Thursday 1st August
Our newly-reconstituted city in Kupang Harbour:
The night
market was a great place to go for dinner.
It is on every night from 6-11. A
few streets are closed off to traffic and filled with rickety stalls and
glowing braziers, cooking huge amounts of fish.
In amongst the open flames run small children, in their pyjamas, having
a wonderful time, darting between legs, leaping over chasms in the footpath,
avoiding scalding water and glowing embers and red hot metal. I wanted to take a photo but they were too
speedy, and I was too alarmed to be able to focus.
I did take a
photo of two little boys, aged between 2-4, who sat under their stall with some
cardboard boxes and two VERY sharp knives… They were industriously cutting the
cardboard into tiny strips – presumably for kindling. The photo came out a total blur…I haven’t
quite got the hang of being patient, with the flash…
I always ask
the parents, if I can photograph their children, and they are always delighted
to say yet. I don’t really feel any
compunction about it; so far I have been photographed by at least fifty people,
with my consent, and by hundreds more, lurking like paparazzi, without me
having any say in it.
We had company
at dinner – Ida, Rico, Adamath:
Ida, a most
beautiful and charming girl, had greeted us at the dinghy area, wanting a chat
and a bit of English practice. She was
SO thrilled to come across us again, sitting on our hard wooden benches,
balanced over ravines in the paving, eating a freshly grilled fish and a bit of
salad. (The salad was possibly a
mistake…more anon…) The three of them
joined us, beaming hugely, and I shouted them a slap-up fish, rice and salad
dinner (approx. $5 for all of three of them…)
We left them
with their laden plates and went to another stall to eat a beautifully prepared
martabak, made by a true artist – exquisitely thin pastry stuffed with spices
and vegetables. And then a few grilled
prawns, with yet more salad. Pete and
John ate the salad; I was very wary… As we left we caught sight of a fruit
juice stall – dragon fruit! Custard
apple! I asked for a custard apple
juice, and sat on a little plastic chair near some delightful children (photos
yet again a blur…) And what a treat was
in store for me! I watched my nice
juicelady as she put a heap of de-pipped custard apple into a blender. All well and good… Then she added a BIG slurp
of sweetened condensed milk (a guilty pleasure of my earlier years…) and a slug
of sugar syrup. Oh heavenly yummo!! I don’t have sugar in anything – not in my drinks,
nor in my food, so imagine how I was BUZZING as we made our way down the
darkened streets towards 2XS!! WHEE!!
The sad sequel
to our nightmarket evening is…John is prostrate on his bunk, occasionally
leaving it to make his way very swiftly towards the toilet… Pete is fine, as am
I. We have cancelled our touristy
excursion and hope to be able to do it tomorrow.
On our rally
radio exchange this morning Lydia, from the Sail Indonesia office, spoke kindly
and calmly to the new arrivals, all waiting anxiously for Customs and
Quarantine, who operate on their own sweet schedule. She said to be polite but firm and on no
account to let more than five officials on at once… We had THIRTEEN!!
No this is not
a very good photo…but it is the second time I have taken it and maybe I am a
bit shaky when I stand there in the crowded street, looking a bit intrusive on
The Culture… Some of the clothes shops are exclusively for Muslim women (and
obviously little girls) and they are very bright and cheery in spite of the
necessity for full covering of body and hair.
Most of the women here, young or old are very much dressed in Western
garb – jeans, t-shirts, a lot of popculture clothing.
Here’s an
example of modern Kupang girls, in their school uniforms:
And you could
not have asked for a more giggly, shriek-y, happy gaggle of girlies if you had
tried…
Was I a happy
girly this morning? Well yes…in parts,
like the curate’s egg… Pete and I had
spent an hour or so looking at our emails, using my new five-gadgets-at-one-go
modem. Lalalala, happy as could be…and
then it suddenly STOPPED. No more modem
connection. Sigh sigh. Different expression of distress from both of
us. Oh
dear, oh no…from me…slightly less restrained language from poor Pete.
We abandoned
John in a nice breezeway, on my beanbag, with books and weak black tea, and I
went to find my modem seller, very confident that it would only take a few
minutes. Four HOURS later we had
success…
In the
meantime, I pointed out to Pete – a man in a Tilley Hat!
His new Best
Friend Forever!!
After our four
hour visit, Pete and I decided to have an adventure before going back to the
boat to check on our REAL and ailing BFF.
I took a photo
of the sign at Customs, Quarantine and Immigration, because it tickles me – not
that it is fair AT ALL to mock other people in their attempt to write correct
English!! So far my Indonesian is VERY
basic, consisting mainly of please, thank
you, excuse me…
Our Adventure
involved finding a Number #6 bemo and going for a bit of a circuit:
Here is Sam’s
blogdescription of his recent bemo trip:
You can't
miss Kupang bemo. With fancy paint job and impressive sound system they are in
their class of their own. I got in on one last night. The first one that
stopped had rap music blasting at full, so I politely decline. I am not great
fan of rap music. No offense. The next one had country music playing a song
about the broken heart, dead dog, high taxes, running out of whisky or
something like that. I could live with it, so I got in.
Well, I
thought I was inside of disco rather than inside a public transport. With
blinking lights and darkened interior with music blasting, I was hoping a
skimpy dressed lady would show up and come over asking what I would like for a
drink. It was not a bad trip. For I think Rp 4000 I think I get my money worth.
To be honest I forgot to ask how much was the fare. I must be dazed by the
experience. But I will find out soon I recover how much it is actually cost.
Our trip cost
us approx. $1 each and it was great fun.
Our bemodriver was about twelve years old:
And his vehicle
was so full of stuffed cutenesses around the steering wheel that it could have
been part of Toys ‘R’ Us.
At one stage
there were SEVENTEEN fullsized people stuffed into this little van…everyone
cheery, polite, full of smiles for the gringos…
My impression
of Kupang thus far? Well it seems
riotously disheveled…full of rubble, rubbish, mess. And the occasional glimpse of a traditional
Indonesian house, with lovely colours and roof-lines.
Tomorrow, all
things being equal, we are going on a slightly more organized tour, with local
Charlie, who operates out of the sailing club… I will report back, with more
photos!
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