The Long Journey

It’s the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival in China, so it’s time to go away and explore again. We are off to Indonesia again. I’m a real fan of traveling in Indonesia due to its variety. Each island is unique in its food, culture and experiences and of course great coffee. This variety is clear to see on the faces of the people. Each distinct - from the Papuan looking people of Raja Ampat to the thinner, more Indian sub-continent Javanese or the smaller, more Oriental looking Sulawesi. This time we are off to the island of Borneo. Borneo is the third largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. Most people think of the Malaysian corner, of Kota Kinabalu or Sepilok as Borneo They may recognize Brunei as a small Sultanate on the western side. The majority of Borneo however is Indonesian and to them it’s Kalimantan.

We are flying to Balikpapan. Our journey started Saturday afternoon in Nanjing. A short flight to Xiamen and overnight in a very nice hotel called the Hualuxe - part of the IHG group. Why an overnight in Xiamen you ask. Well two main reasons 1) in China you can never bank on connections. If a plane leaves with a couple of hours of the correct time, that’s good going. I’ve learnt to ensure any transfer has time to allow for a delay. 2) I’m in the process of moving & I really didn’t know where I would be starting from until about a month ago. After a relaxed morning we caught a plane to Jakarta, Soekarna Hatta Airport.

Arriving just after 11pm and needing to check-in for our next flight at 3.00am, it’s overnight on a bench. Not ideal, but something you accept if you want to get to the out of the way places. This airport is about 2yrs old and is awesome. The attention to detail is amazing. We were met with sculptures, installations and pictures of Indonesian experiences as you walked to Immigration. Oh it’s a big airport - lots of walking - but Immigration took but a few minutes. There is art everywhere, for example I love that all the fire extinguishers have a unique cartoon in which the fire extinguisher features. 

WiFi is free and fast. There are coworker spaces, loads of different shops, restaurants and coffee shops - some open all night. As I said - it’s big. So big that they run a free golf buggy service to get from one end to the other!

The flight to the city of Balikpapan takes 2hrs. 2hrs to catch a little more sleep before the real start of the adventure and the end of the long journey and the start of the next. 

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