Photo:Upper part of Equator Monument, Pontianak

Pontianak is a capital city of West Kalimantan Province (West Borneo) Indonesia. Pontianak is located in the delta of the Kapuas River the longest river in Indonesia approximately 1,143km from Pontianak to the hinterland.

Pontianak is crossing by the Equator line (Zero Degrees North) at 110 degrees 30” East, it means Pontianak has equal distance between Northern hemisphere and Southern hemisphere






Photo: Sweet Pineapples, from Sungai Kunyit, Pontianak

On 21-23 rd of March and September noon around the equator monument in Pontianak you will see that the objects have no shadow, this phenomenon will happens about 5-15 minutes.

From Pontianak we can go to Kuching at Sarawak, East Malaysia by public bus, it will take about 10 hours, the popular foods are seafood, banana fried, kwe tiau noddles, while the fruits durian (smelly), rambutan (hairy fruits), duku, manggis, pineapples etc.

Pontianak according to the fairy tale is a name of a lady ghost, who has along hair. Because there were a lot Pontianak ghost at the ancient time, so the people named this city Pontianak.

West Kalimantan has multi ethnics, Dayak (the indigenous), Malay, Javanese, Madurese, Chinese, Bugis. The languages are Bahasa Indonesia (official), Dayak, Malay, Chinese dialects Hakka and Teochew. The religions are Muslims, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhism, Hindu and others.







Photo:Sunset at the Equator by Eriz

Pontianak Region with Mempawah as a capital city has some tourism objects, Temajoh Island with it white sandy beach and coral reef is good for diving, boating, fishing, sailing only 1 hour by boat from Sungai Kunyit village and Pola Kijing Beach in Sungai Kunyit village, Melanggar waterfall at Landak river, Remabo waterfall in Airbesar. Pasir Panjang near Singkawang. Sungai Kunyit also famous with it sweet pineapples, and sea food product.

I understand that there is a quarrel between the people, whether Pulau Temajoh to become a seaport or tourism object. You must bring the lotion of anti-insect when you visit Temajoh. Also there is a plan to build a bridge between Temajoh and Sungai Kunyit. I think the Government should make a careful study on it.

Sungai Kunyit (Tumeric River) also a name of places in Johor, Sungai Kunyit Lampung and Sungai Kunyit Solok.

According to Wikipedia the population in West Kalimantan are 3,740,000 (year 2000), and the area is 56,682 sq mile, this are very low population density, while Kalimantan (Borneo) is the third largest island in the world.