A day off at Belitung!
14 April 2010 | Belitung, Indonesia
A much deserved rest after 2 days travelling, we slept late and woke to the sounds of the local boats returning from their nights fishing. They all came as close as possible to have a look at the foreign vessel anchored in their bay. A closer inspection of our position in the anchorage revealed that we were indeed close to the reef we had been so desperate to avoid the night before, lucky we stopped when we did! It was strange being back at Belitung, we checked out of Indonesia here in 2008 and at that time the anchorage was filled with other yachts heading in the same direction as us but this time we are solo. All is quiet on the beach and after a lazy start we head in to the beach for a much needed walk.
Belitung is a paradise, beautiful crystal clear water and palm fringed white sand beaches, we race around taking photos before noticing the dark clouds starting to form over the mainland. Time for that walk, a storm looks to be brewing. Pulling our dinghy up the beach we are met by shouts of welcome from some locals sitting at crudely constructed picnic tables in front of a stand selling Kelapa Mudah, young coconuts for drinking. We walk up and join them, conversing in a mix of English and Bahasa Indonesia. One of the young men speaks excellent English and we learn that he worked for a few years in a bar in Bali, we quickly become friends and upon hearing that we are in need of some petrol he offers to take Jay on the back of his motorbike to get some. We arrange to meet up with him later, his Uncle owns some tourist accommodation on the beach in the bay we have anchored in and he runs a boat to take tourists fishing and snorkelling, although he freely admits there are not much fish to see or catch! Business is quiet and job opportunities scarce in this area but the locals don't seem too worried, they are happy to sit and chat, making new friends and relaxing.
With one eye on the sky we take our leave and begin our walk. Belitung is a photographers dream, despite the darkness of the sky the water remains a beautiful shade of blue, dozens of colourful fishing boats lie tethered to tree branches jammed into the seabed, big boulders rise from the water and small houses dot the shoreline. The people stare as we walk past and their faces break into huge grins as we wave our hellos. There are no tourists around although we do see one other white couple from a distance in a speedboat. We wander up to an old abandoned resort we explored on our first time here, it was never completed but looks like there was a lot of money spent on it. Now it is home to the monkeys only, one of many projects we have seen abandoned during our travels.
Heading back towards the boat we walk past a small, newly built warung and spot a bunch of the most delicious looking bananas we have seen for a while. Old pak who runs the shop is a character, full of good humour but missing most of his teeth. He speaks no English and seems confused that we want to buy the whole bunch of bananas, he usually sells them one at a time. After some negotiating we buy 15 bananas for 18,000 rupiah, we hand him 20,000, he rushes off to get our change but we wave it away. His face dissolves into a huge grin, all gums no teeth, we've made his day for the equivalent of just over $2. As we walk away we can still hear him mumbling, 'Terima kasih, terima kasih', thank you, thank you.
That night as we sit on deck watching the sunset, the convoy of fishing boats heads out again for their night of fishing. They come close and wave and shout madly when they see the video camera in our hands. This is such a beautiful place we are tempted to stop another night but we need to get to Bali, we'll make an early start again in the morning.