The big day, Capgomeh

The big procession

Today is Capgomeh (the fifteenth or last day, but literally night of Chinese New Year), the big day that we have specially come for.  I’m two years late for this event, originally due to come here in 2021, but delayed due to the pandemic.

We headed to town at 0645 where it was buzzing already.  Having breakfast at the café attached to Hotel Singkawang, several groups of wandering minstrels came in to entertain us for a contribution.

Settling our bill, the nice man behind the counter suggested that we go to the hotel’s sheltered rooftop to see the procession rather than endure the heat and jostle with the crowds on the streets.

We made ourselves very comfortable on the hotel rooftop around 0825. It was an awesome spot with a view of the procession route and the mosque on one side, and Tai Pak Kung temple on the other side.

The procession started around 0855, earlier than expected as events in this part of the world tend to get delayed by their guests of honour or dignitaries who turn up late and then give long speeches.

The procession was led by several (supposedly nine) dragons in close succession before giving way to an endless stream of mediums (media?) and swaying shrines housing deities.

As with yesterday there was a good mix of Chinese and Dayak mediums with skewers through their cheeks and/or seated or standing on blades or beds of nails.

Many had machetes which they use on their limbs or tongues.  While they weren’t seriously hacking themselves and maybe the blades weren’t razor sharp.  But it would still be easy to make a slice in one’s skin or tongue.

Some took things further with piercings of tree branches, and attempting to harm themselves with handsaws and power drills.  Disappointingly, I didn’t see any nailguns or chainsaws.  Lol!

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Around midday, the banging of the drums and clashing of cymbals tapered off to a silence when it was prayer time at the mosque.  The procession continued respectfully past the mosque and before taking a turn to the right towards Tai Pak Kung.

The procession ended around 1210, some 3h15 after it had began.  We had witnessed all of it in panorama and also quite close-up from the rooftop. Had we been downstairs, we may have been quite obscured by the crowd unless we managed to jostle our way to the front.  In any case, it would have been extremely hot.

Lunch

The plan for lunch was to take the others (except Tim) to yesterday’s Mie Ayam while vegan Tim would join Boo and I for Choi Pan (vegetable dumplings known as Chai Kuih in Kuching or Soon Kuih in some other cities).

Being a festival day, Mie Ayam was closed so we all headed to Tjhia Mansion (Bangunan Cagar Budaya Marga Tjhia).  We ordered a large try of Choi Pan to share.

Choi pan or vegetable dumplings.

As it turned out, it had traces of dried prawns which meant that Tim couldn’t eat it.  The rest of us enjoyed it but were disappointed that they had run out of bongko, their house dessert.

While allowing time for the others to explore the mansion afterwards, I noticed that the supply of bongko appeared to returned.  We returned to try it out and were very pleased with it. It’s a green coconut cream-caramel of sorts, served with freshly grated coconut and palm sugar.

Delicious bongko for dessert.

Disappointment & dinner

After a cool wash, we rested in the air-con comfort of our room.  I reviewed my photos and videos.  Disappointment set it.

While we felt close to the action from the rooftop, my photos were far from it.  I had no close-up shots like yesterday of the mediums and the Dayak costumes.

For the last four years, I’ve only been travelling with my phone camera.  It does a good job but doesn’t have a real zoom. Often, I think the phone camera does a better job than an ageing mid-range compact camera but today, the zoom of the real camera would have been useful.

So I kick myself for not bringing that camera and I also regret not heading downstairs for part of the procession.  Fortunately, Tim Duesbury, our travel companion came to the rescue with these photos as he had a decent zoom lens.

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In the evening, we headed back to town for dinner in a simple but air-conditioned Chinese restaurant called Hengky.  Despite only one other table in use, it was extremely noisy with fully tiled interior.  We ordered a selection of dishes to make this our traditional Capgomeh feast.

The trip to Singkawang had been a complete success despite the issues with accommodation which was fortunately resolved beforehand.  Tim was lost for words with what he had seen and Habibah was glad that she managed to experience something so grand and special in her old age.