Greetings from a former expat child

Theoros

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2017
Messages
25
Greetings all, I'm new to the forum. I found it by Googling for "Indonesia expat".

I'm pleased to find this place. Aside from my family I haven't talked to fellow expats to Indonesia since the 1980s. One of my current projects is scanning/digitizing my parents' old photos and negatives including two thick albums from when our family lived in Balikpapan and from our contemporaneous trips to Bali and Singapore, and this rekindled my memories and interest in Indonesia, although I've always remained fond of Indonesia and I've always missed it. So I'm here to share my experiences and photos, get a few details cleared up on culture, geography, and history, and because I'd love to travel to Indonesia again in the near future, pick your brains for travel advice. And who knows, maybe someone I knew in Balikpapan will find my posts through a search engine and get in touch.

To introduce myself I'll share a few highlights of my time as an expat. I was only 8 and 9 years old when we lived in Balikpapan but fortunately my childhood memory recall is excellent and I remember the people, places, and experiences very well and sometimes in vivid detail. Hopefully my childhood perspective of Indonesia will provide interesting and occasionally insightful contrast to the experiences many of you have had as adult expats. Wherever possible I'd like to connect the Indonesia of my past to present-day Indonesia. Things over there seem to change more slowly and more superficially than they do in the West.

My father, mother, brother, and I moved from our native United States to Balikpapan in April or May 1981 and returned stateside a little over a year later in June 1982. My father worked for Huffco, a major oil and natural gas exploration company in Indonesia at the time. Huffco was sold in 1990 to Taiwanese state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation and its operations in Indonesia continue today under the name of VICO. (Trivia: Huffco was founded by the late U.S. Ambassador to Austria Roy M. Huffington, father of former U.S. Congressman and presidential candidate Michael Huffington — who also worked for Huffco — and former father-in-law of Arianna of Huffington Post.)

We lived in the gated Huffco camp at Gunung Bakaran, located a couple of minutes west on Jalan Marsma R. Iswahyudi from the airport, bordering the northeastern quarter of the Pertamina golf course. Using Google Maps I've learned the camp is now a resort named Patraland Residence (previously Vilabeta Resort) and that Gunung Bakaran seems to have been renamed to Gunung Bahagia. Can anyone confirm the latter?

I attended Pasir Ridge School which is still operated by International Schools Services as Pasir Ridge Intercultural School. It sits atop Pasir Ridge in the former Union 76 camp now managed by Chevron. My classmates were representative of foreign companies like Huffco, Union 76, Total, Schlumberger, Bechtel, and Halliburton, and they came from all over the world, including some part-Indonesian kids with a Western expat parent. I still have my school yearbooks from 1980-81 and 1981-82 and I plan to scan them soon.

My favorite local dish was nasi goreng, particularly when prepared at home by our Indonesian maid. To this day nothing I've eaten in America that passed itself off as "nasi goreng" has compared. Even chefs who studied their craft in Southeast Asia haven't approximated the mix of flavors my young taste buds were imprinted with.

Unless you were very adventurous or willing to slum it, options for dining out in Balikpapan were limited when my family lived there. We tended to go to the club restaurant in the Huffco camp or its counterpart in the Union 76 camp (the Pasir Ridge Community Center), which incidentally was where we Pasir Ridge School students ate lunch every day while seated outdoors on the top-floor deck overlooking a panoramic ocean view in the direction of Pasar Baru. Outside the camps we frequented Restoran Atomik and the Benakutai Hotel restaurant, both of which remain in business after all these years. Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe the Benakutai was actually new then, having opened circa 1980. I mention this because I see that the formerly nicest hotel in the city was recently renovated and rebranded "The New Benakutai Hotel," a name that stokes amusement after you've read the many online reviews detailing the place's abysmal state of disrepair before the renovation.

There's much more to tell but I've rambled on enough for this introduction. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.
 
I second Vanhesling's welcome and suggest the same on the blog...but also give this man a Nasi Goring and some Bakso...and maybe now he'll be able to swill it down with some Bintang beer...as I'm sure his dad would have back in the '80's!
 
Welcome to the forum @Theoros !

Glad you found us and we're looking forward to more stories and pictures!
 
My children had similar experiences in Sabah but they were too young to go to school. Stealing fruit from Chinese spirit houses, throwing empty coke cans from pontoon style restaurants, playing with puffer fish on the beach.etc.

