Hio and The Old House of Xie

In 1901, the Dutch colonial government official granted a piece of land to Xie Shou Shi, a well known, important and successful business man of that time. Xie brought in architect from his hometown of Fujian to built a big house on the side of river of that land. Today, this East West-combined style mansion is the only and oldest building that still standing in the town of Singkawang.

On the right is the old house of Xie facing to west. The river on left was once wide and deep enough for river transportation heading to the open sea, used to ship commodities like rubber and coconut to Singapura.


Hio on the altar of the old house of Xie.

Dried salty fish

Provided by the sea, caught by Kabung's humble fishermen and dried by blazing hot of coastal sun, dried salty fish are one source of incomes of the island inhabitants.

Bagan

Bagan or termal is a small hut on the sea built to trap fishes and squids during the night. I always amaze on how the fishermen are able to build bagan in the 3-8 meters deep sea. First, they make the stake frames from bamboo in the village. Then they bring the frames to the sea with boats and embed them in to 3-8 meters deep seabed. Interlace between the frames makes it stable. It cost about 2-5 million IDR to construct a bagan and usually it can hold out for 1-2 years if not swept by big wave storm beforehand.

Soon before nightfall, the fishermen will paddle their boat leaving for bagan. On bagan, they scroll down the net into water, lit on petromaks, kind of lantern, and hang it under the hut, just before the sea level. The light from petromaks will attract fish and squid to gather under it, just above the net. Then the waiting part is began. It could stand from 10 minutes till hours, depend on how much fish and squid gathered above the net.

Each bagan need at least 2 persons to operate. When it's enough fish or squid gathered above the net, one person will roll up the net, the other will standby in the hut to pull up petromaks and then to catch the fish and or squid with a smaller scoop net with long handle from the net under.

Teluk Suak - Pulau Kabung

   

  

 

Every morning there are boats leaving for Pulau Kabung transporting the islanders and carrying goods to sell in the island. Between Teluk Suak, the mainland, to Pulau Kabung is a gruesome sea particularly during a high tide season around September-March, the wave easily reaches 2 meter high. My travel buddy also has the same thought and he is an adventurer doing an expedition from June 2009-December 2010 to visit 100 islands in Indonesia. In our way back to the mainland, we even didn't manage to take our camera out to catch the beautiful sunset due to the high wave. Fortunately at the end we survived...from seasick :). 

Ps. Kabung also have very beautiful sea life, colorful fish and corals. Too bad, I didn't have underwater camera so I couldn't take pictures and share them here..

smoke

aah..Pontianak during the dry season

Children of Pasi

Lion eat hio

Hio, candle and fetish paper

Tapak dara in the morning

First morning beam

Stone Breaker

Sunset in Tomajo

there's never a same sunset. The sunset in Tomajo island is one of the most beautiful and heartwarming sunset I ever saw. Seeing the single coconut tree shadow standing on the island hillside (too small to be seen in this picture) gave me some kind of lonely but peaceful feeling.

Hope

under the pier

A friend of mine said that this looks like a common government project, built with low quality materials after corrupted here and there and at the end doesn't serve the early planned function because of the improper execution or wrong target. I can't agree more, development projects in my beloved country still need lots of improvement.

fire in the morning

Children of Kapuas

 

Kapuas in West Kalimantan is the longest river in Indonesia. This river extends 1145 km’s from Kapuas Hulu district to Pontianak city. Kapuas’s watershed area has the highest biodiversity of freshwater fauna in Indonesia with around 300 – 500 species of freshwater fishes .

Kapuas plays significant role in the live and welfare of community in West Kalimantan. Its social and economic functions for transportation and trade shaping the character of Pontianak. This river is public space where people meet and socialize through hundreds of bath, wash, latrines and warung (small shop) spots. Everyday, especially in morning and late afternoon, on the banks of Kapuas you can see the women washing clothes and chatting, the children swimming around, and the man drinking coffee in warung.

Near Ramadan (fasting month of Moslem), people start to make carbide cannons to welcome Ied (end of Ramadan). The cannon made from a log about four meters long that split and hollowed like a pipe. The logs are then cupped back, tied with rattan and arranged in line on the banks of Kapuas. At evening, people fill it with carbide, fired and blow it. This festival culminated in the night before Ied. The sound of the cannon is extremely loud and still can be hear till 5 km's far.  

After Ied, carbide cannons become a playground for children of Kapuas. They climb to the top of the cannon and jump into the river. Byurrr.

 

jumping

The master behind kopi luwak

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between 1 - 3,5 million IDR per kg. The master behind the production of kopi luwak is this nocturnal animal, musang (civet), Paradoxurus hermaphroditus. Civet forage only the ripest and sweetest coffee berries. Spending about a day and a half in the civet's digestive system, the coffee cherries then defecated in clumps. They are gathered and tradaa the unique strong flavor and lack of bitterness coffee produced.

when the night fall2

early morning on beach