Wednesday 30 July 2008
We are in Indonesia! It took us 95 hours for the 475 miles to get to Kupang. The weather was not against us, but also not exactly with us. If there was any wind, it was in our favour. But for long hours, there was none, and we had to motor. Anyway, we arrived, and had Quarantine on board within a few hours. Customs could not make it that day, but we could go ashore and visit Teddy’s bar for our first Bintang (23,000 rupiahs a big bottle, Teddy charges a bit more than others). The food was also expensive (30,000 rupiahs a serve) and not to be recommended. But newcomers are bound to pay a bit more.
The next day we spent waiting for customs. After a while I had enough and picked a guy up from the customs boat. He got wet on the dinghy ride to our boat, and looked rather sick. The formalities were over in less than five minutes, and I took him back. Ashore, we had to complete more formalities, with lots of photocopies of everything. Evething was stamped at least three times, and at last we were free to explore Kupang.
It is a rather large and noisy city, with bemos honking their horns at everything. The conductor, who is a boy in his early teens, holds a bundle of money in his one hand, and holds on with the other while hanging out of the door to call for customers. The inside holds huge speakers under the benches, going at full blast. A bemo fits about 10 people, but if there are passengers, everybody gets a ride. Payment is on exit, and tourists are charged 3,000 per person regardless of distance. Once we got the hang of it, we were charged 2,500. A massive saving of 12 cents!
We discovered a night market not far from Teddy’s bar. There were mainly food stalls, and a serve of nasi goreng, mie goreng, or gado gado was 6,000 rupiahs. Other stalls sold sweets, and we are yet to be disappointed. Everything tasted great.
We also went to the local market, where we were the only whites. Everybody was very friendly, lots of smiles and laughs. Maybe it had to do with my attempts at Bahasa Indonesia. The museum was small but nice, and it was good to find our way. People were very helpful. We tried to find the modern shopping mall, and were told to catch bemo 22 on the other side of the street. The traffic is frightening, and we were hesitant to risk our lives, when a young motorbike rider came across and stopped the traffic for us! This was just one example of many when local people just helped with a smile. You may have noticed by now that we are totally overwhelmed by the wonderful people here in West Timor.
At night, there was a reception by the governor of Nusa Tenggara Timur. Dancing, food, and a presentation of an ikat shawl for every participant. Then more dancing, and we joined in. A night to remember.
We went on a tour organised by the government. In spite of this, it was brilliant. We visited villages where people still live the traditional lifestyle (minus the headhunting, which was outlawed when Indonesia became independent in the early 50’s). We were presented with more ikat shawls as a welcome, plus the traditional timorese welcome. Again, everybody was unbelievably friendly. The food was again great, and were were free to look around. I wish I could speak more Indonesian, I could not make it past the general smalltalk. We took lots of photos, but our internet connections are patchy. We’ll publish some tmle later.
The next reception was with the Mayor of Kupang. Another lot of good food and dancing, and we were again made feel very welcome. Apparently we are on TV news here every night, and the foreshore entertainment was all set up for us.
A quick word about how things are here. The anchorage is very rolly from 11 am until sunset, we had to leave early and return late. On shore, there are many young students who work as a guide, and can organise about everything, like fuel, water, or spare parts. If you get here, ask for Tiel, he is a great guy with good english. He studies computer science, but he is still very nice and helpful.
Customs were the people who stuffed things up by impounding boats for a few days, and charging 50,000 rupiahs to have the sticker removed from the boat again. There are rumours that someone from Jakarta flew in (the press got hold of the story) to have the local head of Customs arrested. I suppose they do not want to get a bad reputation.
Another tour enabled us to visit an orphenage. The girls danced a welcoming dance, and we were shown around. It became obvious that there is not much money around. They are funded by World Vision, and of course we contributed as well. All children appeared happy and smiled, and we could distribute some of the things we brought. It was a very moving experience.
The next stop was a special school for children with some forms of disabilities. The teachers are doing a marvellous job, teaching skills according to the children’s ability. We distributed more goodies, and we wish we could do more. There are only one or two visits by westerners per year, and it appears to be something really special. It was certainly special for us.
Lunch was smoked pig in a small village, different but tasty. We also saw some ikat weaving, it requires a lot of patience. The day concluded with a visit to the monkey cave, where we sat amongst a few dozen spider monkeys. The corn feed was well received. Another great day.
To prepare for the next leg, we had a haircut in the local salon. Rosi was not too sure, so I had to go first. As he did a reasonable job (as reasonable as can be expected with my hair), she had a go as well. We paid 50,000 for both of us , which is around $A 6. All that was left to do was to clear out with the port captain (requiring another few copies of something we had to fetch from the boat), and farewell West Timor!
This was our first impression of Indonesia, and it could not have been better. The people are just wonderful. The bureaucracy needs improvement, this may happen over time. We are very happy to be here.
Time to move on.
Until next time, selamat tinggal!
Rosi & Mike
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