Sunday 29 September 2013

30th September - Karimunjawa to Borobudur


Monday 30th September





Well it was a long journey – 4 hours on the ferry, three hours in the 8-seater van, a bit of get-in-and-out-of-vehicle to get from Karimunjawa to Borobudur.



We were amazed when we turned around from our seats up the front of the ferry, after just a few minutes travel, to find that nearly everyone was asleep…

But…yes it is worth it.  Borobudur is wonderful, magical, serene.



Breakfast at our cheap & cheery Lotus II Hotel was lurid…but it was all included in the price of the room, and there was a compensatory plate of banana and pawpaw.  But...what a nice place to stay.  Kindly helpful staff, lovely coffee, a very relaxed feeling and .... very cheap!  Not to mention the comfy mattress which I loved!

I don’t know if I have much time to do this…Pete has formed a plan for us to get into yet another 8-seater van, with the SV Watermusick family (Bill, Becky, Joey, Raymond and Melody Musick) 




and for us to go to Yogyakarta for the afternoon… It is apparently A Must See destination… Tomorrow we have to leave early, we don’t yet know what time, to get to the coast to catch a ferry back to Karimunjawa…



We left early to go to this fabulous Buddhist temple, built in the 800s AD.  Some of the people we met left at 4.30 to watch the sunrise over the stupas…they were disappointed because the temple was wreathed in clouds and they saw…nothing.



We were lucky to get there around 8.30.  yes it was crowded but…it is a huge temple – there are 5 kilometers of pathways around and around, all full of beautiful friezes depicting the life of Buddha.  Plenty of room for everyone…



We have enjoyed being with the Musicks – will take a photo today, so you can see this cheerful US Family Afloat.  Bill told me a funny story, and about some sailorfriends who lost their little dog overboard, way out on the ocean.  They didn’t notice fore several hours, and suddenly – oh dear, where is Fluffy???  It was said, Bill, the sort of small nondescript dog you can’t tell if it is coming or going… Small and out in the vast ocean, full of sharks and barracudas.  They turned back immediately and followed their track through the waves (than God for modern tracking technology!)  and there, paddling valiantly in her little red life jacket, was – Fluffy!!  Saved!

PS We didn't go to Yogyakarta...we are instead now in Jepara, on the coast, ready to catch the ferry tomorrow,back to 2XS.  Good news, I think...

Saturday 28 September 2013

29th September - overnight passage to Karimunjawa


Sunday 29th September

5 degrees south
110 degrees east

We arrived in Karimunjawa mid afternoon yesterday after an action-packed passage from Rass Island.



Leaving the area was a teensy bit fraught because it was pitch-black, at 3m, and we had to make sure to avoid a large and unlit oat and two big menacing bommies which we knew lurked just beneath the waves.  Captain Pete managed this well, although he found it very stressful.  I was extremely helpful, leaning over the front railings trying to see watery menaces and unable to see Anything At All…

There were hundreds – yes I know I exaggerate, but trust me, hundreds! – of small boats with blue sails coming back in to shore at sunrise.  So pretty, and, fortunately, quite visible.

We sailed all day without incident and then…it was dark, an the radar lit up as if it had been scattered with confetti.  Oil rigs a-plenty, belching fire.  We were OK with oil rigs; we could at least see them.  What made it all very difficult was the hundreds upon hundreds of small fishing boats whizzing about, way out at sea.  Most of them had lights, some extremely bright, dazzling, in fact, ruining our night vision.  Most of them behaved as if they could see us, but more than a few of them came right at 2XS like kamikaze pilots, swerving right at the last minute, or nonchalantly idled their way across right in front of our bow.  It is making my head ache just thinking about it…



I was on watch from 12-3am, and I decided to sit up on the deck for a while, to get a better look beyond the sail.  Pete, who was supposed to be sleeping deeply in the cabin, suddenly appeared at my side, saying, in bemused tones, “Couldn’t you hear that alarm??”  What alarm?  Oh, that loud beeping…and the sign blinking on the screen sign DANGEROUS TARGET???  Well no, I missed all of that…

I galvanised guiltily into action and we both stepped up to the railings to look for the Dangerous Target.  (And yes of course we both had harnesses on; we do NOT want to be Lost At Sea!)  The alarm is always a bit premature; what it was telling us about was a large container ship, not very close at all.  There were lots of large ships, coming and going, toad to the merriment of our night passage.  But while we were peering into the dark there suddenly was a dangerous target, very close, and impossible to see until we were right in the middle of it, surrounded by tall bamboo poles…we had gone right through one of those wretched fishing raft thingies…Not a happy moment.  Fortunately no damage to 2XS, but the bamboo raft…well it will have to be lashed together again to alarm and terrify cruising boats into the future.

