BELITUNG

BELITUNG

BELITUNG FORESHORE

Well, this is our last official stop in Indonesia. From here we clear out and then go to Danga Bay in Malaysia. We left Kalimunjawa early on the 5th Oct and arrived on the 8th at 1.30 in the morning, after a fairly uneventful trip. Just the usual fishing boats trying to pass their bad spirits on to us, the occasional thunderstorm and those BIG ships trying to run us down (or so it seems).

LOCAL FISHING BOAT

While some of the places we have visited leave a bit to be desired, and others have been wonderful, Belitung tops the list. It is very clean, the people are warm and friendly and oh so polite. They ask permission to speak English with you and if it is ok to have their photo taken with you. All Indonesians are crazy about having their photo taken with us. Complete strangers walk up to you in the street and ask to have their photo taken with you.

We are anchored off a beautiful white sandy beach, lined with eating places and other miscellaneous shops, some set up for us and also for the local festivities that are held every year around this time.

LOCAL DANCERS

Once again we are entertained by the locals and we are also “encouraged” to participate to the great hilarity of all. The entertainment not only consists of the usual cultural dancing, but here they indulge in glass eating. Yes you read that correctly, they are put in a trance and then eat light bulbs with no apparent side effects. They believe that when they are in a trance the spirits take over and they are the ones who eat the glass, so therefore no harm can come to the person.

NANCY JOINING IN WITH THE LOCALS

We were introduced to a wonderful local family by our guide. They are an affluent and influential family on the island, but are so very warm and generous, inviting us into their home, feeding us lunch, and showering us with gifts.

MR. DEVAN’S PLACE

We invited them back to our boat, but were not sure that the authorities would allow it. The next day they called and said they would be honoured to come out to our boat. Mrs Devan speaks excellent English, while Mr Devan’s English is very limited. It was very rolly that day and Unara (Mrs. Devan) started looking decidedly green! We presented them with a photo of our boat and a Dutch clog in the form of a boat. Mr. Devan collects model boats and was already planning to build a glass case for it. They have 60 god children and are putting 15 of them through university and have 8 children of their own. What an amazing couple!

AT THE DEVAN’S

And so ends our three month journey through Indonesia. A place of many faces, incredible poverty, hot chilli peppers, rice, strange customs, Muslims, Christians, spectacular scenery, pristine water, polluted water, and above all the warmest most generous people one could possible meet.

There remains just one more milestone to report, and that is that on the 16th of October at 0206am we crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere.