Having Fun In Indonesia!

We received our paperwork for Indonesia at 2am on 26 July and we had left Darwin by 10am! It was a 300 mile sail to Saumlaki and with good winds we had a fast sail and arrived on Monday 28th. We were not allowed to leave the boat until we had been visited by quarantine. The quarantine officer was brought out to our boat on Tuesday. The guy driving the boat he arrived in did not have a clue about boat handling so we were busy fending them off while the quarantine officer jumped onto our boat. We escaped without any damage but they did manage to ram one boat breaking a port and damaging the side. The quarantine guy was very nosey and went through all the boat, he also kept asking everyone for whisky!

We were then allowed ashore and were invited, along with the other boats in the anchorage, to attend a welcome ceremony. The chiefs of the village did a small ceremony, then there was speeches followed by cakes and lots of photos. Everyone had a smart phone with a camera and wanted their picture taken with the foreigners. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and friendly, there were lots of 'hello misters' from the children and lots of smiling faces.

The following day we were taken on a tour of the island with a police escort which was very funny as the police car would make all the vehicles coming the opposite way get off the road out of our way. Even though, it was a wide 2 lane road!! We were being treated like visiting dignitaries. We were taken to a village to see a stone boat. Our tourist guide was very upset and was crying because they had given money for the villagers to tidy the village ready for our visit and they hadn't so she was very ashamed of her country and thought we would be upset.

Thursday evening an immigration officer turned up to continue our clearance and Friday we finally managed to get customs to come to our boat to finalise the process. New boats were arriving expecting clearance to happen in a day and we had to let them know that it could take a while! Having got our clearance into the country we then needed to get clearance to leave Saumlaki. We were hoping it would be a quicker process and thankfully it was and we received our papers at the farewell dinner the next day.

The farewell dinner was quite interesting. We had lots of speeches from the local dignitaries and Captains (Karen) were presented with a scarf by the Mayor. There was a few singers and then it turned into a sort of Karaoke with the Police chief singing a duet and one of the heads of the state also singing a song. Not something we would ever see at home but performance of every sort is still a social norm here. Food was served after they had been convinced that none of us would get up and sing and then there was a sort of disco.

We did some food shopping at the market but stuck to fruit as we were not wanting to buy the live chickens and pigs!! It was a very colourful scene and everyone is so helpful and smiling, even though most speak no English point and smile seems to work well!

We left Saumlaki and sailed to an anchorage on the west side of Tanimbar Island for an overnight stop. We were expecting limited shelter and a rolly night but there was a little inlet and small fishing village and total protection. We then had a 200 mile sail to Banda. Banda is a small group of islands which are very important in the spice trade and still grow lots of nutmeg, cloves and almonds. We anchored off the main town across from the volcano Gunung Api. The harbour is very deep (200+ feet so we had to drop our anchor and reverse up to the shore and tie stern lines to trees. It worked well but we didn't get a lot of privacy as the locals (especially the children) would play on the wall behind the boat and we were the local attraction.

Aba, who is the local Sail Indonesia representative, invited us to his guest house for Cinnamon tea which was delicious. We went on a tour of the big island to see how they grow and pick the spices which involved a boat trip across the bay. Cloves are harvested by young men and boys climbing the trees and then stuffing the cloves in their shirts! Once they can fit no more in, they climb down and offload into bags. Nutmeg is a little easier to harvest as it looks like a small unripe plum which is pulled off with a special tool/basket on a long pole. The nutmeg is at the centre of the fruit and must then be dried before shipping. When we got back we had a lovely lunch at Aba's guest house.

A group of us had a snorkelling expedition to the lava flow from when Gunung Api last erupted in 1988. The corals have grown amazingly fast but all the fish were small. It was also surprisingly cold in the water not helped by it being cloudy that day. We only managed one snorkel as we were busy doing other things. We had a tour of the main island where we were anchored which included visits to the old Dutch forts and the old Dutch colonial houses.

These are beautiful islands but it is sad to see the amount of rubbish either lying on the ground or being thrown into the sea. A large ferry came into the harbour and everyone was just throwing their rubbish into the harbour. Plastic bottles are everywhere and there are also a large quantity of plastic bags under the water just waiting to go into our engine intake!

