Blogs from Banjarmasin, Kalimantan, Indonesia, Asia

at dawn we went to the floting market... read more

Sometimes there are destinations that blow your mind and sometimes there are places to be forgotten. In both cases you need to get there and often the journey is an experience to be enjoyed or to learn from. Too many times we are thinking about the nxt destination instead of enjoying exactly where we are at the present. Today we enjoyed the journey. In our short time in Banjarmasin we had really fallen in love with the city and the people, but it was time to move on and see some more of Kalimantan. Most tourists head up to Loksado from Banjarmasin to trek and take a bamboo raft ride, but we wanted to be in Jakarta Sunday evening and were pushed for time. The stopover town before Loksado is Kandangan and from here you can ... read more

We enjoyed the trip with Joni the guide at the canals yesterday so decided to go with him to the mines. We dropped our parcel off at the post office first and feel really relieved that it is gone. Harriet was excited that there was no need to get up before 9 but her plans were thwarted as they are doing works at the hotel which started at 8. It was impossible for her to sleep through the drilling and hammering. It's hard being a teenager. Joni took us to a polishing shop where they explained about rough diamonds, agate and how they cut and polish. We watched them at work and then got to look at the ones for sale - no surprise! Fiona didn't actually like any of the settings so it was easy ... read more

At the Banjarmasin airport it is total chaos, there were only 2 luggage carousels and lots of flights just arrived so the claim area is teeming with people. Eventually my pack turned up and I booked a taxi from the taxi service booth, 80,000 rupiahs to town, it's 30 minutes away, and it started pouring down rain, this city is spread out and is quite big, we arrived at my preferred hotel Hotel SAS one of the best in town says LP but the prices have gone up and they have no fan room, the standard is 199,000 rupiahs! So I balked and asked the staff to show me a better hotel please, just then a guy in a motorbike arrived and spoke good English, at first I thought he owned the place but turns out ... read more