Delaying The Posting During The Pandemic

Apart of the request from Wda to do delayed posting on the Kalimantan trip, there was another reason why I decided to do late post. During the pandemic, I noticedd that people tend to be more reactive when they see other people posting life updates in social media feeds and stories (the kind of socmed updates that disappear after 24 hour). 

I was quite active in the older version of social media (FB, Twitter and IG) and I was so used to share recommendation on foods, drinks, movies and travel destinations. Sometimes I posted in real-time, other times I posted a few hours after leaving the place. It has been nice to interact with friends who happened to be in the vicinity and decided to join me in the place. But since 2020 I decided to slow my pace and posted whenever I feel comfortable because I received a lot of critics for being out and about.

For example, in early pandemic era in 2020 I went to a cafe in Bekasi and posted a photo of a cup of coffee on a cafe table. Within minutes, a friend commented, "How come you do dine-in? Isn't there any lockdown?" I told her that at that time Bekasi had yet to have any policy on lockdown. We in Bekasi did get lockdown afterwards.

Another example was when I had to go to East Sumba for an assignment. A friend reprimanded me for taking the job, saying that I should stay at home and just live with my savings until the pandemic is over.

I understood that they were worried, but I also sensed their envy and anger on seeing other people not following the regulation or not being in isolation and misery. It seems the pandemic has stolen not only the freedom of travel, but also the sense of humor and the fun out of the people. 

I used to be like these friends. However, as the pandemic kept going I realized that not everyone could stay at home. There are bills to pay, mouths to feed and mental issue to deal with. Each of us has different economic situation. We don't know how long this pandemic will drag on, and we definitely can't rely on other people to help us all the time. I would hate myself if I ever become the helpless person.

As a freelancer, I could very well work and stay at home, even if there is no pandemic. I could also do online shopping from the comfort of my bedroom. But I still need to meet people, even if they are just staffs at the bank/convenience stores. So I decided to go out. Going out has worked wonders on my health, physically and psychologically.

Due to the rising netizen hostility (LOL) during the pandemic, I decide on two things: (1) For FB, Twitter and IG, I will do delayed posting (or probably no posting at all), and (2) I will go back to Blogger to post my daily activities, because this is the platform with the least number of followers who know me in real life. Also, my followers here have been kind and open-minded.

PS. When I do go out, I apply strict safety measures. I wear mask, and sometimes even wear double mask. I look for places that are not fully occupied by customers. I choose places that have open air circulation, or semi-outdoor, or if those are not applicable, I would just wear my mask on most of the time. I bring my own helmet for motorcycle-taxi ride. And when I come home, I go straight to toilet to clean up. I have to be responsible because there are two septuagenarians who rely on me.

PS 2. In February - March 2022, the number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose again, from hundreds to thousands, due to the Omicron variant. This was another reason to delay posting on travel stories.

The East And North of Kalimantan, Part 5: Tarakan

On Day 6, we did a day trip to Tarakan by taking the 1-hour-15-minute speedboat ride from Tanjung Selor port. But before that, we went to coffee shop Warung Kopi Aliong, or also known as Kopi Ria, and a bit of shopping at the Pasar Induk (main market). 

At first, we thought that we would just have breakfast at the hotel and then went to the port. But the breakfast menu turned out to be worsening from day to day, so we rushed to the coffee shop. The hotel's breakfast menu was not exactly awfully-tasted, it's just there's something off.

Kopi Aliong or Kopi Ria is a third-generation coffee shop in Tanjung Selor, Bulungan, North Kalimantan. Aliong, the owner, inherited the coffee shop from his grandfather, who opened it since 1979.

I got the information about this coffee shop from my former boss, whom I introduced to Wda prior to our departure. He said that he used to hang out in the coffee shop before the pandemic and advised us to go there to see the real local activity.

The coffee shop opens in the morning, around 07.30-ish am to around noon, targeting people going to work (on weekdays) and families (on weekends) as its customers. The interior is semi outdoor and quite spacious with seating arrangements for 4-6 people on each table.

