Or so we all thought 3 months ago when the idea of organising such an event was first raised. Burns Suppers have been part of Scottish culture for about 200 years as a means of commemorating our best loved bard (poet). The ritual was started by close friends of Burns a few years after his death, in 1796, as a tribute to his memory, and the format for the evening has remained unchanged since that time. Could this, though, be replicated in Balikpapan? Are there enough Scottish people around to do justice to Burns work? Where would we find haggis and neeps (turnips) outside of Scotland? What about a piper? – you cannot have a Burns Supper without piping in the haggis. Where would we find a ceilidh band for the dancing afterwards? Added to these very real concerns about how we would remain faithful to thetraditional Burns Supper format, was the equally large problem of finance. Who would pay for the evening?

Well, it certainly would not have happened without Terry Cooper, who was instrumental in both organising and raising sponsership, for the evening. The 30 kg of haggis actually came all the way from Peterhead in the North East of Scotland, and was hand carried all the way here, as were the 30 kg of neeps, which came from Scotland, Ireland and France. The band, the Darloch Ceilidh band were from Glasgow, Scotland and they made the journey to Balikpapan just for the Burns Supper weekend. The piper, well, unbelievably, he actually lives in Balikpapan, although he took an awful lot of finding! The malt whiskey (we hope you all had a ‘nip’) was all hand carried into Balikpapan from various parts of the world. The Scottish

Community in Balikpapan were all tracked down and persuaded to provide the stirring recitations for the evening.

A few near ones! Two days before the big night we discovered the Benakutai had no small glasses for the numerous whiskey toasts that are such an integral part of a Burns Supper and in fact the nearest thing they had resembled a large water glass. Action, scour Balikpapan for 220 nip glasses. When the band arrived on the Friday evening they had no luggage with them (it was still in Singapore!) Despite being promised that it would be on the morning flight from Jakarta it still did not arrive, and by 5 pm. Saturday they were searching Balikpapan for various musical instruments not normally encountered here (have you seen an accordion or a set of bagpipes in the plaza recently?). Indeed, the Burns Supper started without the band being properly equipped, their luggage finally arrived about an hour after the evening had started, much to everyone's relief! The haggis, well the chieftain haggis, which was an especially big one, split during cooking, and so had to be substituted at the last moment with a smaller one. We do not think it affected Keith Muir’s fine address to the (much smaller) haggis though! "A Burns Supper in Balikpapan? No problem!" we now say, particularly with such enthusiastic, appreciative and well-dressed guests. Thank you to you all for helping to make it such a memorable evening.

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