Whilst I was contemplating the different creatures I might find over on the Asian side of the Wallace Line, I found that I had become the centre of attention myself. A group who had befriended me in the morning came scurrying around the blunt end of the ferry carrying the only bench on the five decks. They were bringing it for me. But after fits of laughter, I began to realise why I had been perched on it. Have you seen those plastic characters at theme parks that sit there getting photographed with different companions all day long? Need I say more?

Early in the day it was the bold ones; lunchtime was my busiest session; by afternoon the more timid people and the women were taking their turn. It was rather surreal sitting next to a veiled Muslim woman while her husband took a photograph. They were all very courteous though - no one snapped without asking. So in a single day I managed to get my face onto about 30 mantelpieces all over Indonesia; as I found out through stilted conversations, people were travelling all over the place. These ships sail for days on end calling at many ports throughout these scattered islands.

Let's first clear up any confusion over the name Borneo. It is not a country; it is the name of the island. It is the third largest island in the world (and before you start trying to name the other two, note that Australia is officially classed as a continent), and as such is about the size of France plus half of Spain. It is split into Indonesian Kalimantan (by far the largest section) in the south, Malaysian Sabah and Sarawak in the north, and tiny Brunei. The borders are a left-over from colonial times when the south was known as the Dutch East Indies, and the British governed everything to the north.

The first surprise here was how developed the two cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda are in comparison with Sulawesi. They are two main business centres where much of the wealth has come from the offshore oil platforms, and the coal floating down the rivers on huge barges. I gave myself a week in this area to see how far up the Sungai Mahakam (river) I could get. I'd read about the Dayak communities who live in longhouses and whose elders still sport traditional tattoos and elongated earlobes...

It took 5 or 6 hours by bus through beautiful forested hillsides to the river at the shipbuilding town of Kota Bangun. Here is where I joined the local ferry to travel up-river to Muara Muntai (a village built on stilts with wooden boardwalks), Melak (a coal-mining town), and Long Iram (a picturesque village on a bend in the river). After a one-night stopover and one night sleeping on the ferry, this put me almost 24 hours away from the river mouth at Samarinda (although it's quicker going back down). A good effort I thought, and a good few hundred kilometres inland, but when you look at a map, it isn't very far at all. The ferry continues another 15 hours to Long Bagun, after which you are on your own; but with hired boats and experienced boatmen for tackling the rapids, this is where one of the few cross-Borneo expeditions can be tackled. You'd need some serious time and commitment though, and I don't think I've taken to jungle trekking quite that much!

I enjoyed the river trip and the village life, but I didn't get near to any Dayak communities. Firstly, it rained a lot, so I opted out of the muddy hikes to the longhouses. Secondly, I haven't seen another tourist since I set foot on Borneo; so chartering the long-tail boats to get to the more remote villages was just too costly on my own. Besides which, this area has already seen a lot of modernisation, and these days you are likely to find the Dayak people watching satellite TV and chatting on their cell phones rather than out head-hunting. So I didn't feel I was missing too much, and I may get the chance to find Dayaks elsewhere.

The language of Indonesia (and Malaysia and Singapore) is without doubt the easiest I have ever come across. It's a traveller's dream, so I've been making an effort to learn it - I have no choice really. There are no tenses (you just say "walk already" or "before walk"), there is no "a" or "the", no plurals (you would say "book-book" for books), and best of all there are no difficult pronunciations - it is spoken as it is written. What's more, they are lazy with it too, so often only half of the word is spoken, and "two-three" is acceptable for twenty-three, which makes the numbers a doddle!

On Wednesday I will be flying north over the equator to avoid a 24-hour bus or ferry ride. At close to midnight last night was the vernal equinox, when the earth's tilt took the sun directly over the equator to bring spring into the Northern Hemisphere. I'm missing the seasons, but for now I'm glad that the sun won't be directly over my head any more, as it plays havoc with the sense of direction. How can you find north when your shadow is just a black blob around your feet? But more importantly, the dry season should be just around the corner.