On A Road From Hell

So after travelling through 3 countries for 16 hours myself and princess P finally made it to Ballikpapan.  After an evening of celebratory drinks, great food and good company the feeling of sleeping in a real bed was devine.  Trying to sleep on a plane with princess P draped over me meant I managed about 4 hours sleep in total.  The next day was spent shopping for supplies that are unavaliable in Sangatta.  This adventure in itself took all day as it isn't as simple as popping down to Woolies or Coles, we visited several shops and were loaded to the hilt. 

Our driver arrived promptly at 8am the next morning, loaded the car and we were on our way.  The road from Balikpapan to Sangatta is similar to the rode to Paluma (for my Aussie friends) and the Parapara (for my kiwi friends).  It is a 6 hour trip and add to this the road slips, suicidal drivers and pot holes that could swallow a small car you can understand my trepidation. 

As we bounced and wound our way along the road - me wondering what the hell have I got myself in for, I became aware of the look of awe on Princess P's face.  As families of 6 perched themselves on scooters and slipped between small gaps in traffic defying all sense of safety Princess P watched on.  As I cringed and squirmed as I watched our driver overtake on hills and blind bends Princess P pointed to landscapes, mosques and all manner of other things that caught her eye.

Two hours into the drive we stopped at imigrasi (immigration).  They already had our passports (whole other story - handing passports to a random person at a foreign airport and watching them walk away with them), so I stupidly thought this would be fairly straight forward.  Two hours later after been fingerprinted and photographed I was feeling more of a criminal than an ex-pat.  Princess P was making the most of the situation, lapping up the constant stream of admiration from the local woman - "ahh so pretty, like a doll, so beautiful". Princess P's very blonde hair and blue eyes attract alot of attention where ever she goes in this country.  She also befriended a very cute local boy aged about 5 and though there was no common language they managed to have a great time sharing her DS and playing Super Mario.  The little guy looked very disappointed when Princess P had to leave, there were hugs and I am sure he stood waving till long after Princess P was in the car and driving down the road. 

So imigrasi done we had four more hours driving ahead of us.  I knew I couldn't handle the stress of looking out the windscreen anymore so cranked up the ipod and spent the next four hours hoping for the best. 

Over the noise of Lady GaGa blasting in my ear I heard a rather loud bang and knew something was up from the look on the drivers face (he spoke very limited English, I speak even less Bahasa).  Our front tyre had blown out.  With all our belongings unloaded on the side of the road so he could reach the spare we waited.  We drew quite a crowd - apparently seeing a white woman and child was a novelty in the very small village we had pulled up in.  After half an hour of being touched and talked at I was beginning to feel like a zoo animal.  Luckily the tyre was fixed and off we went again.

Seeing hubbies office was one of the best things I have seen in a long time.  The drive was over and we had survived it.  We will do the drive many more times while we are here and each time we will be placing our lives in the skill of our driver.

The adventure has begun ........