DOING THE MILES – Kalimantan to the Equator

DOING THE MILES – Kalimantan to the Equator

These ships (the triangles)  were the easy ones to miss.

 

Kumai to Belitung was our longest leg yet. It was 222 nautical miles which we did in about 38 hours. Of all that time we only sailed for about 8 hours, so that motor just drummed on and on. For some reason making passages with the motor on seems more tiring, and this one was no exception with sloppy seas and also the constant worry of  unexplainable lights in the moonless night.

This is what we were often dodging during the night. Sometimes with the barge unlit.

An added bit of excitement was when at about midnight I was resting in the saloon, off watch and I heard a thump on the deck and a rattle, rattle, roll. “That can’t be good” she thinks. I raced up on deck to see what it was, to see the 'goose neck' swinging free from the mast. (The 'goose neck' is the part where the horizontal boom meets the mast.) With the boat on automatic steering, we both went up to see what could be done. The nut holding a big pin in place had worked loose and luckily hadn’t gone overboard, but had rolled to a safe place on the deck. With seas that rolled the boat from side to side it was impossible, as hard as we tried, to get it all connected up again. As soon as we got the heavy boom lined up, the boat would lurch sideways and the boom would swing away. We had to secure it somehow, so Rob thought of using one of the spare halyards (ropes) on the mast to hold the big boom at least at the right height. It still wouldn’t line up properly despite much grunting and groaning. We were getting very tired. All the while I would run back to the cockpit to check the radar and chart plotter to make sure we weren’t going to run into anything we shouldn’t. We tried everything to line things up, until I thought of using the boom vang (strut between boom and mast base) to slide the boom towards the mast and it worked! An hour later we collapsed back into the cockpit exhausted. Team Doctor had come through again!

Motley finds the overnighters tiresome too.

BELITUNG

We slid quietly into the anchorage at the island of Belitung at about 7 o’clock that night, very tired little bunnies hoping for a good rest, but Belitung greeted us with one of the worst anchorages we had been in. It was completely open to the weather and a beam swell. We tried unsuccessfully to cross the bar into the shelter of the river, but we went aground and had to struggle to get to deeper water. Consequently we had to ride out quite a tropical storm that gave us 38 knot winds and a boat that pitched manically from side to side. Life on board was pretty desperate as we hung on for dear life. Unfortunately we were stuck there as we had paper work to be processed, our fuel jerries to collect and a bag of washing being done. Otherwise we would have high tailed it out of there quick smart.

 

A boy's canoe

 



As all storms do, it passed and we finished up having a very pleasant three day stay in Belitung. The locals really turned it on for us yachties and were intent on feeding us morning, noon and night for free. They took us to coffee shops (Belitung is famous for its coffee shops), the markets and to the Regent’s house for meals. At the festivities for the anniversary of the regency we were seated on the podium with the important guests to watch the famous Lion Dance. We were even given 100 litres of free diesel, unfortunately of dubious quality! The people were so warm and welcoming and couldn’t do enough for us. It certainly was the most hospitable place in Indonesia.

Free fuel

Free food

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free entertainment

Hans, our go to man in Belitung

The friendly Belitung team

 

You can't get friendlier than Belitung

 

The family car

 

The next few days were a blur of sailing miles. The deadline for the expiration of our visa was looming and we wanted to clear out of Indonesia as far north as we could. We motored most of our way across the South China Sea to the island of Bangka (170NMs), then to the beautiful island of Lingga (94NMs). All these places deserve more than an overnight stay, but we are so constrained by the crazy visa regulations here. We had a full day at Lingga where steep sided mountains dripped their jungle foliage towards the water. There was a gentle drizzle of rain that softened the edges of everything to a Turner like landscape.

Lingga

With our people batteries charged we headed north towards the equator. Just before the island of Kentar we crossed from the southern to the northern hemisphere. Rob was keen to test the theory about the water going down the plug hole in the opposite way, but the rolling of the boat made the experiment difficult, so it was abandoned. We were well prepared though, as crossing the equator in your own boat is a very auspicious occasion not only because we have sailed all this way, but also because our friend, benefactor and foe, Neptune must be acknowledged. He must have been happy with us as no soon had I said that wouldn’t it be nice if we sailed, not motored across the line, but up piped a lovely 18 knot breeze which soon died off as soon as we were over all the zeros. Many people dress us for the occasion but this was our crossing the equator ceremony. Firstly there was the obligatory photo of the GPS as you cross from South to North, 00.00.00. Then off to the stern of the boat for a good dousing with salt water, which wasn’t too bad a thing to do, considering the heat of the day. Finally we lined up three drinks of gin and tonic with lime, one for Rob, one for me and one for our good King Neptune, which I hope he enjoyed. Just to make sure he was happy, we each said a few word of thanks for keeping us safe this far.  So there we were 11.22am 22^nd October, 2012, a bit salty, a bit tipsy and more than a bit pleased with ourselves!

