Visiting and exploring new places is an activity that I really like. It just so happens that at the end of this year I have a schedule to visit Sumatra Island, to be precise I will visit Pangkalan Brandan in North Sumatra Province. If you look at Google Maps, the distance I have to go The distance from my house in Samarinda is 4,043 km. However, because I currently live in Berau, the distance I have traveled is approximately 4,604 km.
Screenshoot from Google Maps
Berau to Samarinda, screenshot from Google Maps
This trip I will take by land transportation, namely the bus from Berau to Samarinda. After resting first in Samarinda, I will continue the journey to Balikpapan City, from Balikpapan I will take a plane to Jogjakarta and land in [Yogyakarta International Airport](http://Lihat ulasan Yogyakarta International Airport ini di Google Maps Google Maps)
Samarinda to Jogjakarta, screenshot from Google Maps
It looks confusing but that’s the route that must be followed. Flights from Balikpapan to Medan must transit first, there are 2 choices of locations. transit, namely Jakarta and Jogjakarta.
I chose not to buy a transit plane ticket, but first I will go to Jogjakarta to see my house which I have left for almost six months. While letting go of the longing for the city of Jogjakarta and also my friends there .And on December 19th I will continue my trip to Medan.
This is my first visit to Sumatra Island, why don’t I try contacting Local Guides colleagues in the city of Medan…and yes… I have a Local Guides friend who has already become my good friend.
And she happily promised to accompany me during the visit in Medan,she even made a list regarding which activities and tourist attractions she would show me.
I’m really grateful, even though only through media like connect I can connect with new friends and establish intense communication as well .
Is my journey over? of course not, because my goal was to go to Pangkalan Brandan which has a distance of 84 km on Google Maps.
For the information, South Sumatera airport in Medan so if you want to visit another places in there like visit Pangkalan Brandan,we can use bus or rent car to get to the destination.
I fell sad, because I didn’t get contact with the Local Guides colleagues who were in Pangkalan Brandan, if so how happy I am to meet them, because on this trip I would like to be invited with local Local Guides colleagues to be able to visit a place together and review these places together.
Medan to Pangkalan Brandan, screenshot from Google Maps
The term offline meetup while contributing. Sounds very exciting and maybe for Local Guides in big cities who have Local Guides quite a lot, these activities are usually carried out, in contrast to me who comes from the area and is currently building a community of kalimantantimurlocalguides .
In North Sumatra I have 7 Days to explore anything in that place before I go back to Berau.
I will continue my journey using airplanes, but my destination is Jakarta.
can you guess who i called?Correct answer 
… in Jakarta I have contacted my Local Guides colleagues who very famous, namely Mbak Devi @Ddimitra
Mbak Devi has prepared everything for accompanied me while in Jakarta.
Medan to Jakarta, screenshot from Google Maps
Surely something that made me very happy, because I have visited Jakarta before, but it’s different from the current visit, because I will actually be guided by a Local Guides to explore Jakarta (can’t wait for it all 
).
I chose to return to Jogjakarta from Medan via Jakarta not without reason, my biggest reason is that I want to provide a pleasant year-end experience for my children.
How to do this, namely by stopping in several cities such as Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung and we will use the mode of land transportation, namely the train to get back to Jogjakarta. You can already imagine the excitement of our trip.Long trip and many cities visited.
In Bogor I also made an appointment with Mbak Desty (so sorry I don’t know your id Mbak 
)Bogor Local Guides.
And in Bandung I hope to meet the only Guiding Stars from Indonesia, namely @PaDeSSo and his Bandung Local Guides colleagues.And maybe we also can do offline meetup and give the reviews on Google Maps.
From Bandung I continued my journey back to Jogja by train and finally on January 5 2023 I returned to Berau via [Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan International Airport ](http://Lihat ulasan Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan International Airport ini di Google Maps Google Maps)in Balikpapan and continued my journey to Samarinda then to Berau using the bus whose ticket I had bought in December.
Those are the plans and which routes and modes of transportation I use to complete my Desember journey.
I have tips for you who those have planned journey in Desember, because this is a year-end trip, I bought air plane,rent car and train tickets online, because I didn’t want to get in trouble.
Because It’s no secret that at the end of the year all modes of transportation will experience an increase in demand. And also at the end of the year hotel and accommodation prices will definitely increase prices too, so my tips are if you want to travel, especially at the end of the year, it’s best to prepare everything related to accommodation and transportation well in advance. Apart from being more efficient, it’s also more efficient.
Please pray for my smooth journey and happy holiday for my all fellows Local Guides wherever they are.
Distance and obstacles are not obstacles to carrying out good intentions to meet good people like all of you, fellow Local Guides 
Warm regrads and best
Anik
#kalimantantimurlocalguides
…semoga doa dan harapannya 