I don't think they crave Nasi Goreng though. Although they both seem to have caught vegetarianism!

Сделайте Америку отличной снова! :lol:
 
nice introduction. welcome and hope you have a great time here ( in this forum )
 
I like your style and enjoyed the walk down memory lane, Balikpapan. Looking forward to more.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I may consider blogging here but I'd definitely like to get better acquainted with this place before doing so.

I second Vanhesling's welcome and suggest the same on the blog...but also give this man a Nasi Goring and some Bakso...and maybe now he'll be able to swill it down with some Bintang beer...as I'm sure his dad would have back in the '80's!

Sadly bakso is one thing I have no memory of ever trying, which is strange given its popularity. I must have tried it once and found it neither particularly repulsive nor enjoyable (though this doesn't seem likely), or I refused to try it because it looked weird and nobody forced me to eat it (much more plausible). I pledge to try it if I go back to visit.

I do recall seeing Bintang around the camp, as well as a Filipino beer that seemed ubiquitous, San Miguel. My father informs me that he and his expat buddies weren't too keen on Bintang because back then some batches were noticeably more cloudy than others even though the taste didn't seem affected, so they "didn't trust it." He says they mostly drank San Miguel and Tiger, although Tiger had too much preservative for my father's taste. I think their suspicion of the cloudy Bintang was justifiable. The canned Gatorade we got from the camp commissary featured its own Cracker Jack surprise: some cans yielded a small glob of mucus-like substance in the first swig. They were typical soda-style cans sealed with pull-tabs which I opened with my own fingers, but I remember being convinced that someone somehow "hocked a loogie" in them. The horror, the horror.

On alcohol more generally, our company-provided house had a built-in wet bar in the living room and my parents set up a full wraparound rattan bar counter with sturdy rattan bar chairs in front of it to entertain their friends. I found it a little unusual, and in retrospect I realize that many of the expats I had encountered over there were, shall we say, quite enthusiastic about drinking compared to people living the stateside lifestyle.

My children had similar experiences in Sabah but they were too young to go to school. Stealing fruit from Chinese spirit houses, throwing empty coke cans from pontoon style restaurants, playing with puffer fish on the beach.etc.

Ah, a fellow Borneo resident. Do your children remember anything about it? My brother was 4 and 5 years old when we lived in Balikpapan and he remembers almost nothing. That makes me sad, as if he completely missed out. He had a few friends and, like your kids, together they got up to mischief. His specialty was shameless outdoor urination. Perhaps it's better that he doesn't remember much.

I don't think they crave Nasi Goreng though.

My brother unfortunately doesn't remember nasi goreng either.
 
Howdy! Welcome to the forum.

Nasi goreng is one of my favorites, too. I like it a bit spicy, with shrimp, chicken or beef. If my wife makes it at home, I'll always add some cashews to it, too, or some real bacon bits.

It's interesting how vivid childhood memories can be. Glad you still remember them fondly.
 
Hi! I lived in Balikpapan at the same time you did! My family was also with Huffco in Gunung Bakaran from 80-84. I would have been in 6th or 7th grade when you were there. So, I probably sat in the back of that big gold bus with the plastic covered seats that we all rode back and forth to school! Remember the bus monitor moms? Some didn’t care what we did...others were little hitlers!! Lol
 
I attended Pasir Ridge School which is still operated by International Schools Services as Pasir Ridge Intercultural School.

Closed now, I believe.

Also, being operated by ISS is actually a rather lose term and arrangement. For many ISS schools, they have a local owner or non profit board. ISS (for a fee) aid with recruitment, standards to be followed and shipping of materials and books.
 
I was flying Bell 212 helicopters with PT Derazona in support of HUFFCO exploration out of Badak Field from 1975-77. I slung-loaded the first load of equipment to the site for initiating the construction of what was to become the Guning Bakarang Estate.

A funny story here: They built bachelor apartments as well as married housing units. Although the company would pay the wages for domestic help, individuals were advised to find their own staff. After a few months, there was a memo from the boss there that maids had to be at least 40 years old. Seemed that the bachelor guys were hiring young (18-20 year olds) from the bars and getting additional benefits. What complicated things was when Bachelor Bob would ask Married John to come over and have a look at his AC unit. They apparently enjoyed more than a cold beer while there, thus the memo.
 