Going from south to north

Salt water dunking

Salt water dunking 2

One for the King !

KUMAI AND THE AMAZING ORANGUTANS

Kumai and the amazing Orangutans

The four hand grip

Kumai is about 475 miles from Lovina Beach Bali and we did it in 3 stages, Raas Island----Bawean Island and then Kumai. No wind on the first day so we motored to Raas Is, about 75 miles in total. Our reward was a 4kg Maori Wrasse bargained off the local floating fish market for two wood clamps and a few t-shirts. The wrasse was superb. Next morning we started the  motor to make our way out of the anchorage and a disturbing bearing rattle suddenly appeared from the fresh water pump at the front of the engine. These bearings can last some time before they go completely and with that in mind we headed out towards Bawean. Luckily we had breeze and sailed the entire distance of 196 miles, turning the motor on only for the last 15 miles to get around some shoals close to the anchorage. Bawean was a beautiful spot and once again we wanted to stay longer but our visas were out on the 28^th and we still had a long way to go to Nongsa Point Marina, our port of exit from Indonesia.

 These are everywhere in Indonesian waters and without lights (barge only)make for "interesting" night encounters

Bawean to Kumai was 222 miles and miraculously we sailed the whole way apart from a 25 mile motor up the river to the town site. We were doing night sails and in Indonesian waters these are stressful. Suddenly you may come upon a floating fish trap unlit or a row of floats unlit or worse still a tug pulling a barge full of gravel doing 2 kts and again only partially lit. The tugs don’t come up on AIS and so you rely on radar to see where they are and what they are doing. We overheard a funny radio conversation between an American yacht (will go nameless) and the tug. It went as follows:

"Arrgh tug pulling large barge, tug pulling large barge I request you alter course to port, alter course to port now please."

Silence from the tug. Our American friend tries again, this time he adds
 "Terimakashi (thankyou in Bahasa) Terimakashi large tug pulling barge PLEASE alter course to port."

Silence

We lost contact thankfully and had no idea how the situation ended. Rules of the road state that tugs towing barges have limited manoeuvrability and so have right of way. Common sense states that a tug pulling a 50,000 tonne barge with a tow line of 1-3 kilometres might have difficulty moving to port to accommodate a yacht.

Oh well, it takes all sorts. Kumai was covered in smoke and when we peered through the haze the view was not so inspiring. It’s an industrial town that sits about 20 miles up from the river mouth and is grey and smoke infused. The smoke comes from farmers who burn off their paddocks and it hangs low in the sky like a thick mist. We got in touch with the tour operator who takes you up to the Orangutans and set up a trip for the following day. We had no interest in staying any longer than we needed.

Day after day we pushed on further into the impenetrable, the unfathomable, the deep and dark heart of darkness itself....( very dodgy quote from Conrad) and gee it was tough. Elise and Dan from Babar

Next morning a Klotok (a long thin house boat with open decks) purred alongside The Doctor and we clambered on board. We were going up with Dan and Elise off Babar. Oh what joy to sit back on the deck and let someone else worry about  depths, engine noises and courses while we lay back sipping coffee and watching the jungle slowly envelop us. Those of you who have read Heart of Darkness by Conrad and can remember his descriptions of the jungle closing in on Marlow as he negotiated snags and shoals and dodged overhangs will have a good idea of what we were experiencing. Our first sight of a monkey was the Proboscis species called thus because of the large nose of the males. These are big boys and we had a great view of one bloke and his clan. They have multiple females and we saw the complete family feeding voraciously on leaves as they hung from slim branches or sat in convenient nooks in the trees.

