Balikpapan is known to the world primarily for its oil fields. What many don’t know though is that this East Kalimantan city is one of the cleanest in Indonesia. Wahyuni Kamah enjoyed the best that Balikpapan has to offer.
From the window of the airplane, as it made its descent, the storage tanks of the refinery dazzled under the sunshine, as if to welcome visitors. A bit further on, a number of oil tankers could be seen forming a queue in the ocean. And way down below, Sepinggan Airport hoved into view, lying right on the edge of the Makassar Strait.
This is Balikpapan, one of Indonesia’s oil capitals, along with Dumai in Riau. The city lies on the coast of East Kalimantan and is not merely the headquarters of Pertamina (the national oil company) and a place from which the State-Owned Enterprise manages one of the biggest oil-refinery complexes in the Indonesian archipelago, but is also a base of operations in Indonesia for some of the world’s top oil companies, such as Total SA (France) and Chevron (USA). It is from this city that Total handles the operations of platforms lying in the Mahakam Delta, while Chevron manages several oil wells in the Makassar Strait. Besides these, several oil-related drilling and construction companies, such as BakerHughes, Schlumberger and Halliburton, have also set up shop in town.
Like a magnet, these major companies draw in workers, experts and foreign guests. These giants also attract other kinds of secondary business however, such as financial services, trading and transportation companies and property dealers. With so many offices of foreign companies being based here, Balikpapan has grown into an international city, complete with five-star hotels, top-class resorts and deluxe residential areas.
The wheel of fiscal fortune spins quickly in this thriving city, generating profit, tax and foreign exchange, as well as filling the pockets of some and keeping the economy moving. So what can one find to enjoy in an oil city such as this?
I left Sepinggan Airport and headed for the city centre. That afternoon, the sky was clear and blue and the air hot and humid. Before entering the city, I was greeted by the offices of companies managing the heavy equipment used by extractive industries and rows of buildings in front of which massive trucks were parked. Located on the coast, Balikpapan serves as the central landing place for all kinds of heavy equipment before it is then sent on to the interior of Kalimantan.
The streets here are clean and have no litter blowing down them. Government offices, shopping complexes, bus stops and the city’s main bus station, are all clean and well kept. Balikpapan’s streets are divided by central green verges and are shaded by leafy trees.
Although not exactly wide, pavements for pedestrians have also been built on both sides of the street, something of rarity in Indonesia. It is no wonder then that over the last 20 years, Balikpapan has won no less than 15 Adipura trophies (nine of them consecutively), an award from the government in recognition of cities which have succeeded in keeping themselves clean.
On Jalan Sudirman, the main street of Balikpapan, the local government has also constructed a special bicycle lane, another rare phenomenon in Indonesia. A number of traffic lights operate on solar energy here and all of the city’s pedestrian crossings proudly display noticeboards which state that the safety of those crossing the street at that point is protected by law. In Balikpapan, motorists have got used to slowing down or stopping when entering a zebra-crossing zone.
Balikpapan started life as a settlement for Bugis fishermen. At the end of the nineteenth century, a Dutch company first discovered oil in this then remote village. Since then, Kampung Bugis has grown into a busy oil city. Thousands of workers arrived from Java, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku, and turned Balikpapan into one of the first multi-ethnic communities of that era.
In a world that’s ever thirsty for oil, discovering sources of this black gold is like stumbling across buried treasure. Companies, both local and foreign, were unsurprisingly keen to suck up this natural bounty and in 1922, the Netherlands opened Balikpapan’s first oil refinery. To this day the refinery, which is almost a century old now, is still sturdy and is now operating under the Pertamina flag. The closeness of the relationship between Balikpapan and the oil that it sits on is immortalised in the fact that the anniversary of the city’s founding is based on the date that a Dutch company first drilled for oil in this location: February 10, 1897.
However, investment that depletes natural resources cannot last forever. The timber industry, which once fuelled growth in Balikpapan, has faded quickly and traces of the dominance of timber are nowadays hard to find in the city. Coal mining and plantations are still thriving, however in order to continue their accelerated growth, these two business sectors need large areas of land for development. As a consequence, this city, which covers a large 50,000-hectare area (Jakarta covers 67,000 hectares in comparison), gets by with a population of only 620,000, or just one-twentieth of the population of Jakarta.
With such a sparse population, mobility and open spaces are not serious issues for Balikpapanites. Every evening, people gather at the small Bekapai Park on Jalan Sudirman. Some come just to chat, hang out or to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi internet connection. Others come to eat and just behind the park, a large number of street vendors sell various kinds of food, including soto, sate, gado-gado (vegetable salad with a peanut-sauce dressing), fried snacks and mixed fruits with ice. This place has never lacked for visitors all eager to mingle together in fact.
If you can’t find a suitable choice of food down in Bekapai Park, make your way to the nearby Bandar Balikpapan. This area of restaurants and cafés sits right on the shoreline, just behind Jalan Sudirman’s ruko (two-in-one shop-house) complex.
As a city hemmed in by the sea, it’s no surprise to find that Balikpapan relies on its beaches as a main tourist attraction. To the east and south, the city is bordered by the Makassar Strait, while to the west lies the Balikpapan Strait. The beaches to the south are generally closed to swimmers, however people are welcome to bathe on the eastern shore, which slopes more gradually. Lamaru and Manggar Beaches, about 22 kilometres from the city centre, are local favourites.
Having had enough of walking along the beach, I embarked on a Balikpapan souvenir hunt. At the Kebun Sayur Market I found all sort of ornaments made from stone, as well as traditional Kalimantan batik and even ingredients for traditional medicines.
Besides its beach and its clean and tidy city, Balikpapan also offers forest tours, the like of which are hard to find in other Indonesian cities. Aside from the Wain River Protected Forest, visitors can enjoy Wana Wisata, the Bangkirai Mountain Forest and the Samboja Lestari Forest in the District of Kutai Kartanegara, which lies around two hours from Balikpapan.
In the evening I headed for Samboja Lestari, accompanied by some friends from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF). Samboja Lestari is a former mining area that has now been reforested. These days, Samboja Forest is used to treat sick orangutans and animals confiscated from poachers by the Natural Resources Conservation Board, who then allow them to recuperate before releasing them back into the wild. When I arrived, besides eight orangutans, Samboja was also treating 48 honey bears, which have been a protected species in Indonesia since 1993 and which are the city of Balikpapan’s mascot.
From the main road, the Samboja Lestari complex can be reached on foot via a meandering dirt path that is somewhat slippery when it rains. After a 15-minute walk, we finally arrived at Samboja Lodge, a sanctuary that sits in the middle of this 2,000-hectare forest. The lodge is managed by BOSF.
Samboja Lodge, with its 22 hotel-standard rooms, is a mostly wooden construction. In the morning, when I opened my window, I was delighted to hear all manner of birdsong drifting from the tree canopies. Samboja Lodge has two suites at the top of its tower, which can be reached by an open flight of stairs made of steel netting. From the tower, I was met with a splendid panoramic view of the forest’s crown of treetops.
How to get there
Garuda Indonesia serves the Jakarta-Balikpapan route 56 times a week. Taxis and rental cars are the best options for getting around the city. There are lots of hotels in Balikpapan, ranging from the simple to top-class stopovers such as the Novotel Balikpapan (novotel.com), Le Grandeur Balikpapan (www.legrandeurhotels.com), and the Aston Balikpapan Hotel & Residence (www.aston-international.com). If you want to take a look at the orangutans and honey bears, visit Samboja Lestari, a conservation area which offers accommodation at its Samboja Lodge (www.sambojalodge.com)
