Gunung Utara 11 - A Virtual Tour of 'The McCall Mansion'....

I am sure you are all sick of hearing about our travels, and want to know what Balikpapan is really like. Well, you can see a number of photographs dotted through the site, but here is what it is like to live as an expat in Balikpapan....

Our modest house is situated in the Total Complex, where we live with about 75 other families. The facilities on the complex are limited to a swimming pool, tennis courts and children's playground, but it is also where the French School (and Air France) office is.

Because we have no children, we were allocated a relatively small house: it only has three bedrooms and two bathrooms (as well as another two bedrooms and a bathroom for the household staff.)

However, we don't have much of a garden - just a patio to sit on to watch the fish in the aquarium chase after each other....!

When we arrived, we were blessed with Total standard issue furniture, which is not to many people's taste (or comfort). However, in the last year, we have managed to make quite a dent in our 'Housing Allowance', and made the place more habitable.

Most of the furniture has come from a catalogue sent out to me here in Indonesia from the UK.I simply took the pictures to the local furniture makers, and they made some excellent copies at a fraction of the price.

It's quite a change from our small flat back in Aberdeen ...

...in fact, I'm not sure how we'll cope with living in such a small space again!!