 

 

Just like in East Kalimantan, it seems mantau or pau is the signature dish here. So I ordered pau ayam (white bun with chicken filling) and a cup of black coffee with no sugar. The waiter looked so shocked upon hearing the 'black coffee no sugar' and even offered,"How about having corn sugar on the side?" I thought there was a new kind of sugar, but he actually meant the diabetic sugar Tropicana Slim. LOL.

Meanwhile, Wda ordered the mie kuah + telur (noodle with soup + egg). Before the dishes was brought to our desk, we had a joke that her order could be just Indomie, and...*drum rolls*...it was! After seeing my order and sampling my pau, Wda regretted her decision and placed another order for the pau. Double LOL.

After the coffee, we went to the Pasar Induk to scout for souvenir. I told Wda that I usually went to traditional market to see what the locals eat and cook for the souvenir when traveling to remote areas that are not yet fully developed for tourism. As usual, I went with the salted fish and shrimp paste duo.

Terasi Berau, we can buy it in grams

 

 Some of the salted fish products available in the market

I bought those at this shop

 

Then we had a quick stroll in the market and took some photos just for fun. It was nice to do things outside of work.

 The name is meritam, it looks (and tastes) like the wild-cousin of rambutan.

 This must be the largest lengkuas I have ever seen. I wonder if everything in Kalimantan is bigger than in other islands.

 

The Dayak people usually come to market and sell the forest products. You can spot them through their caping hat.

 

There are several souvenir shops in the market that look like this. However, the items sold here are pricey and take bigger space in the luggage than, let's just say, salted fish.

 

I thought about buying one of these, just like when I went to Sumba. But it's just too much hassle when traveling by air. Perhaps next time.

 

From the market, we went to the port, bought ticket and sat at the waiting area. There are many speedboat company and they arrange to have at least one speedboat departing every 15-20 minutes. So if one company's speedboat already leave, just ask the other company's speedboat schedule. Tanjung Selor-Tarakan is around 1 hour 15-20 minutes, and the last speedboat would leave at around 3.30 pm, if I am not mistaken.

 

Let's go!

 

There are not much of a view during our speedboat trip. Since the weather was nice, the trip was quite smooth. During the Tanjung Selor-Tarakan trip, the only on-board entertainment was music. But on the way back to Tanjung Selor, we got to see a movie, which I don't know the title, but it's a gangster kind of movie.

When we landed in Tarakan, we were approached by a group of rental drivers. They offered us to take around for the day with a fee of Rp 250,000. At first, we just wanted to take in Tarakan leisurely and thought about using online rental car. I tried to separate ourselves from them by saying we already had a driver and then went to the toilet. I did need to go to the toilet. But one of them still waited on us even after the toilet run, and he looked desperately needing the day trip, so we decided to give him a chance.

Our first visit was the Tarakan Mangrove and Proboscis Monkey Conservation Area. Located in the heart of Tarakan city, the 21-hectare conservation area was first established in 2003. It is now home to several dozens of proboscis monkeys, and several types of mangroves, such as Avicennia sp, Sonneratia sp and Bruguiera sp. I saw other monkey species in the area, but I could not identify them.

Yeay, we could finally take off our masks. I also took off my eyeglasses for fear they were being snatched by the monkeys.

The map of the area.

 

We happened to come at feeding time. As the proboscis monkeys were going down to take the food, many people gathered around, so we put on our masks back.

The proboscis monkeys' main diet is the mangrove leaves. They will stay as long as the mangroves are thriving. So the banana provided by the management during the feeding time was only for snacks. There are two feeding times, in the morning and in the afternoon. We got there at around noon, if I was not mistaken. Ticket is only Rp 2,000 and according to our driver, we could use the ticket for the whole day.

Without further ado, here are some videos on the area. 

Trivia: Did you know that proboscis monkeys can swim? This ability is a unusual trait that is special to proboscis monkeys and not seen in other monkey species.

Our faces clearly said it: we were thrilled to spend time in this area.

 

Since it was already noon, we went for lunch at Warung Teras restaurant, as per our driver's suggestion. He said that President Jokowi ate here when he visited Tarakan. Since we had yet to browse anything for lunch, we followed his suggestion.

 

I could sense from this giant signage that the foods would be pricey

 

I knew it!