The big guy chewing on leaves.......looking very human....guess which monkey this one is..... think nose

Our next stop was one of 3 feeding stations that were part of the rehabilitation programme started some years ago to try and save captured or endangered Orangutans. This rehabilitation programme hoped to reintroduce orangutans back into the wild but it has apparently failed as they become to accustomed to human contact and it will be fazed out in time. Orangutan in Bahasa means people of the forest and when we finally came across them, the title seemed very appropriate. They have a fiery orange hair and black faces that seem both wise and contemplative. They look back at you with that” have we met somewhere before” look. Well, actually we are related but I haven’t seen you at many birthday parties..........There was a mother with baby firmly attached at the first station and she was quite forward. If you had a water bottle in your hand and weren’t careful, she would creep up and snatch it out of you lose grip, take the top off and empty the contents. I thought it made complete sense. It was a hot day and what better way to wash down 30 bananas than with a cool bottle of water. The Indonesian guides reacted quickly and grabbed it back and told her off. She wasn’t overly upset. She just loped off to the feeding platform, grabbed a 12 banana hand of fruit and scaled the nearest tree with bubs still clinging on to her back.

Hi, I'm an orangutan, nice to meet you!

To see them come swinging in from the forest to eat at the station is really an incredible sight. They use their limbs with a natural ease as they loop and swoop from branch to branch using their weight and natural bend of the branches to drop or lift themselves to where they wish to go. It all seems so effortless. Dan stood in amazement at what are essentially 2 sets of arms, complete with working fingers. He could see huge potential in the tight confines of the engine room on board Babar. Just think, he mused, you could change the oil filter at the same time as the fuel filter and every time you muttered, Gee, I could really do with another pair of hands...................sorted. He went so far as to volunteer to be the first human to have a foot transplant done with an Orangutan. Somehow I feel it might be going against the idea of rehabilitation and he was joking......................you were joking Dan??????

Too easy!!!!!! can you see the little one?

The food was great on board the Klotok and after dinner and a glass or two of wine we all tucked down to sleep under mozzie nets on mattresses salvaged from the First World War. The trick was to and try to spread the dull ache of body parts evenly through the night. The Klotoks were comfortable in the Indonesian way and the cooling breeze generated as we motored along was a godsend. When we stopped the heat was suffocating, so much so that we decided to skip the last of three feeding stations and head back to the boat a little earlier.  While we were away, the tour boss promised his stay on board guards would be hard at work cleaning and polishing The Doctor. It was a sight to behold. Stainless that had never seen a cloth sparkled and the deck and dodger were squeaky clean. All up a great two days up the Tanjung Puting national park and lovely break from the boat.

Mum and baby just hanging out....

Dinner is served

A klotock jam from fallen tree, note the wood chopper working away to clear the problem

From Kumai we were headed for Nongsa Point and our final piece of Indonesia before we cross the Singapore Straits and into Malaysia for the next enthralling leg of our South East Asian odyssey. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEAUTIFUL BALI

BEAUTIFUL BALI

Bali was a long day’s sail of twelve hours, six am to six pm and 73 nautical miles. We managed to sail for half of that which is becoming more difficult as we get closer to the equator. But nonetheless we crept into Lovina Beach which is on the northern coast, just on sunset. Lovina Beach is famous for dolphins and dolphin tours abound, but we had our own welcoming committee of fifteen or so dolphins that cavorted on our bow for at least half an hour. They performed barrel rolls, leaped out of the water and lined up in military precision on either side of the bow. We do get a bit blase about dolphins but this was a special show and it brought a smile after along day.

Our second escort came in the form of an older man in his canoe. He pointed out a good anchoring spot and before the anchor was barely down he advised us of his services. Nothing was impossible; diesel, petrol, water, laundry. His motto should have been “Your wish is my command.” This could be cruiser’s heaven. The anchorage was packed with the usual bevy of cruising yachts but there was plenty of space. Ashore there were great cheap restaurants, day spas, a traditional market with fresh fruit and vege and bars that became yachties hangouts, where we caught up with everyone’s news.

Our first full day was spent with our friends, Elise and Dan and Elise’s dad, Ken. They had rented a suite at a resort and seeing as it was AFL Grand Final Day, the Aussie owner laid on a feast of chicken wings while the blokes watched the footy. We lazed the day away around the pool sipping fruit cocktails. This cruising life is getting a bit decadent lately. I fear that the holiday may be coming to an end soon. We've got some big miles to cover coming up.

