Borneo's oil city — proboscis monkeys, firefly river cruises, and Dayak culture
Balikpapan is East Kalimantan's main city and Indonesia's primary gateway to Borneo — the world's third largest island, home to orangutans, proboscis monkeys, clouded leopards, and the densest remaining rainforest in Southeast Asia. The city is an oil-industry hub with a surprisingly good restaurant scene and serves as the staging point for Derawan Archipelago diving, Kutai National Park orangutan trekking, and the Mahakam River's Dayak longhouse culture.
Balikpapan's modern history begins with the discovery of oil in 1897, when Shell struck the first productive well in Kalimantan. During WWII the city was a major Japanese oil-refining base; the Allied recapture of Balikpapan in July 1945 was the last major amphibious operation of the Pacific War. Indonesia nationalised Shell's operations in 1965 to form Pertamina; Balikpapan today refines much of Pertamina's Kalimantan output and is the nearest major city to Nusantara, Indonesia's new capital being built in East Kalimantan.