Visit Pontianak - West Kalimantan – Indonesia 2014

Foreward

As a holiday destination, West Kalimantan offers visitors a multi-dimensional experience, offering the ultimate and cultural diversity and amazing natural beuty that will provide a unique, unforgettable experience. 

West Kalimantan hospitable ethnic groups – the Dayak, Malay, and China-Tionghoa – attract visitors worldwide with their arts and culture.

The Solar Eclipse

The solar eclipse is a spectacular  phenomenon that make the Equatorial Monument and West Kalimantan’s other attractions extremely popular twice a year during the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes (March 21 – 23 and September 21 – 23).

Events important and magnificent in monument the equator is when the the point of culmination the sun, namely natural phenomena when the sun are in its equator. At the time the sun directly overhead thus relieving all shadow objects on the earth. 

To events the point of culmination the shadow monument “will disappear” several seconds when exposed to sunlight similarly with shadows other objects around monument.

Regional Art and Cultural Display

The most popular tourist attractions with the many talents of young in Pontianak City of West Kalimantan Province can be seen from January – December 2017 at The Art and Cultural Center located near The Ayani Mega Mall. This is a must for locals and overseas travelers to witness the performances of the Dayak, Malay and Chinese traditional music, painting, sculpture, craft, decoration, creative dances.


Tourist Informations :

Phone :  (62-561) 733742 – 732340 – 742838 - 734560

Fax : (62-561) 769472 – 742838 - 742644


Photo:

http://www.antarafoto.com/ 

Higher Prices for Passengers

Higher Prices for Passengers. If heavier planes mean higher fuel costs for airlines—and as a result, higher prices for passengers—why not charge people according to how much weight they add to the flight? In other words, those who weigh more would pay more, and those who weigh less would pay less.

Dr. Bharat P. Bhatta of Norway's Sogn og Fjordane University College covered this topic in a recent edition of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, noting that both weight and space should be factored in when airlines are figuring out ticket prices. It makes sense—each additional pound translates to more expensive jet fuel, higher amounts of CO2 being released, and ultimately, higher costs for both the airline and the consumer. In the article, Dr. Bhatta suggests setting a series of fixed prices so people weighing over a certain amount would pay one price, while people weighing less would pay less. Other proposals include discounts for slimmer passengers, or a standard fare for everyone but with extra fees for those who are over a certain weight. Dr. Bhatta even goes so far as to suggest people weigh themselves as part of the check-in process.

I can see where he's coming from, but yikes! Aren't we paying enough already for everything we carry onto the plane (baggage fees, even carry-on fees sometimes) without having to worry about our own weight at the gate? I'm also wondering what happens if a person loses or gains weight between the day the ticket is booked (at one price) and the day of the trip (possibly another price according to weight fluctuations?). On the other hand this could be an interesting new incentive to stay in shape if there really is that much of a price difference involved.

time on the refuge

Time on the refuge. I’ve got a little over two weeks left at Okefenokee, and I’m getting short timer’s attitude.  Some people call it hitch itch, but I have noticed that as the time for me to move on nears, I become less tolerant of minor irritations.  Same thing happened just before I retired almost seven years ago.  The excitement of new horizons builds, and the attitude turns to “What can they do?  Fire me?”  I’ve been at this volunteer assignment longer than any other I’ve had, and I guess I’m ready to move on.  It seems to happen every time as the departure date nears. 

I’ve spent the last two days between roving and working the VC.  This is the busy season here, and work in the VC is non-stop as hundreds of visitors come in.  Roving and observing the wildlife is a welcome break from all the harried activity.

I got a call on the radio this morning that fellow fulltimers and bloggers, Randy and Pam, had arrived at the VC.  I headed in, picked them up, and gave them a tour of the refuge on a couple of the back roads and out to the Chesser Homestead.  Little did I know at that time, that they had already been out there a couple of days ago.   It’s always nice to spend some time with people of similar interests.  The last time I saw them, they visited me at Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR in Mississippi when I was pretty much under the weather.  This was a much more pleasant experience.

Before heading in to pick them up, I had made a stop at the secret pond.  Love is still in the air, and the tom turkeys were gobbling away and showing their finery.

