~ sri wijaya air to Tarakan ~
Thurs. Mar.25. Morning. Up. Meet a middle-aged retired Dutch guy. He tells me that he can live and travel for two months in Indonesia much more cheaply than he can live in his own house in Holland. Same old story. It's true. Then it's out to the airport by bus. The plane's on time! After a little over an hour in the air we land at Balikpapan airport. It's thronged with people whose flights have been delayed. Not ours. On to Tarakan where our plane takes up all the strip landing. Extensions to the runway here just completed now allow bigger, longer distance carriers to service this 'gateway' to Kalimantan's north-eastern interior.
Matching the runway the airport terminal's new. Its built in traditional Kalimantan culture style. Very nice but touristy. All over new airport terminals are seen sporting local architectural styles and motifs such as at Padang in Sumatra. A taxi into town costs Rp 50k/US$5. There's an 'official' ticket window. Yet the experienced traveler knows that there are local micros up on the main road about five hundred metres away where you can get into town for at lot less. Rp.2k. less. Once again it's a hot walk but with a good feeling. The twenty plus kilo backpack's not such a heavy burden. It's such a good feeling that I walk all the three kilometres more into the town. As I pass under the 'Welcome To Tarakan' arch I'm so happy to be out of Surabaya.
In typical fashion I undertake a hotel search without reference to guidebook. This takes a couple of hours. But the payoff is that one gets familiar with the layout of the new town and inevitably meet a few locals. In this instance, I'm sitting at an intersection drinking and smoking. A helpful young high school student about 16 on motorbike stops. After some light conversation she goes and checks out the Jakarta Hotel for rooms. It's about half a kilometer inland from the intersection. There are no sexual connotations from either party. She reports back that has good, clean, quiet and 'cheap' Rp.50k rooms. For some unfathomed reason and after her trouble, I opt for the 'original' Barito hotel right on this intersection. Probably I'm just exhausted. They have a newer establishment too. So this one's probably about to be demolished. It's decrepit and more expensive than the Jakarta too. But it's right on the intersection, so it's convenient. And there's a convenience store right here. The girl drives off waving but is no-doubt somewhat puzzled. She spoke reasonable English. She could understand my words but probably not my actions. She's definitely not the only one!
Out for a late afternoon wander. Tarakan's got some older, commercial but post war...buildings. Great. Then after dark it's off to check out the nearby market. To eat. Back at the decrepit room again the rats don't even keep me awake. I fall asleep thinking how good it is to be away from the overcrowded heartland and here even though it renowned as Indonesia's 'wild west'.