Kutai Kartanegara: 'Hot' property seeks spot on tourist map

Pandaya, The Jakarta Post, Tenggarong, East Kalimantan

After a 10-minute walk from our hotel, we arrived at a small quay right across from the old palace complex, packed with local holidaymakers.

An army of port officials greeted us three Jakarta residents like old long-lost friends. In no time they ushered us to a waiting small speedboat that would take us to a dreamland nearby.

After a five-minute rollercoaster ride on the fast-flowing River Mahakam, the boat's engine suddenly stopped when the Island's gateway was still some 100 meters away. While the skipper and his assistant were calmly trying to fix the engine, we looked around for life vests, to no avail.

The dead boat tilted up and down in the undulating huge river, intimidating us who were unaccustomed to such daredevil boating.

"Are you good at swimming?" a friend nervously mumbled, looking around, with unclear to whom he was floating his question to. His face pale, he swallowed hard and -- brrrrmm -- the engine suddenly roared again, to our great relief.

Sweaty and still apprehensive at the just ended real-life drama, we eventually managed to set foot on the oh-so hot 76- hectare delta that locals love to call Kumala "island".

"About 12 meters," the skipper, turning his boat around, replied when I asked him how deep was the water.

This island is the most talked about new family resort under construction. The free-spending Kutai Kartanegara regency administration, newly rich from its oil and gas reserves, is shelling out Rp 4 trillion to turn the delta into a top-class recreation spot.

The ambitious project aims to turn the delta into something similar to the Ancol Dreamland resort in Jakarta, or Santosa Island in Singapore. Already in place is a complex of villas and cottages, swimming pools, sauna, an airstrip, a theater, children's recreation facilities, a sky tower, monumental statue of the mythical ox Lembuswana and a cable car system spanning 1,300 meters from Kumala to Tenggarong Seberang, on Mahakam's east bank.

Although the project is only 30 percent complete, the recreation island is already opened for the public at weekends and on holidays.

"The Kumala Island is developed to keep the better-off Tenggarong holidaymakers from streaming out to Samarinda and Balikpapan," regent Syaukani told The Jakarta Post.

During the recent Kutai cultural festival, the island was bathed in shimmering light at night with colorful lanterns put up by Chinese artists.

Kumala Island's development, implemented by PT Pembangunan Jaya, a real estate giant controlled by Ciputra (who partly owns Ancol), is only one of the efforts to bring back the past glory of Kutai Kartanegara kingdom as a center of civilization and to turn Tenggarong into a "metropolitan" area of Kalimantan.

"The Kumala Island project will transform Tenggarong into a new major tourist destination in Indonesia on par with Bali," said Rosalie Mboi Bachtiar, general manager of the project, in a promotional publication.

To make the dream come true, Kutai Kartanegara is building new roads, bridges and accommodation to attract visitors. An international airport will be built on the border with Kutai's southern neighbor of Samarinda and is expected to begin operation by 2008.

Kutai Kartanegara is indeed a haven for cultural tourism. The Kutai palace in the heart of the town offers an exiting glimpse of the history of early civilization in Indonesia.

The old palace overlooking the River Mahakam houses a museum with a collection of 4,732 artifacts, spanning from the 5th century, when the kingdom began to the present.

Many Kutai artifacts are in the collection of the National Museum in Jakarta and others found their way to the Netherlands. Kutaians say they are longing to see the historical items returned to the palace, where they belong.

A big attraction is the sumptuous "new" palace, which the regency administration spent Rp 11.7 billion renovating last year.

The regency has long been a favorite destination of tourists who adore tribal exoticism and pristine tropical forests -- and have time on their hands. The famed Dayak tribespeople live deep in the hinterland that takes days to reach, mostly by boat.

Despite all the aggressive promotions and the fantastic projects initiated as part of the effort to wrest Bali's title as the top tourist haven, concern for basic facilities seems to have been overlooked.

In Tenggarong, there are only two star-rated hotels, Singgasana and Lesung Batu, both owned by the local administration. Quite a number of losmen (simple lodgings) are available for backpackers, but during events like the annual Erau culture festival, the cheap hotels cannot accommodate revelers streaming in from other regions.

In terms of service, residents could learn a thing or two from the Balinese about how to entertain tourists. Unlike in places like Bali and Yogyakarta, street vendors in Kutai do not hassle visitors as much, but they do tend to inflate prices if they know you are a visitor. The very same meal at the same sidewalk food stall that cost you Rp 8,000 yesterday may go up to Rp 12,000 today, and the price will likely change again tomorrow.

The inadequate transportation system is quite a challenge, too. Metered taxis are nonexistent in the main town (maybe because the town is too small to cruise around). The most dependable mode of transport appears to be ojek (motorcycle taxi) and speedboats.

In Tenggarong, seeing the sights on foot requires a good sense of humor and for you to keep your cool. Intersections are not signposted and don't expect such things as roadmaps. Keep smiling and don't hesitate to ask locals for directions.

And don't forget to wear your sunglasses, sunblock and sombrero hat: Kutai lies smack on the equator and is a very hot land indeed.