Oh my, Belitung and it’s people are just tops and this is one clean island. The people are just wonderful and once we go ashore, they crowd around practicing their English and asking if they can take our photos with them. The children have obviously been learning English and we learn that most of our appointed Guides are their teachers.
We also visit a smaller museum on the eastern side of the island before lunching with the Regent of East Belitung who is a very well educated man and speaks excellent English. These lunches are spectacular, the food is prepared by local people and it just keeps coming. Because Belitung is the rally’s exit point the majority of boats are here and there was over 100 people for lunch. Following this lunch we are taken up into the hills to visit a Buddhist temple – absolutely spectacular views from up here but unfortunately the gardens are suffering from diminishing Buddhist occupation – none the less, the temple has been kept in good order.
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| Entrance to the Temple | |
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| The entourage at the temple - extra cars needed for this trip |
Each day brings something new either in the form of a tour or meeting a local family who are more than happy to have you come into their home. We met, through one of our guides, a couple who are relatively influential on the island (he owns the petrol stations) and they could not do enough for us. We are treated to lunches, shopping, sightseeing (all of which we are not allowed to pay for) and told that now we are part of their enormous family. They both adore children and are godparents to over 60 (including our guide). They have 8 children of their own and conduct classes once a week in their large home. We invite them to visit our boat but they decline as they suffer from seasickness and are not keen on being on the boat so we give them a photo of the boat and a hat with ‘Bluestone’ on it. It seems very little after what they have given us but is accepted with enthusiasm and graciousness.
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| We hope they liked the hat and photo |
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| Lunch with our new friends - also friends from the yacht 'Amulet |
A private visit to a school is also scheduled via our guide as she is a teacher there and four of us are taken to meet the children and teachers. We have to stand in front of the entire school and talk with microphones answering questions fired at us from the students. Absolutely delightful.
One tour takes us to a natural mountain spring that feeds into man-made swimming pools where we are very grateful for a cold dip after a hot day in the bus. Once again, we are spoilt with food and drinks and entertained by the dancing lions below.
The people of Belitung love their recreation and the coast is lined with lots of small huts that serve as restaurants that they frequent at the weekends. There are many picnic-type tables and chairs everywhere and also, I am pleased to say, rubbish bins! At one such location our hosts offer to buy us the traditional ice cream and we happily accept. Well, this is a first, the ice cream is made from the local fruit Durian quite a nice tasting sweet fruit we have had previously and the ice cream is the consistency of gelati – nice – however, this is then served in a small hotdog roll. Hmmm, first taste is very unusual but it turns out that the roll is the perfect receptacle for the gelati and by the time we munch our way through this concoction we all agree it was very nice.
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| One local proudly shows us a model of his fishing boat |
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| Someone wanted her photo taken at our favourite eatery |
Our anchorage is also lined with these restaurants and while the rally is here they are open every day. So most nights we enjoy the local noodles, rice, calamari or fish and vegetables for a very small price. We managed to find a restaurant that served cold Beer as well – YAY from the captain. One restaurant owner remembered the skipper well as he would say every time he ordered dinner “tidak timun” which means “no cucumber”. The owner would then call out to him each time he saw us “tidak timun” whether we were at the restaurant or not. They have a good sense of humour.
Each night entertainment was undertaken on the huge stage and dancing and singing ensued as the guides would drag us up to dance with them. We were also encouraged (dragged) to join in the traditional dancing and once again, laughter is paramount.
Now, I have to say, the skipper has a new friend. The Regent of West Belitung is his new best friend. While attending a kite-flying afternoon at the beach, skipper is asked to sit with the Regent for the afternoon. They hit it off and the regent made sure there were plenty of journalists taking photos with him and Neil. We actually made the papers twice while we were there being interviewed for the ‘Sail Indonesia 2010’ page. We also lunched with this Regent and again, made the media with photos aplenty. A strange phenomena occurred during the kite-flying demonstration in that the sun produced a huge, perfect rainbow halo around it which brought oohs and aahs from the locals. The skipper thanked the regent for organizing it. I think that won him over.
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| Mr Neil, the diplomat |
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| Instruction from the Regent on how to fly the kite |
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| Now an expert ! |
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| (with the Regent) My new buddy .... Mr Neil |
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| Welcome to the Regent's house |
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| Lunch is served... traditional-style |
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| A slightly more formal Regent after lunch |
We could rave on for ages about this island but we have to leave (as Immigration and Customs have said we must leave on the appointed date) so we bid farewell after taking 8 guides and their friends out to the boat to have a look and have photos taken with them. We both feel that we would like very much to return to Belitung and spend some time just exploring and mixing with these lovely people.
Not once have we felt unsafe or threatened while we have been in Indonesia and very least of all at Belitung. The island has homes constructed of timber and concrete not like the traditional huts seen on Rote, Sabu and Sumba and they are the most pleasant people who love to talk with us always asking our permission first. A few of our guides also asked us to their homes but unfortunately time ran out. We arrange to keep in touch with them via email and hope that we can once again visit Belitung.
One of our guides and the two journalists who interviewed us presented us with drinking mugs emblazoned with their photos as parting gifts so we will always remember them. And a couple of days later we receive phone messages asking us where we are and are we ok.
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| Farewell from the guide and journalists |
Our 5 day sail up to Malaysia gives us plenty of time to reflect on the wonderful time we have had since arriving in Kupang almost 3 months ago. Our main aim was to get to Malaysia and to tolerate Indonesia as we have to go through it to get the Malaysia, but now, we feel very differently. We are not saying that everywhere in Indonesia you will get the same warm welcome and definitely the rally has a lot to do with the local people accepting us and treating us so well, but we feel deep down the Timorese and Indonesian people are a gentle, generous and happy people who so much want to learn western ways and fit in with the world in general. They have so little and give so much, a lot of westerners could take a lesson or two from them.
We crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere at approximately 0400 hours on 18th October. We toasted Neptune and thanked him for a safe journey thus far. Hopefully, the next few months will be as good.
