Balikpapan - Pau, a little bit here..a little bit there!
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Even this is not exactly an images of Balikpapan, but with a little imagination..it'll do!!

I worked at Balikpapan office since 998 and I lived in Balikpapan for 4-years, before we moved and living in Pau, South of France.

At the beginning life in Balikpapan was seemed to be boring, but after a while it turned to be a very nice, healthy and beautiful!! I will never regret our time in Balikpapan, we are looking forward to go back there. Do you want to know the best part of Balikpapan?? I was quite lucky to have a chance occupying the company's house - I had the previleges of  la siesta, 5mins from ofice to housing complex, etc...what else do you need?

Pau is another story..in short, JAKARTA=PARIS, PAU=BALIKPAPAN but...with billions more advantages : travelling from this place to any other part of Europe is very easy, 1 hr to the Pyrenees, 1 hr to the beaches, 6-8 hours to the "land of spanish and flamenco musics", the land of the finest luthiers (PICADO, RAMIREZ, VINCENTE SANCHEZ, ring a bell?)....did I hear somebody saying paradise???

The "Melawai" of Balikpapan, on the way to the center of the city!
Unfortunately..for the shake of the so "called" development, this beautiful life will be dissappeared like a flash!!
   A little story book children on Pau, taken from other web!
Pau, the fourth capital of the Bearn, is the most elegant of the towns and cities that overlook the Pyreneese from their vantage point on the high bluffs that run parallel with the mountains.

Originally it was just a village fortified by a pallisade (`pau' in the old language of the Oc) guarding a bridge across the river. In the 15th century Gaston Fabus built the main fortifications and started the chateau.

It owes its importance initially to Henri IV, France's first Protestant king, who was born there, a proud Bearnais. When he was born it is said they cried: ``Here is a lion borne by the Sheep of Navarre'', a riposte to the insult when his mother was born - ``A miracle - the cow has given birth to a sheep'' (The cow is the symbol of the Bearn.)


Pau, more precisely Billere, France..the place where we live now!


Still very much a hero of the area, Henri IV's accession to the throne four hundred years earlier was celebrated vigorously by the Palois in 1989, while the rest of France was celebrating the bicentenary of the Revolution when they finally disposed of Royalty.

In the 19th century Pau became very popular with the British when a Scottish doctor proclaimed the curative powers of its mild climate, and their influence led to the city's soubriquet - ``La ville Anglaise''. The first mainland golf course, steeple-chasing, fox-hunting and very many fine English-style villas as well as the spectacular Boulevarde des Pyreneees all bear testament to their influence.

British society transferred their affections to Biarritz when Queen Victoria went there for a summer, but it grew in importance again this century with the discovery nearby of large supplies of natural gas. As well as being the capital of the department it is an important centre of the French oil industry.

Total E&P, the company I worked for 13 years (I am now with Repsolypf, though!)

This is one of my favorite images



 


Check next pages....it will still be interesting, trust me!