Banjarmasin travel guide: Lok Baintan floating market and soto Banjar

Stay by the river and plan around one early morning

Banjarmasin's sights are spread along the Martapura River and its side channels, and the boats that link them leave from the Siring riverfront in the city centre, by the Menara Pandang tower and the proboscis-monkey statue on Jalan Kapten Piere Tendean. A hotel within walking distance of that stretch makes the 5am start realistic: you walk to the pier rather than wait for a ride in the dark. The bigger hotels along Jalan Pangeran Antasari and Jalan Ahmad Yani are a short taxi or ride-hailing trip away.

Banjarbaru, about an hour's drive inland, became the provincial capital in February 2022, and the airport lies just west of it. It suits a late arrival or an early flight, and it is the start for the Martapura gem market and the Cempaka diamond diggings, but it is the wrong base for the floating markets, which need you on the river at dawn.

Two nights are enough for the city itself. Arrive in the afternoon, take the river walk and dinner at Siring, keep the next morning for Lok Baintan and the Kuin River, and use the second afternoon for the slower sights. Banjarmasin is a strongly Muslim city: dress modestly, especially at the mosques, and do not expect alcohol outside the large hotels.

Lok Baintan: be on the water before the light

Lok Baintan is the floating market to aim for. It trades on the Martapura River at Sungai Pinang village in the Sungai Tabuk district of Banjar Regency, upstream of the city, where women in wide tanggui hats paddle jukung canoes loaded with fruit, vegetables and snacks and sell from boat to boat. When we checked on 2026-10-03, the Ministry of Tourism's Banjarmasin guide gave its trading hours as 6:00 to 9:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time) and advised being at the pier by 5:30 so as not to miss the boat traffic. It can also be reached by road, about an hour from the centre according to the same guide, but the trip upriver is half the experience.

The boats are kelotok, diesel-engined wooden river boats that are an everyday form of transport here. A ministry article on Banjarmasin river trips explains that you can hire a whole kelotok from the Siring area or share one at a per-person fare, but shared boats leave only once about 15 passengers have signed up — which is why most visitors hire their own and leave before 6:00. Agree the route, the stops and the price before you board, and bring small notes: the guide warns that traders and boatmen generally take cash only.

Buy something rather than only photographing it: fruit in season, a cake or two of Banjar wadai, or a bowl of soto served from a boat. Trading winds down by about 9:00. Sunscreen and a hat matter on an open boat once the sun is up.

The ministry's older Banjarmasin page names Muara Kuin on the Barito as the notable market, and there is also a smaller floating market for visitors at Siring by the Menara Pandang. If Lok Baintan's early start is too much, the Siring market is a short walk from the central hotels; the ministry describes it as busiest around sunrise, with boats available for a longer look at the river.

Back through the Kuin River and the old mosques

On the way back, ask the boatman to return by the Kuin River in North Banjarmasin, the area that gave the city its name. The Sultan Suriansyah Mosque stands on its bank in Kuin Utara: it is the oldest mosque in South Kalimantan, built under the first Banjar king to adopt Islam, with traditional Banjar architecture on stilts and stacked, tiered roofs. When we checked on 2026-10-03, the ministry's guide listed it as open from 4:00 to 22:00 WITA; visit outside prayer times and cover shoulders and knees.

Sabilal Muhtadin, the large modern mosque on the Martapura in the centre, was built in 1981 and is named after the Banjar scholar Sheikh Muhammad Arsyad al-Banjari. North of the centre, Kampung Sungai Jingah keeps a two-kilometre row of old Banjar houses beside the river; the Wasaka Museum, in a traditional Banjar house there, tells the story of the fight against Dutch rule. When we checked, the ministry's guide gave its hours as 7:00 to 12:00 WITA, so it fits the late morning after the market rather than the afternoon.

Sasirangan, South Kalimantan's tie-dyed cloth, is made by stitching and binding the pattern before dyeing rather than by drawing it in wax as with batik. The ministry's guide points to the Sasirangan village on Jalan Seberang Mesjid in Central Banjarmasin, where you can watch the dyeing and buy cloth, and Sungai Jingah also has a sasirangan workshop.

Evening on the Siring riverfront

The Siring is the landscaped promenade along the Martapura in the centre, and it is where Banjarmasin goes in the evening. The Menara Pandang observation tower has a viewing deck about 21 metres up over the river; when we checked on 2026-10-03, the ministry guide listed it as open 10:00 to 21:00 on weekdays, to 22:00 on Saturday and from 8:00 to 21:00 on Sunday. A short walk south, the 6.5-metre proboscis-monkey statue — the bekantan is the province's mascot — sprays water into the river.

From about 16:00, the ministry's guide says, food sellers set out floor mats on the riverbank for wadai (Banjar cakes), bingka and pentol meatballs. Late afternoon is also the time for a kelotok ride through the smaller canals past the houses on the water's edge, which the guide recommends for the low light before sunset.

Monkeys on the islands of the Barito

The Barito is far wider than the Martapura, and three islands make a boat outing from the city. Pulau Kembang, a 15 to 20 minute kelotok ride from the Kuin or Siring piers according to the ministry, is home to long-tailed macaques that visitors often feed; keep bags closed and avoid staring at the monkeys.

For the proboscis monkey itself, Pulau Bakut under the Barito Bridge is a small mangrove conservation area of about 15.6 hectares, and the larger Pulau Kaget Nature Reserve near the Barito estuary is about 15 minutes by speedboat or around an hour and a half by kelotok, according to the ministry. The monkeys are shy and protected: watch from a distance and do not feed them. Arrange these trips with the same boatman as the market, and agree the price for the whole boat in advance.

Loksado: two more nights in the Meratus hills

Loksado, in Hulu Sungai Selatan Regency, is the mountain counterweight to the river city: clear water on the Amandit River, waterfalls such as Haratai, the Tanuhi hot spring and the villages of the Dayak Meratus, whose traditional longhouses are called balai. The best-known activity is a trip down the Amandit on a raft of bamboo poles lashed together. The ministry describes a short route of about 5 km from Loksado to Tanuhi for beginners and a longer one of about 15 km to Haratai, taking two to three hours depending on the water.

Getting there is the main decision. According to the ministry, the road is paved as far as Kandangan, the regency capital, then narrows; there is no public transport from Banjarmasin, and the drive takes four to five hours, so a car with driver is the practical choice. Make it at least two nights rather than a day trip, and confirm where you will sleep before you leave the city: we could not verify accommodation in Loksado from an official source.

Martapura, the Banjar Regency capital about 45 km east of Banjarmasin, is known for its diamond and gem trade, and the traditional diamond diggings at Cempaka are a short detour off the Banjarmasin–Martapura road near Banjarbaru. The ministry puts Martapura about 20 minutes from the airport, so either fits a half-day before a flight.

A workable two-day plan

This is an editorial suggestion, not a timetable. Check boat arrangements the evening before.

• Day 1 — Arrive: check in near the Siring riverfront, climb the Menara Pandang in the late afternoon, take a short canal ride before sunset and eat wadai on the riverbank.
• Day 2 — River morning: leave the pier at about 5:30 for Lok Baintan, return by the Kuin River and the Sultan Suriansyah Mosque, then soto Banjar for a late breakfast.
• Day 2 — Afternoon: rest through the heat, then Sungai Jingah and a sasirangan workshop; ikan bakar for dinner.
• Optional: a boat to Pulau Kembang or Pulau Bakut, or two more nights in Loksado by car via Martapura.