WELCOME

The gateway to East Kalimantan and one of the gateway to "Borneo Rainforest." Balikpapan is located between 1'LS-1, 5'LS and 116.5 'E-117'BT. Consisted of 5 District, bordering the city of Samarinda, Kutai Kartanegara, the Strait of Makassar, and Regency Sand. The total area of approximately 503,306 km2. Although the indigenous Dayak tribes, but the life of a multi-ethnis (heterogeneous) are characteristic in the life of this city.

Showing posts with label Natural Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Natural Life. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Sungai Wain Orangutan Rehabilitation and Jungle 

Posted by fathir On 7:50 PM

Samboja Lestari National Park & Reserve with Rain Forest and Orangutan Rehabilitation Center "Wanariset" is about a hour drive from Balipapan city as the main Gateway to East Kalimantan. Samboja Sungai Wain National Park is the location of Samboja Lodge as part of BOS (The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation), handling three different kinds of projects; orangutan and sunbear rehabilitation, till release back into their natural habitat, reforestation of the area with hardwood trees, and now also an ecolodge called "Samboja Ecolodge".
The Lodge has in total 26 rooms completed, 22 standard with Airconditioning, Two Suite Rooms with Airconditioning and hot water shower and 2 treetops suites, with fantastic view, and offcourse Airconditioning and hot water shower.
The Lodge is completed with a towering area to oversea the Jungle area, a Lobby and a Restaurant, laundry service and kitchen facilites, including an Internet access area.

Alligator Farming

Posted by fathir On 7:11 PM

The farming place has lots of alligator for sure. Some were placed in muddy cage-park which I believe those alligator belong to the Estuary family (Crocodilus porosus), some were in smaller cage-room with greenish water everywhere which if I am mistaken was called Supit alligator, so that means those belong to the Supit family (Tomistoma schlegel), and some more were in another cage-room belong to Lake family (Crocodylus novaeguineae).

To see around this alligator farming is quite amusing as you can see the baby alligators as well as the huge ones. Some of them were just laying there quietly, some more were biting and fighting and they splashed water almost everywhere, and that of course, scared the younger visitors.

In this farming place, there are quite a few of snakes’ cages as well. It’s amazing how the cage is not closed cage as in made with glass just like aquarium, so it is quite open. Visitors can poke the snakes or even if parents are not careful, their kids can touch the snakes with bare hands! Isn’t that scary? But when we were there, there weren’t any visitors that stupid enough to give their hands or fingers willingly to the snakes in the cage. Thank God!

At the farming area as well, we saw a few small eatery places, almost like restaurants. We didn’t make a stop at these eatery places as the youngster in the family ran for elephant trip already! Yes, not too far from the parking lot of the alligator farming place, there is a park where they have 1 huge elephant and 1 tiny elephant and kids can ride them. My husband as shown in the picture rode the elephant along with our Indonesian niece and nephew ha-ha.

Nearby were street vendors selling snacks and drinks and the kids were crowding them. I quite liked this trip to the alligator farming. It was a nice day and I keep plenty beautiful memories.

Sun Bears Nature Reservation

Posted by fathir On 5:33 AM

Around KM. 23 or KM. 24 of Jalan Soekarno-Hatta, Balikpapan, there is an area for nature education of Beruang Madu (Honey Bear or most known as Sun Bear), called Enclosure Beruang Madu. We actually went there due to a wrong information ha-ha. We thought at this place we would at least see Orang Utan, monkey, birds of Borneo, wild orchids, etc but turns out, the place is only for sun bear.

When we arrived we were greeted by an Australian agent speaking in Indonesian. She was friendly but a slightly annoying or perhaps just being too-too friendly. We were disappointed though because we did not plan to see bear; we told her if we wanted to see a bear, we wouldn’t have flown all the way to Indonesia as there are plenty bears in Canada ha-ha; but of course we don’t have sun bear here in Canada so after being suggested (too suggested actually), we went to see the sun bear area.

There is this trail made of wood almost like a bridge where there is a sign for us to be quiet, don’t make too many noises as we would intimidate the sun bear to not show up whatsoever. Apparently, sun bears are known as a bunch of shy yet smart bears. We did not see any bears though no matter how quiet we were. We only heard their growl and such and my brother in law said it was just a trick of radio because we waited in silence for almost an hour but nothing; yet every time we said it was just for fooling us, then we would hear the growl, but still no appearance ha-ha.

We walked all the way until the end of the trail and we saw a place where it seems it was the classroom or school for the bears. At this Enclosure Beruang Madu place, there are quite a few dogs and cats and funnily they are like standing in the public washroom provided there so we couldn’t really use it. There is a big empty house, well more to a hall it seems, and I don’t know what the place is for. We went home feeling sad and more sadder as the rain started to fall, it was really an unlucky day for us; but if you wish to try your luck out, perhaps the sun bears will show their face for you ;-)

Note: KM. 23 or KM. 24 of Jalan Soekarno-Hatta is more addressed as Kilo 23 or Kilo 24 instead saying the whole address of KM. 23 or KM. 24 of Jalan Soekarno-Hatta.