I had thought that this flock only had two toms, but today I’m thinking there may be four.  At this point, most of the females had headed for the woods, but one was left.  I think all four birds on the right are males.  Two of them just couldn’t help themselves from displaying to the fullest every couple of seconds.  They seem to be helpless to the effects of spring fever!  

It’s always nice to spot one of our endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers along the way.  Notice the two yellow and one blue bands on its left leg?  I believe this bird hatched here on the refuge. 

Nearby was one of the much more numerous red-bellied woodpeckers working the longleaf pine branches for tasty morsels.  I had a minor accomplishment today, as I had decided to not rely on using my cane all day at work.  I felt I needed to push myself a little to get past the recuperation plateau that I seemed to have reached.  Things went well, so I will concentrate on not using the cane.  I think it became too easy to use it.  I want to move on to more normalcy. 

                                                                         

Chesser Island Homestead

Chesser Island Homestead. I had enough work and fun yesterday that the result was I was too pooped to post. 

I was assigned to man the Chesser Island Homestead all day, and give tours to visitors.  The day started off with a bang as I had three visitors in the first ten minutes.  Then it calmed down to the usual trickle through here on a week day.  It’s been several months since I’ve had the rocking chair assignment on the porch of the homestead, so I relaxed and enjoyed myself.

As I rocked away waiting for the next visitor, my ears just couldn’t ignore the songs and chips of the little warblers in the surrounding trees.  It wasn’t long before I grabbed my camera to see if I could get some pictures of these beauties that were working the trees for insects. 

A whole bunch of one of my favorite warblers was moving through…the Northern Parula.  I think it is one of the prettiest warblers with its blue/grey wings, yellow upper breast, throat and back, and the reddish necklace around its throat.  They nest here at Okefenokee, but for a girl from the north, they are a real treat to see.

This isn’t the best shot, but if you look closely you can see that this little guy has gleaned a spider to eat from among the branches.  I love that they almost continually sing their rising buzzing song as they constantly hop from here to there to thwart the lowly photographer. 

Once I closed up the homestead, I had to buzz my way back to the rig, at a whopping 15 mph, to get ready for the cookout we were having at the Volunteer Village to honor Jack’s visit.  It was not without drama, however, as we kept our radios near to listen for news from the group out on the water.  Besides the RV volunteers, occasionally we have other volunteers that stay a few days at the village in the double-wide trailer to do work on the canoe trails out in the swamp.  The group that was here yesterday went out in two boats on the orange trail to do some trimming. The motor on one of the boats died while they were out, and the other engine was having problems towing the broken boat.  We lost radio contact with them, and began to worry for their safety.  Being that it was a Friday evening, there was no staff around.  You sure don’t want to be stranded overnight out on the swamp if you are not near a shelter! 

None of us are certified to drive the refuge boats to go out and find them, so we had a dilemma.  Eventually, we notified the staff Law Enforcement Officer, and called Russell, who drove the boat for Wednesday’s adventure, to come help.  Just as the troops gathered, the group limped in with both boats.  That was a close call.  They were wet and tired, and we shared whatever we had left from our cookout with them.  Thankfully, everything turned out well.

Today, a couple of people showed up for my morning bird tour.  We went out, but there wasn’t much birdlife to be seen as it was overcast and beginning to rain.  After the tour, the skies opened up and a deluge began that hasn’t ended yet.  It is supposed to continue through tomorrow.

I went out to rove for about an hour this afternoon, and was able to document the first lily pad bloom of the season through the rain.  As you can tell, it was pretty dark and dreary out, but that didn’t seem to stop folks from driving the Swamp Island Drive.  I spoke with more people in one hour along the drive in the rain than any other time I’ve been roving.  Go figure!

                                                                             

National Wildlife Refuges

National Wildlife Refuges. When I found out what days Jack would be visiting, I asked Gracie, the volunteer coordinator, if anyone would be going out to work on the canoe trails in the swamp.  She arranged for the two of us to go out with local volunteer Russell out of the Kingfisher Landing to help install new canoe trails signs.  Yahoo!  We spent the day out in the swamp in a boat.  The only thing better would be spending the day exploring the swamp in a canoe or kayak, but that would involve some bending and folding that I’m not allowed to do yet, so this was the next best thing.

