5th October - Belitung

Saturday 5^th October

We will be leaving Belitung at first light tomorrow, because we have to get to Singapore as soon as possible so we can fly home.  It wasn’t possible to leave today because there is a lot of paperwork involved in leaving Indonesia and we had to wait till Sam SailIndonesia was here to collect up all of our red tape and forward it post-haste to our point of exit.

So we have had a reasonably leisurely day, with a free shuttlebus trip into the main town, Menggar, which is proudly home to (literally!) 1001 coffee shops.  This is a lot, for a population of 100,000!! 

Here is part of the welcoming committee, including the Telkomsel Girl, who boosted up my internet simcard, along with a lot of help from The Team.

Yesterday we came across a party of tourists, in a shiny new bus.  They were from Djakarta, enjoying a 52 year school reunion… All second generation Chinese, and all very cheerful and affluent.  Our new friend, Mr Leung, is still working, running his successful group on theme parks.  He told us he is 72, and when we commented on his youthful appearance he said, “Oh, that is easy!  Stem cells!  VERY cheap, in Indonesia!” 

Tonight is – yes – a Gala Dinner, with speeches and dancing… Pete and I had a late lunch at one of the restaurants along the beach.  I wish I could bottle the sweet & sour fish soup…SO delicious!!  With that, and a grilled fish to share, we should be right for tonight – gala dinner food is always served very late, after many m-a-n-y speeches… There are about 20 boats here, mostly tossing around in the bay, although others have cleverly inserted themselves into the harbour, wedged up against fishing boats and not having to brave the waves.

The village organisers have put in a floating pontoon for us to tie up our dinghies, which is good because going up on the sand is very daunting – the beach is very steep and he waves quite ferocious.  The pontoon has been greeted with glad cries by the local children, as you can see from the photo at the top of the page…

Unfortunately they also see our dinghies as yet another thrilling floaty toy…

Not sure when next we will be in internet range; we have many miles to go, quite a few overnighters to get through…