It was a slightly disappointing start to my birthday to find that our cellphone and data service had stopped, despite having just renewed our Telkomsel plan. We soon learned that it was not just affecting us but all the rally participants who had been in Indonesia for 60 days. That limit had been applied to our cellphone service to match our visas and we might need to pay 20% tax to import our phones (doesn’t this sound familiar?) But nothing could be resolved until Monday, so I anticipated that my birthday would be extended until I could see my emails and WhatsApp messages. Since all rally communications are made through a WhatsApp group, this made things a little awkward for a few days, but we could muddle through…although a few people were clearly in an anxious state of internet-withdrawal.

When we left Labuan Bajo, we had stopped for a couple of nights and excellent snorkels at the small islands of Gili Bodo and Gili Banta. We then made an overnight passage to Badas (yes, it is pronounced “Bad Ass”) on Sumbawa Island. After trying to anchor in the designated but crowded area inside the Cargo Port, we moved around the corner to a wide bay where there was plenty of room, and the sounds of karaoke and calls to prayer replaced the grinding of machinery loading ships in the Port.

Despite the internet blackout, my birthday just got better and better. Going ashore in the afternoon we rode in one of two minibuses for about 90 minutes following the main highway southeast through fields of rice and corn, to get to the town of Plampang. Arriving a little late, our minibus could not get through to the stage where we were to be guests of honor watching the arrival of many groups of beautifully dressed people carrying “gifts” who had just paraded through the town. So instead, our guide, Marsa (pronounced Marsha), told us to join the parade, and much to the amusement of the viewing locals, our motley group of cruisers ambled along behind one of the bands, waving and taking photos. We joined the other minibus passengers on the stage to view the rest of the parade behind us and, inevitably, to have many, many photos taken with us.

Later that evening, we were again guests of honor at a Welcome Ceremony at Badas Port. It was the perfect combination of: a pleasingly short speech by one of the rally members; an equally short speech by the local Regent; a performance by women dancing with handkerchiefs (with the apparently obligatory section when members of the audience – cruisers and officials – are required to participate); a performance by men of a battle dance including two going at each other with sticks and shields; and four songs played by a rock and roll band to which the cruisers danced and thus provided entertainment for the crowd. It all made a very memorable birthday.

The following day, we are going to see a slightly odd combination of traditional weaving, buffalo races…which has the potential to be very muddy, and highland coffee production. Hopefully we will get the phone issue resolved on Monday (buying a local phone if we must), and then Randall and I will probably leave Sumbawa on Tuesday (20th August) to make the two day-sail passages to Medana Bay on Lombok. There I hope to have a bit of time to catch up with emails and some blog entries…yeah right!