Hot spring therapy

 

With the boat securely anchored we did the tourist thing and went to see the local hot springs where Rob soaked his injured shoulder under a jet of warm therapeutic water. We also hired a car to take us to Ubud for about $35AU each way. Our driver stopped off at the local Luwak Coffee establishment. This coffee is famous for the way it is processed. The Luwak, a cat like animal is fed the coffee berry which through nature’s course then comes out the other end, supposedly much improved. The beans are roasted in the usual way and voila, very good, very expensive coffee!

The Luwak cat that eats the coffee beans for the special Luwak coffee

Our bungalow in Ubud was magic. It was completely free standing with its own veranda and overlooking a wonderful swimming pool and all for $25 a night, including breakfast. Ubud itself was a bit disappointing. I visited there in 1989 and I have memories of quaint wood carvers’s shop set along interesting little leafy lanes. Instead the main street is now shop after shop selling to the tourists who wander up and down looking for a bargain.

The obligatory Bintang on the veranda

Ubud street scene

Our accommodation was set off on a more interesting side street away from the maddening crowd. There we could eat leisurely meals overlooking a more traditional scene. A highlight was a short walk at the back of our hotel that meandered through rice paddies and finished up at an organic farm and coffee shop where we had freshly made mint and lemon grass tea. The excursion to Ubud was a pleasant respite from the boat, but also a little taster of what Bali has become.

Meandering rice field walk

 

LOMBOK PART 2 – TAKING THE MOUNTAIN AIR

After our little adventure at the Gili Islands we were happy to have a few days in the lovely secure bay just to the west of Medana Bay, where the majority of boats were. The bay had whitish sand and was fringed by coconut palms, the perfect pace for a luxury resort. As luck would have it we heard that you could have a meal at the resort and that entitled you to use of the pool. Always out for new experiences (and a swim in the pool) we set off with five others and dinghied to the most amazing resort I have ever seen. We threw in our bag of washing, on the off chance that they could do our laundry. We were greeted by a very polite security guard who directed us to the restaurant. The setting was magnificent. The open air restaurant overlooked a beautiful big pool surrounded by day beds, lush gardens and typical Lombok fixtures.

 

We claimed a day bed and started ordering fruit cocktails that we could leave on the water’s edge to sip as required, as we floated languidly in the pool. Lunch was expensive. Together with cocktails and two courses it cost about $30AUD each. That is the most we have paid for a meal since we left Darwin. The laundry was taken care of but I learned my lesson. You don’t take your laundry to a five star resort. The charge was $53!!! Despite the shock of the laundry debacle we whiled away the afternoon lounging around the pool, eating and drinking with our friends.  The conversation flowed and refreshingly it was not all about boats. By the way, the washing was magnificent, very clean, ironed to a crispness never seen before, and neatly packaged in brown paper with string. Motley loves the string so that must be worth $53!

Fran and Diana lapping up the luxury

 

The anchorage was safe enough to leave the boat so we booked a hotel room high in the mountains of Lombok. A taxi took us the 40kms to Mount Rinjani and only cost $15. Our hotel room, perched on a steep cliff, had glass floor to ceiling windows overlooking vivid green rice fields and the spectacular summit of the volcano, Mount Rinjani.  We went with the deluxe room and it was a bit on the expensive side at $60AUD, but it was worth it for the view. In typical Indonesian fashion, although the room had a TV and air conditioner, which we were looking forward to with some anticipation, the power went out and stayed out pretty much until we went to bed. The staff arrived with candles, which was all very romantic, but..... The room was huge and the bed a big and comfortable  four poster with mosquito nets.

View form the four poster bed

Mount Rinjani from the hotel

 

A trip to Rinjani is not complete without a visit to the two waterfalls that the area is famous for. We engaged a guide at the entrance to the park and he led us to the first fall. It hurled itself down in a single column of water with such strength that you would be unable to stand directly under its torrent. After seeing Rob’s difficulty with walking, the guide strongly suggested that he remain at the first waterfall while he and I went further up to the second. In retrospect it was a good call as we had to scramble over rocks, pass over a narrow overhead culvert and wade through fast flowing streams. The walk wound its way through lush tropical rain forest following a crystal clear mountain stream. It is just the sort of therapy that a sailor accustomed to squinting into the glare of ocean needs. It felt like a cool cloth placed over a fevered brow.

Waterfall number one.

