We're back in Borneo, on the opposite side of the island from Kota Kinabalu via Jakarta in the city of Samarinda. It is 2 1/2 hours north of Balikpapan on a main two lane highway. This is jungle territory, lush tropical rainforest covers everything. Samarinda is a stopping off point for employees of coal mines, palm (tree) oil plantations, and petroleum oil industries. There are NO tourists here at all. The main floor manager of the upscale hotel where we stayed, said he'd been on the job three months and had never seen a tourist at his hotel. So much for that industry here. We'd planned to go upriver on the mighty Mahakam River, to see crocodiles and orangutans, but evidently it is a multi-day trip. It's at least 5 hours just to get to the place with the boats in order to begin the river part of the trip. We decided to change our plans, since that's too many days on the river. We also did not consider the cross-Borneo hike, 8 hours a day for 5 days straight, slogging through the jungle. Maybe another time.
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| Mahakam River. Look for coal barge being towed. |
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| Hmmm. What to do??? |
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| Who knew Jiro had been here before? |
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| He must be quite the businessman. |
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| Mini-bus from airport. |
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| Samarinda street scene. |
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