PART 5: Crossing land border from Kuching to Pontianak

Time for the overland journey from Kuching to Pontianak in West Kalimantan. This would be my 1st time crossing land border of Indonesia. The total distance from Kuching to Pontianak is 330 km.

Our journey started at Kuching Sentral Bus Terminal.



Here you had to get your boarding pass before being able to board your bus.



The bus departure area.











DAMRI bus which would bring me to cross the border. The operator (DAMRI), which also operates airport buses at some of Indonesian airports, is owned by Indonesian government. I chose this bus because it was the only bus with Mercedes-Benz chassis (my favorite) operating on this route.











Scheduled to depart at 11.00 a.m. (UTC+8), we actually departed 20 minutes later. The bus was quite empty with only about 10 passengers.





Our first stop was a souvenir shop, an hour after departure from Kuching Sentral.





Serian intersection, where roads to Sibu and Indonesian border meet.



After the intersection, the road became narrower, but the scenery was more beautiful here.







Reaching the immigration control on the Malaysian side.





Here all passengers alighted for immigration check. Then from the Malaysian side, we walked for about 200 m to the Indonesian immigration office.





Then finally my passport was stamped once again at the Indonesian side. The new building of Entikong immigration complex was inaugurated by Indonesian president on December 2016. The situation was terrible and chaotic before the upgrading project.









Finally I returned to my country, though still away from home. As usual, I switched the time zone on my cellphone and put my Indonesian SIM card.

After having my passport stamped, I still waited for our bus which had another security check. We spent around an hour before continuing our journey.

Entikong border town on the Indonesian side. Upgrading projects were still everywhere.







A Bruneian bus from the other side. It was on a long journey from Pontianak to Brunei, more than 1,000 km.



The roads on the Indonesian side were recently upgraded by the government.





At 2.30 p.m. (UTC+7) we stopped for lunch break at "Roda Minang" restaurant.









About 45 minutes stop, the journey continued.

We could easily find churches because some areas in West Kalimantan, especially Sanggau Regency, had dominant Christian population.





Finally I saw Indomaret, the popular Indonesian convenience store chain.







A Dayak statue.





Finally we reached the Sungai Ambawang International Bus Terminal at 6.00 p.m, 8 hours after leaving Kuching.











As no public transports available to the city available in the terminal, I had to hop an expensive motorcycle taxi.

I spent some hours in the Pontianak city center before heading to my hostel. Here I bought "lek tau suan", a Teochew-style bean soup served with "cakwe" (Mandarin: "you tiao"). It's a popular desert here.





Then I left the city center for my hostel, where I would stay for a night.