The king is the one with the fancy head dress!

Lorraine hobnobs with royalty, the queen is to her left.

We had the usual entertainment of traditional dancing by local adults and children but were also sung to by a couple of officials including the Head of Tourism for the region who was surprisingly good...if you like country and western! His piece de resistance was, “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, by Kris Kristofferson. Most of the Indonesian people we have met are keen country and western fans. They also love line dancing which is very similar to their traditional circle dancing used as a way of uniting everyone. This happens at the end of every celebration we attend.

The whole town was getting prepared for the 66th anniversary of the Independence of Indonesia and the following day there was a parade through the town by children from 4 years old to older teenagers. The theme of the parade was Indonesia old and new, so many of the children were dressed in the local costumes of the different islands.

This little girl from Rote.

And this slightly nervous girl, 4 up on a motorbike, representing Bali I think.

So many different costumes from many different islands.

But not all the children appeared totally delighted by their outfits!

One positive thing is that the youngsters seem to be getting the message about litter. This litter costume by a youth group was sending an obvious message and apparently the town had had a big clean up of the beach before our arrival.

This town and the people seemed to be better off than others we have seen but some of their transport systems could do with upgrading!