The Journey to Pontianak, Land of The Equator
Date: 3rd October, 2008.  

The Journey Home  

We finished at San Antonius Private Hospital about 4:30 P.M, and we still had plenty of time on our own. Alim told us that he would bring us to the Market place so that we could still do our last minute shopping. I didn’t really like to go to such a place for I knew that it would not be a pleasant place since it was a holiday, and I was very sure that not many things would be on display, except at the Mall.

On our way to the bus terminal, Bar_guarding made jokes with almost everyone in the bus. He knew that we were all exhausted and tired. He created jokes and made us laughed, at least it eased the mind and body.

This was also the time that I started to recollect all the information for me to write in this page. Earlier, Alim said that the bus would move from Pontianak to Kuching at 6:30 P.M, and we would stop at Sosok town and had our dinner there, but was changed on the advice of our bus driver, saying that we should go at the same time with other buses for security reasons.

When we reached the bus terminal again, Alim told us the area to walk and site seeing. I told him that the rest and I would like to go to the Ayani Mall to do last minute shopping. Furthermore, it would be much cooler and comfortable there compare to the market...dah lah whole day sweating! I was thinking of taking a bath, but thinking of it made me looked at the drain again. Oh well, I changed my mind. Probably, just some minor cleaning up would do lah.

We got out of the bus and again I negotiated with the group that I preferred to go to the Mall. Most agreed, but Pemanca and a few went on their own separately. Here, I started to see the center of the city of Pontianak, the daily life of the people there, the shops and the type of businesses they did, and the food that they had, and many more. With the new governor from among the local and a Dayak himself, Kalimantan Barat can be better govern and improved in term of living standard, socially and economically. With its strategic location and the population, Pontianak can be developed into one of the most advanced and great cities in Kalimantan. But all these will need a long-term planning that is well planned by the government for the people.

Though their building structures and designs were very creative, the public areas were not well planned and designed. Could be that they still did not have the mean to develop that part of the structures. I mean, all around the buildings or roads, you hardly could see any small drain-to-drain channeled to the river or even to treatment plant. There were none! Or could it be that they were already too advanced that they concealed underground all the basic structures in the city. I wonder!

When the bus sent us to the Ayani Mall, it was raining intermittently. I saw few accidents happened along the road. Most of these accidents involved motorbikes. They skidded on the road due to the slippery surface after the rain.

Majority of vehicles you could see here in Pontianak were motorbikes, but you would see a lot of cars as well. You could not see parking bays or lots, but at modern place like Ayani Mall, they exist. Major part of the city still practiced discriminate parking.

At the Mall, Kittie told me that earlier on when a group of them went for their city walk to the mall on the 2^nd day of our tour, she said there were many small children waiting in front of the mall, waiting for it to open. There were like hundreds of them. I had seen that happened in Kuching about more than 10 years ago when Court Mammoth did their 1^st day opening. The rush was so packed that it jammed the whole of Rock Road.  Some people even camping during the night before the opening. I didn't rush to this sort of sales. I preferred easy shopping, in the middle of the month when almost everyone budgeted their money in their pocket till the next paycheck. During this time of shopping, store would give a better discount, as they do need some sales.  

“Wow!”, I said. “What did the children do?”, I asked Kittie. She said the video arcade was the place where they rushed too. What! Video arcade made children do that kinds of thing! I did go to the video arcade, and it was like wow… hundred of terminals! How could parents let their kids went out from their homes as early as 9:00 A.M to the mall to play games station? It didn’t make sense at all. These kids should be at home do some reading or helping their parents cleaning or even revision. Well, that's Pontianak in Kalimantan Barat.

At the Mall, I told Kittie that we were running out of Rupiah. No Money Changer around to change our Ringgit as well as it was a holiday, but lady luck was with us. Paul Shanon was around and he still had few thousands of Rupiah with him to exchange for Kittie to pay some of the purchased items. After almost 45 minutes at the Mall, our time was up and we went to the entrance where the bus was waiting.

We went to the terminal again and waited until 9:00 PM to start our journey back to our homeland. Alim told us to take our dinner here rather than at Sosok town as was planned earlier. This time we had to pay for our own dinner as the package did not include dinner. Now, I was a bit worried about my Rupiah. I didn't have enough after the shopping spree at the Mall. I asked Kittie whether she still had some Rupiah left, but she said almost none. In total we only had about RP50000.

