Samarinda... I have been there.

Samarinda Islamic Centre

The capital of East Kalimantan (KALTIM) is Samarinda and I bet not many people from this country have visited the place. To get there we first had to go to Jakarta then flew by Garuda Airways to Balikpapan and from here we were driven by a comfortable bus for two hours to reach our destination. We stayed at a lovely 4-star hotel on the outskirt of the city. Dayak House

I noticed the city was undergoing rapid development. All over the place there were constructions going on. In fact Samarinda is constructing the biggest Islamic complex in Asia. We went to their theme park which had a revolving structure, when in operation, it slowly ascended the massive central pole and you could see the vast area all around you at 360 degrees as you were reaching the top. There was also a cable car traversing across a large river. I was rather hesitant at first to ride on the cable car but managed to
muster my courage and took the ride. I remember taking the cable car ride across the sea to Sentosa island in Singapore and only to read about the tragedy of the snapped cables just a few weeks later!

Most of the handicrafts in East Kalimantan were made by the Dayaks, the paintings and beads, just like those seen in Sarawak. There were assortments of semi-precious stones on sale, many made into pretty and fashionable necklaces. We also had the opportunity to visit an area where the people were slightly different from the rest of the population. The ladies are called Dayang and men, Awang or Pengiran and according to the people whom we talked to, the ancestors of the Brunei Royalty originated from this area.... very interesting.

East Kalimantan is fast developing since it was accorded the autonomy status and as such they can now control their natural resources, the most important of which is oil. I could not help noticing that their civil servants mostly looked and sounded Javanese! And we were also told that the region, under President SBY, had been fighting corruption. That is indeed good news for the people.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of developments in East Kalimantan. The city certainly was bustling with activities. The traffics were bad at peak time and there were many shops,entertainment outlets and restaurants serving delicious foods that you could go to. All in all, the visit was an eye-opener for me.