Journey to Singkawang, West Kalimantan 2013 (Part 2)

Singkawang is a city located 145KM north of Pontianak, bordering the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. It is the second largest city in West Kalimantan province. Singkawang is derived from Hakka, San khew jong (山口洋) which refers to a town in hills nearby a sea and estuary.

Singkawang has a distinct oriental atmosphere with hundreds of Chinese temples found around almost every corner of town. This is because over 70% of Singkawang's population is of Chinese descent, predominantly of the Hakka tribe with some Teochew. Others are Malays, Dayaks and other Indonesian ethnic groups.

We had reservation about our trip to Pontianak and Singkawang, every person we talked to was raving about how filthy the two cities were. But for my husband, this trip meant something to him, although his maternal grandfather's ancestral home was in China, his grandfather first set foot in Borneo somewhere near Singkawang and later flee to Kuching during the Japanese Occupation. It was something of a 'Discover Your Roots' vacation for us. Much to our surprise, Singkawang city was quite clean; the local government had done a good job to uplift the city status as one of a must go tourist destination.

View of Pontianak city.

View of the countryside on the way to Singkawang.

Sungai Duri town, halfway between Pontianak and Singkawang.

Breakfast in Sungai Duri.

View at the back of the shop in Sungai Duri town. 

Our first stop, Mimi Land.

Beautiful sandy beaches in Mimi Land.

View from  Rindu Alam.

Breathtaking view of rolling hills and mountains and of the sea. 

Rindu Alam. A nice place to visit.

Sinar Terang Ceramic in Singkawang. A very ancient ceramic factory.

A ceramic factory that still using an ancient ceramic kiln.

Singkawang ceramics are strongly influenced by ancient Chinese style.

Part of Singkawang city centre.

One of the many temples in Singkawang.

Beautiful beach in Singkawang.

Houses that lined up the roads in Singkawang.

Simplistic life, they even set up a small petrol hut by the road side since petrol kiosk is a rare phenomena in West Kalimantan.

On the way back to Pontianak. Kite flying is one of favourite pastime in Pontianak city

The journey to Singkawang was two and half hours by car (Toyota Innova). We traveled on a Saturday and the road was jammed with vehicles. The road system is very basic in West Kalimantan. There is only one lane each way, and to overtake, it meant driving on the wrong side of the road. Patrick, our driver knew pretty much what he was doing and we felt very safe. He charged us $200(Malaysian Ringgit) for a whole day trip inclusive of fuel. He speaks good English (he improved his spoken English during his stint as a driver for a British Council's consultant for 3 months), hakka, teochew and a little bit of Mandarin. Contrary to what was said, a lot of Chinese that we met in Pontianak and Singkawang do not have a good command of mandarin, most of the time they will revert to their excellent Indonesian malay if spoken to in Mandarin. If you are interested in hiring Patrick and his car, you can contact him.

Patrick @ Ah Khun

email: hendry+8@yahoo.com

facebook: Hendry_khun

Mobile phone no.: 62 0852 4541 8061

After our stop at a beach, we left Singkawang for Gardenia Resort & Spa in Pontianak.

A journey to Pontianak, West Kalimantan 2013 (Part 1)

West Kalimantan (Kalimantan Barat in Indonesian Language) is one of the five Indonesian provinces in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. The borders of West Kalimantan roughly trace the mountain ranges surrounding the watershed of the Kapuas River, which drains most of the province. Its capital city is Pontianak, located at the Equator line. 

From Kuching, Pontianak is only accessible by air and by land. MasWings a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines operates the air route and the air travel takes about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, buses to Pontianak can be boarded at Kuching Sentral (about 7 miles from Kuching city centre). Pontianak is 6 hours drive from Kuching (10 hours if using the old road). Read here for Maswings latest air routes around Borneo. 

We decided to celebrate the long Gawai (harvest festival) holiday in Pontianak city. Gawai is celebrated on June 1st and 2nd, every year in Sarawak.

According to folklore, the 'pontianak' is a vampiric ghost in Malay and Indonesian mythology. The pontianak are said to be the spirits of woman who died while pregnant. The word 'pontianak' is reportedly a corruption of the Malay perempuan mati beranak, or 'woman who died in childbirth'. Another theory is that the word is a combination of puan (woman) + mati (die) + anak (child). The term matianak means 'death of a child'. The city of Pontianak is named after this creature, which was claimed to have haunted the first sultan who once settled there.

Our journey by bus.

The bus journey took us more than 10 hours, it was a mind blowing experience. The road journey is not for the faint hearted traveler. If you are the type that suffer from motion sickness, this journey is not for you. We were surprised that the bus took a fourth unscheduled stop along the journey. It turned out that a lady was so sick that she spent her time vomiting in the bus toilet. My children, on the other hand were tough cookies, they were munching their potato chips throughout the journey much to the surprise of the other bus passengers. What the other passengers did not know was that, the two had already traveled by land all the way from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to Kuching, Sarawak twice. The journey to Pontianak was an extension of their Borneo adventure.

For more information on Eva Express buses, click here. I sent them an email and Mr. Nelson, the owner of Eva Express replied my email. He even helped us arranged for a vehicle (Toyota Innova) with a driver to pick us up at the hotel in Pontianak for our journey to Singkawang.

Bus on the way to the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.

At Tebedu (Sarawak border).

Walking to Entikong Immigration check point (Kalimantan, Indonesia border).

First stop at Roda Minang, pure wilderness. It was in the middle of nowhere.

This is what we saw along the journey, green forest as far as the eye can see.

Lorries hauling loads are common scene in Borneo due to the limited and expensive alternative transportation system.

Checking in at Hotel Kini. Exhausted beyond words.

Inside our hotel room.

Bear in mind, you must take down your luggage for security screening at Entikong Immigration checkpoint. Malaysian has to fill in disembarkation card, the bus operator will provide this card at Kuching Sentral. A german who was traveling with us in the same bus, was taken to a small room for an interview. I think it was part of the entry requirement for a foreigner from European country. We, on the other hand, headed straight to the immigration counter.

Overall, it was a tiring long journey, we felt like we were walking on air when we reached the Eva Express office, in Pontianak. Luckily, the chinese coffee shop next to the office was still opened, we decided to have our dinner there at the advice of Pak Lau (the manager of Eva Express in Pontianak). We were extremely lucky, Pak Lau arranged for us to be sent to Hotel Kini in his van by his second son. Hotel Kini is just a block away from the bus office. I am not sure if the new Pontianak bus terminal is ready at the time of typing this blog entry. We were told that Eva Express buses would ceased to stop at their town office after the completion of the new bus terminal.

By the time we reach our hotel room, it was time to hit the hay and drift off to sleep. We had to get an early start in the next morning.

My next post will be about the journey to Singkawang.