My First Day In Balikpapan

First of all, sorry for the late post :3

Life’s been kinda busy lately, hehe 🙏🏻.

Anyway, like I said before, I’ll tell a bit about my first day in Balikpapan.

I actually arrived quite early, maybe around two weeks before my first day of work (?). But my real first time here wasn’t that. It started with the medical checkup I had to do.

When I first landed at the airport, everything felt new. It’s kinda different from Makassar, but somehow… familiar. Not as crowded, but still lively in its own way.

I don’t really know how to describe what I felt at that moment. It was weird, like, it felt so familiar but also not. As if it’s my hometown, but it isn’t. (ah, I don’t know what that feeling’s called :3).

It was already night when I arrived, so I couldn’t really see what the city looked like until the next morning.

The first thing I did the next day, of course, was walk around the hotel area where I stayed. I bought some street food nearby, and met this random cat sitting next to the food stall. He looked ridiculous and cute at the same time :3

After breakfast, it was time for my main mission, the medical checkup. It went fine, just the usual long waiting time and boring forms to fill. Well, not that boring actually. When I got the mental health screening forms, I don’t know why it took me so long to fill them out. Maybe I was afraid of not being honest? Or maybe… I just didn’t really know what I felt, honestly. I mean, look at this…

After that, I went to visit my distant relatives. And yeah, you can probably guess what happened, endless small talks I didn’t really follow :3

But the next day was when things got exciting! I went to Nusantara! We took a speedboat to cross the sea to Penajam. It was such a cool experience! I didn’t expect it to be that fun, honestly.

After around 2–3 hours of travel, we finally arrived in IKN! The city looks so beautiful even though it’s not done yet. Here are some pictures I took there:

The buildings, the landscape, the streets… everything just hit differently :3
After exploring IKN, we went back home right when the sun started to go down. 

Oh, and special thanks to my (new) friend! the one who referred me to this job and kindly became our tour guide that day. I wouldn’t have had that much fun without you 😁🙏🏻 (don’t worry, I’ll treat you later :D).

The next day, we went to BSB Beach to enjoy this “ordinary” cheesy martabak :3
It was delicious, tbh. Not that special, but enough to fill my sense of taste.

And in the evening, we prepared for our flight back home.

WE ALMOST MISSED THE PLANE 😭

My brain was already a mess, and I didn’t even check the flight time properly when we got to the airport. Turns out it was delayed (lol :3). I only realized it when I was already standing in front of the boarding gate. Huhh, so embarrassing 😔

Oh, one more thing, my first impression of Balikpapan was “a rainy city.”
Because from the day I arrived until the day I went back, it was mostly raining.
So I thought, “hmm yeah, this city would suit me well :3.”

And... nope.
This city is damn hot when it’s sunny 😭.

And yeah, that’s all for now.

Maybe next time I’ll write more about my routines here, how life’s been going in Balikpapan, and... how I ended up in Roblox world, lol :3.