Tomorrow, Sam and I will be leaving Balikpapan, Indonesia, and I don’t think that fact has fully settled in. After living here for two years, I guess that is understandable. Packing up our things has made me think of our time spent in this “oil town” of approximately 700,000 souls, and the kind of questions…
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Having lived in Balikpapan, Kalimantan for nearly two years now, Sam and I have racked up some interesting experiences as foreigners/corporate expats in Indonesia. This, despite the fact that, if I’m being totally honest, I don’t feel as if I can really say we’ve fully “lived” in Indonesia. Perhaps my perspective is due to the…
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Here’s what happened when I made a DIY Solar Camera Filter out of used X-Ray film to photograph a Total Solar Eclipse. Longing To See A Total Solar Eclipse Way back when, on May 30, 1984, there was a (nearly) Total Eclipse of the Sun visible in my neck of the woods (Stone County, Mississippi),…
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A little bit of magic happened to us a few weeks ago when we stumbled upon a home based Bali coffee factory. Some of the best memories in life come from random, unexpected experiences. Am I right? It isn’t that planned activities can’t lead to great joy, but here’s the thing: you planned for it…
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Living in Balikpapan, Kalimantan, Indonesia is, for the most part, like living anywhere else … sort of. Even if you’re here as a dependent instead of the work visa spouse, you still have your chores and errands: shopping for groceries, house cleaning, laundry, exercise, cooking, and all the other day-to-day activities that are a part of being…
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Balikpapan’s Sun Bear Sanctuary lies in the Sungai Wain preservation area of East Kalimantan’s rain forest, off Kilometer 23 on the road to Samarinda. Here, seven sun bears rescued from poachers and other threats roam the 3.25 acre natural enclosure. Twice daily, the bears, whose Indonesian name “Beruang Madu” actually translates to honey bear, pad…
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Indonesia’s Independence Day, August 17, is right around the corner, and the streets festooned with mini Indonesian flags and garlands of red and white painted party cups make this a fun time to stroll or bicycle through the villages (“kampungs”). This Wednesday, the BIWA cycling group did just that. Bike rides with the Balikpapan International…
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Kali Waterfall (“Air Terjun Kali”) is located in the rain forest surrounding Kali village, about twenty or so minutes from downtown Manado. Along the way to Kali, tarps spread with freshly plucked cloves (“Cengki”) dry in the sun. Sulawesi is one island west of the famed Spice Islands, where Columbus himself set sail for, so…
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The people of North Sulawesi are renowned for their extreme cuisine, and the Tomohon Market sets it all on stage. Food items such as roasted bat (we encountered this at the grocery store deli section in Manado, actually), sauteed rat (middle photo) and stewed dog (called RW, pronounced “air-whey” — silver bowl in bottom photo)…
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After living in a foreign place for a while, perhaps one tends to forget how many painful exchanges have been inflicted upon the ever-patient native speaker, all for the sake of acquiring whole wheat flour or topping up one’s mobile phone credit. And for whatever reason, no matter what language you are trying to speak in…
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