Pontianak and Kuching

Pontianak was amazing - in a slum-like, big city, language communication issues sort of way.  I made it to the equator monument and made a few walks back and forth across the equator.  :-)  It was a raining day and it seems the city sits quite low on the water table.  There are ditches of water on either side of the road and many walkways over water leading to the homes.  I alternately saw a guy peeing in the ditch, another bathing in it and others gathering water.  The people all seemed very friendly and welcoming, though due to the language barrier I can not be -sure- it was welcoming but it seemed that way.  It was big, chaotic, dirty, and when not raining, hot.  Worst thing was I didn't have a converter for their outlets so I couldn't recharge my phone, camera, ipod - so left asap.  Had a bit of a surprise tax at the airport on leaving - 75,000 local currency.  Fortunately due to not buying anything there I had more than enough to pay.  BTW - that's about $8 or so (uh... I think). 

Jakarta airport had Starbucks and Krispy Kreme donuts!

Equator Monument in Pontianak

View of the Equator Monument from right astride the equator.

Felt like the city was just barely above the water table.

River view of Pontianak.

Now in Kuching - what a world of difference just a short plane ride, or 10 hours by bus, away.  The airport is very modern, the city is clean interesting, and it has one of the most beautiful river fronts I've seen.  Really nice.  Today went to the cultural village and tomorrow the wildlife rehabilitation center.  Oh, and my electrical outlet converters work here.  Yeah!

Me at the cultural village.

Long house at cultural village.

I had a chance to try out a blow pipe but decided to pass for everyone's safety including my own.

Kuching means cats, or something like that. This is one of two cat fountains in the city.