January 23, 2007: First time visit to Banjarmasin

Visiting a new area can be excited and it will be an unforgettable experience.

Yesterday I went with Ronadi to Banjarmasin to offer a neurosurgery equipment to the hospital. This hospital just purchased a new microscope from our company.

We used Lion Air, first flight in the morning, 06.15 am. I had to wake up at 3 am, and Dedy picked me up at 4 am. Then we fetched Ronadi. My my.....I was still very very sleepy. Haven't had any breakfast yet, and Lion Air only served 1 glass of mineral water.

The airport, Bandara Syamsudin Noor, is a small building, and the airfield arrangement was quite strange because it has another field or plane parking area far from the terminal. So we had to ride bus from the plane to terminal.

From the air, I could see a lot of trees and greeneries below there.

Another scene that was different from the capital city:

There was a group of people of coming home from hajj, the people who picked their family was so crowded. Maybe 1 hajj was picked up by his/her whole family member, hahaha............

Had a breakfast first before we went to hospital. Food is always expensive at airport.
From airport to Ulin Hospital, we took taxi, it took 45 minutes. What a long trip.

Arrived at the hospital, met some key persons there, introduced myself and had a chit chat with them.

Hungry again, I asked Ronadi what is the specialty here and where was place to eat. He said hospital canteen is on 2nd floor of the building, and another canteen next to the building, near mosque.

Wow, there were lots of grilled fish! Looks tasty with reddish color from the spices (bumbu). I chose "ikan patin bakar" with "urap". Ikan patin doesn't have many small bones, that's why I like it, no extra effort to eat it. The sambal was nice, sweet hot sour chilly paste with tomato.

Yum yum....... A nice lunch!!

I don't know what happened with my stomach since yesterday, today was disturbing too.

Hung out at Jelita Hotel, near the hospital. We still had 1.5 more hours before we can go to airport. With the tired toes, I preferred sitting in its coffee shop.

Plane got delayed for 30 minutes. Boring, boring..........No executive lounge inside the waiting room. But there's one outside.

I still had more work to do after arrive in Jakarta.