What a wonderful place. Belitong surpassed all expectations. A beautiful sandy bay guarded by a promontory of massive granite boulders. The granite rounded by eons of sea erosion is punctuated with almost totally enclosed sea pools and caves. It's rather like the baths in Virgin Gorda except on a much larger scale. The difference is that in the Virgin Islands these rock formations are visited by thousands. Here only a few. It's not mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide book. Even amongst the visiting yachts people probably only a dozen or so ventured into the rocks themselves. We explored them in our kayaks bumping in and out through narrow rock openings into the perfect swim pools.

Belitong had pulled out all the stops to greet the visiting yachts. The president of Indonesia was due to come, and lots of security arrangements were in place. As it happened he didn't make it but the vice president did. It seems to be de rigeur for Indonesian politicians to sing. So at the farewell dinner hosted by the Regent of the island not only did he sing, well, as it happens, but so did the minister of fisheries and resources, and even the commander in chief of the armed forces was persuaded to sing a few words. It seems to be the Indonesian way - lots of singing and lots of dancing.

The Regent explained to us (simultaneous translations for visitors) that Belitong was the same size as Singapore and as beautiful as any tourist destination. All it needed was a bit more money for its port, its tourism and a tin refining factory, and it would be on its way. It's certainly a perfect holiday destination - maybe a tad too many thunderstorms. We're near to the equator.

Every fishing boat in the area was lined up for a great parade in front of the Vice-President- first the small boats - not much bigger than canoes with small put put motors, then slowly getting larger ending with the squid boats - bamboo out-riggers to either side - wooden capstans and winches, over 300 of them. They were supplemented by various navy boats and a team of jet skiers who had rode all the way from Djakarta.

After the display, there were various dances in front of the Vice President, and we finished up with yet another party and more singing. On this occasion the Brits excelled with some sea shanties on the subject of whisky. It was quite strange to see Indonesian girls in head scarves dancing along with Europeans, and the band playing a mixture of Indonesian and Western pop songs.

Belitong is where we check out of Indonesia, although we are planning a couple more stops en route to Malaysia. Our current plan is to head for Denga Bay which is just across the water from Singapore.