We have finally made it to Indonesia, our final country on the Asian oddessy. Our last land border crossing was spectacularly uneventful though we were the only ones fingerprinted and photographed at the border!

In this case crossing from no mans land into Indonesia was not simply arbitrary process, the difference between Indonesian Borneo and Malaysian Borneo was apparent immediately. First the condition of the road deteriorated in the blink of an eye, buildings became smaller and sparser and palm oil plantations finally appeared to have given way to forest and jungle and perhaps most notably the bus driver appeared to lose any sense of driving etiquette as soon as we were over the border. Unfortunately we were seated in the front seat, possibly the worst place to experience Asian (or African for that matter) public transport as you can actually see how near that miss really was. Miraculously we arrived in Pontianak our first Indonesian city which lies slap bang on the equator.

Over the last couple of months we have been treated to surprisingly easy travel and widely spoken English. Arriving in Pontianak felt like a bit of an assault of the senses as we realised that no one spoke a word of English and we were yet to master any Indonesian. Ah the joys... Arriving at the hotel was no better, no English speakers here either so it was back to wild gesticulations, repeating words mercilessly as if by some miracle they are suddenly going to become understood and excessive amounts of pointing. Somehow this typical foreigner approach to things has so far done the trick.

Throughout our travels we have realised that the trusty guidebook is often rather gushing in its descriptions and should not be taken at face value. This was true of Pontianak; seemingly a bit of a frontier town we did not see another foreigner during our time there. This is no bad thing and is actually quite refreshing. James has become a minor celebrity and everyone wants to speak to him. The teenage girls seem to have taken a particular fancy, I've so far managed to take his sudden notoriety on the chin gamely replying to the hellos even though they're not directed at me!

The highlight of our few days in the city was a trip to the Equator monument, not because it is remotely impressive but due to the ridiculous exhibition to get to the thing, which was only a mere few kilometres across the river. Firstly we were thwarted by a mass gathering of soldiers at the passenger ferry, parading and doing their thing for who knows what. Smiling sweetly at the hundreds of men with big gun and big knives we boarded the boat with them. Why is it that such a display of authority immediately makes you feel guilty about something when all you're doing is queuing for a boat! And so our excursion continued to the rather ugly monument standing atop the Equator line. Trying to return to the city proper was somewhat of a challenge, the whole place appeared to be sinking as the river rose and huge puddles formed along the roads. Some four hours after we'd set off we made it back to our hotel.