PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan, Equator City

Pontianak, the provincial capital of west Kalimantan, is a city which position is a little bit far from other capitals on Kalimantan island, because of being separated by forest.

Even, a land journey from this city to other provinces in Kalimantan is rare, because of the distance and bad condition of connection roads to other capitals, as well as a few numbers of flight routes. Some of its residents then prefer to use planes to fly from the Supadio Airport to Jakarta or Surabaya first before continuing their flights to others cities on the eastern part of Kalimantan.

Up an Down city

The city, which was previously a port city, was built in an up and down area, where the frequency of ups and downs of the sea level is very high every day. This creates a unique architecture. Malay traditional houses have been built like stages, supported by wooden pillars, their fences and doors are connected by special roads ( as bridges), and the distances from one house to another are a little bit far. The houses yards, which are usually use by children to play, can not be use when sea level rises. The houses are alittle bit different from dayak traditional houses ( “betang” or long houses), which are long stage houses and inhabited by several families, The supporting pillars of the houses are higher than those of malay traditional houses, because they are located in or on the edge of forest that make the houses need protection from beast.

Equator Monument

The city has hot temperature because it is located just on the equatorial line. The Equator monument, however, is not located exactly in the center of city, but on the suburb of pontianak city. A dome was built on the old monument, covering the monument, which has become the center to of documentation of the equator monument’s historical journey and know how about the earth and astronomy. The size of the new monument is five time bigger than the old one and located just obove the original one. March 23 and September 23 are the dates when the sun reaches its culminating point, where the sun’s position is just above the equator monument and always celebrated with traditional dances of west Kalimantan.

Kapuas River

The river that divides the city of pontianak was once the remain transportation route in Kalimantan, where traveling by boat was the cheap way. Before the Kapuas bridge was built,ferry was the main transportation system to cross the river and long lines of passengers were always seen during peak hours. Kapuas river is the home of 300 species of fishes. Unfortunetely, the river has beeb polluted by waste from gold mines around the river.

Local Food

Unlike other cities in Kalimantan, although the indigenous people are Dayaks, the majority of its population consist of Malay and Chinese ethnic. Because the population of the city consist ethnic of Malay,Dayak and Chinese,several eating places and local foo, which are relatively modern, have emerged. It is even very difficult to find traditional food from this city.

v Pisang Goreng Kipas (fan fried banana) is banana being cut into pieces, arranged into the form of fan and served along with crumbs of flour (which usually called “kremes”). It has been also sold in Jakarta. The difference is that several place in Pontianak serve it by spreading the banana with annona jam. Because of the unique serving, it is more popular as Pontianak fried banana.

v Lempok (durian candied fruit) with various taste, because the province has many types of durian from different villages/region that have different tastes. The mnost famous “lempok” comes from the village ( know the regency ) of Sukadana. Because of its plenty of fruits during the harvest period and sweet taste, the pollen of the sukadana durian is made as seeds to make durian candied fruit, which is mass produce.

v Bingka (read:bingke) cake, which lokks like bread pudding but is softer .

v Pontianak satay is chicken or beef satay with peanut sauce in broth (soup) and spread over with chopped cucumber.

Recreation Center around Pontianak

Because of the lack of special recreation centers in Pontianak, except after several shopping were built, by traveling by land for about two hours, we can reach some places of recreation, such as :

- Pasir Panjang, a beach that has already had several hotels.

- Singkawang city, a China town that has a strong Chinese culture. It can be seen from the architegture and ornament of its buildings, because most of its population is Chinese descendants. From pontianak we can take an eight hour trip by bus or ten minute flight from Kuching, Malaysia, to where the residents of west Kalimantan can enter without passports.

Interesting facts:

1. When the sun reaches its culminating point, all things around the equator monument (except those which diameters of their legs are smaller than roof/heads) have no shadow, because their position are upright with the sun
2. With a 1.143 Km length, Kapuas River is the longest river in Indonesia and the world’s longest river located on an island ( not continent). Other longest river on islands are Sepik river(1,126 km) and Fly river(1,050 km) spread from the border of papua (Indonesia) to Papua New Gunea.

BOGOR BOTANICAL GARDEN

Cibodas Botanical Garden

Green Nature Cool Weather

The Cibodas Botanical Garden is located in the complex of mountain Gede Pangrango forest in cimacan ,PacetBogor Botanical Garden

The Cibodas Botanical Garden is indeed cool and beautiful, the wheather is cool in the area because it is located on the foot of mount Gede Pangrango with height of 1.275 meters above the sea level its field fotography is bumpy and hilly with rainfall of 2.380 millimeters per year and average temperature between 17 and 27 celcius degrees. Many huge and shady trees, which are covered by cloud fog and drizzle, make the area cooler and more beautifulll. The Botanical garden is also specialized in its collection of plantations from tropical wet highland, such as cone shaped and fern ones.

To reach the Botanical garden, we can take five kilometer route from cipanas, passing simpang tiga paragajen,from Jakarta, Bogor and Bandung, we can use two or four wheel vehicle. Big buses can enter the area too, wbhen using bus and minibus, right in the cibodas T- intersection and take a public transportation on yhe cipanas. Raraha route until reach Gede Pangrango national park office, then take a walk to the botanical garden, from the T-intersection to cibodas, we can see various highland hollyhocks being sold along the edges of the road, they are very beautifull,colorfull and various type.

Several facilities are provide in the cibodas area, ranging from a big parking lot of accommodate tens of four wheel vehicles and buses, an information center equipped with documentation on the cibodas tourist facilities, children playground, public toilets,shelters,an audience hall, open air theater and a three hectare camping ground that can accommodate 200 tents.

The cibodas botanical garden is close to several other tourist areas, next to the cibodas botanical garden is the mandala kitri camping ground managed by the boy scout, yhere is also a golf course,Bandung asri mulya.

In the mandalawangi camping ground managed by the state run Indonesia foresty company, a dinosaurs statue stand, it wants to tell or to warn that the forest must be preserved so it will not disappear like the primeval animal

The Cibodas Botanical Garden (KRC) is intended to be an ex situ of the plantations from the tropical,wet highland, among its collection are various types of protected big trees such as pine trees, caliandra forest and natural forest as well as waterfall is about 750 meters from the front gate.

The most unique collection of KRC is the cibodas bryophyte park which has 216 species of lichen and bryophyte from across Indonesia and the world . In a 2,500 square meter area, the park is claimed to be the only in the world, which is located outdoor and has the largest collection.