We started off our Indonesia tour with a trip to Central Kalimantan, Borneo. Central Kalimantan is one of five provinces on the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, which is the third largest island in the world. This was the week for the biggest festival of the year, called Budaya Isen Mulang located in Palangkaraya. There were many events during the week, which we will be documenting in coming days. Perhaps the most unusual event occurred on our first night — Fire Football. Those of us in the USA would call it Fire Soccer, but the key is the “fire” part. The game is called Sepak Bola Api and is commonly played among teenagers to test their bravery.

They play at night, using a coconut that has been soaked in Kerosene for two days, and is then lit on fire. The players rub toothpaste over their feet and legs, to avoid getting burned, and then kick this coconut around the field barefoot. Above you can see various shots where one player is about to send the coconut (aka ball) flying.

VIP Treatment! Before we go any further, I have to mention how we have been treated all week. Honored and respected is the only real way to describe it. I had heard that Indonesians were friendly towards tourists, but that doesn’t even begin to describe the way we have been treated !

We arrived at the Fire Football game after it had already started, and there were significant crowds around the field. As we approached the field, I expected I would have to jostle for a place to get any photos at all. Nope! The crowds parted before us, and we were immediately led to the Judge’s and celebrities area, off-limits to most spectators. We then spent the game mid-field, right at the sideline with front row seats the entire game.

I was ready to thank our guide (David Metcalf, of David Metcalf Photography) for paying for special access. He assured me that he had not paid anything for this, and that the organizers of the event were happy to see their first Westerners since Covid had shut the country down. This became a theme repeated during the week. We never saw another Westerner the entire time, as they have not yet started arriving again. Event organizers frequently gave us VIP treatment, more of which I will describe later, expressing their gratitude for our coming. It became clear that the locals liked to take photos with Foreigners. Everyone smiled, and posed for our cameras.

The skirmish is on! Other than perhaps a successful goal, the most exciting part of the Fire Football game was the skirmish, where multiple players vie for control of the ball (aka coconut), until it finally heads towards a goal. Many times the fiery coconut would be kicked into the crowds, and there were moments of shouting and scrambling to get out of the way. The photos above can give some sense of the chaos, but you really need to watch the 42 second video above, to get the real feeling of the pace of the game. We watched teams competing over 60 minutes for the semi-finals round, then the winner of the games, with trophies awarded to the top 3 positions.

This game is played on an open field, with no formal seating. The audience is right up against the ropes that run along the sidelines (upper right and lower right). The winning team goes home with the award (upper left). John was one of the two other travelers that joined us (lower right), and who had a knack to attract locals who wanted selfies taken with foreigners, partly due to his partial knowledge of the local language (he lives in Bali) and height (over 6 feet).

A coconut is kicked around the field until either the fire begins to fade (the shell has burned itself out), or the outer shell falls off, leaving shards of fire on the field, with the core of the coconut no longer burning. At that point, a referee comes out to put out any remaining fire, and a new lit coconut is brought onto the field (middle row). To better get a feeling for how that plays out, watch the 30 second video, showing the process.

Earlier in the day, we stopped at the Spirit of the Hornbill dance and music academy, a non-profit organization that Dave Metcalf (our guide) helped to establish and finance, to help preserve traditional Dayak dance and music and Indonesian culture. They provided us with a private performance, which can be seen above.

We also made a brief stop at the Balanga Museum, for a quick introduction to some Indonesian cultural history.