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| Bangkirai Hill Canopy Walk. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
How to get there
After spent several hours at Sun Bear Sanctuary in Samboja. We drove to Bangkirai Hill Rain Forest Canopy Walk for about an hours. Half of the road is quite good, the rest we faced some terrible road condition. It is recommended to drive there using 4-wheels car. On the way there, we crossed woods, palm oil plantation and coal mining site. The location is 58 km from Balikpapan to the north. Bangkirai is part of Kutai Kartanegara District, in East Kalimantan Province. There is no public transport from Balikpapan to here, so visitor have to rent a car from Balikpapan or Samarinda.
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| Road condition to Bangkirai. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
The adventure
After passing the entrance gate, where we have to pay entrance fee Rp. 3,000 for adult and Rp. 1,500 for kid, we parked our car then we went to Canopy Walk ticketing. The fee for domestic is Rp. 20,000 and for foreign visitor is Rp. 50,000.
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| Canopy Walk Ticketing. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
After that, we were ready to go to the Canopy Walk passing some trekking path. There are several trekking path inside the forest. Most of the trekking path's name are using former Forestry Minister's name.
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| The Canopy Bridge Sign. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| The Bridge to Enter The Forest. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Welcome to Bangkirai Hill Gate. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Trek I - M. Prakosa. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Rain forest vegetation inside Bangkirai Hill. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
The forest is dominated by trees that are more than 150 years. The average height of the trees is 40-50 meters. During trekking we found that some big trees had been adopted and the adopter name is put on the sign below the trees.
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| Adopted tree. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Trekking Path |
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| Trekking path |
After the first 150 m trekking, we entered the second trek, 300 meters to go to the canopy bridge!!! It is suggested to bring one bottle of drinking water to avoid dehydration. Even though, there are some people who sell drinking water below the canopy bridge before we climb the to the bridge.
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| Trek II - Djamaludin. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
We found some big trees collapsed due to bad weather or too old.
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| Big tree collapsed. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
Finally, we arrived at the Canopy Bridge. This canopy bridge was built in United Stated in 1998 with highly safety standard. It is connected 5 big trees around 30 meters above the ground level. This is the first canopy bridge in Indonesia, the second in Asia and the eighth in the world.
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| Bangkirai Canopy Bridge. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
First of all, we have to take the stair to enjoy the canopy bridge. There are some regulations that everybody has to follow while they are on the canopy bridge.
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| The Canopy Bridge Regulation. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Canopy Bridge Tower. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Stair to the canopy bridge. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Stair to the canopy bridge. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
After arrived on the top of the stair, I walked to another tree using the canopy bridge. This was my first experience. It was amazing upstair. Looking down and surrounding of rain forest. Listening some birds singing. What a peaceful day!! It is totally different with the crowd in Jakarta, the place where I live.
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| The canopy bridge. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| The Rainforest View from The Canopy Bridge. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| The Canopy Bridge. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| The Canopy Bridge. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| The Canopy Bridge. Photo Credit - Carl Fakaruddin |
It was pump up my adrenaline. The weather was nice at that time. Even though It was so tired. I was happy and enjoy this adventure. On the way back, we choose to use different trek with what we used to go to the canopy bridge.
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| Another Trekking Path |
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| Another Trekking Path |
It is recommended to wear comfortable shoes for trekking. Some of place was quite slippery.
The souvenir stores and the restaurant
There are some souvenir that sell t-shirt and East Kalimantan traditional handmade souvenirs.
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| The souvenir store. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Vaarious type of souvenir at Bangkirai Hill. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
There are some restaurant that sell snack, drink and provide meal such as fried rice, noodle or fried chicken.
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| The restaurant at Bangkirai Hill. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
The Lodging
Visitors are also can rent villa or lodging to stay or do camping in Bangkirai Hills. These are typical lodging building, some with air condition and some with fans only. You can have experience stay in the middle of rainforest.
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| Lodging at Bangkirai Hill. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Lodging at Bangkirai Hill. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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| Lodging at Bangkirai Hill. Photo credit - Carl Fakaruddin 2014 |
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