Belitung Timur-The Regency of East Belitung

BPO Welcome poster in Manggar

Most interesting Andrea Hirata Literary Museum

Batik factory - applying hot wax to fabric

Tarsier - world's smallest monkey

Remains of an open pit tin mine - palm oil plantation in the distance

300 year old Buddhist Temple

Carol shaking sticks - getting fortune told

After the Dragon Dance

Fighting the BuBu - removing evil spirits!

Belitung Timur-The Regency of East Belitung

Nov. 25,  2015

Our last major stop in Indonesia has been on the island of Belitung. It has recently been divided into 2 regencies which is the governing body. I've read that this is a trend in Indonesia to add more layers of government so that more people have the opportunity to be the "big man" or civil servants. The government doesn't pay well but you get benefits that are not common in other jobs. Our stop was to the new east Belitung. The tourist department is working hard to increase tourism business. They certainly went out of their way to make our visit special. They had been working on the preparations for our welcoming and farewell evenings for a year.

The two day trip from Kumai was mostly under motor. At one point on the first day, the engine, and the watermaker, and the fridge stopped working. But the hard working captain with his magic wand has them all operating again. The river entrance into the anchorage is charted 0.6m at low tide and 2.6m at high, not something we would normally try on our own as our draft is 2.1 m. But a pilot boat came to lead us in and we put a track on our chart plotter for exiting. When crossing the sand bar you could see the water breaking at surface level just a few meters away on each side. We travelled through a thunderstorm just as we arrived in the am and anchored outside the river waiting for the guide. The anchor came up with no problems as usual but we were smelling something burning as we motored in. The engine looked fine. But when we went to drop the anchor and the windlass wouldn't work we realized that it was the problem. Likely the windlass  motor is literally " toast" and a new one will need to be ordered. It is lucky that we have no more anchoring to do as the next stop is in a marina where the work can be done. (We hope) It wasn't too hard to lift the anchor and chain in water only 13 ft deep. In the more common 40 feet it would have been a challenge.

We had 3 days anchored in the river which was well protected but windless. There was a large banner on shore welcoming the BPO. There was another welcoming banner used as a back drop for the stage show. The welcoming traditional dinner was followed by a cultural music and dance show at an outdoor park and stage along the beach, a great setting.  One of our guides, Stephanie, a high school student, had won a singing competition for the country. She sang a few songs with her band. A group of school age students sang, and another group did dancing. The costumes have been remarkable every time we have had a chance to watch dancers.

The town beside the harbour is Manggar, the city of 1001 coffee shops. Apparently many were built in former times for workers brought in to work the tin mines. But the residents recently got in a record book for having over 17,000 people all drinking a coffee at the same time, so the tradition continues. There is a monument with 2 coffee cups in the town square. Sunday's bus tour from there started with a visit to an old tin mining site. Mining for tin has been a huge industry here for a long time, predominately done by the Australian company Billiton. The particular site we visited was a climb to a vista point. Great views of the ocean and the palm oil plantations (owned by the Malaysians) and the "lake" in the bottom of the dug out pit. The water left in these finished pits is pretty to look at but not safe to swim in. Besides tin, the economy is supported by farming and fishing.

We next visited a Chinese Buddhist temple built in 1747 for the Chinese workers who came to work in the mines. There is still a Chinese population that worships there plus Chinese tourists. It is huge and on a beautiful property looking out over the island and ocean. There is a ritual that people come for to have their "fortunes" told. A number of us did the dropping of stones and shaking of sticks over incense to get to an answer to a private question you ask. You receive your fortune which is some Chinese proverb just for you-a lot like fortune cookies. The words were in Chinese, but translated into Indonesian, which our guides tried to translate into English. On the property we had a planned treat of watching the Chinese animal dance where 2 people are dressed together like a fanciful dragon. This was a very talented school age troupe of dancers and drummers. Kids would love it.

