This shopping mall looks like every other shopping mall

Day 3 - Jimbaran Beach to Balikpapan (Borneo / East Kalimantan)

The second flight of our trip today, to the world's third largest island, Borneo. The island is owned by three countries - Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. For now we are staying within Indonesia and taking a domestic flight (about an hour and 45 minutes) to Balikpapan on the south eastern coast of the island, in the region of East Kalimantan. Just one night here with no plans for tourist activities, Balikpapan is a domestic hub for East and North Kalimantan so it's a place we need to transit through to get to the islands off the coast of Borneo. 

Balikpapan is a modern looking city and the financial centre of Kalimantan. Our hotel was part of a new shopping mall right on the coast, with its own beach, water park and all the high end shops we have back home. Unfortunately the giant water slides were right outside our hotel room so we could hear screaming children for much of the day.

We had a quick look at the beach area, did a bit of shopping at the supermarket in the mall, then up to the rooftop bar by the relatively busy pool before dinner at the hotel. 

Bali again? I thought we decided were never going back!

Days 1 and 2 - Melbourne (Australia) to Jimbaran Beach (Bali, Indonesia)

Day 1

OK, here we go again. The main destination for this trip is Borneo, not too far from Australia though the logistics of getting to our planned destinations is a a little convoluted, meaning a flight to Bali is the most logical first hop, even though we had decided we didn't really want to go back there.

We ease into the trip with an early morning flight and a two night stay at Jimbaran Beach which is quite close to Denpasar airport, landing early afternoon local time.

The hotel was very nice, right across from the beach and a number of seafood restaurants with tables on the sand. First task after arriving was finding a shop and an ATM, we had heard that in Borneo "cash is king" so we needed to start securing funds for the rest of the trip. Ten minutes from the hotel we found what we needed, then headed back to the hotel rooftop bar to watch the sunset, followed by dinner at a beach restaurant. 

Day 2

After breakfast we went for a walk along the beach, planning to get back before it got too hot. We stopped at the fishermen's jetty for a while, watching as large ice blocks were carried to a small boat for transfer to a larger fishing boat further out. 

We then continued as far north along the beach as possible until we were stopped by the airport fence, where we stayed a while watching the planes taking off and landing. 

By the time we started heading back the cloud layer had thinned and it was getting hot, so we stopped at a very empty seaside restaurant for a drink before returning to the hotel. 

M had found two ATMs very close to the hotel so spent some time and multiple visits to make withdrawals until we had enough Indonesian rupiah. After that it was back to the hotel rooftop and dinner at a different restaurant.