A petroleum engineer by profession, an adventurer by heart, a dreamer by nature.... It's all about a dream world and everything that I'm dreaming of.

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Back to Jakarta again for a short holiday. Indonesian Independence Day holiday, that used to be in Sunday, was moved to Monday so we have a long weekend here. I think government has taken a good decision especially to boast the domestic tourism, as well to make us able to hang around seeing the diversity of our nation.... or just to have a short time relaxing our self, get out side of the ordinary world and see the world with a different view, like I do :)

During these past 2 months, I have lived in Balikpapan, a small oil city in the East Kalimantan province East. Many things to tell, and a neighbor city called Tenggarong can be a good start.

Located about 2 hours by car from Balikpapan, Tenggarong is one of the most emerging cities in Indonesia especially after the autonomy policy that gives province more power to manage their domestic budget. The city is the capital of the Kutai Kartanegara residency which is named as the richest residency in Indonesia because of its natural resource like Oil, Natural Gas, Coal and Timber.

Balikpapan could be a headquarter of many oil companies, such as Total and Unocal, but their fields are located in Kutai Kartanegara so the tax goes there. Imagining this fact and if you were here, everything is like a brand new. It's like watching a society, who lives in the middle of forest, transforming their home into a palace. Of course they conserve the sultana palace and Kutai Museum where you can still find the history of Kutai and Pasir Kingdom, but beside that? A new modern Bupati residence just beside the Sultana palace, a huge complex of Bupati's office, a big grand mosque and planetarium. In the mean time, they also constructed a modern stainless steal bridge like the one you can find in Darling Harbor, Australia. Not enough with all that, they also transformed an island in the middle of Mahakam to be an attraction park like Dunia Fantasi in Jakarta.

Interesting, isn't it? Another sweet story of the Indonesian diversity and beauty, wherever you go even in the middle of Borneo forest you could always be impressed by many things.
posted at 10:51 PM