Lunch was at a restaurant along another beach, a public park, so much less garbage than other ones we have been at. Another group of girls did some dancing demonstrating the making of batik. On the beach, some young men showed a ritual fight against a "bu bu". They dress a fish trap of bamboo like a ghost, and wave smoke over it. All the bad spirits are thought to go into it, and then someone fights it trying to break the branches. If they are successful, the demons go away. In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant that was built to resemble a boat. It is on the site of a proposed marina. The docks and buildings have already been built around a small inland lake with a creek joining it to the sea. But they have been waiting for 5 years now to get permission to dredge the channel deep enough for boats to enter. It is a political decision as the land owners are not in agreement. The owner of the marina is running for office Dec 9, so you can guess the motivation.

On Mon we visited a local vocational high school where the students gave us a tour. The boys were working in an autobody shop on car and motor cycle engines. The girls do computers and tech. As everywhere they are very friendly and welcoming. We also visited a batik factory where we could make a small sample. There are metal carvings like a print stamp that are dipped in hot wax and pressed onto the fabric. The designs are unique to each island. The fabric is then dyed and the wax removed. This process is repeated for more intricate designs. The water was "off" the day we were there so we couldn't finish our own.

A highlight of that day for me was a visit to a "Literary Museum" opened in 2010. There was a lot of art, including the furnishings, and samples from many famous writers around the world. It was built by a local writer, Andrea Hirata  who grew up in the small town there, although he got his Phd in the UK.  His first book, "Rainbow Troops", published in 2005, has become a best seller and has been made into a movie. They were playing the Indonesian language version in our air conditioned bus. They could have sold a few copies in English if they had had stock left. Besides a brief stop to provision we spent a short time in the tourism office. It was more interesting than most with many photos and displays about various places on the island. There were 2 animals in cages in the lobby. One was a crocodile. The other was a tarsier monkey, the world's smallest. It is nocturnal so not often seen. It has huge, haunting eyes, and was awake for us.

The farewell dinner was followed by another show at the park along the beach, another wonderful selection of performers. We thought of leaving sooner to not be short of time on the next passage. But everyone had gone to a lot of trouble to entertain us and we certainly wouldn't have wanted to miss it. Three other boats from the Philippines rally had been planning on joining us and would have enjoyed the visit. But each, for different reasons, made mistakes that didn't make it work out. Three of our 5 boats stopped for awhile on the way out at an anchorage on the NW of the island, an area renowned for its beaches and clear water.

I'm writing this underway to Nongsa Point marina, the ending point for the Indonesian visit. It is about 350 nm and the forecast is for almost no wind the whole way. We are now on day 2 of motoring. Dodging fishing boats and freighters is the only work. The marina is across a channel from Singapore and the approach is a long passage between islands. We expect the boat traffic to continue to increase as we get closer.

Kumai to Belitung

Our Klotok arriving at 5:45am to pick us up

Breakfast was ready

 Other Klotoks on the river

A klotok traffic jam

Entering the national park

Mother orang-utan and young one

Both get fed

Gathering of Orang-utans

Macaques

Wild boars eating the scraps

Swallow "condominiums" in Kumai

Local fishing boat off Belitung

Following the pilot boat across the bar entering the river to anchor

Kumai, Kalimantim (Borneo)

Friday,  Nov 20,  2015

Second Day Underway Kumai to Belitung

We had returned to Lombok from Bali on Thurs. Fri mid day Bill returned on the ferry. We took a cab to a new mall about an hour and a half away. Although we needed to buy some provisions there, the trip was mostly to see a bit of the island. We went via the "monkey highway" into the rain forest and did see a number of monkeys along the road. We returned the coastal road where the driver pointed out sites and photo opts. ($40 for the trip). Back at the marina the owners had arranged performances by local musicians and dancers and a wonderful buffet. There were a few other sailors there as well from the anchorage. One of them, an Australian, gave us some good tips for the continuing travels up Malaysia and Thailand.

The volcano was still spewing ash so the boats were black again. We were  all happy to get moving again in the circumstances. Being anchored in a fresh water river in Kumai we finally have cleaned up most of it. By Fri evening we still had to unpack from Bali and get the boat ready. We were waiting for diesel and the laundry to arrive also. Two boats left that night as it was a long, slow trip to Kumai with the forecast wind. It took us three days to cover the 430 nautical miles.

