Blog 79. Kepri Coral, Pengelap Island. 00.30.009N 104.16.94E

Alcedo
David Batten
Wed 6 Nov 2019 10:20
After a calm motor sail we anchored in much shallower water than before off Kepri Coral as we found being further out to the west and north of the resort buildings better. We set off for the welcome ceremony and we joined what seemed like a huge party of press photographers and ?travel agents, presumably invited as a marketing exercise for the resort, which is fairly new but all ready popular with tourists from Singapore and more local areas like the city of Batam. All the bigwigs like Minister of Tourism, Regent or Regent’s representative etc arrived by boat, late as usual and amongst them, the very charming retired chief of the Indonesian navy who had been posted to Greenwich during his career and spoke excellent English.

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Lining up on the resort beach to greet the VIPs

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Skipper’s Wife very happy to see these messages on the back of children waiting for the VIPs to arrive

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The retired Admiral standing up, with the owner of the resort, a shipping millionaire, on his left, with other VIPs in the pavilion building

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The resort swimming pool, which we made good use of

Apart from the usual welcome dancing, a batik fashion show, stilt racing and a cool off in the pool, we had lunch and an evening barbecue given by the resort and a press conference for members of the press only. It did become increasingly clear that we were just a side show entertainment for what was indeed a marketing exercise for the resort, but we were none the less well entertained, although we did have to use our elbows at the barbecue in order to achieve supper. The press and the locals had got a significant head start by the time we came ashore again in the evening and we had to load the barbecue with prawns and corn on the cob in and then fight them off to get any supper.

The following day was not so entertaining. A ferry ride to and coach trip to walk around a now deserted camp for the Vietnamese boat people on Pulau Galang, an Island the Indonesians ring fenced for the refugees, was an interesting start to the day. The long drive to have lunch in the equivalent of a service station restaurant, albeit an up market one by Indonesian standards and owned by the same man as Kepri Coral. This followed by 2 hours in a modern shopping mall in Batam City did not amuse and we were tired and somewhat grumpy by the time we got back to the resort after dark. So it is with few regrets that we leave promptly tomorrow am to go north towards Tangjung Pinang and the second to last stop in the rally.

Alcedo



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