Tanjung Selor, Berau, Tantung Batu, Derawan Island back to the airport then to Balikpapan - Indonesian - Part 56

You may notice that this blog and the last one have seen me quite weary. I know I am so lucky to be able to be following my dreams but if anyone is considering this, be realistic, I have had some amazing highs but life is real and knocks will come wherever you are.

After a nervous wait (due to a lack of English) I took a very hot ferry to Tanjung Selor; I then managed to get a taxi minivan ride to the waterfront. I battled a bombardment of men trying to explain that because of a festival there were no buses and I would have to car-share. Not sure whether I could trust these people (sad but true) so I decided to stay at the only hotel in the area, expensive compared to my normal expenditure but I did enjoy the luxuries. They were also able to arrange a car to Berau; it turned out to be not the most pleasant of journeys as the high speed of the crazy driver and the winding roads caused the passenger next to me to keep throwing up in his plastic bag. Needless to say we both skipped lunch at the break before we put our lives back in the hands of the driver.
My arrival in Berau had a similar story, the hostel didn’t have my booking and after quite a hassle I ended up in another hotel; I could quite get used to this level of accommodation if it wasn’t for the cost! After another uncomfortable car journey, where one of the passengers ended up getting out and not continuing, I eventually arrived at my next mode of transport, sharing a speed boat to Derawan island, noted as a place of paradise and somewhere I had been very excited about visiting.
The island is so difficult to get to that it usually only caters for Indonesian tourists, so my arrival seemed to surprise everyone. I found a Homestay with a vacant room and began to plan my stay. It was then I discovered that the only ATM on the island wouldn’t accept any of my cards. I then had to make the difficult but necessary decision to head back to the mainland. After explaining on the ferry that I had no money they continued to try to sell me, guesthouse accommodation, boat trips and even a scooter. The guy on the ferry thought it was hilarious that I had spent only one hour on the island; on the other hand I did not see the funny side at all as it had taken the best part of a week to get there. Arriving back on the mainland my luck was not about to change as the ATM’s still wouldn’t accept my cards and panic was beginning to set in. Many messages were sent home to the family and contacts made to banks etc. but still no money. Deciding enough was enough I made my way to the airport, yet again trying to sleep in any available space but receiving many mosquito bites I had to move on. I chatted to a lovely lady waiting for her sailor husband; we had an awkward photo before I found the prayer room, sleeping on a prayer mat wrapped in my mosquito net before being woken by a janitor trying to clean.
Again I tried all the ATM’s but still no money and now no Wi-Fi either!!! I tried exchanging some Malaysian ringgits but nobody would, I asked a German lady could she help me but she was useless and probably didn’t believe my situation. Eventually two local women with average English helped me to buy a plane ticket on my credit card to Baklipapan at double the cost than I should have paid but by this time it was an emergency.
I was obviously not in the best of moods and so my patience was running out as I was greeted by the annoying taxi drivers, the ride to the guesthouse, and then having to actually get a scooter to my room which turned out to be 2 rooms shared by 10 guys and yet again no Wi-Fi. I spent the next few hours searching the city for internet access, eventually managing to camp out in a McDonalds, buying the cheapest item on the menu so I wouldn’t get chucked out (looking very much like a homeless guy I had one encountered in Canada). It took a further 3 days to discover my banking problems had been caused by an app update. With access to money I quickly booked a flight to Jakarta hoping that the capital city would hopefully afford me a little access to civilisation.
After all the stress of the money, travelling and probably eating a dodgy microwave meal it wasn’t surprising that I fell ill. Thankfully a good sleep helped and the following day I was able to get on with some exploring: a mosque, a free tourist bus to Kota which was full of colonial architecture and more markets. I met a local man who was trying to improve his English so he could keep his temporary bar job, he was afraid he would lose it so I tried to help with the little time we had together; I tried to find him later on Facebook but wasn’t able to.
Next day I was going to Gambit to catch a train to the volcanoes and hoping that life would calm down a bit and I would begin to recover from the sickness.