There was an overnight tour to the national park to see the orang-utans arranged for Tues or an all day one Wed. As we had decided to sail one day, albeit slowly, to conserve fuel, that meant arriving later Tuesday so we missed the overnight trip. Five of us took the one day trip, the rest slept on the boat in the forest along side the river. We were picked up before 6 am and were back about 8, long enough for most of us.

These trips are considered the highlight of any trip to Borneo. We took a 2 story flat boat called a klotok, up the river for approximately 40 kms. On the upper level are chairs for viewing, and a table for meals, all of which were included and good. If you sleep aboard, mattresses are laid out side by side with sheets and pillows and mosquito netting hung. The advantage is hearing the forest sounds at night and being able to sleep in. It is a 40 km trip to the final stop at Camp Leaky, with an additional stop after the first 3 hours. The stops are at designated feeding stations so you will see some orang-utans for sure.

The National Park was founded by a Canadian and her Indonesian husband in 1971 and does a lot of rehabilitation work as well as conservation. There was  a center to do some reading and see exhibitions. The feeding stations are supplemental and will not be visited if food is available elsewhere. The guides call and they start to arrive. We were lucky to watch many, the "alpha" male and several females with babies and children. They carry the babies for the first 5 years and continue to teach them until they are 8 when they will have another. The site was also visited by proboscis monkeys and macaques. The surprise was the large number of wild boars. They were the ugliest animal I have ever seen.

The return trip was very pleasant as the sun went down and the heat abated. (The equator passes through Borneo.) The monkeys sleep in the trees along the river so we saw hundreds. There are crocodiles in the rive, and we saw just one. You can stay on a klotok for more days and probably see more of the abundant animal and bird life.

We were picked up and dropped off at our boats, the whole trip costing us $100 a piece.

The city of Kumai itself contained a lot of tall grey concrete multistory buildings. We initially thought that the Russians had been here building apartments! They turned out to be bird houses. Each multistory building had small slots in the sides and swallows nested inside. The bird's nests, which are made with saliva from the swallows, are shipped to China to make birds nest soup. Think of that the next time you see birds nest soup on the menu!

Our next stop is in Belitung, which belongs to Kalimantin and is 210 km away. Fortunately we could sail on the sea breeze yesterday, but today is back to the motor. The waterways are getting busier as we approach Singapore-always a few ships on the AIS. A local is meeting us 10am Sat to lead us across the river bar at high tide.  We had to cross a sand bar going to Kumai also but was charted as 7 ft at its lowest and was no problem. This one ranges from .6m to 2.6 m. We have the choice to anchor outside instead but on a lee shore, but there has never been much wind yet. We'll see when we get there.

Bali Visit

Breakfast area - one of the four pools at our hotel

View of our hotel grounds in Ubud

Bali - a great place to shop!

Morning offering to the Hindu gods

Traveling through the monkey forest on our way to Mataram

Balinese dancers and musicians at our marina

Bali Visit

Nov 8 to Nov 12 2015

Wow! That is our general reaction to Bali. We would definitely come back for another, longer vacation there. We didn't visit many of the tourist sites, but just enjoyed the resort and the shopping this time. Included in our $50 ferry fare was the 2 hour boat trip, and the 1.5 hour taxi ride both ways to the hotel. We stayed for 3 nights up in the rain forest in Ubud. The resorts, food and shopping are outstanding and cheap by home standards. We stayed at The Mansion for $140 a night which is right at the high end.

The resort would be a 5 star place- four swimming pools, extravagant gardens, ravine views, a world class art collection, huge breakfast included, spa services, fitness area, babysitting, even Dr and dentist. Luc knows the owner who gave us a free first dinner and message as BPO guests. We enjoyed browsing the miles of shops, except for the process of bargaining that we are not used to. Usually you can expect to pay half the quoted starting price.

