Destination: Pontianak (25 - 29 May 2016)

25/05/2016 - 29/05/2016 (wed - sun)

this entry on pontianak trip will seriously be very drift and unhelpful as well if you have the intention to use it as a guide for your trip. furthermore, this entry is written three months later. my poor brain is incapable to remember the trip well. i'm a little bit like dory, suffering from short term memory loss, though mine is not that severe. our tour guide is non other than my sister, kak ala's maid, as. maybe i've mentioned somewhere before that my family treated the maids as family especially when we're not their direct bosses, hehe..

so on the first day, as picked us up at the airport (she already chartered a van). we had lunch and went direct to her house. she rented the house but the tenant still left her room for as. once as was done with her packing (she's staying with us at the hotel because there was a shortage of clean water at the area. it seems that this is a problem in remote area, pontianak. they have to store rain waters to get clean supply. otherwise, they depend on the drain<~ big one, water source actually comes from nearby river.) on the way to the hotel, my dad bought a few baby pineapples (pineapple is his favourite fruit). they were cheap and sweet. we checked in and had dinner at the nearby mall (the mall is my favourite place to go, haha.. i went there almost everyday whenever i got the chance!)

departure

as' house

the hotel

THE MALL - ayani megamall, hehe..

on the second day, we started early. as made a change to our van driver. the new one is really friendly and very talkative. the first driver, rudy was a little bit shy, the opposite to the second driver, joko. our first stop of the day was keraton kadriah. when we arrived, it was stiil early and the place wasn't opened yet. when as went down to confirm it, there's a notice saying that prior appointment must be made if we want to visit it. as confessed she didn't knew about it since it has been a long time she visited it. we moved to our next destination, the equator monument. again, we had to wait a while for it to be opened. the monument is interesting with a history of its own. we also bought a few souvenirs here.

i'm not good at taking pictures, huhu..

i seriously can't remember how long was the trip from the hotel to these locations. maybe around  1-2 hours. then, we went to drink aloe vera. the aloe business is quite famous here. the people in pontianak really have sweet tongues! they really really like sweetness. their drinks is very very sweet. we all had to order plain water to lessen the sweetness and the aloe vera drink is not excluded. we also ate grilled corns which were delicious! we then stopped for lunch somewhere (memory loss, haha..) and visited makam kesultanan batu layang. then, we headed back to the city and had our boat ride at Kapuas River. we called it a day after that. along the way, we actually visited a few of as' relatives.

on our third day, we picked as' daughter at the airport. the real reason we went to pontianak was to mend the relationship between as and her daughter. they had some issues and let's just say we failed the mission, haha.. both of them were stubborn. but starting from this day, as' daughter tagged along. we went all the way to pasir panjang (trip maybe  3- 4 hrs). we also stopped at dayak house (bad luck again, closed due to renovation). we did our souvenir shopping again at pattimura street. and we went back on the fifth day. see  how very unhelpful my pontianak entry. so, i would recommend you to go this BLOG instead for guidance, hehe..

pasir panjang beach and late night ferry ride

our last day

ps: i still owe two entries on the manila and brunei trips.. prepare yourself for another 'memory loss' entry like this one , haha..