At least 40 years old?
No biggie, as long as STNK - setengah tuwo ning kenceng.
Ask your Javanese friend
 
Greetings all, I'm new to the forum. I found it by Googling for "Indonesia expat".

I'm pleased to find this place. Aside from my family I haven't talked to fellow expats to Indonesia since the 1980s. One of my current projects is scanning/digitizing my parents' old photos and negatives including two thick albums from when our family lived in Balikpapan and from our contemporaneous trips to Bali and Singapore, and this rekindled my memories and interest in Indonesia, although I've always remained fond of Indonesia and I've always missed it. So I'm here to share my experiences and photos, get a few details cleared up on culture, geography, and history, and because I'd love to travel to Indonesia again in the near future, pick your brains for travel advice. And who knows, maybe someone I knew in Balikpapan will find my posts through a search engine and get in touch.

To introduce myself I'll share a few highlights of my time as an expat. I was only 8 and 9 years old when we lived in Balikpapan but fortunately my childhood memory recall is excellent and I remember the people, places, and experiences very well and sometimes in vivid detail. Hopefully my childhood perspective of Indonesia will provide interesting and occasionally insightful contrast to the experiences many of you have had as adult expats. Wherever possible I'd like to connect the Indonesia of my past to present-day Indonesia. Things over there seem to change more slowly and more superficially than they do in the West.

My father, mother, brother, and I moved from our native United States to Balikpapan in April or May 1981 and returned stateside a little over a year later in June 1982. My father worked for Huffco, a major oil and natural gas exploration company in Indonesia at the time. Huffco was sold in 1990 to Taiwanese state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation and its operations in Indonesia continue today under the name of VICO. (Trivia: Huffco was founded by the late U.S. Ambassador to Austria Roy M. Huffington, father of former U.S. Congressman and presidential candidate Michael Huffington — who also worked for Huffco — and former father-in-law of Arianna of Huffington Post.)

We lived in the gated Huffco camp at Gunung Bakaran, located a couple of minutes west on Jalan Marsma R. Iswahyudi from the airport, bordering the northeastern quarter of the Pertamina golf course. Using Google Maps I've learned the camp is now a resort named Patraland Residence (previously Vilabeta Resort) and that Gunung Bakaran seems to have been renamed to Gunung Bahagia. Can anyone confirm the latter?

I attended Pasir Ridge School which is still operated by International Schools Services as Pasir Ridge Intercultural School. It sits atop Pasir Ridge in the former Union 76 camp now managed by Chevron. My classmates were representative of foreign companies like Huffco, Union 76, Total, Schlumberger, Bechtel, and Halliburton, and they came from all over the world, including some part-Indonesian kids with a Western expat parent. I still have my school yearbooks from 1980-81 and 1981-82 and I plan to scan them soon.

My favorite local dish was nasi goreng, particularly when prepared at home by our Indonesian maid. To this day nothing I've eaten in America that passed itself off as "nasi goreng" has compared. Even chefs who studied their craft in Southeast Asia haven't approximated the mix of flavors my young taste buds were imprinted with.

Unless you were very adventurous or willing to slum it, options for dining out in Balikpapan were limited when my family lived there. We tended to go to the club restaurant in the Huffco camp or its counterpart in the Union 76 camp (the Pasir Ridge Community Center), which incidentally was where we Pasir Ridge School students ate lunch every day while seated outdoors on the top-floor deck overlooking a panoramic ocean view in the direction of Pasar Baru. Outside the camps we frequented Restoran Atomik and the Benakutai Hotel restaurant, both of which remain in business after all these years. Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe the Benakutai was actually new then, having opened circa 1980. I mention this because I see that the formerly nicest hotel in the city was recently renovated and rebranded "The New Benakutai Hotel," a name that stokes amusement after you've read the many online reviews detailing the place's abysmal state of disrepair before the renovation.

There's much more to tell but I've rambled on enough for this introduction. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.
This was fun to stumble upon. I too was an expat child in Balikpapan. I was born in Singapore in early 1980 and lived in the Unocal compound until 1984 when we moved back stateside. I don’t remember Indonesia but have faint memories of some of our world travels right before we left. My older brother would have been in school with you but a couple of years behind in grade level. He remembers quite a bit. He and his buddies got into mischief regularly!! 😅 I always loved hearing the stories (of the maids cooking for just me, everyone touching my fair hair and calling me “angle” (Angel), the time my family came upon a Komodo dragon on an evening walk, etc) Thank you for bringing back memories from long ago!
 
