August 17 is “Hari Merdeka” – Independence Day – in Indonesia. Our original plan for this holdiay was to work, doing one more day of heath surveys along the road before heading home to Pontianak. However, steady morning rains ruined our plans so we decided to take the speedboat to a small village on the Kapuas River called Semitau, where we could catch a 12 hour bus ride to Pontianak. Unfortunately, we had miscalculated our money needs and after paying for the bus tickets, we could not pay the boat driver in full. The single ATM in town would not accept our credit cards, and the banks (which would have changed the $20 US Marion had in her belt) were closed because of the holiday. We even tried to change the money at a Chinese-run shop, but they were not interested. We resolved this highly embarrassing situation by promising to mail our driver the cash – along with a nice tip – upon arrival in Pontianak.
The bus ride home was bumpy yet uneventful. We arrived in Pontianak at about 2:30 am and crashed into bed, expecting to have a long weekend break from our adventures. Of course this was not to be – but more on that later!
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