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Visiting Kalimantan for the First Time

Last year, my family and I went to East Kalimantan for the first time. I went to Borneo island because my brother was going to marry a woman from Kalimantan, she is a Bugis and Banjar tribes. I was in Borneo for almost a week including the trip. This was also my first time on an airplane.

The first day, I arrived at Ahmad Yani Semarang airport in the afternoon. After arriving at the airport, my family and I went checked-in. We got information that our plane had delayed. After waiting for a while, our plane had arrived. We were transiting at Soekarno Hatta International Airport. Because of the first plane we boarded delayed, my family and I missed our next flight. But I wasn’t upset because of the delay, I got compensation from the airplane company. We need to wait for three hours for our next flight. Finally, my family and I arrived in Balikpapan at 3am.

I went to Karangan, East Kalimantan. From the airport we went to the village by car. It is a remote area, far from the city and to reach this place we need to travel for more than 12 hours from Balikpapan. On this trip we had to pass through the palm forests for 30 minutes, I was very surprised because I had never passed a road like this. In this forest there were no direction and street sign. When the rain falls this road cannot be passed because there were no lights. Luckily, we arrived in the forest before sunset, so there was still a light. Finally after a long journey, we arrived at the village.

We arrived in Karangan in the evening. We immediately took a shower and got ready for the marriage ceremony. After the marriage ceremony was over, I ate dinner and had conversation with my new family. After the event finished, we took a rest. At midnight, I had woken up because suddenly my room's electricity went out, apparently in this area electricity was not turned on for 24 hours.

The next day was the last day in Karangan. I had breakfast in my brother’s wife house. On the way to the airport my family and I decided to stop in Samarinda to buy souvenirs and I had a short walked to see Mahakam river. It was huge and beautiful, the street around the river was also clean. My trip to Kalimantan was an experience I couldn’t forget. Although, I didn’t explore a lot of place in Kalimantan, but I’m happy and I wish I could come back later.