Pontianak: A city with an increasingly lonely yet serene river

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Pontianak, West Kalimantan

On one quiet cloudy day in the town of Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia's longest river the Kapuas was a picture of serenity, with only a few boats drifting listlessly down it.

Unlike its close relative, the Barito River in Central Kalimantan that has a famous floating market bustling with life, these days, the Kapuas flows mostly without people.

This was not always the case. Throughout the centuries, this 1,140-kilometer river has provided a livelihood to the thousands who have lived on its banks.

The river used to be the most important trade route in a once virgin land full of forests and swamps, and people traveled to areas hundreds of kilometers away from Pontianak on its waters.

Nowadays, mostly trading ships cruise the river while the once many passenger ships have been replaced by buses and airplanes.

However, travelers can still see traces of the river in its heyday in the town that used to be known as the Emerald of the Equator, named for its mines that once yielded a treasure of gleaming gemstones.

If one takes a tour through Pontianak's riverbank settlements and one can see how the locals still depend on the river.

In the afternoons, children take baths and row small boats as women wash clothes in the brown-colored water. Regardless of the river's discoloration locals continue to brush their teeth and shower in it.

The most bustling residential area in the Pontianak is Kampung Dalam, an elongated village that stretches along the river's northern bank.

This village was initially the home for servants of the sultan whose palace, called a kraton, stands nearby, overlooking the river.

The first sultan of the Alkadri Sultanate was Syarif Abdurahman, the son of Al Habib Husin, a noble Arab who traveled to Sumatra to spread Islam.

The task brought the family in 1770s to Borneo. It was said that Syarif Abdurahman took his large families and friends with 14 ships, sailing down Kapuas River whose banks were still green forests.

He wanted to live in the area and decided to fire a cannon- ball and build his settlement around the spot where the ball dropped.

It dropped at the meeting place between the Kapuas and Landak rivers where legend said that apparitions in the form of long- haired women wandered around; creatures called pontianak or kuntilanak in Malay.

Stories said that the Sultan scared away the pontianak with the booming sound of his guns.

In 1771, he erected the first column of a mosque that later became famous as the Masjid Jami. Shortly afterwards, the cornerstone of his palace was also laid not far from the mosque.

That is the story of how the city got its name and its start.

Locals always tell new visitors to Pontianak that one has not yet properly visited the city if they do not set foot in the kraton.

Now Pontianak is a busy trading city, thanks largely to a gold rush back in the Dutch colonial era in the 19th century.

Like most typical trading cities, Pontianak is a home to many cultures. Statistics state that about 30 percent of the 482,000 population are of Chinese descent.

The remaining population also comprises Malays, Buginese, Dayaks and Javanese, and travelers can see a little bit of each culture in the city.

Pontianak delicacies, for example, are mostly a mixture of Malay and Chinese recipes.

Coffee houses common in the city serve pengkang; glutinous rice cakes filled with dried shrimps, and other Chinese delicacies like flour cakes filled with green bean paste.

The habit of drinking coffee while chatting with friends is both a Malay and a Chinese custom and the owners of large coffee are generally Chinese who still speak the old Hakka dialect.

Meanwhile, travelers can savor the Dayak culture from the colorful bead jewelry, the alluring gemstones and suits of traditional Dayak armor sold at souvenir shops along Jl. Pattimura.

The shops also sell silver- or gold-threaded clothes called kain songket woven in Sambas, a small town 225 kilometers northwest of Pontianak.

Besides Sambas, travelers can also take off to Singkawang, which is only 145 kilometers from Pontianak, or about three hours travel by car.

More intrepid travelers who want to experience a boat or ship journey on the Kapuas can take crowded boats to the small riverside towns in the Sintang area, where the Dayak people live.

Those who are up for a longer journey can continue to Putussibau, 900 kilometers from Pontianak, or four days and three nights on a ship.

However, nowadays most people prefer to take flights on small planes to Putussibau.

These days it seems that only the traders of farm produce loyally ply the Kapuas in their houseboats.