The sail to Wengi Wengi from Banda was the longest passage so far:- three nights and two days. We had a pleasant sail arriving early in the morning. We were greeted by a local journalist, Geno who led us to a mooring buoy outside the reef. Then at high tide he led us through a narrow channel into the lagoon off the small town. Geno leads the local welcoming team which is highly organised and effective. He and his committee of helpers arrange all sorts of help for visitors. You even get given a 100 litres of diesel for free delivered to your boat. A team of senior high students, provide an ever smiling free translation and local guiding service for visitors. A few boys also assist but it is mostly girls. The contrast between boys and girls is very apparent. The girls study and the boys play. Eunis, one of the guide/ translators plans to study next year at the university in Denkassar to be a micro biologist. Meanwhile she teaches herself English in her spare time as she sees it as an international language. The impact of more and more highly educated girls in a society with a highly traditional view of woman's role in the family is going to create considerable social stress in the near future. Already marriage rates are plummeting across South East Asia because women prefer staying in well paid work to household drudgery.

The arrival of foreign boats is a major event and our arrival coincided with independence day. Numerous special meals and events are put on for the visitors. We were invited to tea at Geno's house and also to the independence celebrations at the Regent's house. The Regent is the political leader of the area. An extremely powerful mayor. The celebrations included marching bands, flag ceremonies culminating with speeches and dances at the palatial official residence. The professionalism of the dancers and musicians was tremendous. The music and dancing, highly colourful, and the singing very high melodious male singers. Both singers and dancers were highly made up.
Geno's house was a special honour for us and another couple. We're not quite sure why. Maybe because we tried to speak Indonesian? Anyway his wife and children prepared iced fruit. Lots of coconuts were split on the floor and their juice mixed with ice and all sorts of chopped fruit. This was followed by a dish involving frittered bananas. She has a one burner stove to prepare food for the family of five children, various brothers and lodgers. cooking photo

On subsequent days we toured the island. The lagoon harbour has numerous small inlets in which boats of all size and descriptions lie. Some are decrepit wooden boats which have probably but not necessarily been abandoned. Others are modern power boats. In one part of town there is a Bhajia village. Bhajia people are wandering fishermen. They build their wooden houses on stilts over the water.

They have canoe type boats which are powered with small four sided sails and outboard motors.

The traditional wooden houses are being replaced with houses made of building blocks. You walk along dividing dyke walls passing over tiny wooden bridges to go through the village. Occasionally you will see a large expensive house belonging to a trader but most homes are modest. In the last few years the houses have had running water at least to a tap outside and an electricity supply. The men of the village fish for a living or make boats. The craftsmanship is remarkable - large boats are crafted with complex hulls without the need for any written plans. Most of the fish now goes to China, and fishing is becoming quite profitable and many villagers now have a shiny motorbike and are improving their houses.

To the south of the island the major source of employment is seaweed. Long lines are stretched out across the shallow Southern bays to grow and collect seaweed. It is then collected, dried and sent off, eventually ending up in Hong Kong or Singapore to make agar agar. Miles upon miles of white sandy bays are lined with seaweed ropes. Above the bay there is the remains of a Portuguese fort.


The Portuguese traders pre-dated the Dutch. Wengi though was not such a prize - lacking the high fertility of the spice islands. The fort is a massive construction with twelve entrances each guarded by cannons. Most of the cannons are still here lying on the ground. Linking the entrances is a wide walkway in the European style which affords tremendous views across to the other islands in the archipelago. A village has developed inside and around the old fort annexing some of the walls.

As we walked around the old walls collecting a following of more and more young children it was easy to imagine the Portuguese soldiers and their families walking round the walls in the evenings, enjoying the views and recollecting the Mediterranean.

We stopped to talk to some women weavers - frames made from bamboo with coconut shuttles, and then returned to the main town. One restaurant in town has permission to serve food and even beer at lunchtime during Ramadam. Again it is a wooden construction over water. Fiery crab and prawns washed down with Biltung finished an excellent day.