Pontianak
A City Sitting Exactly On The Equator, Where Twice A Year At Noon Vertical Objects Cast No Shadow At All, On The Longest River In Indonesia · Pontianak, West Kalimantan
PONTIANAK SITS EXACTLY ON THE EQUATOR - the TUGU KHATULISTIWA monument marks the line - and TWICE A YEAR, AT THE EQUINOXES AROUND LATE MARCH AND LATE SEPTEMBER, THE SUN PASSES DIRECTLY OVERHEAD AT NOON AND VERTICAL OBJECTS CAST NO SHADOW AT ALL. The city marks it with a festival and people come to stand beside poles that have stopped casting anything. The rest of the year it is a hot river city on the KAPUAS, THE LONGEST RIVER IN INDONESIA at over a thousand kilometres, with the sultan's KADRIAH PALACE and the wooden JAMI MOSQUE facing each other across the water. IT HAS A LARGE TEOCHEW AND HAKKA CHINESE POPULATION and the CAP GO MEH celebrations here and at SINGKAWANG are among the biggest in Indonesia, with tatung spirit mediums in procession, and Singkawang three hours north is bigger still. The city itself is named after a ghost, which the founding sultan is said to have driven off the site.
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia
PONTIANAK HAS AN AIRPORT with flights from Jakarta, Batam and Kuching in Malaysian Borneo - there is also a ROAD CROSSING TO SARAWAK at Entikong. THE TUGU KHATULISTIWA equator monument is open in daylight with a small fee and a display explaining the line; THE KULMINASI MATAHARI, when shadows vanish at noon, falls around 21 to 23 MARCH and 21 to 23 SEPTEMBER and is marked with a festival. THE KADRIAH PALACE and the JAMI MOSQUE keep daytime hours; the mosque is active and modest dress is required. RIVER BOATS ARE CHARTERED AT THE WATERFRONT. CAP GO MEH, fifteen days after Chinese New Year, is enormous here and at SINGKAWANG three hours north - book far ahead. The city is low-lying and floods; regional haze affects it in some years.