Kalimantan

I was lucky enough to spend 10 days staying at a research station in the rainforests of Tanjung Puting national park in July 2006. At invitation from the Orangutan Foundation. It is the most amazing place.

I have some photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/iant/sets/72157594204570848/

I travelled around east kalimantan for a few months in 1995 on this exchange thingy. Beautiful jungle, lovely culture, but also sad at the pace of destruction of the place.

I have also been to the amazon, and flying over both of them, it seemed like they were both being destroyed so fast – although I have heard that east kalimantan is where most of the mining and logging goes on.

In terms of culture, transmigration is huge there (when i was there they said 30% had come from other islands in this program), and there is some conflict between the indigenous people and slash and burn farmers from other islands, brought about largely by government policies rather than a real conflict between ethnic groups.

I love their huge boats that they race in (I remember spending alot of time on boats there, getting wet), and traditional practices. and the monkeys are so cute :D

this is probably my favorite island in indo.
i stayed in a place north of palangkaraya, called
rungan sari. i want to live there!

it’s so quiet and peaceful and close to nature.
yet, jakarta and other big cities can easily be
reached by daily 1-hour flights. joy.

let’s all move to kalimantan.