We were very happy to see the dawn…and even happier to get into a safe little harbor off Karimunjawa, where they are full of joy at the arrival of RallyBoats.  So much so that they have put in a series of sturdy new moorings.  We are leaving 2XS on one of these, and this afternoon we are catching a ferry to mainland Java and then an 8-seater bus to Borobudor, with the lovely US family from Watermusick.  We will be gone two days but I will take my computer and camera, and if I am not asleep with my had in my dinner plate (which is possible…) will write a bit more while we are away.  And there might be LOTS of photos of...temples...

As soon as we tied up to the mooring, I leapt into the water, fully clothed – I was VERY VERY hot and needed cooling down and improving.  After that I was up for a stroll through the little town of Karimunjawa. 



I thought this was a wreck, so picturesque, but in fact it is a working boat, full of happy fishermen.

Most of the local boats, of course, are beautiful
We enjoyed our stroll though town.  One of the first things we saw was…

We know what this means...
Chairs with clothes!  And yes, they were preparing for a Gala Dinner for the Rally… There are only five boats here at the moment; the others will follow from Bali, but these five boats are way ahead of the fleet.  So we had to look like a crowd…Jan and Marian (SV Avanta), the family of five from Watermusick.  The people from the other boats were all too exhausted after playing dodgem cars through the oil rigs, container ships, fishing boats overnight.

We loved the little town.  Colourful houses



and a wonderful contraption, obviously home-made by this father to ferry his little children around.

We went back to the boat to get changed, then had a quick drink on Avanta before making our way to the pavilion area to look like A Crowd.  There was an expo as well as the dinner, with little tents full of charming young people wanting to sell us things, or to tell us about their beautiful little archipelago.  I do hope a LOT more boats come in, to make it all worth their while…



I was very taken by these children, sitting totally enraptured by a small TV screen, showing a not-very-thrilling video.  It reminded me of the early days of television in Tasmania, in the 1950s, when people would line up in Murray Street to gaze at flickering screens in the Myers windows.

The dinner was delicious and VERY spicy.  But before the dinner…speeches!!  We really have nothing but good things to say about the Indonesian people we have met thus far.  Cheerful, friendly, hospitable, loving a party… but oh deary me they do NOT know how to be brief or succinct, or even mildly entertaining, when it comes to speech-making… I don’t think it made much difference that we could barely understand a word… The majority of the people in our orange satin pavilion were local and they weren’t listening at all.  They were chatting, smoking, laughing…as the poor speakers went on and ON… There was a bit of dancing




which also just possibly might have gone on too long – or maybe we were just extra tired…

We had some nice young Indonesian students sitting with us.  They had been sent to entertain us, or to practice their English, not sure… But they took it upon themselves to translate the speeches.  “The Minister For Tourism says, Welcome to Kalimunjawa!  We hope you have a wonderful time on our beautiful islands!”  Well yes we got the gist of that but…WHY did it take 20 minutes??  And why did yet another government official have to come and say the same thing?? 

Pete was asked to give a speech on behalf of the sailors...and he did so well, in spite of his yucky cold - brief and to the point, with the odd phrase in Bahasa, which went down a treat




At about ten the speeches were over, the dancers stopped dancing and…food!  Delicious spicy food!



No foodphoto but...I do love this Bali flower...



Thursday 26 September 2013

26th September - Lovina to Rass - Masterchef Bali Style


Thursday 26th September

7 degrees south
114 degrees east

We are safely anchored off a flat little island called Rass, off the coast of Java.  We left early and had an easy run, which is good because I am tired after all our Bali Fun, and Pete has a bad cold.

We went out to dinner again last night, with our original RallyFriends – Don and Tanya, Andrew and Sue, Gina and Jim – with whom we travelled up the coast from Cairns.  Lots of fun, chat, laughter.

At 5.00 we were reunited with our passports, neatly adorned with Indonesian visa extensions.  Pete very happy, Sam VERY reliveed – he had received 26 visas from the bureaucracy in Singgarajah, and only has four more to struggle with, today.



