Indonesia (October 2010)

Have you heard of Pampang Village (or Desa Pampang)? This is the closest Dayak village from Samarinda. For some of you who don’t know, Dayak is one of the native ethnic of Kalimantan (Borneo). The Dayak who live in Pampang is Dayak Kenyah.

To get to Pampang, just drive north from Samarinda (Same direction to Bontang). After about 45 minutes driving you will reach Pampang.

For many years, every Sunday, Pampang Village has been performing a culture show.

That day, I went there with my family. It was Sunday, not many people on the village street.Maybe people are still at church.Or already gather at the Lamin (Dayak’s traditional long house) for the show? So we kept driving and arrived at the Lamin.

But the Lamin was empty too.Well, it was at ten in the morning. A little kid told us that the show will start at two in the afternoon. So, we decided to go back to Samarinda for lunch.

However, before we left, we had time to take pictures of the interior decoration,and the village kids.After lunch, we returned to Pampang. We got there right on time, at two o’clock. After paying entrance fee of 15,000 Rupiah per person, we rushed into the Lamin as we heard the traditional music was played.

We watched some girls dancing.Also men playing Dayak traditional ‘guitar.’There also some elderly, one of them had long ears.While I was busy taking picture, someone came to me and asking me to pay for using a big camera. He said I have to pay 25,000 Rupiah for camera entrance fee. What?? I had no choice but paying him.

Then the dancers put out some bamboos and did the bamboo dance.They also asked the audience to join the dance.Later, all the dancers including the men who I thought have not performed, joint together, make the circle and danced in the circle with the audience.I was a bit confused, because this dance is usually done at the end of the show and it was still 02.30. The show just started for half an hour.

I asked the guest sat next to me, and she said it has been an hour. The show started at 01.30. Shoot … I missed half of the show!

After taking some pictures of the dancers, I went to the Lamin wing. There were some souvenir stalls selling Dayak handicraft.There was still a bit of disappointment in me when leaving the village ....I missed half of the performance. But I would be back, after all it was only less than an hour away from Samarinda.

So guys, to avoid some unwanted surprises, here are some notes you have to remember if you want to visit the village:
1) The culture show starts at 02.00 PM, but be there an hour earlier.
2) Entrance fee per guest is 15,000 Rupiah even the ticket says 5,000 
3) Big camera must pay 25,000 Rupiah, free for pocket camera.
4) Posing with dancers or elderly will cost 20,000 Rupiah each pose. But we can negotiate if we want to take a lot of pictures (I did that and it worked).