MY plane out of Surabaya was 30 minutes late, considered on time in Indonesia where jam karet (rubber time) is the law of the land. Circling over the city and its sinuous waterways, we touched down at humid Syamsuddin Noor Airport in the dead of night. Our guide held up a big sign, loaded my bag into the van, then pulled on to a modern highway for the 27-kilometer ride into Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan Province.

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