Greetings all, I'm new to the forum. I found it by Googling for "Indonesia expat".

I'm pleased to find this place. Aside from my family I haven't talked to fellow expats to Indonesia since the 1980s. One of my current projects is scanning/digitizing my parents' old photos and negatives including two thick albums from when our family lived in Balikpapan and from our contemporaneous trips to Bali and Singapore, and this rekindled my memories and interest in Indonesia, although I've always remained fond of Indonesia and I've always missed it. So I'm here to share my experiences and photos, get a few details cleared up on culture, geography, and history, and because I'd love to travel to Indonesia again in the near future, pick your brains for travel advice. And who knows, maybe someone I knew in Balikpapan will find my posts through a search engine and get in touch.

To introduce myself I'll share a few highlights of my time as an expat. I was only 8 and 9 years old when we lived in Balikpapan but fortunately my childhood memory recall is excellent and I remember the people, places, and experiences very well and sometimes in vivid detail. Hopefully my childhood perspective of Indonesia will provide interesting and occasionally insightful contrast to the experiences many of you have had as adult expats. Wherever possible I'd like to connect the Indonesia of my past to present-day Indonesia. Things over there seem to change more slowly and more superficially than they do in the West.

My father, mother, brother, and I moved from our native United States to Balikpapan in April or May 1981 and returned stateside a little over a year later in June 1982. My father worked for Huffco, a major oil and natural gas exploration company in Indonesia at the time. Huffco was sold in 1990 to Taiwanese state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation and its operations in Indonesia continue today under the name of VICO. (Trivia: Huffco was founded by the late U.S. Ambassador to Austria Roy M. Huffington, father of former U.S. Congressman and presidential candidate Michael Huffington — who also worked for Huffco — and former father-in-law of Arianna of Huffington Post.)

We lived in the gated Huffco camp at Gunung Bakaran, located a couple of minutes west on Jalan Marsma R. Iswahyudi from the airport, bordering the northeastern quarter of the Pertamina golf course. Using Google Maps I've learned the camp is now a resort named Patraland Residence (previously Vilabeta Resort) and that Gunung Bakaran seems to have been renamed to Gunung Bahagia. Can anyone confirm the latter?

I attended Pasir Ridge School which is still operated by International Schools Services as Pasir Ridge Intercultural School. It sits atop Pasir Ridge in the former Union 76 camp now managed by Chevron. My classmates were representative of foreign companies like Huffco, Union 76, Total, Schlumberger, Bechtel, and Halliburton, and they came from all over the world, including some part-Indonesian kids with a Western expat parent. I still have my school yearbooks from 1980-81 and 1981-82 and I plan to scan them soon.

My favorite local dish was nasi goreng, particularly when prepared at home by our Indonesian maid. To this day nothing I've eaten in America that passed itself off as "nasi goreng" has compared. Even chefs who studied their craft in Southeast Asia haven't approximated the mix of flavors my young taste buds were imprinted with.

Unless you were very adventurous or willing to slum it, options for dining out in Balikpapan were limited when my family lived there. We tended to go to the club restaurant in the Huffco camp or its counterpart in the Union 76 camp (the Pasir Ridge Community Center), which incidentally was where we Pasir Ridge School students ate lunch every day while seated outdoors on the top-floor deck overlooking a panoramic ocean view in the direction of Pasar Baru. Outside the camps we frequented Restoran Atomik and the Benakutai Hotel restaurant, both of which remain in business after all these years. Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe the Benakutai was actually new then, having opened circa 1980. I mention this because I see that the formerly nicest hotel in the city was recently renovated and rebranded "The New Benakutai Hotel," a name that stokes amusement after you've read the many online reviews detailing the place's abysmal state of disrepair before the renovation.

There's much more to tell but I've rambled on enough for this introduction. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.
Theoros I was there as a young adult at the same time you were, working for SLB at that time, you would not recognize Balikpapan today compared to the 80's it has had a major facelift and is a thriving and modern city now.
Your memory seems better than mine, probably as you were too young to drink :)

The good news is you can still get great nasi goreng, fresh seafood.

Indonesia is threatening to move the nations capital to just north of Balikpapan as Jakarta is too big now.

Selamat Datang to our small group
 

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