Qualla: Bitung https://qualla.com/bitung en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/3/0/bitung-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Bitung https://qualla.com/bitung Bitung: Introduction https://qualla.com/bitung/ Photo credit Sakurai Midori, CC BY 2.5. Bitung calls itself a gateway to the Pacific, and the description is not metaphorical. This coastal city of roughly 232,000 sits at the northeastern edge of Sulawesi, facing Lembeh Island across a strait that has become one of the world's premier destinations for a very specific kind of obsession: underwater macro photography of sea slugs. Nudibranchs, the impossibly colorful marine gastropods that carpet the Lembeh Strait's muck-diving sites, have done more for Bitung's international reputation than any port expansion or economic zone ever could.

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Image: Sakurai Midori | CC BY 2.5

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/3/0/bitung-wp/wb30-bitung-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bitung: The Lembeh Strait Effect https://qualla.com/bitung/ Photo credit Marwan Mohamad, CC BY-SA 4.0. What makes Bitung unusual among Indonesian port cities is that its most valuable asset lives in the mud. The Lembeh Strait, the narrow channel separating the city from Lembeh Island, is not a coral reef paradise. It is a muck-diving mecca. The dark, silty bottom teems with creatu...

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Image: Marwan Mohamad | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/3/0/bitung-wp/wb30-bitung-the-lembeh-strait-effect.mp3 0:06 2 full Bitung: Port City, Coconut City https://qualla.com/bitung/ Photo credit Midori, CC BY-SA 3.0. But shipping is what pays most of the bills. Bitung has been a port town since the colonial era, and its modern ambitions center on the Special Economic Zone designated in 2014. The SEZ covers 534 hectares and focuses on logistics, fish processing, coconut processing, and herbal ...

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Image: Midori | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/3/0/bitung-wp/wb30-bitung-port-city-coconut-city.mp3 0:06 3 full Bitung: The Ferry That Came and Went https://qualla.com/bitung/ Photo credit Rainer Jehl, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 28 April 2017, Presidents Rodrigo Duterte and Joko Widodo jointly inaugurated the Davao-Bitung Roll-on Roll-off Ferry Service, promising to slash shipping time between Mindanao and Sulawesi from five weeks to three days. The old route required ships to sail north to Manila, cr...

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Image: Rainer Jehl | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/3/0/bitung-wp/wb30-bitung-the-ferry-that-came-and-went.mp3 0:06 4 full Bitung: Tarsiers in the Backyard https://qualla.com/bitung/ Photo credit Lip Kee Yap, Singapore, CC BY-SA 2.0. An hour's drive from Bitung, the Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve protects one of the most accessible populations of spectral tarsiers in Indonesia. These tiny nocturnal primates, with eyes proportionally larger than any other mammal's, cling to tree branches and hunt insects in...

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Image: Lip Kee Yap, Singapore | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/3/0/bitung-wp/wb30-bitung-tarsiers-in-the-backyard.mp3 0:06 5 full