I didn't feel like eating at the road stall as my main concerned was the hygiene. Long journey with upset stomach is not good, right? Anyway, most of us rushed to the Chinese stall next to the bus terminal, but the 5 of us; Paul Shanon, Mr. and Mrs Kutieng, Kittie and I, decided to look for a better and cleaner place to eat. So we walked around looking for a place to dine. There across the road we saw a place called “AMERICAN RESTAURANT”. Wow!, American food I presumed. The name said so what. Inside of the restaurant looked very cozy and clean indeed. I thought, with such an establishment, they should accept credit card as a mode of payment.

We seated and ordered our food. Then came the menu, and I was shocked that all the American food was not really American, but more of the Indonesian food. How could they cheat the American like this? Everything was perfect except the food in the menu. They also sale buns and cakes in the restaurant as well. “Could it because of those buns that they called this place American Restaurant?” I asked myself.

All of us order fried rice with Lamb Chop to make it simple and fast too. We ate and finally Paul said he would pay for the dinner. Thanks to Paul for treating us that last dinner. We walked back to the bus after that. Others were still eating when we reached the bus. Some were eating inside the bus including William. He was eating fried noodle without a spoon or chopstick.  I guess he couldn't find a seat in the Chinese stall to eat as it was fulled then. 

After almost 9:00 P.M, the bus driver told us that we should ease ourself first before we started the journey, as the next stop would be at Sei Pinyuh which was about one an half hour drive. Everyone went to the toilet to empty their bladders.

Exactly 9:00 P.M the bus moved and we were on our way to Tebedu border post in Sarawak, Malaysia. Goodbye Pontianak, and the next time I go back here, these memories will linger and I will not go to the same place again, but to new areas of Pontianak where we didn't manage to cover in this trip.

When we arrived at Sei Pinyuh, we got down from the bus to ease ourself again. This time we switched driver, and the mechanic and the co-driver of our bus had to ride in the other bus due to full capacity of our bus. A few of us also moved to the next bus, these included Alim and Jihem.

Here in Sei Pinyuh, I ordered myself a cup of black coffee. The water was hardly hot. How could they make coffee with warm water. Though it looked black and with lots of sugar in it, I couldn't take it. End up, I didn’t drink the coffee. William came along and ordered his tea. They sent a cup of warm water, and inside it was a tea bag. It called Teh Celup. William was murmuring saying, “ This doesn’t taste like tea.” No wonder they called it Teh Celup. He also didn’t bother to drink it. Tea bag diluted well in hot water. Our tea bag did not even dilute with warm water, let alone cold water. So William and I didn’t take our drink, but he paid for it. Menyesal tak habis-habis dia dengan teh celup dia.

We moved on in the middle of the night now, and the road was very dark, but the driver was very experienced as well. After almost 30 minutes through the journey, the tyre right below my seat busted. “We got a flat tyre,” I told Kittie. The tyre right below me! Wow, the lamb-fried rice really made me very heavy indeed. Sampai meletup tyre! The driver flashed his headlamp to tell the passing buses that we had mechanical problem. We stopped by the side of the road to get the tyre replaced. Lucky again, William had with him a torchlight, and we used that to help the driver opening the cover and all the work. The mechanic, which was fast asleep in the other bus, came and did what he’s best in. Bar_guarding helped to take out the tyre from the luggage compartment. Everyone did a bit to help including me, though I only stood holding the torchlight, also helping what. The tyre was replaced and we continued our journey again.

So, after more than an hour, our bus made a final stop at the town of Sosok. There again William asked for the Teh Celup, but this time he paid for the tea bag and not the drink. He didn’t want to drink the not so hot tea.  Here, our driver had his midnight meal, and we seated and waited for him to finish. After that, we moved on to Tebedu.

When we reached Entikong, it was about 6:30 A.M (M’sian time). We went to the immigration counter and had our passports stamped, and then walked to Tebedu border post. We queued for our final destination before entering Malaysia.

Our journey to Pontianak was completed and memories of this journey would be cherished for along time by all of us who had joined the trip. We had accomplished what most had not.  So I hope other Malaysian friends who visit Pontianak will enjoy the hospitality of Pontianak and its people.

We stopped by at Serian town to have our breakfast, and I ordered myself hot coffee and Kolo Mee.  After that our bus traveled on to the Bus Terminal at 4^th mile, Kuching. We reached the Terminal at 9:00 A.M. That was the end of our journey and trip to Pontianak. Last but not least, we will surely go again in the near future!