We had an hour or so to wait before meeting our friends, and we discovered, to our joy, a cooking competition just near the beach, in a big sunken concrete pavilion.  MasterChef Bali Style!

It was great; we didn’t understand a single thing about the rules of engagement but it didn’t matter.  The cooks took it all VERY seriously.

Some wore professional-looking aprons



Others their very best ceremonial lace outfits.



and they all trembled beneath the stern gaze of the Balinese Matt Preston…



There was a band, and a few singers. Our favourite performance was a guest appearance by the Balinese Minster for Tourism, who sang a gentle Balinese song and then…Knocking on Heaven’s Door, con gusto!





Tomorrow we are leaving at 4am and will travel overnight.  We hope to get to Semarang, which is where we may be able to get ourselves onto a tour to Borobudur.

That is the plan, man…

Wednesday 25 September 2013

26th September - farewell to Bali



Just a quick note to say...

We have our passports back, with renewed visas.  So...we are free to go and should be leaving pronto.

Runners-up in the Bali Toursim Awards (or maybe it was only Lovina...never mind; how cute are they??)

Tuesday 24 September 2013

25th September - Bali - Lovina - Three Johns


Wednesday 25th September

I am interspersing a few random local photos.  Just because I can…



So are we on the high seas, or at least cruisin’ on down the coast towards Java?  Well no…we are still in Lovina, surrounded by the RallyFleet.



Our visas aren’t ready; our passports are locked up in some large and nameless building in hot hot Singgarajah…and we can’t leave without them.  Obviously!  We were told it would be three working days to get them processed.  We handed them in on Thursday evening, so that day is, of course, out of the reckoning. But…Friday is only a half day, so nobody even looked at them .  I am assuming that half-day means get-ready-for-the-weekend-and-don’t-do-any-work-at-all day

Maybe they will be ready this afternoon.  And…maybe not.  Poor Sam, our rally organiser, looks like this



and not like this…



In fact, when we asked some of our friends where he was, they said that he was in his office in a hotel behind the beach, but that he had gone to ground and wasn’t talking to anyone.  Wise move! 

Last night we were invited to join two lots of people for dinner.  At the same restaurant at the same time… I asked Pete which group he had said yes to, and he said actually he had said no to everybody because we would need to be getting an early night to leave at sunrise.  As this was not going to happen, we decided to go to the restaurant after all.  And, of course, both groups were there together so we didn’t have to make an embarrassing choice…  We had a lovely time, lots of chat, nice food. 



Denis (above) we had met on our diving trip.  He is a lone sailor on a big cat, Manta, and he speaks very few words of English.  But he is learning!!  He has made friends with John and Irina, and John*



 speaks barely a word of French.  He communicates with Denis by speaking English with a French accent, and by lots of mime and body language.  There is a lot of laugher involved.  Last night I was able to tell Denis some of the stories flowing around the table; he had been sitting there smiling quite happily but not really having a clue…

Our local friend, also John,



who took us for our waterfall excursion the other day had a pre-dinner drink with us and then sloped off to find the martobak vendor.  Pete has been searching for martobaks all over Indonesia.  We had one in Kupang, but that is a l-o-n-g time ago.  I will try to describe this delicacy.  It is basically a pancake, spun out very fine, them folded over many times and filled with veggies and goodness knows what, and then shallow fried and folded again.  Very delicious! 

So there we were sitting in our elegant Lovina Japanese restaurant when Local John stepped up to the table, with a large brown paper parcel for Pete.  THREE martobaks, hot and oily!!  Local John disappeared in a puff of smoke… I was just a bit embarrassed, although it was very generous of him; Sailor John said, Well some people BYO grog; others BYO food!  The waiting staff in the resultant were unperturbed.  They bought little entrĂ©e plates and voila, martobak for seven!

Speaking of Johns…that reminds me that when we had martobak in Kupang, at the night market, we had our Tasmanian friend John with us.



We love having John as crew and companion but…this time he was sick for two out of the three weeks, with food poisoning of various sorts.  We went to the same places and ate the same food, but he was vey unlucky.  Unluckier still when he got home and was hospitalized with dengue fever from an errant Timorese mosquito…

* This John is actually Jon/Jonathan but for the symmetry of my blogpost he is John…And he  has one of the most interesting surnames we have ever come across – Eighteen!