It has been a fascinating journey through this lovely country. At this moment we are heading west along the coast of Sumbawa, towards a place called Badas Harbor. This will be the tenth island village we have visited. As in so many of the other places we have been there will be a Government Welcome for our rally fleet. These usually consist of performances by all the local kids, dancing, singing and generally showing off their local culture. That will consume the better part of Saturday and will conclude with a meal, hosted by the Regent or Mayor at their official residence. Details beforehand are often sketchy but for the most part it works out just fine.
Usually there is something special about each village. Badas apparently has Buffalo races, which we have been invited to participate in. Not sure if we ride the buffalo, sort of like a horse or camel. We do that on Sunday after which we will have a tour of a �"weaving village�". One thing we learned a while back (in Passar Wajo) was that all the Indonesian native costumes are made from locally woven cloth. If you want, for example a shirt, first you go to the weaver and but the fabric, then you take it to the tailor who constructs your garment. Sounds expensive, yet like everything else here it is not. I think it costs about 300,000 Rp to make a three-quarter length jacket or coat. That is about $20 USD. After the weaving village we can tour a coffee village and participate with the local populace in picking beans,
Day three there is more local cultural activity, topped off with a music party. There is an early morning tour organized to allow us to swim with the whale sharks. Apparently whale sharks are relatively docile, especially if they have another source of food. Many of us questioned the 02:00 departure for this tour, however it turns out it really is in our best interests to go along with the plan, based on the following explanation of why the middle of the night start.
�"Whale sharks are attached to the spitter boats that work through the night and when they are around one of their platforms, they feed them to keep them there for a couple of hours so you have to be there by an hour after sunrise�" Unstated is the idea that they will not be hungry therefore you will not be breakfast. Some may be wondering what a spitter boat is. Well, I have no idea but one of the unique characteristics of Indonesian fisherman is all their boats are purpose built. Many are quite bizarre looking; none have any navigation lights even though they do much fishing in the dark.
Actually, the unlit boats are not as much of a problem as we feared they would be. Some have small flashing lights, some are adorned with Christmas tree lights and most have a large, very bright torch. We do too, and what we have found is the custom is to shine your light at what you see, the fisherman will shine his light back then wave it in his direction of travel. Crude, but it seems to prevent collisions.
From our arrival in Indonesia July 13, 2022 there have been a couple of constants. The people are the friendliest and most helpful I have encountered anywhere. Everything is inexpensive at least in terms of US dollars, getting ashore is never easy, almost always involves concrete stairs that are not in good shape or something worse, which involves in-elegant moves to climb over rocks, on to temporary floating docks, etc. If not a pile of rocks it is a beach. Getting in and out of the dingy entails walking in the water, sometimes a few feet, sometimes many meters. The tidal range here is not huge, maybe a few feet, the issue with landing on a beach though is the slope of the beach often results in walking in the water for a good distance and moving the dingy and outboard back to the water when the tide has gone out. It is always a challenge and each place is different.
I did not finish this as the watch schedule had me on deck. We arrived in Badas two days ago, and decided to leave this morning, heading to Lombok. Why would we pass up swimming with whale sharks and racing buffaloes you might ask. Well, to start with when we arrived, we discovered Badas is a small commercial port which was loading or unloading three cargo vessels that were no more than 100 meters away from the anchorage area. Loud, noisy and dirty.
Next, we found out that the reason we were in Badas, and not the original destination was the local Government decided it would be so. The original destination, which is the location of the whale shark experience, is quite lovely. Anchoring is off a white, sandy beach and there would be no need to leave at 0200 to drive four hours in a bus to swim with the sharks. The first story we heard was it would be easier for the government officials to welcome us if we were in Badas. So, reason #1 for leaving is dirty harbor, and not very thoughtful government officials.
Number two. Yesterday I needed a couple of things at the store and as is normally the case the rally coordinator has arranged for English speaking local tour guides to direct us, arrange transportation if needed and help out with stuff like where is the ATM or grocery store. The local guides were at the appointed spot, a government dock which we could not use and a beach to land the dingy on. Knowing they were there; I did some stuff on the boat and headed in about 1500. No local tour guides; it turns out they left about the time I was headed in. After wondering around a bit, a young man came and asked if I needed something. Saying yes and describing my needs he came up with the idea that I would need transportation as it was a long way to the shops and ATM. More about ATMs will follow. Anyway, he arranges transportation with a guy who has a motorbike. I take a half hour ride on the back of a motor bike, do my errands, and another half hour back. Very exhilarating.
OK, ATMs and motorbikes. In virtually every place we go the first thing is to find an ATM as the entire country runs on cash (at least where we have been so far) Generally we might need 2 to 5 million Rp. Sounds like a lot, however 1 million Rp is about $65 USD, the difficulty is the ATMs dispense in 50000 Rp bills meaning for each million you have a wad of twenty bills.
Motorbikes are the main form of transport for many people. There are cars, trucks and busses sharing the road with swarms of motorbikes. You frequently see a mother with a small child in front of her, and two kids behind. We figured out the reason they are so skilled at weaving through traffic is they learn at a very young age. There are few traffic lights, few rules, few signs, no speed limit and blowing your horn is apparently the way, that you signal your intentions. The people are still lovely, and they are really good drivers.
I digress. Reason #3 is we found out the rally coordinator will not be here because of a government decision. The bottom line is we were in a place that was unpleasant, our connection to the activities and arrangements would not be here and driving eight hours to swim for a couple of hours seemed a bit much.
One personal note. Before the Covid lockdowns and stuff I was writing on a pretty regular basis. It has been difficult to get back to that and this leg of our journey is very different from what we have done before. The rally schedule has 18 different places to visit, over a four-month period, we have visited ten so far. That is a pretty busy schedule considering this journey will involve sailing a couple of thousand miles. That is not really an excuse but its all I have. More later�...�...�...�...�...�...�...�...�...�...�.....