The journey to Pontianak, land of the Equator
Date: 3rd October, 2008. 

The City Tour   

Kittie woke up very early and ready for the final day of our trip. She purposely slided open the curtain just to make me wake up. She packed our luggage and tried to squeeze whatever she had bought during her "City Tour". I got up still having my hangover from the beer and Chivas that I drank last night during the  dinner. When I looked at my wristwatch, it was 7:30 AM (M'sian Time). The sun was high then.

I got up, took shower and ready to go for breakfast. At the breakfast table, we mingled, and some started telling stories after stories while waiting for the next agenda of the day. The plan for the day was slightly altered. Our priority of the day before this was to make a courtesy visit to the Governor of Kalimantan Barat, Bapak Drs. Cornelis. However, since he had left for Jakarta to attend to more urgent matters, the plan was shelved. Quite frustrated, but it was alright for we understood his nature of work.   

The day started with breakfast at the hotel's cafe, and for those who were not worried about dieting, this was the time I saw them sampling anything available, as much as their appetite could handle. The program for today was the City Tour and visit to San Antonius Private Hospital, before leaving Pontianak to our beloved homeland Sarawak. Mr. Bar_guarding and Mr. Kutieng non-stop snapping pictures the minute we were at the cafe. If it was a kodak film, I don't think they would do that. That's the beauty of ICT. You don't have to be a professional photographer to enjoy snapping pictures. Back in the 80s, my uncle never wanted me to hold his camera. He would say, "Ma mu ya kagong camera noh, kakoh obuo kodak!". Well, that was then, and now small children at the age of 4 also can take picture, though tungang-terbalik but never mind. Can delete bah! 

The bus was ready to take us to the Khatulistiwa. So Ms Antoinette, who earlier had stored the wheel chair in her room, brought it down to the lobby for the next agenda, might be to San Antonius Private Hospital. The wheel chair was unpacked, and I saw Ms Wes Mirid writing at the back of the wheel chair. "Donated By: Sarawak Dayak National Union (SDNU) And Sarawak Bidayuh Graduates Association (SBGA) on 3rd Oct 2008". She's a teacher by profession, and her handwriting is good. After that, I saw Mr Bar_guarding started to sit on it, as an opening ceremony. He looked so pitiful sitting on the chair. The real Orang Kurang Upaya (OKU) also never looks so pitiful like him. Itu sakit anggau namanya. The cewek-cewek at the counter giggled when they saw Bar-guarding being snapped by the two professional photographers. Then came Chief STORM CLOUD, after falling from his horse also wheeled on it, but with a better posture. Melamun fikir masa depan, he's retiring by end of this year. 

While waiting for our bus to arrive, all of us gathered at the entrance of the hotel and took our group photos. Well, as a busy body person, I started to tell the group to arrange themselves accordingly so the cameramen could snap them. Macam lah susah sangat to tell them to stand. That's the problem with adults! We said, "Stand" they moved. “Look at the camera”, they looked elsewhere. But we managed to have our photo taken. I think there were so many cameras, and you can see that the eyes of everyone also confused. In the old days, the eyes looked straight at one camera, now difficult, no one photo is perfect. But we managed to do it. 

After that, we got into the bus and moved on to our next destination, the tour of the city of Pontianak. We toured it in the bus lah. I asked Mr Swisserikin to do some narrative about the places we went through, but he didn't do much. I guess he was also not that familiar with all the places, but that was ok.  I asked him only one question, "Can you tell me what area are we in?” Like in Kuching, when we passed Sekama, Padungan or Pending we would straight away knew what kind of industries available within that vicinity. I would like to know that as well in Pontianak. We never knew when we would do business in the Pontianak.  

The bus headed to Kapuas Bridge and toward Pasar Tengah. Along the road, we saw most business premises still closed, so never mind about shopping. I only wanted my eyes to shop and got sharpen. Nothing interest me yet until we reached Kapuas Bridge, where I started to take some pictures of both sides of the river.

Election time in Indonesia. 

All potential candidates displayed their party flags and manifesto along the road in Pontianak.

Two villages on both sides had big canons facing each other. I thought, could it be these things that made that loud noise all night long. We, the Bibau called it "potung", cannon make of bamboo, but it was never as big as the one in Pontianak. Ours was only about 4" diameter and upto 6 ft long, but here, it was like 2 ft diameter and about 20 or 30 ft long. Wonder what it was made of. They wrapped or painted the canons colorfully in yellow, red, green and blue. The canons belong to different political parties! Wow, the candidates really knew how to make noises. Not using issues of the day but with a big "BANG". I wonder whether people would vote the candidates because their gun could make louder noises or their issues are better. I haven't seen it happened in Malaysian political campaign yet. Probably, it is good to have a bit of fun in the political campaigning time.   

