18 October 2009

Dear friends,

Our minds are numbed with the heat of the tropics: We thought we had written some weeks ago from Bali, but we must have been confused as we can see no sign of a letter. The annual rains are starting and 2 nights ago in the Kumai River, South Borneo, our dinghy filled overnight with a foot of rain, but now on the remote island of Nangka the sun is so hot that the deck burns you if you try to sit down. The ships piano suffered from the damp and began doing odd & unpredictable things, but having removed more than 100 little screws, added some strategically placed bits of PVC tape, and replaced all but 2 screws we hope to be able to play our way up to Singapore!

Our last letter seems to have left you in Lombok. It is just across the strait from the beautiful island of Bali which is marred only because it is the destination of so many cheap charter flights from Australia. We spent nearly 3 weeks in Lombok exploring, and enjoying the company of other boat crews. From Teluk Kombal, we hired a driver for the day and drove into the capital, Mataram, and out to see rice paddies, temples and local carving. En route, we stopped and fed peanuts to the monkeys beside the road. Janet, the ships nurse, had already read the riot act about the danger of rabies, but despite warning, Dave got nipped on the finger by a monkey jumping up behind him. The cut was cleaned, but looked inflamed that evening and next morning we took another car into the hospital in Mataram. We explored 2 floors & long corridors with our driver, until we found an outpatient department with 3 or 4 bed-ridden patients, a few busy staff, and an office that took Dave's name - Mr. Dave. 5 minutes later a doctor appeared apologizing profusely for taking so long and was shown the tiny nick in Dave's finger. He assured us, thoughtfully, that there were no reports of rabies in Lombok but prescribed some antibiotics for the cut. Dave had to endure another week on antibiotics! To us, the experience of the hospital & its staff was charming and impressive: The staff were busy but courteous and seemed knowlegable. And Dave has no symptoms of rabies.

At Medana Bay, Janet scoured the beaches for shells to add to her collection, and made several friends amongst the villagers at the same time. We also visited two impressive western-style hotels at the ends of dusty roads to the coast. Dave took one of the folding bicycles ashore and spent a couple of days cycling up valleys into the hills where roads disappear into steep dirt paths, and the slopes are covered with plantations of Cocoa, cloves, and coffee. The pay for clove picking is about $40 per week and the villagers are poor but very healthy and cheerful. The tiny communities nestled between the trees are filled with mats drying beans in the sun and the aromas can be magical, especially when you are sucking in all the air that you can get to pedal a bicycle up a path that many people would not ride a donkey up. There are also water falls in the volcanic hills which can be impressive even at their driest at the end of the summer. He was invited into a Hindu home once with a picture of Shiva on the wall and an extended family crowding round to hear the interpretations of the one woman who could speak English. On another day, there were pigs wandering round the outer homes of a village that turned out to be Buddhist.

The chief roads are paved but mostly suitable for no more than 50 k/h, and we rented a motor bike joining the majority of local people for whom this is the normal method of transport. Roads are crammed with these, interspersed with a few cars, trucks, bicycles and pedestrians. Young men sit, seemingly for hours, in every wooden cafe/shelter beside the dusty roads with motor-bikes at the ready providing a taxi service for the villagers. It is common to see a woman with full-length dress and head-scarf perched side-saddle behind a driver; or families of Dad, Mum, and 1 or even 2 children sitting behind each other on a small motor bike; or tradesmen carrying cases several feet wide behind them.

Our first motorbike rental was duly delivered to us in the field behind the beach which served as the marina. As we expected, there was virtually no paperwork, and no fuel in the tank. It was a scooter with automatic transmission, which made it easier to drive, but even smaller to sit on. The driver could just use the single mirror by squeezing his elbows together and craning the head to one side. We rode to the nearest road-side stall and asked for 4 litres of "bensin" (petrol) which is often delivered in ancient glass bottles, which you know are really 750ml but sold as 1 litre. 2 went into the tank and the 3rd spilled out. That lasted us for 3 days. The man looked at us and mimed that we were big people and that this bike was designed for a small woman. None-the-less, it carried us safely along the north coast of Lombok to Seranu and up the hill to the elevation of 600metres on the ridge of the volcano "Gunung Rinjani".

