Exploring the Hazy Equator Town of Pontianak, Indonesia

This is it! I fly back tomorrow from Taipei. I can’t believe it. But it the meantime, I’m going to be chugging out these blog posts, before I forget all of the crazy memories that the trip has given me. You can read my other posts here.

One foot in the North, One in the South!

Man, did Indonesia have its ups and downs. Our original plans (*long* since abandoned), had us ending our trip in Bali on a 2-week stint, but as our trip extended itself, I decided to explore some of the other 17,508 islands that Indonesia had to offer, starting in Borneo.

Pontianak

Since my flight to Jakarta from Kuching was through the town of Pontianak in Indonesian Borneo (also known as Kalimantan), and splitting the flights up was at no extra charge, I decided to explore this town that is known for its proximity to the equator. I knew there wasn’t much to do, so I figured 24 hours would be a good stay.

The street in Pontianak I spent most of my time on.

After (relatively unsuccessfully) haggling with the taximan, I was off, and got dropped off in an incredibly hazy, maddening stretch of road. Thankfully the hostel was an oasis in this land. I tried and failed to get a Sim card — after much back and forth via google translate, I find out that the guy working was telling me I could not buy a SIM card without an Indonesian ID, but it didn’t dawn on him that I was clearly not Indonesian. I walked up and down the block, which appeared to sell a fair amount of electronics, and stopped to get some snacks to score some kind of victory.

These two fellas made up for the silliness of trying to get a SIM card.

One thing that fascinated me on this block were the cafes. Since Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, many people do not drink alcohol. That didn’t stop them from carrying on a Friday night, buzzed off of a caffeine high for their evening fix. The cafes were packed, overflowing into the sidewalks — each looked like they were holding over 150 people well into the evening.

One of the packed cafes on the street I frequented.

I also stumbled into a Japanese restaurant that served Okonomyaki, a Japanese cabbage pancake of sorts that was a specialty in Hiroshima and Osaka. I’ve been enjoying my increasing palette of food, and by this point at the trip, Asian dishes I had never heard of prior to my travels were increasingly familiar and became comfort food.

Okonomyaki.

The Equator Memorial

The equator memorial with the Indonesian flag.

The centerpiece of my Pontianak stop started the next day, as I was off to visit the Equator memorial, about 5km Northwest of town. I called a Go-Jek motorbike (Uber for Indonesia), and graciously, the hostel concierge helped me ask him if I could hire him for 3 or 4 hours. After some logistical bargaining, he gave me a price half of what I was going to offer. The Go-Jek driver was super friendly and accommodating, and I had him zoom me through town and to the star attraction.

The memorial appears to have overestimated the number of tourists that would come and visit. Here sits an empty carousel with industry in the background.

As hazy as ever, we made it. I appeared to be one of three tourists (and perhaps one of 5 westerners in the whole town). The other two appeared to be domestic tourists. The monument/museum was a simple one, with a large metal instrument in the center and a painted line signifying the equator. Even so, I really enjoyed being able to put one foot in both hemispheres simultaneously. I then took a stroll to the nearby river, and saw some fishermen on the pier and some industry in the distance.

The haze gave the area quite the somber, even dystopian, vibe.

The haze was astounding, and I had a massive headache. I soon found out that Indonesia was doing huge amounts of forest fires to clear land for agricultural reasons, and that the smoke heavily pollutes the region, well into Borneo, Malaysia, and Singapore.

A fisherman with 9 rods, hoping for a bite near the Equator Memorial.

St. Joseph’s Cathedral

After taking my time trying to convey that I wanted to visit the massive St. Joseph’s cathedral in town, the message finally got across, and thankfully my Go-Jek driver was understanding of this short detour. I was fascinated to see that Christianity’s reach is so large, though I really shouldn’t be surprised. We took a car ferry back across the river, which was a fun surprise. Guided by the security guard, I went into the cathedral, which immediately took me back to Notre Dame and other impressive European cathedrals. They even had a big statue of the Virgin Mary.

Grand!

Given how dirty the town was, and my ever-increasing headache, I was quite happy to make it to the airport an onto Jakarta. Even still, I always enjoy getting off the tourist trail, and I think I succeeded in Pontianak. Go if you’re a geography nerd already in Borneo, but otherwise, it doesn’t need to place too high on your travel lists.