Hello, good morning good people. I hope you are all doing good.

I would like to tell

you about Kelam Hill or “Bukit Kelam” which is located in Sintang, West Kalimantan.

My brother’s hometown is Sintang, West Borneo. Maybe you are not familiar about

this name. It is the east part of West Borneo. It takes about 10 hours to trip from Pontianak to

Sintang by bus or about 30 minutes by small plane. There is no kind of transportation to go to

Sintang directly from Java. It is different with Pontianak as a central city of West Borneo.

Sintang is a small city, but it is beautiful I think.

Sintang is very green and fresh too. You could find many trees around your home if

you live there. You can hear many sounds of birds every morning. This city is still in

development process. There are not too many people like in Jakarta, Bandung or other big

cities in Indonesia. But many transmigrants are come to Sintang every year from Java. So,

with that continuous process, it is not impossible that one day this small city will be a big

city. Sintang is planned to be central city of new province suggested to government that

named Kapuas Raya Province. The plan is still in process now. Most visited places of interest

in Sintang is Kelam Hill. Kelam hill very potentially expanded as a unique tourist destination.

The special thing of this place is that the hill consists of only a very big stone. Based

on some observation results, done by some skilled person about that, this hill is only one

stone and is biggest in the world. Maybe when you see Kelam Hill in first time you will not

believe it. But if you try to make an observation about this, you will find that this hill is really

consist of a big stone with many of medium size stones around the big stone. Other  than that,

if you try to hoe the ground of some villages around the hill, you will find the stone in the

ground. Other than Kelam Hill, Kujau Hill is interested place to visit too, because it has a

good forest with many kind animals there. For note, the Borneo Island do not have any

mountains, so only hills there.

 I don’t know very much about traditional food and the tradition there. But something I

know are like Manisan Asam Maram and wet Kerupuk Basah as traditional foods and Gawai

as traditional Dayaknese party. There are two original cultures, they are Dayak and Melayu.

Really, Melayu is  part of Dayak, but most of Melayu people are Moslem and Dayak people

are Christian. Dayak in Sintang are divided to many subcultures like Dayak Tiban, Dayak

Putussibau, and many others. I don’t really know about that. The different Dayak has their

own different language too. But for Melayu, there is only one in Sintang that called Melayu

Sintang. Pontianak City also has Melayu culture that is called Melayu Pontianak. But its

language also have some slight differences with Melayu Sintang language. Then, about the

weather in Sintang, because its location is near with Pontianak that is passed by equator line

and many forests are there, the weather is not really affected by monsoon wind. Maybe you

will find that the day is rainy although in dry season, or the opposite of it.

Thank you for your attention, I hope it will be useful for you. Sorry for doing many

mistakes, bye.