 

Our lunch spread

 

We later had a brief tour around Tarakan to see the facilities, the government offices, and the little oil pumps that are still working. Unlike the sleepy, slow-paced Tanjung Selor, Tarakan has fully developed even as a small island. In my previous post, I mentioned the total population of North Kalimantan was at around 600,000 people. Of the number, 250,000 are living in Tarakan.

 

Trivia: In 1896, the Dutch colonial government found oil reserves and built facilities for drilling. They even brought in workers from Java island due to rising activities on oil drilling in this island. It is amazing to see that until now, the oil pumps are still working.

Wda wanted to see the airport, but our driver said that it took 20 minutes drive from the place we were at the moment. It meant we would need 40 minutes for the round trip to see the airport and then we still had to rush to port to catch the last speedboat. I asked if it was closer to Warung Kopi Aseng/Indra than to airport and he said the coffee shop was only 5-10 minutes away, so we went there instead. This coffee shop is actually on the same road as the restaurant we had lunch at.

The coffee shop was established in 1949 and still maintain its look. There are three seating areas: in the front, in the middle and in the back. Since the front area was already full, we moved forward and found an empty seat in the middle area. There were several young men, sipping coffee, smoking and chatting. One of them has tattoos in his arm. It felt like stepping into a tiger's den, LOL.

This pau display is a wonderful welcome view when you step into Warung Kopi Aseng/Indra

 

We both had black coffee, but in different temperature :D
 

Since we had around 30 minutes, we chose to only have coffees and sipped those quickly. Wda was excited to see many pau option in Warung Kopi Aseng/Indra. She bought two pau, chocolate and chicken, for snack later. When she ate them at our hotel in Tanjung Selor, she regretted that she didn't buy more. No worries, Wda, it just means we should come here again :).

Once we touched down in Tanjung Selor, we went to a local clinic to take antigen test, and alhamdulillah our results came out negative. For our last night in Tanjung Selor, we had lai and durian, because where else could we get lai and a Rp 30,000-priced durian? :D

 

Till we meet again, North Kalimantan!

 

On Day 7, we flew back home! Our flight to Jakarta required a 5-hour transit at East Kalimantan. But since we were already tired, we stayed in the airport, had a cup of coffee at Gloria Jeans Coffee and...*drum rolls*... opened our laptops :D.

 

When we arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, we were shocked to see so many passengers at the luggage pick up area. We've been so used to the sparse population in East and North Kalimantan and it just felt at ease to be there during the pandemic. We added another layer to our mask, got our luggage out and quickly left the airport.

It's been a wonderful experience and I hope to travel more once the pandemic subsides.

The East And North Of Kalimantan, Part 4: Bulungan And Tanah Kuning

After the packed schedule in East Kalimantan, Wda and I decided to slow down for the North Kalimantan trip. But it seemed that we just were not allowed to do so. While the flight to Tanjung Harapan was smooth, Wda received confirmation of appointment upon our arrival. We only had a short time to leave our bags at Luminor Hotel and a quick meal at the hotel's restaurant before rushing out again to the provincial administration office complex. 

The North Kalimantan officials were even more welcoming than the East Kalimantan ones. I can only guess that as the youngest province, North Kalimantan wants to catch up with the other provinces in development, economy, etc. 

Trivia: North Kalimantan was declared as a new province in 2012. Prior to the establishment, it was part of the East Kalimantan. Directly bordering with Malaysia's Sarawak, North Kalimantan has a total size of 75,467.70 square kilometers and only 625,796 in population.

The officials we met were from the Bappeda (development planning) and the PTSP (one-door investment) agencies. They were relatively young, obviously well-educated and definitely rich, because in the region, if you don't have money, you can't get good education. If you don't have a degree, you can't be the head of local agencies.

The focus of our discussion was about the investment target and how they plan to achieve it. They told us about the Tanah Kuning-Mangkupadi Industrial Park, the Kayan hydro power plant that is projected to supply 9,000 MW and other resources, such as Derawan and Berau as tourism objects, that they plan to develop along the way.

To give you an idea on how welcoming they were, we had a three-hour discussion! In Jakarta, a three-hour discussion with an official could only happen if they had known you for quite some time. We practically just landed and met for the first time. To tell you the truth, I was relieved when the discussion ended, because I was already feeling hungry.

