Bontang Stay

Reaching Bontang
This is a big challenge. Bontang is remotely located and can reach by two modes. By car from Balikpappan (It is having International Airport) and it takes 6 hours. This route is via Samaranda where lot of Indian companies (Essar, Jindal, Tatas..etc.) are executing projects on coal and Oil fields. Samaranda is somewhat big place (may be about one 0.5 million population with all eateries like pizzahut, KFC, and few Indian restaurants). Other way of reaching Bontang is through PT BADAK chartered flight and it takes 30 minutes. Bontang is on eastern part of Indonesia in Kalimanthan Area.




Campus of PT Badak
This is a big campus, about 6000 acres. Beautiful roads with quarters for all employees. It has excellent Gym, dance floor, bowling sports, fishing areas, boating areas apart from International standards of Golf place. What else, Tennis courts, Volley Ball courts, and Basket ball courts. Entire campus is fenced and heavy security. Motto of the PT Badak is Safety. Also, there is a evening eat street called pujasarai where you get typical Indonesian food. Here people are much disciplined and time sense is very high. Lot of importance to family system.



Stay @ Bontang

I stayed in PC6 114C quarter along with Venkatesh, next to Jaganmohan and Jagannadh. As we are just 16 Indians in Bontang, PT Badak campus, it is very close net and all are much cooperative for others. Excellent team bonding and high light is most of them are experts in cooking. Not sure, it was mandated in Bontang due to non availability of food outside.



Food @ Bontang
No need to worry about this. Oh. Surprised? There are no hotels in Bontang. Only eating joint is KFC in Ramayana. At other small places, you cannot eat as most of the places they serve beef. Then how do you get good food. Just pile on one of these smart and efficient guys like jaganmohan, Jagannadh and venkatesh. That is not all, others also experts in making variety of items. One thing is sure, you cannot dare to eat outside. I heard there is one Pakistani hotel where you get some roties. We could not make it as it was closed during these days. Bontang people food habits are very different as most of the time they eat meat and beef with some sauce and no spicy et all as what I heard. Vegetables are very expensive as they get imported. In fact most of the items are imported. We do not get pulses here. So cooking Indian food depends on various external sources and internal expertise in cooking. But, our guys are made simple by plan and organized.

One interesting thing Bontang food is, Tender coconut. Each tender coconut is so big, one need to take that in batch mode. In fact one person is difficult to complete by one person.

I am fortunate to have Venkatesh, Jaganmohan and Jagannadh as roommates. I got the opportunity to taste Dosas with excellent chutney, very good vegetables and snacks every day. One day I see Jaganmohan and Jagannadh have scope for eatery joint business.

Here in quarters there is no hot water provision. You need to take cold water. I was bit worried first day. Then got habituated.

One more good facility in Bontang is Cloths washer man is available and he is very near to quarters.

Living style @ Bontang

Here day starts with 430 am on Masjid announcement. You will get up how hard you try to avoid the sound system. Then prayer starts at 5 AM. Servant maid knocks the door at 530 AM. That is all. You cannot close your eyes any more. People in Bontang start their work day at 7AM and closes by 4PM. Here most of them use heavy vehicles like CRVs or two wheelers. Baja is known here well as Bajaj exports pulsars to Indonesia. All quarters are single storied with false sealing. No AC in the apartment unless you get it installed. Every house has one mango tree (surprised?) yes. Many mongo trees. You can pluck them without asking as Bontang people do not eat many mangos. Also Sapota tree in front of every house. There is one water tap in the front portion of the house and one small garden with garden lamp provision. In PC6 type quarters, no room is with attached bath. Not sure is it the same for all type of quarters. Population is very less with hardly you see anyone on roads. You can see crowd in the Bontang town on the way to Ramayana.

Parking of the vehicles is much disciplined here. All vehicles are parked in the direction so that vehicle can be taken out directly for driving. Right of way is strictly followed and most of them drive at a speed of 40 KMPH.



Language is big challenge here. Hardly anyone speaks English. So you need to have some sort of dumb charades as part of life for getting things done. Pak Gunandi will help in getting things like getting bike on rent or purchase of something..Etc. Here Pak prefix is used with names as part of giving respect to individual just like “San” in Japanese.

Cricket @ Bontang

Only activity that keeps the tempo up for our young guys is through playing cricket at night time. Oh. Are you thinking that there is cricket ground in Bontang? You are wrong. But, we know that cricket is played where there is a place and light. We have very good players like Dilip, Satish, Badiri, Bhagirath and of course Jagannadh. Kawaskar is new to cricket (as he says) but he feels that he is bowling at international standards. He does of course for few balls. Bagirath and Dilip are very quick in fielding. So, if the ball goes to their side, make sure that you are in safe zone. Jagannadh is a seasoned player in Chennai so, it is easy for him. Vikram is cool and does not get much excited in the field but he makes sure that contribution is important. And there is Sachin(this Sachin is more of a bowler than our national sachin) very calculative both in runs and balls. Others Narayana, Viswa and Venkatesh enjoy the game with some sense of exercise and fun in Bontang. I am just a spectator with try to field and obviously fail to stop the ball most of the times. Kiran is particular about running and try to keep his energies intact for project work. Bontang Security guys must be thinking where are these guys coming and playing an unknown game so many hours.

Market @ Bontang

Is there a market? You wonder. Hardly any shops. Only decent place is Ramayana. Interestingly here most of the names are in Hindu types. Super market here is “Ramayana” it has good T shirts and most of the things are available.