Transport in Sundaland

The rivers of Sundaland provide one of the most reliable form of transport especially in the central plains and lowlands. At higher elevations they are not as navigable due to rapids, waterfalls and dense vegetation. There are some paved roads, especially between large towns and cities, but not all of them are well maintained. Some are more than a thousand years old, laid down by kingdoms that had an abundance of labour and resources. Others are merely frequently travelled trails where the vegetation and earth has been worn down over the years.  

- An Account of Sundaland by Alom Takal 

This will probably be my last post detailing the foundations of the Sundaland setting. While I could discuss things like religion, architecture and various cultural practices at a high level I think those are best generated for specific campaigns and adventures or perhaps in collaboration with players in a game.

There are couple of ways people can get around in Sundaland: walking, riding an elephant or having one pull a cart, carried in a Litter (Wikipedia: Litter) or on the water using rafts, canoes and boats powered by paddles, oars and sails. See Seafaring and Sea Gypsies for more.

I think paved roads should be rare especially in the Early period and in mountainous or forested areas. They can be more widespread in the later Classic period in centralised states or large towns and cities, especially in lowland areas.

I've found several maps depicting what the rivers looked like in the area during the last ice age and the consensus seems to me that there are four major networks and watersheds (five if you count the Mekong in Vietnam). The Siam, Malacca, North and East Sunda Systems. I imagine that the smaller tributaries won't be as navigable due to rapids and waterfalls and that traffic in certain areas will be confined to stretches of the rivers. The large rivers in lowlands will have more traffic. Keep in mind that it's significantly harder to travel against the current than down stream.

Palaeogeography of Sundaland at the Last Glacial Maximum

I found a great website which allows you to find out roughly how long it took to travel around the Roman empire with various means of transport (by foot, horse, by sea, as part of an army etc.) It could be useful to calculate travel times around states and empires in Sundaland:

ORBISThe Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World

I thought there would be many of charts, tables and calculators for transport times online but I only found this one: One Ring RPG: The One Ring: Journeys

Here's a discussion of travel times in pre-industrial worlds: Good Resources For Travel Times

If you know of any, please share them with me, especially anything that includes elephants.