 

Waterfall number two

The guide was a man probably in his sixties and he had very limited English. It was a good opportunity to try out my Indonesian, but I hit the wall when it got past  “Do you have a wife? Children? Grandchildren?” I learned that he had two wives and they both wear the hi jab. Now this made me feel a little nervous as I intended to bath in the waters under waterfall. Rationalizing that he probably gets to see lots of tourists and many less modest than myself I went ahead with my plan. We arrived at a beautiful waterfall that plummeted into a small swimming hole. I gave him my camera and glasses for safe keeping and disrobed discreetly behind a boulder. Luckily I had my bathers underneath. The water thundered down so fiercely that it created its own wind which lashed your face with spray. It was quite nerve racking inching my way towards the pool, but I slipped into the water and once there, it was exhilarating. Unbeknown to me my guide had been snapping away with my camera and documented my every move, including the disrobing.

Going in

 

 

We went back to find Rob and he had had a nice time relaxing by the waterfall steeling himself for the long ascent to our hotel. We returned to the boat after having a refreshing change from sailing, navigating and the busy routine of running a boat.  We had left the care of Motley with a Fran, a cruising friend and cat lover who had to leave her cats behind. Motley I fear was a great disappointment, and wouldn’t leave her safe place to play with her. On our arrival home we were greeted with a meow that said simultaneously, I am glad you’re home, but DON’T EVER DO THAT AGAIN.! Sorry Mot, but you’re going to have to get used to it.

Diana

Lombok

LOMBOK

 

Arriving in Lombok was like stepping back into reality after being in a meditative state. We had been to a calm place of stunning anchorages, humble villages, simple but gentle people with enviably simple lives. Lombok anchorage was full of all the Sail Indonesia yachts crammed in together and with the predictable niggles and stresses. We’re anchored too close to that boat or “You have dropped your anchor over my anchor chain.” But Lombok was a necessary stop where we had to renew our visas and it was great to catch up with friends that we hadn’t seen for a while and to hear their stories and experiences.

These horse drawn vehicles are a common means of transport

Off to the market!

Other most popular transport, the scooter. We've seen  family of five! Two adults, two kids and a baby.

 

Lombok is a beautiful mountainous island with lots to see and do, and as we had to wait for our visas to be processed it was a great opportunity to become tourists. Our first tourist effort was a bit disastrous though. We motored over to the famous Gili Islands. The three Gilis are famous for wonderful diving and snorkelling, restaurants, accommodation and bars right on the beach, or so I’ve heard, we didn’t actually set foot ashore. We arrived in the small bay on Gili Air where there are several moorings. Most were taken but we picked one up that looked OK. After settling it became obvious that it was going to take us way too close to another boat, so we dropped that mooring and decided to try to anchor. The bay is fairly deep, about 20 metres or more, but we found a shallow patch quite close to shore. Settled in once again I started to give the boat a well needed wash down with the deck wash. Not long into this therapeutic job I was yelled at by a passing boat that we couldn’t anchor there. We were told we had to pick up a mooring and pay 50,000Rp a day  (about $5AU). OK off we go again, but this time the anchor wouldn’t come up. It had snagged something on the seabed. The poor old anchor winch that had been squeaking and complaining about the many deep anchorages that it was expected to haul the anchor from, gave up the ghost. The two of us hauled the anchor up by hand and discovered that we had snagged a submerged mooring. Rob valiantly dived down and released the anchor and we were free to try to find another nesting place.

A mooring further out had become free so we picked it up thinking that now we should be OK. Oh no! Not to be. After we had been settled for quite a while a man from a nearby boat who had just returned from ashore,  told us that our mooring was unsafe and had dragged onto him during the night. Further more, as his boat was without batteries he couldn’t move. By this time it was getting late and we were running out of options. We couldn’t try to anchor again as the anchor winch was cactus and there weren’t any other moorings to be had so really we had one option and that was to get back to Lombok and get the anchor winch sorted. It was not ideal leaving the coral strewn anchorage so late in the day but leave we did. We slowly picked our way back along our inward track and into a nearby and less crowded bay.  It turned out to be a beautiful bay with only a handful of yachts, and the anchor dropped into 14 metres in sand. It would be a good place to look at repairing the anchor winch.

Luck was with us as anchored nearby were our friends Francis and Gary on “Sea Dragon”. Newly arrived on board their boat was their crew Mal, a naval engineer. Before we knew it he and Rob had the anchor winch sorted and running better than before. It appears that when it was last service the internal clutch spring was placed wrongly and all this time the poor old thing had been working doubly hard to keep going. That and a broken retainer clip, which was replaced by an improvised one and it was as good as new. Relief was palpable on board The Doc that day. Life without an anchor winch in these deep waters was not an option and the thought of having it repaired in Indonesia with all its inherant difficulties was not appealing either.