When the officials heard about our itinerary to Tanah Kuning - Mangkupadi Industrial Park area the next day, they seemed a bit concerned and one of them offered to escort us. We secretly felt a bit relieved :).

Unlike Balikpapan that has glitzy malls and bay-side apartment, North Kalimantan, or particularly Tanjung Selor in Bulungan regency, has more rustic feel. Apart of our hotel, the only modern building we saw was the agency office. They are still building the gubernatorial office and the local council office.

 

We had early dinner at a small eatery that looked shabby, but the food tasted great. We had soka crab, shrimp and asparagus soup. We decided to call it a day, because the next day would be a long day of road trip to Tanah Kuning area.

Brief hotel review: although Luminor is the newest hotel in the province, our hotel room there is smaller and more expensive than Platinum in Balikpapan. While there are AC, safe box to keep our laptops, hot/cold shower and electric kettle, there was no refrigerator in the room, so we couldn't keep any cool drink. The hotel's breakfast menu was also not interesting.

The next day,  the trip to Tanah Kuning started at around 08.00 am, we picked up the official who had agreed to escort us at the office. He was from Sumbawa island and had lived in North Kalimantan for 10 years. 

Some random information from the official during the 3-hour road trip: (1) he never heard the local people speak the local language (Dayak language) because everyone speak Bahasa Indonesia (bless our founding fathers for having good insight!), (2) we came right in the middle of fruit season and he advised that we tried the local fruits.

After he said point (2), we passed a roadside makeshift stall that sold fruits. He introduced us to lai, a less-known sister of durian. Unlike durian, lai has mild aroma, orange-ish color and thicker texture. I like durian, so I fell hard on lai! He bought us several lai to try on the spot and also to bring back to hotel. Dude, only in Kalimantan you go on a roadtrip with lai.

The road to Tanah Kuning was a bit bumpy, but once we reached the periphery, the view suddenly changed like in the following photo. The view in East Kalimantan was mostly acacia and eucalyptus, but here in North Kalimantan it's mostly palm oil trees.

The Tanah Kuning - Mangkupadi Industrial Park is not built yet, as it is still waiting for investors. But as you can see in the photo, it already has the basic infrastructure, such as the road and the electricity line. Those were the first things that caught my eyes, because those were not found in East Sumba. I can say that North Kalimantan already has what it needs to attract investors.

 

 

 

If you understand Bahasa, the conversation we had in this video was about the function of this road. I previously commented that this road was so smooth that an airplane could probably land here. The official actually verified that it was build for that purpose (military airplane emergency take off and landing). He said that there was another road like this in Malinau regency. As North Kalimantan borders with Malaysia's Sarawak and we often have border issues with the neighboring country, this young province shoulders the burden of providing vital infrastructure for possible conflict mitigation.
 

Trivia: In 2002, Indonesia had to let go Sipadan-Ligitan islands to Malaysia due to our weak legal defence.

After a long road trip, we stopped by a beach. I love the beach's vibe, no noisy tourists (most likely due to pandemic), soft sand and many seating area. However, the restaurant in the beach area was closed, so after taking some photos, we went to adjacent restaurant, still nearby but no view to the sea. 

 

By this time, have you found the red thread of our food selection? :D In general: seafood, in particular: shrimp, squid and crab.  Upon seeing our dish selection, the official suggested that we tried the crab dish at Kayan riverside. Wda brightened up at the suggestion and quickly said that we should try it for dinner. Wda has definitely made it a mission to eat as much shrimp as she could during this trip. Budget concern aside, I was worried about my cholesterol level.

To cut the story short, those were our dinner at Kuliner Tepi Kayan (KTK), a food court-styled culinary spot on Kayan riverside. Then we had lai and durian for dessert, because there are so many vendors selling them at KTK! The temptation is real. Lai is priced between Rp 10,000 and Rp 30,000 each, while durian is between Rp 35,000 and Rp 70,000. 

Lai is love.

 

Enough said :D

But wait, there is part 5 coming soon! Sorry for the slow update, it has been a struggle to select photos, resize and post them according to the chronological order.