July 26 – Aug 2
Hi All,
Wow, what a time we have had the last 7 days. First, you get 42 boats/cruisers together and it gets very, very social so it’s time to go find a quite Bay and recharge!!!
It did take us 2+ days to check into Indonesia. Some of that is just the # of boats, some of that is very inefficient Rally organization and some of it is a lot of bureaucracy in Indonesia. The first day we had 2 nice gentleman from Quarantine come to our boat late afternoon and after a cursory inspection of our food stores and stamping of many documents we were told to go to shore and see the rest of the officials. Another boat, Stedem on Atlantis, offered us a ride in as our dinghy was not down yet. Just as we got to the room full of officials we were told they had closed for the day…..so what do all good cruisers do on the day they arrive….we joined about 12 of our best mates and sampled many Bintangs, the local Indonesian beer…..and it comes in 620mil sizes…..yes, Kathy and I did split them:))))…….but alas, no white wine for the Admiral:(((((
So we were up and onshore around 9am the next day after a very good night sleep after 3 nights on passage, and we were met with a very full room of officials…..we saw Quarantine again, then Timor Quarantine, Customs, Immigration and finally the Harbor Master. It took us about 1 hour and every offcial was young, professional, and very friendly. But, we were told by Customs we still needed to be inspected by them, so go back to the boat and wait for their inspection. Indeed their boat showed up later in the afternoon….but, it had gotten very windy and choppy….maybe 2-3′ waves….and the poor young men were quite seasick. The inspector got to our pilot house and said everything is fine and ran back to the cockpit. Stamp, stamp, stamp on the papers and you are good to go…..except, you need to back to shore tomorrow to pick up the official papers…..ok, there you go!!!
So, this calls for another celebration……Stedam and Brett and Stacey on Bella Vita come over for a quick drink….haha……many wine bottles and beers later we officially had opening ceremonies in Indonesia and LIG!!!!
The next day we did go back into the “room” and within 10 minutes we had all the official papers and good to go. The rest of the day was spent at the Rally location getting to know people, having lunch and getting our Telkomsel phone sim cards and a dongle style modem. Oh boy, was that a process……Telkomsel had setup a booth for us and had several people there to get us sorted….great, very convenient…..except, they did not speak English….yikes! Finally, Eva, the Aswindo rep (Indonesia tourist department and Eva is one of the main people organizing our Rally within Indonesia….more on that later) came over to translate…..took maybe an hour to get through all the various decisions. Later on, Telsel had a very nice young man there who spoke English. The rest of the day, late afternoon by the time we got back to Mystic, was spent catching up on emails and all the news…..the latter is always depressing!!
On Friday, we walk into the Rally center and meet a very nice young woman who speaks great English and is from the Tourism Department. We had heard about an exhibition showcasing many of the regions of Indonesia, and we asked her about it. She said yes it is going on now and I can take you there. So, about 8 other people join and off in taxis we go. Well, it was as advertised, many, many booths setup to showcase the various islands and regions, trade goods and food, plus a lot of very, very loud music. We had a really good time, but again it was all in Indonesian but TG for Alita to translate. After the exhibition, Brett/Stacey and us went for a walk around the town….maybe a 10+ block walk……hmmm, not quite sure how to describe what we saw….many, many shops…some in concrete buildings and some in street venues. This could have been any one of the many third world towns/cites we have been in…..pretty good infrastructure but in need of repairs. The people we passed, though, were what made it special….all were very welcoming and excited to see us. They wanted to know where we were from and did we like their city! We managed to find some nice tomatoes to replenish our stores, and also found a fishing store to buy some local-size hooks and line to trade or give as gifts. All in all, a fun and very interesting day!
The girls were pretty pooped for the evening but Brett and I decided to go back in and visit the “night market”. We first had a few Bintangs at the bar and we met Ben, one of the local tour guides brought in by the Rally. We had actually contracted with Ben to take us on a traditional village tour on Sunday. Ben learned we were going to the market and said he would go with us and we are soooooo glad he did. We met Jimmy on 20/20 Vision and we had a delightful meal of grilled snapper, prawns, and beef with rice, all cooked as we watched!!
Sidebar: Yes, we are having a lot of difficulty with the language….even for Kathy. It is not Latin based as are Spanish and French so it is quite foreign to us, in spite of it being grammatically very simple. By Day 7 Kathy has about 10 words/phrases learned while I’m still struggling with the first set of 3….ugh!!!! Fortunately, the Indonesians are very patient with us and extremely helpful!
I will stop the blog here and get it posted……More later!! There is much more to share, particularly about our trip into the mountains of Timor, but time to get to the chores this morning!! I did post a lot of pictures in a gallery called Kupang. Hopefully, you will get better sense of the sights and flavors of this marvelous country and her people:
http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Kupang-1
We will be leaving in about 4 hours to make an overnight passage to the island of Alor…..about 135nm NE and will take us ~19 hours. We have a good forecast…..winds 10-15kts to start and then becoming light and variable.!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!!