We headed out under overcast and threatening skies, but the reflections were as enjoyable as ever.

After only a mile down the trail, we worked on our first sign assignment.  There are two canoe trails out of Kingfisher; the red and the green.  Apparently a school group got lost along here, so an improvement in signs was ordered from the powers above.

This chore is not as daunting as it may seem.  I remember trying to put a post into the soil in upstate New York, and it was almost an insurmountable task with all of the rocks in the soil.  Out in the swamp, all you have to do is plunge an eight foot wood stake into the peat.  You can do it without any digging at all!  You just push it down to the level you want.  The peat is up to 20’ deep, holds the stake in place, and has no rocks.  Easy peasy, really…  (easy for me to say since I was mostly supervising )

As we made our way to our next mile post, we encountered two kayakers along the way.  Lo and behold, it was C and Shawn, the two Workampers from Okefenokee Pastimes that helped me out so much while I was recuperating there after my hip surgery.  You just never know who you’re going to meet in the swamp!   Kingfisher Landing is 20 miles from the east entrance of the refuge, and they normally work on Wednesdays.  I particularly liked the pic of C and her reflection in the water.  You can click on it, I hope, to get the full effect.

One of the most interesting features to me of this area of the Okefenokee Swamp, is the size and abundance of the carnivorous pitcher plants.  The canoe trail is lined with massive bunches of these plants for several miles.  Many are dried out since they’re last year’s plants, but all will be in bloom next month.  I hope I can get out here again in April to see all the blooms and new stalks emerging.

As we stopped to install or replace damaged trail signs, intern Kathy was at the front of the boat to pole us into each site or get us out.  She reminded me of Mike Fink from the Davy Crockett show when I was a kid.  She got us out of some sticky situations, and did it barefoot besides.Okay, here it is folks… my favorite pic of Jack that I caught today.  When Kathy wasn’t manning the pole, he was to keep us in place for the sign replacements.   When people come to visit me, I guess they have to expect to be put to work.   And what’s with that earing?  I suppose I just never took note of it before.  I really did have a picture of him wrestling with an alligator, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I’m not able to publish that…

Shortly after noon, we came to this shallow lake covered in lily pads.  I was sure glad Russell knew where he was going and driving the boat.

After installing some more signs we arrived at this hummock canoe shelter for lunch.  Out in the middle of nowhere is a shelter for lunch and a porta-potty.  It was a welcome time to stretch our legs, take relief, and chow down on a picnic lunch.  We had traveled 12 miles through the swamp to get here.  I’m not sure I could do that in a canoe any more.  We had some rain along the way to get here, but were dry for the trip back.

At one point on the return trip, we had to bank the boat in order for Russell to climb through the swamp to retrieve an old hidden mile marker.  The problem was getting off where we were stuck.  It took some work, and if you look closely, you can see Russell had to put down one of our folding chairs on top of the peat so he wouldn’t sink into oblivion.  We eventually got unstuck and headed back to the landing.We covered about 30 miles in our trail maintenance today, and because of that we had to boogey.  Not much time to stop for bird pictures, but I was able to get one shot of this American bittern.  We had flushed it as we motored along, and it flew off a bit and went into its defensive stance.  When standing in dried reeds, you can hardly pick out this bird with its head raised as it looks like the foliage. 

So, I sort of helped with canoe trail maintenance today, but I’d consider it more of an adventure that work.  I think Jack had a good time too.  Days like today are one of the reasons I so enjoy volunteering at our National Wildlife Refuges.

What u see

What u see. Want to see an Eastern screech owl?  Of course you do…

                                                

                                                        “I’m so tired after hunting all night!”

                                                       “Okay, so what do you want, anyway?”

                                    “Sorry, I have to rest up for tonight’s hunt.  See you later…”

The real beauty of this owl is that it was roosting for the day in a red-cockaded woodpecker hole.  Yep, in one of those white ringed longleaf pines along the Upland Discovery Trail on the refuge.  A visitor excitedly reported it to us in the VC this afternoon, and Kathy and I wasted no time getting out there to see it.  The red-cockaded woodpecker is not only an endangered species, but also a ‘keystone’ species.  That means that its homes are used by more than just their species.  This was a great example of how important they are to the entire ecosystem.  Cool beans!  (Sorry, sometimes I just have to add subtitles even though I know it’s anthropomorphism.) 