We had a lovely time at Banda but once again it was time to move on to our next stop in Wakatobi.
We had an amazing sail covering 400 miles in 53 hours which is our fastest trip ever. Wakatobi is a series of 4 islands and we anchored on the island of Wangi Wangi. We were inside a lagoon which is accessed by a pass which has been created in the reef probably by dynamite and a large digger on a barge. It's pretty narrow and a challenge for some of the bigger catamarans!

There were more boats here as some of the boats that were doing the southern route through Indonesia came north to join us. The town had a full schedule of events for us, it was non stop. There is a committee of young men and women who greet us whenever we go ashore and insist on escorting us wherever we go. Most of the trips have involved taking us to villages on the island where we are treated like dignitaries. The whole village comes out to entertain and feed us. One trip we were taken to a village on the other side of the island where firstly the elders did a welcome dance. Then we saw the men having a kicking competition. There are 2 teams of 2 men who hold hands and then kick their opponents. They are smiling while they do it! We were then taken to eat with the local chiefs and got to try lots of traditional foods.

The following day was a boat trip across to the island of Kapote. Again we were looked after very well. It was hard to understand what was going on as a lot is lost in translation. To start with a series of girls came out of a building wearing ornate clothes and a huge headdress which their mothers had made. The girls were very sombre but all the female relatives were dancing and cheering and getting very over excited. The girls were led out to the street where carriages with big bamboo handles were waiting. 2 girls went into each carriage with a helper on each side to help hold their headdresses. The carriages were surrounded by very excited young men and were then lifted and thrown into the air. The girls looked terrified. The carriages were then run around the village. The whole thing was chaotic with hundreds of people and us being led from one area to the other so that we didn't miss anything. At the end we were invited to dinner at the local Chief's house which was amazing food. We have managed to find out that the ceremony is to celebrate the girls becoming women and there were also lots of boys of about 5 also dressed up and they had been circumcised. One of the cruisers found out that the girls are also circumcised so no wonder they looked so miserable.

We have also had another welcome dinner with dancing and speeches and we were also invited to the Independence day celebrations on 17 August. There was a ceremony in the morning where we got to sit with all the local dignitaries. It was a little strange as after the official bit there was a marching band where the female band leaders were wearing very short skirts and white boots. This doesn't sound strange except that this is a very muslim country, practically all the women have their head covered with a scarf, wear long skirts and we (women) have to be careful to keep our knees and shoulders covered when we are in public.

In the evening we were invited to the Mayor's house. We thought it was going to be a party but it was lots of speeches and giving of medals to locals. We were on the main podium with the local dignitaries so had to try and look interested even though it was very boring. The evening didn't start until about 8pm so went on very late. We asked if we could leave and the Mayor gave us permission provided we had one dance. What they failed to tell us was that the song was incredibly long. They had 3 singers and they would keep alternating. Still we gave the locals a good laugh, they found our dancing very funny, and then we were allowed to leave.

The following day was a very early start as we all got a local boat to Hoga island. It was a 3 hour ride each way in a very uncomfortable and incredibly noisy boat. It had 3 air cooled engines, no silencing and the captain steered by sitting on a plank with his head out of a hatch in the roof and his feet on the wheel!!We were seated on wooden benches and the boat banged around in the swell so lots of back ache and sore bums!!The island itself was lovely and we had a good snorkel but not sure it was worth the pain of the journey.

Our final event was a ceremony to get rid of evil spirits. The village make a boat and fill it with food and dolls they have made. We were then all invited to put a hand full of rice in the boat. The boat was then carried outside by the young men of the village. They had to turn the boat 8 times one way and then 9 times the opposite way to confuse the spirits. Then it was carried through the streets to the sea where they waded out into the harbour with the boat and it was then sunk. We all followed the procession with hundreds of locals. There were lots of photo stops to have a picture taken with the local children and then we all escaped back to our boats. The events are so intense and busy that we are all saturated by the attention and need some peace and quiet for a few days. It has been amazing to see the traditions though and we are glad not to have missed it.

So far this really is an amazing country, we could not have been treated better and the people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. We have also never had our photo taken so much! We are hoping to have a few days rest soon as we will take our boat to Hoga Island so we can do some diving!

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