So the Gili Isles were not to be, but we repaired an essential item, made new friends and found yet another perfect bay.

Diana

 

 

Medang Island, back to school

Medang Island

We’d bought a lot of school materials in Darwin for delivery to remote and needy schools across Indonesia. Before we left Dili we spoke to an American guy from the Vega, a beautiful old wooden yacht boat that does a run through Indonesia visiting these same remote islands and bringing all sorts of supplies. We had just donated my much loved but rarely played guitar on the promise that he had just the right village in mind for its new home. These musical instruments become community assets that can have a far reaching impact on many people. I wonder how many guitars sit right now on top shelves of wardrobes gathering dust across the suburbs of Australia. Anyway, he mentioned an island that was particularly remote and particularly in need of school stuff so we decided to make this our major beneficiary.

the whole crew

We arrived quite early after a short sail of 20 odd miles and anchored in crystal clear water. A young local paddled over in his dug out and with his best English offered for sale his recent catch of crayfish and fish. Diana grabbed the crayfish (50000 rp) for about 5 bucks. Quite expensive relatively but he was a real sweety and very welcoming. With dinner sorted (for one only) out we made plans to go ashore and find the school so we could give our small gift. We had no idea where the school was but figured it a good move to find the village first and then maybe the school would be close. As we dinghied ashore we noticed a group of people playing in the water and so we waved and they waved back, all very friendly and very welcoming.

We pulled the dinghy up and they came over, a little shy at first but soon bubbling with giggles and their best English phrases. We asked if they knew where we could find the school and more importantly the teacher or guru in Bahasa. Note that word fellow teachers reading this blog, GURU, and respect to all you gurus out there. Well, you won’t believe this but the guru was right there in front of us and this was a school trip to the beach for some lunch and a bit of fun. It was a Sunday by the way. So, not only had we found the teacher but we had half the school right there as well. Brilliant. The school was quite a walk away so Diana and I were invited onto the backs of their scooters and with back packs full of goodies we all scurried off to the school. The school is common in design being just one block of 4 classrooms, no windows, wooden floors and desks preDikensian but it’s a school and it does all the same things that the flash glass mansions of Claremont do.

every class has its clowns (check out the desks)

We piled our small offerings onto the table and greedy hands were gabbing for crayons and textas until I said in my best teacher voice Tidak.........Guru Guru, meaning no the teacher will decide who gets what and when. Then we all piled into a classroom and the kids spread themselves out in the desks and we had endless photos taken. Then the village teacher asked if we would do a lesson for the kids and they all screamed with excitement. OK...........let’s see......how about writing a short story, poem...... what say we analyse this magazine article I have in my back pocket......Wrong. I grabbed a pack of flash cards with colours and small animals on each face and had a quick game of who could guess first. First hand up won and name went up on board (yes, I was using a whiteboard marker on a whiteboard in a classroom on a remote island in Indonesia and boy the memories came flooding back) and then a tick if you got more than one right and then a play off for the smarty pants who got the most ticks and we have a final champ and game over and lesson done. I used this a lot to wrap up lessons when I was a teacher and it’s a fun way to finish. The winner got a flash pen and then we have red cordial on the veranda supplied by the wife of the principal. The kids were delightful and the teachers and staff so grateful for our small gifts. We have the email and postal address of the school and will be doing more to help in future. A little goes such a long, long, way in these places and we in Australia have so much we can give.

ahh, a whiteboard and a captive audience.......what more could you want?

Then it was back on the bikes for a tour of the village and this was incredible. The streets are so narrow , nothing more than a path really, so you get such a close look at village life as the scooter shoots past people washing from buckets pulled up from wells, families lying around playing cards or just chatting, lovers sleeping with their heads in laps, old ladies gossiping with neighbours and always, always the instant flash of a smile as we glide past on the backs of the scooter. It was a real life snapshot of a village going about its business on a Sunday afternoon and we felt completely immersed in this moment and with these beautiful people. We made our way back to boat and after farewells and thank yous were completed we dinghied back to the Doctor. The sun was setting ,the Bintang was cold and we toasted to a lovely day and a mission successfully completed.

Rob