                                                                           

Back to School Today for me

Back to School Today for me. Even though most of the volunteers had a scheduled day off today, we all went in for some training.  It was back to school for us to learn more about presenting excellent interpretive programs.  Over my lifetime, I’ve spent many many years in school in order to advance in my working career.  That included five plus years of college for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and then a couple of more years for my Work Experience License in Minnesota and my Principal’s License.  Had I ever taken the time to write a dissertation, I could have had a Doctorate Degree.  

So, I bet you think I loved going to school?  Wrong!  I did it because I had to.  I would have preferred doing almost anything else!  This day of schooling was different.  I was there because I wanted to learn more about the outside world that is so dear to my heart.  Don Berryhill was our instructor, and what a wealth of knowledge he is about the Okefenokee swamp.  Don has spent a lifetime studying everything about the swamp, and the most amazing thing to me is that he remembers it all including the official Latin names for most all of the plant and animal species that we encountered today. 

After some brief classroom time going over the principles of the best interpretive presentations, he took us on a walk along the Canal Diggers Trail for some hands on learning.  You may remember that Emma and I hiked this trail just a few days ago.  On our wanderings, I didn’t see half of the things that Don pointed out to us this morning.  This was my kind of learning!  I absorbed more in those 90 minutes than I would have in hours of reading books about it.

After lunch, he led us through a pond study program that we do for school groups that visit the refuge.  I wish I had 1/10 of this man’s knowledge about the circle of life in our various environments.  What a grand learning day it was.

As most of the class walked to the Canal Diggers Trail this morning, I chose to drive my car there.  I knew I’d be able to walk the trail, but I wasn’t sure about adding all of the steps from the VC to the trailhead and back.  I didn’t want to push it with my hip since there are no benches to rest on along this trail.  As I was waiting for the group to arrive at the starting point for me, I couldn’t help but enjoy all the birds bubbling around the woods in the morning sunshine.  There were brown thrashers, Eastern towhees, yellow-rumped warblers, a white-eyed vireo, and a family of red cockaded woodpeckers (RCW’s) that moved through.  Luckily, the RCW’s hung around long enough so everyone could see them.  Alligators and RCW’s are what people come to the refuge to see.  I was wishing I had one of my bird tour groups with me.

I have all day tomorrow off, so it’s time to clean the rig and do laundry.  Not exciting, but necessary. 

SNAFU

Yep, situation normal…all fuzzed* up!  Remember last week when we had the man bleeding all over the place from his head?  Well today as I pulled into the VC, our brown shirt leader was leaving to go home ill.  That meant I would not be able to get onto the computer to write up my Woodpecker program outline.  I was supposed to do that yesterday, but things came up and I ended up working the VC all day with 244 visitors. 

Then after Barb and I opened up, we found out there was no water supply.  That meant having to lock the bathrooms so we wouldn’t have backed up toilets.  Did anyone tell us this was going to happen?  No.  Eventually after having to investigate, we found out that there was nothing we could do about it.  The folks installing the new docks had shut off the water.  It would have been nice to know that ahead of time.  There was one very desperate man looking for a bathroom.  I hope everything came out all right for him.

Last night as I tried to watch the Netflix classic movie “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, I couldn’t… bad disk.  Then when I got my mail this afternoon, the post office only delivered the front cover to my next Netflix.  No disk, no pocket, just the front part with my name and address. 

After lunch and working on my program outline at the rig, I returned to the VC to find a hubbub going on about a woman who had lost her purse.  She was from Ontario and had left just before I got there to head for the rest area near Savannah, about two and a half hours away to see if she left it there.  Then I escorted some folks into the auditorium to view our excellent video.  The mother of that family found a purse when she went to sit down in the theater.  Turned out it belonged to the woman from Canada.  Then ensued a wild hour or so of trying to get in contact with the woman.  (She had her driver’s license, charge cards, cash, and medications in that purse and had been understandably upset before she left.  Her husband, in the meantime, couldn’t be bothered with her purse.  He was too busy taking photos. The three of us kind of agreed that we’d deep six him!)   We found a phone number in the purse and left a message, but who knows if it was a cell phone or their home phone in Ontario?  We did all we could which included calling the rest area and the state park where we thought they might be staying. 

