On the Road to Pontianak and meeting the Kapuas River

It was a great trip for me....from the borderlands of Sarawak and Kalimantan and following the Kapuas River valley to Pontianak. The organisers did a wonderful job  packing  lots of action and interesting sights into our tour. 1200 miles is quite a a distance.^{We arrived on a v ery wet and windy day on the banks of the Kapuas. It was a beautiful feeling watching the stormy water and the windswept trees. Lots of children were playing happily on the banks unaware and unafraid that a storm was actually brewing. They were happy to be drenched and cooled  by the  first drops of a pelting rain.}

 

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I like this...houses are built so near the river!! So owners have boats berthed in the back yard or is it front yard(?) and a car parked in the  yard that is on the landward side...It is a little like the Indonesian version of Mandurah (W. Austrialia) except that houses here cost RM50 000 only or even less if relatives help you build.

Quick photo taken from a bridge.....

View of river along one of the villages....

Besides boats buses like these transport passengers from Putussibau to Pontianak. One can see all sorts of  interesting personal effects on top of the buses.

The Kapuas River is the major waterway connecting the central of Borneo island with its western coast. It is indeed a  large river with width up to 27 meters and it is so many times the size of the Rajang of Sarawak. I heard from my Iban friend that a cargo boat (with draft up to 2 meters)  from Putussibau  (906 km from the mouth) can take a slow journey of a month to reach Pontianak. Sometimes tourists can also book rooms for a month for such a nice slow journey and enjoy the scenery of the river. I might like to do that and read my books and enjoy writing my journal.

 Logging and rafting of timber occur all along the river. Fishing is also common, especially at the Kapuas Lakes and near the river delta.

A typical Kapuas valley wooden house - built as a model in the Kapuas Museum garden (the architecture helps the house to be ever ready for flooding). In this museum in Pontianak you can see so many models of different houses found in Kalimantan on its grounds. Good effort.