After a week of diving we are now ready to discover Kalimantan (the Indonesian side of Borneo). Did you know that it is the third biggest island in the world? It comes just after Greenland and New Guinea with a total of 743'330 square kilometers!
Just the name Kalimantan already sounds exciting, mysterious and unknown. What we have read in our guide book has really captivated and motivated us to chose this island to visit. To travel here you apparently need lots of time and patience to get from place to place. We have 10 days time to explore a tiny part of the island.
We also heard that is one of the only places left in the world with Sumatra, where you can see a wild orang utan!
We have been lucky to find a very precious contact over there called KTD (Kalimantan Tour Destinations) and Lorna, our contact person, who will help organize our trip and reach the national park we have chosen to visit called Sebangau.
http://www.wowborneo.com/
Searching for travel information about Kalimantan is not an easy task… Guide books are not up to date and any information about visiting a national park is practically non existant, even on the web. When we try to purchase a detailed map of Kalimantan in one of the big bookstores in Geneva, we cannot not find one… Usually Switzerland is famous for its selection of detailled maps from all corners of the world!
The man at bookstore asks us, where do you want to go? Kalimantan, where is that? He checks on his computer, sees that there is a map available and goes to look in his stock. He is gone for a while and comes came back empty handed, saying that he needs to check his computer again. Apparently there is no real map, it must belong to a ghost stock. The last map of Kalimantan they sold was over 2 years ago…
We end up receiving an old map from a colleuge of Jacques who has been there 6 years ago. With this map we can compare with the 2 year old guide book, newer web information and add in recent roads and bridges to be able to plan our trip visually.
We leave Ankermis at 5h30 and make our way back to Maumere airport. We take the same flight back to Bali via Waingapu. The cows and horses are still grazing near the runway. We land in Bali an hour later and have 2 hours ahead of us before we go on to Surabaya on Java and Banjarmasin in Kalimantan.
We are reminded again in Bali of the difference in standards of living from one island to the next. Bali looks so modern and well organized after coming from Flores. It is almost as if you are in another country. We board Wings Air that takes us westwards to Surabaya. The hostesses are young, tall, skinny and pretty with long hair black hair, dressed in a tight fitting short red skirt uniforms. Outfits like this make it hard to believe that we are in Indonesia… as no one dresses like this on the street (at least not where we have been).
From the sky we can see the rice fields on the eastern part of Java. This island has fascinated me for quite some time with its culture, architecture, nature and entrepreneurial people.
As we land in Surabaya and make our way to the terminal you can tell that you are on a populated island…The waiting rooms are overfilled and there are long queues everywhere. On Java we are one hour back from Bali.
There is only one other foreign couple waiting for the same plane as us. They are from Germany and have just begun their 1 year trip around the world. As we exchange travel plans we realize that they are planning to visit Tanjung Puting National Park in the south west.
In our initial plan we wanted to visit this park as well as Sebangau and bought tickets ahead of time to spare us the 18 hours bus ride between the two. Finally we decide to only go to Sebangau and to have more time to spend in one place instead of rushing around trying to do too much.
We offer them our plane tickets for the next day to Pangkalan Bun, only a short ride to Tanjung Puting. As normally no one checks your passport when you fly inland they might just be able to use our tickets without a problem!
Finally it is time to board and after a short flight we begin to see the the south eastern part of Borneo. It looks flat, wet and houses on stilts line the many rivers.
As we reach the terminal to collect our backpacks we see that it is already 6 pm! It’s been a long day and now we are not sure anymore if we initially set our watches to the right time… Rusti, the driver we had organized by KTD is waiting for us at the exit. Maybe the clocks at the airport in Banjarmasin are wrong... It will take us until 10 p.m. to finally realize what time it really is. At least Rusti does not seem upset at our late arrival and welcomes us into an air conditioned 4x4. We leave the airport and begin to make our way to Palangka Raya, 4 hours away...
