Tanjung Bara... Journey to the Unknown

I think I should start with a disclaimer...." This is an attempt of a first time blogger, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors should be kindly overlooked"..... Now guilt free and happy that the kind readers atleast will have some respite from the devastating spellings, I can proceed. Do I call this a travelogue?? Or do I call it an Indian more so a Bengali in the world of unknown...Cant say as of now, so I will leave it for you guys to decide......
21st August 7:30pm am in the car park of my office and suddenly poor man's friend (mobile guys) starts "Smoke on the water". The name "TKC" starts flashing...a 58 year old straight forward, stark honest, humorous and technically solid gentleman who other than beeing a mentor happens to be a business associate. "Hello, Siddhartha. day after tomorrow we have to leave for Tanjungbara, I will email the details tomorrow-- ting........ ting". Tanjungbara???? whats that, wheres that or whos that??? I reach home meet my wife whos almost boiling, as I am supposed to be home an hour back....perils of marital life? Naaa, as of now, no I guess. Next morning I recieve the email with the Subject matter as TBCT "Tanjung Bara Coal Terminal" Sengatta Indonesia... Ahemmm... durgapur ok, delhi ok even Jakarta Ok but Tanjungbara was too much for me, a person who can digest maach bhaat and at time " kochi pathar jhol" ( with a dose of Famtac) to digest. Anyways the day passes by the tickets arrive... surprise 3 flt changes and then a 9 hour drive to the destination. Now thats what u call adventure. Kolkata-Singapore- Balipapan-Sengatta. Till balipapan it was ok.Managed to patao the japanese/chinese/singaporean/korean ( to us anybody from far east is a chinese)gentleman to move to a vacant isle seat. God all the 3 seats are mine.. I just forgot today's airlines are not at all bothered about 6 ft+ economical us, 3 shots of Viskey and managed to tuck in such a way that a pro contortionist would have kissed my feet. 2 hrs of slumber off and on with the over enthusiast hostesses hell bent on me having that chicken whatever for dinner. With a sore back bone and neck we managed to reach Jakarta and the three hours we spent loitering in the airport for "GARUDA' we managed to heckle with the lady selling "ROLLEX" and "TISOTT" from 1 million rupiya ( almost 100 USD) to 70k Rupiya ( 7 USD) Can u beat it? Fancy market guys would have run away....4:30 PM Balipappan, Straight to hotel."Le Grandeour" would be our home for tonite...Wake up at around 11 am the next day and behold our Australian associates are there in the hotel with the convoy of 3 cars, a Landcruiser Prado, a Nissan X trail and a Keijang Innova. TKC, Ari ( our Indonesian associate) and me da great park ourselves in the Prado. Off topic Cars make me drool and Landcruiser Prado was like heaven. Our journey starts, winding roads, lush green vegetation and dotted with small village, 24th was a sunday and India was celebrating Janmashtami, locals were also celebrating a greased pole in the middle with gift items at the top like mixers , even tv's and guys were forming circles and climbing on top of each others shoulder, scene looked familiar... oh yeah... holi and guys in mumbai reaching for the matka's. The scenary started changing, climbs were becoming steeper and the fields were giving way to jungles. Iwas evening around 5:30 we took a tea break, yeah a "TEA" break in a small shanty , along the "highway". Ryan the only blue blood amongst us read American was infact realy blue with the tossing and turning in the car which infact was more like roller coaster.Lots of In-Fact ehh??? and one more Infact good ol AVOMIN & AMRUTANJAN saved him.When we reached Sengatta it was almost 10:30, town looked like one of those hollywood thriller sets not a soul to be seen. Managed to find a local Mac Donalds copy, open, and 9 of us ravenous humans jumped inside, poor chap was like dumbstruck but managed to serve us Chicken fry and sticky rice, If my wife knew I had chicken and sticky rice for dinner, then I think I would be having chicken and sticky rice for the whatever left of my lifetime. Hearty meal over, after a series of check post manned by armed gaurds, body frisking and id checking we reached our camp. Camp???? oh yeah a almost 4 star resort in the middle of nothing with ammenities like jaccuzzi and pool bar and cell phone with full signal???? Am i dreaming? or this is reality? Then on it was meetings and meetings and more meetings. KPC guys somehow felt for us and very kindly offered us their chartered flight from Sengatta A/p to Balikpapan. I was THRILLED, chartered flight??? me the bengali, was on 8th heaven. 3-4 phone calls wife , in laws, friends "Man I coming by a chartered flight" Pride reinstated. I felt my head was on the sky and we reached airport and the first thing they did was put me with my laptop on a primitive weighing scale. Suddenly I became conscious "well fed" indian ,u know what I mean. Then the chartered craft read flying jallopy noisily landed forcing everyone to shove the free earplugs in their ear so far that an ENT specialist would be required later on. 1 more phone call to my wife almost about to spell out the investment details to her in case....... and i was inside seated with half my bum's hanging. God when these manufacturing guys will ever think of us.The aircraft roared and lumbered down the runway and in a blink of an eye was airbourne. The pilot was smart was flying following the coastline, and I was a little assured , as I was confident on my swimming capabilities. In the meantime the co pilot was using the tissue paper to desperately to swat a fly, that was taking a free ride. After around a litter of sweat and 50 minutes we touched down at Balikpapan and straight to hotel from the airstrip, u known privilages of a "Chartered Flight".... In the evening knocking down couple of Jack Daniels with coke and a solid dose of Hard rock we were walking down the beach. We saw the more "fleshier" side of Indonesia, girls were ready to jump in your arms for 20 USD's and we saw how blatantly the "Farangs" as the white skinnes or expats are known , flouting their night catch in their arms. A spotless sky dotted with millions of stars , emmulating an ultra romantic mood, and we spotted an Australian gentleman was having dinner and couple of tables away the indonesian fairy queen eyeing him... Suddenly TKC boomed in his ultra jovial voice " Should I do GHOTKALI????" Bangalis will be bengalis wherever we are whenevr we are.

Epilogue: (Hehe). TKC for being such a wonderful mentor and friend and ARI , ERIC ,Deddy,Arnie Ryan and Chetan for making this trip memomarble...