Visit
West Kalimantan 's Wealth
West Kalimantan covers an area
of over 146.807 sq km, and remains unexplored by
travelers. The Coast area is mainly covered with swamp and
counts more than 100 rivers sculpting the flat plains. The Highland mountains covering
the eastern part of West Kalimantan province, far away from the cities,
where you can find the traditional Dayak settlements. The Dayaks with
their traditions and beliefs are expressed in various forms;
as earlobes elongated by heavy earnings, tattoos, art full intricate
paintings, carving designs and wonderful dances of
respect. West Kalimantan is accessible from Jakarta,
Surabaya, and Kucing at Sarawak by air. Boat cruises and overland
journeys is the best opportunity to see the interior of one of the
world's largest and richest island. West Kalimantan province is an
important and very attractive province. It is rich in history, culture
and has a lot places of interest for the tourist. The province borders
on Sarawak, East Malaysia, and the Muller Mountain Range which can be
crossed to East Kalimantan, at the west is the South China Sea and the
Karimata Strait.
West
Kalimantan is rich of minerals and stones. Various valuable minerals
are found on and around those mountains, such as gold, mercury,
manganese, bauxite, gypsum and kaolin.
Cities
as Sambas, Pontianak, Ketapang can be found in the coastal side,
surrounded by lowland and swamps.
As
all over in Kalimantan, the rivers are the main transport "highways" ,
in West Kalimantan a number of important rivers for the transportation
of goods and people are Kapuas River, Sambas River,
Sekayam River, Landak River, Melawi River and Pawan River. However, there are rivers that
can be navigated only during the rainy season, when the water is
high. Bandung is the name of floating houses used to
navigate up and 0-downstream the main river, Bandung are not only
houses, but is also important transportation tool for the
people.
The
highlands deep in-land of West Kalimantan are covered with
jungle, and still not much trodden by human beings. In the past
decades, however, loggers have come to exploit the province's timber
resources, but the West Kalimantan jungle is still rich in tropical
hardwoods, rattan, candlenut trees, and various raw materials
for
industrial and popular needs.
PONTIANAK CITY ON
THE EQUATOR
Pontianak has a population of about
300,000 people, and is West
Kalimantan's provincial capital, for tourists also known as
the city on the
Equator, with
several tourism attractions around. Pontianak was
initially a
sultanate, established ....read
more
|
 PUTUSSIBAU AT THE UPPER KAPUAS
RIVER
Putussibau a small
town about 800 Kilometers from Pontianak City
upstream the head
waters of the Kapuas River at Indonesia West
Kalimantan Province,
The Kapuas River itself is 1,143 kilometers long, and
the longest River in
Indonesia, and the second Longest in the World after
the Amazon River. ...read
more |
HISTORY OF KALIMANTAN AT SAMBAS
Sambas offer beautiful
traditional handicraft products, where also some
historical remains as the Sultan palace of the Sambas
kingdom, which was
built by the first ruler
Sultan Muhammad Syaefuddin. Two cemeteries
of the Sambas kingdom
can be found at separated complexes.....read
more
|
 SINTANG
Sintang city as the capital of
the Sintang regency, is easy reachable from
Pontianak,
over land, either by river or air. Sintang is connected by
roads
with Pontianak, or
via Rivers as Pinyuh, Sidas Ngabang, Sanggau,
Semunati and Sekadau.
....read
more
|
 CROSSING THE BORDER OVERLAND TO
SARAWAK
To
cross the border between West Kalimantan and
Sarawak, proceeds
towards Bengkayang, and continue towards
the north, passing the
villages Ledo, and Sanggauledo up to
Seluas before reaching Entekong as
the last village on the Indonesian side of the
border. ....read
more
|
