As the sky changes and the swal­lows cue the dawn— watch­ing over from my 6-story high win­dow, the flat-lined pro­file of the city’s land­scape pokes to the hori­zon as the sun rises. A hint of the boats’ diesel engine and its horn sig­nals the begin­ning of a busy day along the banks of the Kapuas River, where the city’s eth­nic Chinese, Dayak & Malay inhab­i­tants are warm­ing up their hands to embrace the biggest cel­e­bra­tion of the year, cel­e­brat­ing the last day of the Lunar New Year in the form of a fes­ti­val called ‘Cap Go Meh’.
(… to be con­tin­ued)

I have just returned from a trip to Borneo’s Jewel, West Kalimantan Province’s Capital—Pontianak; where for the first time of my life, I learned how this nation came about. It’s a hum­ble city with a big pile of his­tor­i­cal record in its belly, I am still attempt­ing to process all the infor­ma­tion I gath­ered dur­ing the 6 days I stayed there, dur­ing which, me & my cam­era were breath­ing along this city of 500.000 souls, eat­ing, walk­ing & cel­e­brat­ing nature’s indige­nous cre­ation of peo­ple & its way of life.

Stay tuned for mas­sive influx of pic­to­r­ial flood & wordy rum­ble of this amaz­ing place, peo­ple & cul­ture; mean­while, an Indonesian Na’Vi, Statue of Little Barry, Indonesian Forest and its inhabitant—the tigers, are part of the 36 bril­liantly curated recent scenes from Indonesia that will be an appro­pri­ate pre­lude to the excerpt above.

Happy March, everyone!

Pontianak Sunset—from the Kapuas River. March 1, 2010, 5:46 pm. © Will Wiriawan.