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.