Thankfully, there was a highlight to the day.  Just before I left for lunch and to let Emma out, a woman approached the desk for the second time in as many weeks and asked if I was Judy Bell.  I guess I just can’t deny that. 

It turned out to be Peggy Hayward, a reader of my blog from Connecticut.  It always amazes me when perfect strangers walk up to introduce themselves as readers.  She is going to come along on my bird tour tomorrow, so I’m hoping to get to know her better. 

I’ve heard that when life is never dull it keeps you young at heart.  I sure hope that’s true.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

How Expanding my horizon

How Expanding my horizon. I was off fairly early this morning to drive in to visit the Folkston Funnel.  The Funnel is a very busy place for trains.  All the trains headed from Savannah to Florida, or coming from Florida to Savannah and points beyond have to funnel through Folkston, GA.

Folkston is a mecca for train lovers.  70 trains a day funnel through this small Georgia town.  I was hoping to understand why people watch trains by talking to them at this train viewing platform complete with picnic tables, a bathroom, a charcoal grill, and internet access.

Yesterday I visited the Chamber of Commerce and was given a train schedule.  I chose to come this morning before nine so I could be prepared to see the Tropicana Express from Florida bringing oranges north from Florida.  I was hoping to see the white cars which I assumed would have oranges painted on them.  I was also told a local train enthusiast named Cricket would be there on his cart.

Well folks, no one was at the platform.  It was chilly and the wind was blowing hard.  I waited for about 45 minutes, but the orange juice special never appeared.  Nor did Cricket.  I did see one train, though.

                                                                                   It came…

It went… with horns blasting.

Sorry SAM, I’m still at a loss as to what the draw is to see and hear noisy trains.

Across the tracks from the platform is a red caboose in the woods.  Whatever happened to cabooses?  I never see them at the end of trains anymore.

There’s also a nice mural across the tracks depicting the trains and a fierce alligator.

I did a little grocery shopping in town before heading back to the rig to gather my thoughts before a telephone interview.  The National Elk Refuge in Wyoming is a very popular Nat’l Wildlife Refuge for RVers that are into the volunteer lifestyle.  For every open position, there are many applicants, so it is rather competitive.

I made it through the first cut and had my interview this afternoon.  I think it went well, but then you never know.  I was on a speaker phone with several brown shirts in the room at the refuge.  However, only the volunteer coordinator did any speaking.  I find phone interviews harder than face to face interviews.  You just can’t read facial reactions over the phone.  I was honest when she asked me how I felt about 32 hours/week.  I’m not crazy about it, but knew it going into this application process.  I told her that once you do your four days, then do your laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping, it doesn’t leave you much time to visit and enjoy the area.  I’ll find out whether or not I’ll be offered a position a week from Friday.  This was the first day of interviews, so there are lots more people for her to speak to.

Exciting around here

Exciting around here. Since I last posted, there hasn’t been much that’s been exciting around here.  I roved on Sunday morning, and worked the VC in the afternoon.  We had a whopping six visitors for the day, sold nothing in the nature store, and closed up in record time.  I was able to get a few pictures during my roving time, so that’s what you’ll see tonight.

It was cold enough in the morning that this pied-billed grebe didn’t have to worry about any alligators snacking on it in Alligator Pond.

Yesterday morning, I attended a two hour refuge staff meeting that included welcoming a new staff member, Cindy, who will have her office in the VC.  Guess I’ll be seeing her often and getting to know her.  She likes birds, so I think we’ll get along just fine.

Found my three sandhill crane friends again in the field around the secret pond.  My guess is this is a family of cheese heads (from Wisconsin).  Looks like the adults are on the outside of the pic with the youngster in the middle.  The top of its head doesn’t seem as red as the adults.