Bali is mostly Hindu so its Balinese culture is much different from the rest of Indonesia. Every home has its own temple, and there are many public temples. The people put out small dishes of food for the gods every day, on the sidewalks, and around their property. There are also larger (many meters) decorative plant based structures that are for the gods. There must be a name for them. The local dress and the people are very beautiful. All in all a feast for the eyes. Every evening there are performances of one of the types of dancing with full costuming. The night we chose to go for dinner and a show was the night of the first rain of the season. It poured for hours with lightning and thunder. The locals loved it as it has been almost a year without rain. Typically the rains would start in Oct.

The Ubud area is well known as a health/spa/fitness destination. Klaudia stopped at one place in town for a 2 hour message, facial, manicure and pedicure. That cost about $20!

The only drawback to Bali is the number of tourists. In Ubud it seemed that more English than Indonesian was spoken. You can find Starbucks, Macdonalds, KFC, etc. On our last night we moved to a hotel in the beach area. This is a good surfing beach and more of a party area. Therefore, the crowds are younger and even more wall to wall. Bali is a popular vacation spot for Australians. Aug and Christmas are the busy seasons. Our hotel was almost empty in Nov. I wouldn't want to be on the streets or driving in high season.

We moved to the Adus Beach Inn where Bill has been staying for a few weeks. We paid $30 a night, which gave us the basics of wifi, air, and a pool. He has had a week of Dr visits and tests at the local hospital. He has been pleased with the service and price. But they have not found any good reason for his irregular heart rate. They put him on a beta blocker and he will get more testing at home in US in Dec. He is coming back to Maggie today and will sail with us until we stop in Dec. Hopefully he will continue to feel ok.

The fires in Borneo (Kalimantan) are abating with the first rains of the season. We have decided to put that stop back in the schedule and will leave tomorrow, Sat the 14th. After Bill returns we will do a provisioning trip, and there is a farewell buffet with Lombok dancers provided by the marina tonight.

Komodo to Lombok

Sourcing diesel in Komodo Village

Welcome to Komodo Village

Large volcanic island on way to Lombok

Komodo to Lombok

Nov 5 to Nov 7, 2015

We had a few days to relax in Komodo after the park visit. All the boats moved on to another anchorage on Tues or Wed to get through the channel without an adverse current, before a Thurs. departure to Lombok.  Before that afternoon trip, we visited Komodo village and purchased a few jerry jugs of diesel. It was not very clean as we watched it going through the filters, but no problems so far. When we were there a group of 20 university students from Java arrived for a 2 month volunteer work term. Most spoke good English so it was interesting to hear about their projects and studies. One girl is a med student whose home is in Calgary! They will be staying in local homes which will be an adventure after seeing the poverty and simplicity.

We left early Thurs am to get a head start on the fleet. By Fri night we were all travelling together as planned. Fortunately, it has turned out that we do not need to be that careful about our security. The incident in the straights off Bali was not a criminal event. A woman crew member texted that she was being hijacked by the captain of the boat. He didn't want to check in to Indonesia so sailed off to Christmas Is which belongs to Australia. Or this is the current story, which makes more sense.

On Tues of the week one of the volcanoes on Lombok erupted. We definitely could smell the smoke and feel the ash as we travelld. The airports in both Lombok and Bali were closed for a few days which affected a lot of travelers. The ash is like a fine black sand which is covering everything and is ongoing. What a mess on the boat! I am writing this 10 days later and it is still falling. The airport on Lombok is still closed some days depending on the wind. Most of the time there has been no wind, so it is very hot in the closed up boat. We have all taken a holiday from the boat for a few days by taking the ferry to Bali.

Selayar to Komodo

 

Entretainment a the Mayer's welcoming dinner

Colourful coral 

First look at a Komodo Dragon

Komodo Dragons smell with their tongue!

Dinner once a month!

