If you visit Pontianak in West Kalimantan you must secure the services of a guide who knows the city like the back of his hand.
But a qualified guide may only show you places of touristic interest but may not have the inside story which is more interesting.
As a journalist, I have always used a “Speda motor” (motorcycle) with an old Indonesian compatriot — local writer Hanz Endi Pramana nicknamed ‘Endi Jenggot’ because of his small goatee, to explore this massive and sprawling city of close to one million people.
So on Feb 24, I drew up my own tourism program and included two friends — Kelantan classmate Mustak Shaik, 69, of Kota Bahru, Kelantan and Kuching’s Malaymail on line representative Si Poh Liang.
On a whirlwind trip our unlikely trio—me the bearded ‘Ribai Beragum’ or bearded white man, Mustak looking like the famous Indian actor Amithabh Bachan and Poh Liang, a typical Chinaman, we took the City by storm.
Only a stone’s throw away from my regular hotel Kapuas Dharma — adjacent to Borneo’s longest river the 1,200km-long Kapuas — is the ‘Flamboyan’ wet market which sells anything from wild meat to Indonesian ‘Jamu’ aphrodisiacs.
When I introduced the well-dressed 5ft 11in tall Mustak with his Elvis-type sideburns to Endi as an Indian film star, the retired businessman teased our Indonesian friend saying:“Amithab Belacan is more suitable for me than Amithabh Bachan”.
Our travelling associate Poh Liang, 55, a former Sarawak Tribune sub-editor who was visiting Pontianak for the second time, wore jeans and sneakers while I donned my usual sloppy attire — shorts, singlet, waist pouch and slippers.
However on the trip to the wet market, I felt it was inappropriate to wear lazy man shoes having on many occasions slipped and fallen, given my age, on slippery surfaces.
Instead of traveling by taxi we decided to go by ‘Go Jek’ (Indonesian version of Grab or Uber) and the next place to visit was the ‘Khatulistiwa’ — or Equator which will interest the science students.
But the history of the ‘Keraton’ palace of the Kadriyah Sultanate was what that interested me.
I had done my homework and discovered the macabre story linked to not only the Kariyah sultanate, but all the Kalimantan royal households as well as the local community in Pontianak during the Japanese Occupation.
When the Japanese invaded Kalimantan and the Dutch fled, the local Chinese and Malay communities thought this was the best chance to fight for Independence.
But the Japanese eliminated any such thoughts and carried out systematic executions of the Indonesian Chinese intelligentsia, scholars, professionals, business people and the Malay leadership, particularly the influential sultanate.
During a three-year period from 1942 until the Japanese surrender of September 1945, between 20,000 to 40,000 victims were secretly taken to the remote location of Mandor about 50 miles from the City, only to be executed and buried in shallow graves in the forests.
When the Allied forces returned to Borneo in 1945, they collected the remains of the victims scattered in the jungle and buried them in mass graves.
For many years the ‘Killing Fields of Mandor’ remained a dark secret until the Indonesian government built a memorial to remember the murdered patriots in 1970.
I had visited Mandor 10 years ago and another location at Long Nawang on the Apo Kayan Mountain complex next to Ulu Belaga where 70 Brooke and Dutch officers and their families had been similarly murdered in 1942, but felt we would avoid reliving the tragic past.
Instead, we were welcomed by Syarief Hamdan Alqadrie, 50, a descendant of the royal family and a palace guide in to a reformed and modern Indonesia with its fun-loving community.
The affable Hamdan said that the Palace had recently installed a new Sultan but unlike our Sultans in Peninsular Malaysia, he was a simple and unassuming man.
While I hope to meet the new King of Pontianak, Hamdan quipped: “Sorry but the Sultan is not here now, but I can tell you many stories. But first of all visitors are no allowed to enter the palace wearing shorts or a singlet”.
And so I had to don a sarong and a shirt I borrowed from Endi. Pontianak was founded by Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie on 23 October 1771 or 14 Rajab 1185 AH according to Islamic calendar.
But it took a long battle before his army could oust the women ‘Ghosts’ called ‘Kuntilanak’ before he could establish his Kingdom.
“The Sultan used a magical cannon to fire at the spirits and the fled. So he called the City Pontianak (a Malay name for a female ghost)”.
“Even today during the Muslim’s Hari Raya festival, the Malays living along the banks of the Kapuas River fire 20 foot long wooden cannons called Meriam Karbit, symbolically to chase away the spirits and welcome the New Year”, Endi contributed.
Hamdan noted that one of the Aldrie royals Sultan Hamid II, was an important figure because he designed the eagle-like ‘Garuda’ bird, the national symbol of the Indonesia.
Currently Sultan Syarif Machmud Melvin Alkadrie is the head of the Royal Household; of Dutch ancestry, Sultan Melvin, is the 9th Sultan of Pontianak.
His portrait with the Sultan attired in royal yellow and black attire complete with a ‘Tanjak’ headgear, hangs on the wall.
Our next stop was the Seng Hie Port, the oldest port in Pontianak which was directly opposite the bank of the Kapuas River.
Established by a Chinese businessman named Theng Seng Hie in 1930, it is still used as a wharf for small passenger boats and medium sized goods-laden ships.
Pontianak has a larger port called Pelabuhan Dwi Kora next to Seng Hie for large-scale freight traffic; since 2018, it has been turned into an ocean port for import exports called “Pelabuhan Internasional Pantai Kijing”.
Not far away was the US$30 million ‘Santo Josef’ (Saint Joseph’s) Cathedral whose design was created to resemble the St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican.
We also walked along Tanjungpura Street and Pasar Tengah, where many people of Arabic descent sold various item such as perfumes, precious stones to fit into rings!
In the cathedral, we saw a wedding just finished and there was a photo session. We entered the church to enjoy the beautiful and elegant interior arrangement.
On the terrace of the cathedral, we sang the chorus of Elvis Presley song ‘How Great Thou Art’ and Mustak who is also a fan of King Elvis joined us.
Our last stop that afternoon was the home of Eugene Yohanes Palaunsoeka, a Taman Dayak musician who plays most of the traditional instruments and is a well-known performing artiste.
His father, FC Palaunsoeka was a founding member of ‘Kompas’, the biggest newspaper in Indonesia, established since Presiden Soekarno’s era.
Yohanes played his acoustic guitar, entertaining us to Western oldies of the Beatles and Creedence Clearwater, in his simple music house named “Kamoeda Studio”.
Mustak sang some Elvis numbers while I sang my standard Broery Marantika number ‘Widuri’. We had to leave early because Yohanes had to finish his work on a Dayak designed mural at the Supadio International Airport.
Arriving back late in the evening at the Kapuas Dharma II along Jalan Imam Bonjol, named after the revolutionary who joined in the Independence fight against the Dutch in 1948, it was time to prepare for another adventure — soon.
