Crossing into West Kalimantan

Above:  Sambas palace.

Departing Kuching

We checked out from the OYO Golden Lounge before 0600 for our ride to Singkawang in West Kalimantan, the venue for possibly the most colourful Capgomeh (last day of Chinese New Year) celebration in the world.

Our ride would depart from Siang Siang Corner food court across the road.  Boo and I jaywalked across the road while Tim, Elena, Richard and Habibah took the overhead bridge.

The area had many “KB” plated cars from West Kalimantan and this appears to be where all the vehicles to Indonesia would leave from.  Our driver, Jie To, was nowhere to be found.  Calling him, he was still in his room, about to have a shower.

We grabbed breakfast and set off finally at 0640.  The countryside outside Kuching turned misty in parts and after less than 2h, we arrived at the Biawak/Aruk border around 0830.

Biawak/Aruk border crossing

There was a short queue at the Malaysian checkpoint where alighted from the car.  The Malaysian officers collected Malaysian passports in bulk and processed everyone out the country. Non-Malaysians had to wait their turn and an overstayer had to pay a “fine” of MYR500 (if you’d like to call it that).

There were some Indonesian pilgrims waiting to go through back to Indonesia.  I was surprised they did their pilgrimage through Malaysia but it is very much nearer than going through some Indonesian cities.

We had to wait for the Brit and the American in our group to be processed.  We hopped back into the car about 25 mins after stopping at the Malaysian checkpoint and crossed to the Indonesian checkpoint around 0900.

The first Indonesian desk checked our Covid-19 vaccination.  Some of us were just asked the number of doses we’ve had while others had to show vaccination certificates.

Next, we joined the immigration queue.  Each person was asked to state their name while the officer confirmed it against the passport.  The Brit and American had to pay for their Visa on Arrival, holding the queue up a bit.

Finally, we passed through customs where we needed a declaration per family or couple.  We made it into Indonesia 1h05 after arriving at the Malaysian checkpoint, at 0935 Malaysian Time or 0835 West Indonesian Time.

Continuing to Sambas

Our ride continued for only 15 mins before we made our meal break at 0850. The simple eatery had fried noodles, bakso or an assortment of pre-cooked food.

Boo and I opted for the bakso served with three kinds of noodles, namely bihun, thin kwayteow and instant noodles.  It was tasty due to a decent dose of MSG.  We made it awesome with chilli and lime.

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Some 50 mins later, we continued our ride to Sambas palace, a stop which I requested specially.  It only required a small detour into the centre of town rather than avoiding it.

The 1h35 ride to Sambas took us through oil palm plantations and swift houses where the birds are accommodated for harvesting their saliva-based nests.

We arrived at Sambas palace and the adjacent mosque around 1115.  An older gentleman came out from a nearby building, opened up the palace and showed us around.

He claimed to the grandson of the Sultan, who was killed by the Japanese during the war.  Other Kalimantan royalty suffered a similar fate.

Afterwards, we explored the palace complex including the adjacent Mosque of Sultan Muhammad Syafioeddin II and the waterfront-in-progress.  We could see that there was a traditional boardwalk along much of the riverbanks here linking the homes together.

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Finally in Singkawang

We continued our drive around 1145 and arrived at the Verisha Homestay just on the northern edge of Singkawang around 1320.  Tim, Elena, Boo and I put up here while Richard and Habibah, who committed to the trip later, put up at the Hotel Singkawang in the heart of town.

We had a much-needed rest in the air-con until 1600 when I called a Grab car to take us into town to meet Rich and Bibah.  We had a little wander around town to look for dinner options.  Tim is vegan and with Muslims in our group, we tried to find something that would suit everyone. It then started raining, making our task much harder.

I found a vegetarian restaurant on Google Maps and we headed there despite the distance and the rain. Many of the menu items were unavailable and it took us several iterations for us to make a successful order.

Night procession

The Capgomeh official programmed had suggested that a procession including a large number of dragons would begin at 1900.  We started waiting in front of Hotel Singkawang around then.  It was a slow, boring and frustrating wait with a few false starts.

Rich and Bibah, who are a bit older, gave up and retired to their room upstairs.

Finally at 2055, the procession started.  There were many dragon dances, nicely illuminated in the darkness of the night, followed by many vehicle floats of varying attractiveness.  There were very few lion dances though.

It appears to be a practice run for the actual day of Capgomeh, which would be the day after tomorrow.

It was a very noisy procession and no doubt, Rich and Bibah wouldn’t be sleeping or resting at all upstairs.

After about 45 mins, the procession finally ended.  With the throngs of people wanting to leave the centre of town, we had to walk to a less congested area before trying to book a car back.

We had no luck and ended up walking back to the Verisha guesthouse, getting there around 2230 (or 2330 Malaysian time).  It had been a very long but fruitful day.

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Hotel hassles

Capgomeh is the biggest event in normally sleepy Singkawang.  Accommodation has been known to be fully-booked even at inflated prices.

With this in mind, I booked two rooms through Agoda website, at the Grand Makassar many months ago at around IDR200K per room per night, probably before they realised that the date coincided with Capgomeh.

When I tried to reconfirm my booking directly with the hotel a few weeks ago, they claimed not to have my booking.  Fortunately, Agoda stepped up and resolve the issue for me.

Agoda claimed that there had been a change of management resulting in the booking not being honoured.  They transferred us to a sister-hotel of the Grand Makassar, the Verisha Homestay and accommodated us at no extra cost despite the festival.

Rich and Bibah, who opted to join us later, had to pay full festival pricing at around IDR1000K per room at the Hotel Singkawang for a small and dingy room.  It was clearly at an inflated pricing but the upside was that it was super-central.