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.