Gwing1313: PONTIANAK .. shopping...n PONDOK KAKAP ...xpdc StOrieS

PONTIANAK...

.....a legend MALAY name.... equal to KUNTILANAK as known in INDONESIA.... a GHOST.... comparison to VAMPIRE ... as believed .. to some.. Western people... in Europe...

Have Uu seen d' films..??? woo... Nice films... now.... with wolves... people.... eee...

As told...in history legend.. 240 years ago... founded d' city in 23 October 1771 by Syarif Abdulrrahman Al Qadri who was of Arab descent ... first..encountering d' ghost while sailing along Kapuas River.. nn he fired CANNON to chase away d' vampire... The cannon ball fell on d' spot where Kapuas River meets Landak River.. a place now known as BETING Kampung Dalam Bugis...Pontianak..... wow..that was history legend...

Ok.. here.. Kapuas River approximately 1143 km... d' longest river in INDONESIA... located PRECISEley on d' EQUATOR.. hence widely... known...PONTIANAK... as KOTA KHATULISTIWA... EQUATOR CITY...

so that was why people built d' EQUATOR MONUMENT here....

A place popularly visited by tourists..

We 're NOT visiting...... coz.. had been here few times... since 2005...???

Today's.. destination.. was going to Mega MALL... A YANI MEGAMALL.. was NOT here when we FIRST came to PONTIANAK.... in 2005...???
The name comes from AHMAD YANI...a profile road just d' frontage high way double lanes

Pontianak CITY... NOT really big ... but .. d' city... likely similar to Banjarmasin... to my observation.... ???

'.... a low lying delta area... on d' mouth river NOT far to sea...

The POPULATION... was around 509,804 people.. an estimation census ..2006... much bigger than d' population of whole... BRUNEI ... imagine.. !!!

The Multicultural population... Chinese.. Dayak...Malay Muslims... about 65 percent... d' language here. ....Malay Accent of Indonesia... similar to Malaysia... so NO big problem to communicate with d' people here...

Going to MALL... we decided to go by TAXI.. coz.. my car still got STARTING problem.. 5 person.. in a car...???. ok here.. got big taxi... KIJANG Innova.... as called.. only Rp50,000 to reach within about 7 minutes...

BIG... enough..... for shopping... think of 1 BORNEO...in KK... SABAH....

......or SPRING.. looked alike.. in KUCHING, SARAWAK ... either...
D' big mall to serve... quite enormous population ....

Cinema..s . also providing recent films... as seen at our MALL s here...

Things seemed to be equally same... anywhere...everywhere..
MALL.. a place for shopping... relaxing for some ... nn depended on what kind of human beings... to make use.... usefulness ...????

Simple FAST food seemed to be hotly demanded by customers nowadays....

...nn no wonder.. places like this took d' advantage of people's attendance .. young children.. teens...youth.. mid-age... not least... old people to cater their needs...

D' mall... providing specially motorbikes' parking.. coz.. many.. if NOT young people using motorbikes as meant of transportation...

Modern building... plus up dated architectural became main attraction to local people here... as well as tourists did.. BUT ...d' gap is still obvious between d' able people... standard of living improves... as compared few years back...

Still happy mood... atmosphere of year-end's holidays... all d' shops exhibited SALES promotions...

X Mas just ended.. but NEW YEAR was around..... so if in Malaysia or Brunei.. d' shops would promote BACK TO SCHOOL...SALES.. but here.. d' schools.. as d' educational system is using semester yearly holidays... Jun ..July would be early semester for the students here.... so nn so....

RAMAYANA... another shopping center.. here in Pontianak.... a well known place before... but still popular for d' cheap bargain place to buy clothings .. all sorts...

By end of d' year.. nn approaching NEW YEAR 2011... after d' X Mas... ....SALEs.. was still ON... 20% .... 50% .... 70% ... wow.. discount sales.... ????

Located to near main road.. an easy access.. paid parking just behind this building as well d' frontage motorbikes' parking... along TANJUNG PURA road...

Spent NIGHT DINNER... somewhere.. very near in d' heart of Pontianak....

RESTORAN PONDOK KAKAP........ CRABs HUT Restaurant ..... specially eating restaurant to serve SEA FOODs... a place in d' main heart of Pontianak... a few minutes with two-three corners ... drive to reach here....

We're all here to have sea food DINNER... paid by our.... 4wd CLUB as Hj Ibrahim said... ???

Almost.. HALF of d' room... each table with at least 6 -8 person seated... as to spend our dinner here.. with served crabs.. big fishes... plus vegetables... as... favorite sea food...