The next thing I notice was the Marlboro signage, "Lebih rasa cengkehnya"! Wow, cowboy smoking Marlboro cigarette with CENGKEH flavour! I guess the horse will faint because of the smell! This is the only Marlboro in the world to have cengkeh mixed! I bought mine earlier at the Betang, and imagine smoking on a horse with my Marlboro. Well, only Indonesian horse really doesn’t mind the smell. With Bar_guarding also supporting the cengkeh, it should be alright for the Salako horse too. Then I saw another ads. It’s the red-bull ads. Indonesian words are sometimes funny when you think about it, but to them it's not, as that's the way they say it. In Malaysia, if you write the same kind of words, you would surely failed your Bahasa Malaysia (BM) papers. Here, in Indonesia its alright. A lot of signages and words don't really make sense to a foreigner like me, though BM is my second language. That's the beauty of one country. No one country can have the same method of administration. In Malaysia, you don't see church and mosque standing next to each other. But in Indonesia, they are just a few meters from each other. It's heartening to see. That's really FREEDOM of worship.

Water is a major problem in Pontianak. I'm not saying Pontianak has no water. There is plenty of it in the Kapuas and Landak Rivers. What I mean is the clean drinking water. The cleanest water is probably the bottled water. If straight from the pipes, you better think twice before drinking it. What shocked me most was the water for bathing! Due to lack of this basic facility, people bath in “not so clean” water like in the rivers, streams, ponds, and also big drains. Not to mention rivers (drains) water close to cemeteries. I noticed along the big drain there were small jetties being constructed. Bigger drain in front of housing estates also have jetties being constructed, and the purpose for these jetties were for bathing and washing.  

All along the way to Pasar tengah and through Siantan, on the way to the equator or Khatulistiwa, everyone was looking left and right, except me. At one of the roads, I saw an accident happened about 30 meters from our bus. Bike and bike collided with each other. The pillion rider, a lady, fell backward and hit her head on the tar road. People running toward her and carried her to the side of the road. She didn't have any helmet on. The head is stronger but it proved otherwise. I looked down from the bus. She was not moving at all. The concussion to her head was really bad. I could see blood flowing out, and one fellow was pressing her head, trying hard to stop the blood. The guy rider was in a state of shock. I wonder whether the traffic police in Indonesia has any law that   summon rider without helmet. In Malaysia, the only 2 riders that are not being booked by JPJ and the Police are those going to mosque with the “songkok” on and the Singh with turban. I guess we need to invent helmet that can fit the songkok and turban as well in the future.

Pasar Siantan.

Beautiful building in Pontianak.

Khatulistiwa or The Equator

As we reached the Khatulistiwa, we again freely took pictures. The Khatulistiwa building was closed, as I had expected, so we just took pictures surrounding the area, with the building and the sculpture as the background. We were there for less than 30 minutes, but some managed to even taste the "kelapa muda" or coconut juice at the store near by, and some went to the loo to ease themselves. First, I thought I could buy some souvenirs there to bring back, but with the store closed, I felt frustrated again. I had to get this Khatulistiwa trophy home no matter what, and my only hope was the hotel. I saw it earlier on near the lobby. The Khatulistiwa is a landmark of imaginary line, which separates the Southern from the Northern Hemisphere. Nature greeted us mysteriously when we were there,  as there was a Sun Halo happening right above us. Someone whispered to me saying that when this occurred, something bad is going to happen. I am not superstitious, so I just ignored it.   

The trophy of Pontianak.

Straight from the Khatulistiwa, we stopped by a roadside to taste “air lidah buaya” at the Toko “menjual air lidah buaya” (Aloe Vera juice) to satisfy our curiosity. This was my first time sampling the fresh juice of crocodile tongue (direct translation). Just imagine people from Batang Lupar pressing the tongue of the crocodile to sample this juice. Why did they call it “lidah buaya”, whereas it sounds so nice in English, Aloe Vera. The species in Sarawak that I have seen is rather small, but here in Pontianak, it is much broader and larger than what we usually have in our flower pots. The flesh of the Aloe Vera tasted sweet and juicy with daun pandan smell.

When all done, we went back to our hotel to check out, after which, we must first have lunch at the Betang again, and later proceed to San Antonius Private Hospital, our next visit. 

On our way back to the hotel