Transportation Exploits

Once again, I feel compelled to mention our transportation exploits in this country. We left Kutai National Park by small motorboat in the afternoon. Surely, we thought, we would have enough time to catch the 5 buses to Berau which we were told about. We were waiting in Sangatta, which did not have its own transportation to Berau and so we were forced to sit on the side of the road (for Sangatta also lacked a bus terminal) until the buses from Samarinda jetted by. All we had to do was watch the road closely and hail down the bus as it flew through town. Simple enough. We should only have to wait a couple of hours. WRONG! We sat by the road from 3pm until 11pm and watched as every single (extremely packed) bus waved us away. We were getting worried. We didn't want to spend the night in this podunk town only to sit through the same scenario tomorrow and we didn't want to spend the extra money and time travelling down to Samarinda only to travel back through Sangatta 3 hours later.

We were just about to give up hope (how could we not when all of the locals were telling us to find a hotel and try tomorrow) when the very last bus drove by. Luckily for us, this bus wasn't stuffed to the gills and though every last seat was filled, they found room on the floor for us and our belongings. KC was kind enough to take the backless child's seat in the aisle while Lora lounged on the steps of the door with the second driver who was trying to get a little shut-eye before his shift.

To make a long story short: We paid the full price of the bus from Samarinda to Berau (though we got on in Sangatta) to spend the night on makeshift seats. This trip might have taken the cake.