Capgomeh Eve

Above:  Vihara Tri Dharma Bumi Raya or Tai Pak Kung Temple with the minarets of Masjid Raya Singkawang in the background.

Breakfast

Today is the eve of Capgomeh.  With nothing officially on the published programmed, I didn’t set the alarm and woke around 0700 to find a message from Tim and Elena next door.  They were ready at 0620!

Unofficially, we had heard that today there will be some practice runs (like last night) for tomorrow’s celebration.  We took a car to Hotel Singkawang around 0740 and took breakfast there.

We tried the local bubur sapi (beef congee or rice porridge) which was a bit different from the Chinese style.  The porridge is lukewarm, then a clear broth is added on top then garnished with chopped beef, peanuts, anchovies and some spring onions. On the side we had emping melinjo, a pressed nut-chip.

It was delicious with lime and chilli but I thought the sweet soya sauce masked the beefy savouriness too much.

Delicious breakfast of bubur sapi and emping melinjo.

Practice processions

After a leisurely breakfast lasting about an hour, we wandered out to the Tai Pak Kung temple just behind the hotel, which was the centre of all the festival activities.

It was getting busy already.  Soon there were lots of mediums (media?) taking their turns going to the temple.  The mediums had skewers through their cheeks and/or seated or standing on blades or beds of nails.

Interspersed with the mediums were various deities in their portable shrines, also being taken to the temple.  For reasons that I couldn’t find out, they seem to sway the shrines as they carry them.

Capgomeh here isn’t a purely Chinese event and there were any Dayak mediums and troupes in stunning traditional costumes.

Boo and I stuck close together and we had already separated from the others due to the crowd.  The noise from the drumming and cymbals clashing was relentless and we were caught right in the middle of it, as we watched from around Tai Pak Kung temple and the nearby road.

We had agreed that we’d meet back at the hotel restaurant at 1000 unless something really captivates us.

We were so captivated by the continuous stream of processions and continued to follow every move until 1100 when we needed a cool drink and lunch.

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Lunch

We found a Sate Babi stall opposite the hotel and snacked on these standing on the footpath.  From there, we tried looking for the Mie Ayam shop that we saw last night.

We eventually found a Mie Ayam shop, not sure if it was the same one, and the meal turned out to be generous and awesomely delicious.

The population here is Hakka and as with other Hakka areas that I know, the noodle dishes closely resemble Sarawak Kolomee.  This suggests to me that Kolomee has Hakka origins but is influenced by perhaps Cantonese chasiu on top.

After lunch we took a brief stop at Tjhia Mansion (Bangunan Cagar Budaya Marga Tjhia) where we planned to return for lunch tomorrow.

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Chilling

After lunch, we returned to the Hotel Singkawang’s restaurant and found the others.  We watched them eat their lunch and had coffee with them.

We returned to the Verisha Homestay around 1330 for a cool wash and a lie down.

In the evening, we returned to town for dinner.  We settled on a meal similar to our lunch, as the place appeared to be able to do something vegan.

We retired around 2130.  As I lay in bed, I could hear drumming and cymbals clashing.  It was hard deciding if there were troupes practicing nearby or leftover ringing from the day’s events.