A couple of other bloggers have talked about the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) that has been going on across the Americas since 1900.  With a surgery date of Jan. 8, I will be able to participate in the refuge CBC on Dec. 29.  During yesterday’s meeting, I talked with staff member Art, and will be traveling with him in a boat that day to count the birds out in the swamp.  I’m excited about that!  Any time I can get out on the waters of the Okefenokee swamp I’m a happy camper.

The cranes were a little skittish on Sunday, and soon silently took flight.  Cranes are usually pretty vocal, but they were quiet as mice this time.  I try to stay far enough away that I don’t disturb them.

A good share of today was taken up with a trip to Kingsland, GA, to take care of errands.  I’ll probably talk about some of my purchases tomorrow night.  Spending a little time at the Publix grocery store was amongst my stops.  I succumbed to their individual packaging and bought a slice of cheese cake.  I so appreciate being able to buy just one slice as apposed to a whole cake.  That one slice will last me three days.  Once again I ended up with more in my cart than was on my shopping list.  Some day I’ll learn not to go grocery shopping when I’m hungry.

Adios, my friends.  See you next time!

I actually got a promised call from Mayo in Waycross this afternoon.  My pre-op appointment to be checked out to be okay for surgery and meet with the anesthesiologist has been scheduled for Dec. 31.  If all goes well, I’ll have something to celebrate on New Year’s Eve!

                                                                            

A Trip to God’s Own Country

A Trip to God’s Own Country.  Welcome to Kerala, God’s own country with tranquil beaches, serene backwaters and enjoy the best climate. With friendly people around, you would never find yourself alone wherever you go. Do not miss the colorful festivals of Kerala like Kathakali, Kalaripayattu, Koodiyattom, Thullal which is an added attraction for the tourists. Also feel the gentle touch of nature. You can also visit ayurvedic treatment centers as well.

You can taste the food of Kerala which is really very tasty. You would get fresh fruits. There are lots of pilgrimages where you need to pass through the thick forests to Sabarimla or Agastyarkoodom. In terms of technology Kerala is much ahead and it is ranked best in soicio-political index. You can find astrology, palmistry, vastu, gemology and lots more. So enjoy the fantastic weather along with the tasty foods of Kerala. You would never forget your memorable days spent in the “God’s own country.” For more travel information you can visit here.

Travel Guide Information

Traveling any where is a best way for the refreshment. Some one get only one chance to travel any city or ant country because the rule and regulations are changes with the time. So it may be happened that you can’t go place of your choice. That’s why whenever you get a chance to travel doesn’t miss that opportunity. But it becomes happiest if you book a travel guide for your convenience.

Travel agents provide you different discounts packages for lodging and food. Always heir the expert guide who will know all about that particular place where you want to go. You can search a travel guide in to a travel directory. There is a good quality online travel directory is available which contain a no. of experience travel guide. So visit now for best quality travel guide to the website.

Travel Websites and your tour

Online holiday packages make your travel stress free, since it provides various discounts and other facilities which make your tour excellent one. The travel websites are best place where you can search hotels, flight, travel agents and other travel related activities.

But the first question arises that how you can get the good quality travel websites. You have a option to go for the search engines but when you search travel websites then you will get a lot of results pages and you have to sort out best one form those. But think if get such places where you can get the only good quality travel websites listing then your work become easier. Tour travel portal is such an online travel directory which contains good quality travel websites. So you can get a lot of travel websites at one palace and can search for your travel related needs.

Tour Travel Guide

Most of the people want to add a little adventure in their life. But question arise that how they can do some adventure with fun in their life. Easiest way for it is an adventure trip. But there are some points that you should keep in your mind whenever you make a plan for adventure trip.

First thing is that you must have an experience travel guide who will instructs you that how to handle situation. Second thing is that before making adventures trip you must decide it that how much physical activity you would like to engage.

There are very kind of adventures trip for every kind of people. There are many tour and travel agencies who manage all type of tour and travel trips. You can also visit to their website for more information; also you can compare different travel packages offer by different tour and travel agencies through the online. You can also use some tour travel guide or tour travel portal that provide all information regarding travel, and help you in making your tour travel trips in an easy way.