Blogs from Kalimantan, Indonesia, Asia

Awake an hour before my alarm so I snuggle under my blanket and lie-in. The GH owner says I need to get to the port for 08h30 to get my ticket so just after eight I go for breakfast (Chinese; chicken and rice). The Chinese food we get back home is nothing like the Chinese food out here; less salt, more animal. My LP says that a boat ticket will cost me RM75, the price at the port is RM130. I have RM90. The town planners have gone out of their way to make sure that the banks and ATMs are as far from the main tourist points as possible, it's a 500 metre walk to the first bank. It wont give me money or any explanation as to why. Same at the second bank. The ... read more

Yes, it had been a bit of a bitch to get to Derawan. The one GOOD thing about this is that your average tourist wasn’t going to attempt the trip. After all, not many people want to spend their holiday (vacation) using up 2 or 3 days to argue with car or boat drivers and stay in dirty towns just to get to an island. That’s just fine by us! We had finally found what we were looking for…very few western faces, small village life, and absolutely incredible views of pristine water everywhere we looked. We would spend our nights at a place called Danakan, run by incredibly nice people who did everything they could to make our stay as pleasant as possible. Our first morning was spent waking up to donuts and coffee. Well, we ... read more

Woke up at the hotel and headed out back to the commercial district by angkot. My friend was looking to buy a new camera and i wanted a fuse to fix my travel adaptor. Stores weren't open when we got there so we wandered around. Eventually Aurelie got a new camera and i got a cinnamon bun fresh from a bakery. We decided to try out the city beach and on the way i found a place for a fuse. It fixed the plug part but the usb ports still didn't work which was the main point. Most things i have are usb powered. We wandered along a promenade when it started to pour. We found a little restaurant to wait it out and continued on. We found the tiny and rocky beach. We walked out ... read more

I got up and was greeted with donuts and tea. After my morning shower (aka pouring buckets of cold water) Aurelie and I headed out but just as we were about to get to the main road Aurelie realizes her camera is missing so she runs back and looks to no avail. We head off nonetheless taking the public transport into the city and the to the bus terminal. It is supposed to be 4hours but takes us 6 in a cramped non-ac bus. The road is windy and full of large potholes. The bus would often hit a bump and I'd go flying. The bus was also pathetic at getting up hills. We arrive in sengatta rather late and take a public transport to the boat dock. Seeing that we ate Bule the guy in ... read more

The next morning we got up and headed to the bus station to catch a bus. There we met Aurelie , a French girl traveling alone through Indonesia. The bus was very cramped for me with not enough room for my long legs. They were extremely sore by the end. In Indonesia on every bus there are 2 employees, the bus driver and what I call the bus master. The bus master takes the money, tells the driver when to start and stop, and does all the misc jobs. This was the most interesting bus master I've seen in Asia. He was a dwarf and had control of some very loud speakers on the bus and so throughout the ride he blasted Indonesian music. It was so loud you could not talk to the person beside ... read more

The next morning i got picked up by Dennis and drove by the large beautiful mosque on the way to Dennis' home. I met Dennis' wife, 3 young daughters and the whole extended family. I had lunch and the wandered around the little local district with the eldest daughters, ages 9 and 10. first stop was a table of men sitting around a chess game drinking bako, a home brew made from palm trees. i had some and it didn't have a strong flavour but it wasn't that good. the girls got bored so we left and wandered around a bit. almost everyone would wave and say hello. Children would run up and practice their English phrases, such as the ubiquitous "Hello Mister" as well as asking my name, where I'm from, and what my hobby ... read more

I caught an early flight to balikpapan. The flight was a couple hours late and in fact every flight of that airline was late. All 12 flights. I got to balikpapan and booked a minibus to samarinda. In Indonesia but particularly in kalimantan the epitome of beauty is white people, both male and female. Girls and women, even married with their husband and children get giddy and nervous around me, much in the same manner as young girls who get a crush on someone. I get alot of attention from girls, albeit in a shy conservative way. White women also get lots of attention from men here but they are less shy about it although not too pushy either. The girls at the bus booth got quite nervous for example and tried to push their friends ... read more