January 2 2011 - Pontianak, west Kalimantan, Borneo

Back in the 'big city' after a weekend in Singkarang ( '1000 temples' ) and Pumangkat, a few hours N of here along the coast.We hitched a ride to the former early on Fridaywith a colleague of my fellow ELF Cary, and spent the day wandering through a sprawling traditional market area with lots of covered sidewalks and historic buildings that actually reminded me a lot of the old French Quarter in New Orleans.Then other friends of Cary's picked us up in a long SUV with a chain-smoking driver ( yes, he did this all weekend - and I spent 10 hours + sitting right behind him ) with race-driver pretensions;anyway, they took us another hour N - through rain and falling darkness - to the small town of Pumangkat where one of the guy's ( 'Willy' ) mom lives - she had invited the whole car-load of us to stay at her very modest house in a humble but tidy and well-organized neighborhood (Malay homes on one side of the narrow cement lane, Chinese homes just opposite, but everyone gets along well ). She even served us a late dinner, including a bowl of a hundred or more tiny frog legs.Then she insisted that we all go out to a cavernous, nearly-empty meeting hall where we were greeted by a few tables of mostly-older Chinese men and women ( at separate tables ), all taking turns singing karaoke while listeners went through liter bottles of Guinness by the case, helping to wash down bag after bag of tiny salted peanuts in the shell.And, for the men, pack after pack of cigarettes. After the requisite photos together, they brought us way too many bags of peanuts and bottles of Guinness, along with buckets of ice ( I'm glad they appreciated that Guiness needs to be drunk ice-cold ).Willy's mom finally took her turn singing and did very well, as did the local police chief, who seemingly did not want to give up the stage.All bought their own DVDs with the words and accompaniment plus generic video scenes that no one ever noticed.Mom, like the others, had been practicing at home several hours a day for weeks; in fact, the high point of their otherwise simple kitchen/dining area is multi-thousands of dollars of pro-quality audio equipment with several equalizers, mixers, pre-amps etc. and 4 speakers which ( as I can definitely attest ) can handle rock-concert volume levels without a hint of distortion.

Finally we went back home and I sacked out along with a few of the others rather than waiting for a rainy midnight.The five of us guys all slept on mats in an attic room; I didn't sleep well but hearing the rain on the roof for most of the night helped.Unfortunately for those who'd been looking forward to midnight fireworks etc., the rain literally made everything 'fizzle', or put a wet blanket on it.( choose your favorite apt cliché here )

Yesterday morning we had a rice porridge ( 'bubur' ) and oolong tea for breakfast before taking a scenic route to the small ( holiday-diminished ) morning produce/fish market and a ways up the jungly hill next to town to a famous Chinese Buddhist temple that draws people from Singapore and beyond each year for a huge celebration on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year.A new, larger temple is under construction ( with outside donated money ) - or mostly-new: it has impressive, tall, elaborate hand-carved doors made from the hardwood doors of the 200-year-old temple it's replacing.No one was there praying - just workers and a caretaker.I got some interesting photos of the temple and surrounding jungle, especially massive old trees with multiple intertwined trunks.On the way back we stopped to visit their next-door neighbor, an older Chinese shaman, very friendly - he not only invited us in but let us watch and photograph his treatment of 2 infants whose moms brought them by to get their chi unblocked ( apparently babies' chi gets blocked very easily….. )This involved swabbing their backs, tummies, lower legs/toes and lower arms/fingers with something from a tiny brown medicinal-looking bottle. One cried profusely but was soon smiling again.

Then we all piled into the SUV again and drove further N to Sambas, another small town with an old wooden mosque and keraton ( sultan's palace ) open to the public; people were there in droves.I got some good people pix especially down by the nearby inlet ( boats, swimmers, groups of kids, etc. ) and ended up in many locals' pix as well - not many 'bules' ever get up there.We also had a greasy if cheap rice/noodle lunch in a ditch-side open pavilion.( Note to self:New Year's resolution must be to eat NO fried rice or noodles in 2011, or ever again.It won't be easy in Indonesia …. )Then another breakneck-speed drive back south - south of Singkawang, in fact - to the most famous and popular local beach for 'sunset'; on the face of it, this whole drive was ridiculous since it was already far too late and in any case the sky was totally cloud-covered.As we got closer we met the mother of all traffic jams LEAVING the beach, mile after mile including hundreds of open dump/cargo trucks, busses, and vans crammed not only inside but on the roof with so many people it seemed impossible they weren't falling off the edges and being squeezed out the open windows.When we arrived the young ticket-seller tried ( but failed ) to charge us 50,000 rp per person, though that is the set price for a whole vehicle-full, even a bus.

We got to the still-crowded and ultra-commercialized beach just as total darkness set in.I was pleasantly surprised to find decent surf crashing onto the steep beach.I sat just above where the waves stopped and enjoyed the sounds and sights and steady breeze.A few kids and young couples continued to play in the waves.I stayed quite a while, missing Oregon and continuing to go back and forth in my mind about whether to stay on in Palembang next year.The others didn't seem to care about the ocean after a brief look, and had retreated to shelters where they smoked and surfed the net ( USB modem ) and snacked on the junkiest of junk foods just as they had all day.I felt very conspicuous by my absence from the group so I eventually let myself be cajoled ( ? ) into joining them by Willy's sister, though I immediately wished I'd stayed where I was. I reminded myself that I will have other chances to watch the waves over the next 5 weeks.Eventually everyone decided to pile back into the SUV - but not yet to go home, though Willy's mom had said she was going to make a a Chinese dinner for us - but to Singkarang!Willy wanted us to see the city at night -supposedly there was a huge pasar malam called Hong Kong Market, great street food, bright lights, crowds of strollers, etc. etc.When we finally got there there were a few little glass-front stands all selling the same few cold, greasy pastries, no bright lights, no strollers but so many motorcycles zooming by that we could hardly cross the street.So, finally an hour N to home - at almost 10 pm.Far too late for me to eat, or even feel hungry, but to be polite I had to sit and eat a bit of the promised dinner, which did have some fish in a nice sauce but was otherwise simple unheated veggies with rice.I was actually nodding off during the after-dinner conversation so I excused myself and went upstairs and 'crashed'.As it turned out those first few hours were my only sleep of the night, since when I awoke later 3 people around me were snoring and I couldn't get comfortable in a warm, stuffy room lying on a hard, lumpy mat.I kept thinking over and over, 'I am too old for this!' and probably I am.As much as I appreciate everyone's hospitality, 3 nights in a row with only 4-5 hours sleep is not an experience I want to have.Not to mention having to squeeze my way down/up a very steep, very narrow flight of stairs to get to the mosquito-plagued squat toilet out behind the house every time I needed to pee……Low point, however, was at breakfast when a leg suddenly snapped off the little plastic chair I was sitting on and I got dumped on the floor! Only damage to the chair and to my pride. As if I didn't already feel like an elephant among these very compact people.

This morning we were supposed to leave at 7:30-8 and get back here at 10:30-11 but ended up leaving at 9 and getting back at noon, after a truly hair-raising race that included nonstop weaving in and out along the 2-lane, no-shoulder road jammed with cars, busses, cycles, and walkers all just as undeterred as our fearless, chain-smoking driver by the ever-present possibility of instantly ceasing to exist. In the US what drivers were doing would without a doubt have been considered 'playing chicken' but here it is the norm.Well, I'm still alive to tell the story so I will stop complaining.And stop writing too.It's good to finally have a story to tell but I'm so tired I'm making even more and even more incomprehensible typos than I always do.I will post pictures to Facebook soon.