Selayar to Komodo

Nov.2 2015

Oct 31 to Nov.1 we spent sailing from Selayar to Komodo Island. The boys on Tahawus were disappointed to miss Halloween as they had been planning on visiting each of us in costume and getting candy. That will be postponed to another time. It was a disappointing sail as the wind died down to almost nothing but on the nose. By the time we reached Komodo it was the wrong tidal direction for travelling the pass between Flores and Komodo. The current against us varied between 3 and 6 knots. For 15 miles it was a slow trip, but everyone was anchored before dark on Sun.

I need to backtrack for awhile now as I have not written about the last two days in Selayar. We did another bus tour on Thurs. We drove up into the rainforest and visited an historic village up there. It was amazing to see the way the houses are built on stilts resting without support on the rocks. But they are over a 100 years old. Some of the inhabitants are also that old as they are known for longevity. We had lunch by a turtle hatchery on the beach. It is run by volunteers to protect the turtles that nest on the beach there. We stopped at a small museum and also at a few sites that have relics from the past, a cannon from the Chinese traders of the 17th century, a huge Chinese bell, and an old huge anchor.

Thurs night we had a welcome ceremony from the mayor of the town. It was combined with the anniversary of the Art Society. Art was referring to the encouragement of the local traditions of music, costumes and dancing. Before the performances we were served a traditional dinner in one of the homes. After many speeches and some video of the area, there were groups of dancers and musicians. The costuming was very elaborate, and, to me, oriental in design. The highlight was a group of boys doing drums in a very contemporary style, lots of body movement incorporated.

On Friday we took a boat trip to a nearby island to do diving or snorkelling. That was a relaxing full day's trip. During these last few days Bill was not feeling too well and he had Tim, who is a Dr and on No Regrets, check him out. His pulse was irregular so they went over to the hospital for an echocardiogram. That cost him an hour's time and $6! They diagnosed atrial fibrillation. The problem for him and the rally is that there are no medical facilities on Komodo so it would be taking a risk to come here. In the end he spent 2 nights in a hotel in town and then flew to Bali where there is better medical facilities. He will stay there until we get to Lombok next week and he will have a better idea about what the problem is. There are ferries between Lombok and Bali. We plan on making that trip for a few days as a "vacation" from the boat and to see Bali, of course.

Coming back to today, Monday, on Komodo. The thing to do here, of course, is to see the Komodo dragons, which are very large lizards. Being cold blooded they are not active in the heat of the day. We went onshore for a 7 to 9 am hike with a park ranger. The entire island is a national park. We saw about a dozen of them. Full grown they are about 3 meters in length. They kill by staying camouflaged until they have a chance to bite their prey. There have such strong bacteria in their mouths that they just wait for the victim to die. Their normal food source are the deer that live here. One deer will last them a month, but they can eat the whole thing. Occasionally they kill a person so you need to be careful and stay with a guide who carries a pronged stick. They don't suggest that you sit on the beach in the evenings. So far, we have just seen wild boar on the beach where we are anchored. There are also many types of poisonous snakes but they are not often seen unless you hike in the grasses inland.

We are here until Thurs with nothing specifically planned . There are many anchorages with good diving to visit. Today we are doing much needed boat chores. On this past trip, when we went to start the motor nothing happened. Fortunately it was in the middle of nowhere so had time to work on the problem. Rob isolated it to no power getting to the starter motor despite good batteries. We contacted Norm, on Tahawus, who knows a lot about boat electronics. Basically, Rob hotwired it to start which we did several times on the trip. Norm came over for a few hours today and tracked down the problem which will be fixed for next time. After his visit, Rui, from Blue Wind, has been on the boat all afternoon helping Rob repair the remote autopilot. He had some spare parts and also the expertise, but no luck yet.

On Oct 28 there was a hijacking of a sailing yacht in the passage between Lombok and Bali, our next destination. The German couple and boat are still missing, but they had time to send a cell phone message. We have been discussing whether we should travel without lights and AIS or just stay together. With all the boat traffic I think the bigger danger would be getting hit accidentally if no one could see you. Since we travel the slowest I would feel bad about the others having to slow down. So far, the forecast is likely to be light winds again. We will probably just relax for a few days. It is nice to be in a bay with clear water and no commercial traffic or garbage.