In Seranu we found a cheerful homestay that served lunch of chicken and rice for 10 cents a plate; booked in for the night; and went off to the National Park office to check about climbing to the ridge of Rinjani the next morning. Dave planned to leave at about 4.00am before the sun got up and climb to the crater rim 2000 metres higher. Here the disappointments started: the park fee, we were told, had been increased from 30,000 rupia to 200,000. Furthermore they were adamant that one could not climb without a guide, and that guides were available starting at 1.2 million. We did not have that much money so we returned, disappointed to our homestay. Then a young fellow tripped across the track, took our dirty plates, then explained, mostly in mime, a suggestion that he could take Dave up the next morning before the parks officials arrived, and that he would like to look after any paperwork. After a little thought and a phone call to a friend with local knowledge this was agreed. At 3.30 the next morning a superb banana pancake was cooked and eaten, and Dave set off for what turned out to be an unforgettable trip for breakfast on the crater rim, and a return to the bottom as the guides and treckers were starting to sweat their way up in the heat of the sun at 10.00am. Jan stayed at lower levels as she decided she would be unable to keep up the required pace.

The rabble of boats which consisted of the remaining part of the "SailIndonesia Rally" was starting to gather so we headed across the strait to Bali and joined 6 or 8 boats anchored off Lovena Beach on the North Coast. There was a hotel and several guest houses and restaurants on shore. Also an Australian girl called Celeste who was always there to welcome us with her Bali husband & brother-in-law who all lived in the Muslim village (unlike most of Indonesia, Bali is mainly Hindu).

We joined an English couple, Al & Di, for a 3 day trip to Ubud in the centre of Bali. There are many hotels, galleries, and performances of traditional dancing to the accompaniment of the Gamelan (the percussion orchestra of bells, drums, and xylophones). We watched a Barong dance at the Ubud Palace, and the elaborate costumes and fine hand movements were beautiful to watch. We stayed in a small hotel outside the town centre where we felt an earthquake early one morning. 6.3 on the Richter scale centred off the South coast of Bali. We were on the second floor of a not very well built building so probably felt it more than if we had been on the ground. We made a wet day trip on motor bikes to Tampaksiring to see Bali's largest ancient monument. Believed to be a memorial to 11th Century Balinese royalty consisting of shrines cut out of the rock in imitation of statues. The usual row of stalls lined the small lane to the entrance gate with hawkers desperate to sell their wares to the tourists. Batik designs on material are sold very cheaply made up into shirts and dresses. Also, fine wood carvings and intricate basketwork.

It is the two months for cremations in the Hindu calendar which are often celebrated a while after the death and for a number of dead people on one day. We passed through a small village holding a cremation day of feasting, dancing and music. The main street through the village was full of musicians and elaborately decorated food stalls. People were dressed up in their finery. We were invited to stay and watch which we did for a while and again on our return at the end of the day when celebrations continued. We both found the town of Ubud catering too much to the tourists and were glad to leave the busy town. The countryside and villages surrounding the area were a delight to explore. We visited a spice & coffee plantation where we saw a dozen or more herbs growing and were invited to buy conventional coffee or Lewak coffee. Lewak is the local name for mongoose, and these animals we were told have a talent for selecting the very best coffee beans to eat while they are still covered by the soft fruit. The planters then sift the hard beans from the droppings and make the famed "Lewak Coffee" from these!!

Some further bicycle trips into the hills and clove orchards. 2 more motorbike rentals, and a stay in a homestay in the tiny village of Munduk which we had not heard of until we looked for some small roads to drive through. It, like other hillside towns, is the centre for farming communities. It is built on the crest of a ridge. Rivers with waterfalls pass close, and cloves & cocoa grow on hillsides so steep that it is not always easy to walk. Irrigation channels contour miraculously round these hills and feed lush green rice paddies in the valley bottoms. Higher up, tangerine oranges were growing. Each morning and evening, pigeons were released to circle over the ridge with tiny metal devices on their feet that make a singing sound as the birds flock & circle.

Each village we passed through had at least 3 Hindu temples and well-tended gardens overflowing with colourful flowers. Small offerings of decoratively woven grass with flowers and food are laid on the ground outside houses as offerings for the Gods. We rode there with an Australian couple, David & Robin, and had a supper with a magical view of the sun setting down the valley. Of course David-the-klutz had to mar it by stubbing his toe in the night en route back from the squat toilet and it bled so profusely that his nurse was again called into action.

A word on irrigation: The Dutch only colonized Bali in ?1906 and built many roads, and water courses (some tunneled through rock) before Japanese occupation, economic depression, then Soekarno's dictatorship. That brief period of Dutch public works has left a legacy of irrigated fields that is beautiful to see and has considerably increased the number of rice fields to be seen.

Time to move again and Harmonica spent a night anchored off the NE corner of Bali at Pulau Menjangan. Some superbly clear water over coral, but unfortunately there were also swarms of house flies. So we pulled up anchor about 3.00am and headed North to Rass Island and Bawean. In the dark before dawn, we watched fires from hot lava flows down the side of Gunung Merapi close by on Java.

More to follow soon

Best wishes from

Jan, Dave & Harmonica