Kupang tour
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24/09/19
position 10
03.350S 20 S 123 13.190E
They were both delighted to see the inside of a yacht and took
lots of photos. I decided I should take Ayubs whistle stop tour of Kupang that he had mentioned in passing and so back ashore I paid Alex for his help and Ayub found a taxi-luckily the same one I had left my hat in yesterday. The tour involved quite a lot of driving out of Kupang- 1st to find a sugar maker down by the public beach. They collect juice from a palm tree by slicing the end off the fruit and collecting the juice in plastic pots while still hanging on the tree.
Then the juice is boiled down in a series of pots simmering over a clay tunnel with massive burning log inside. The final produce are little disks of caramel flavoured sugar which you can make a drink with or use for cooking. They make a strong spirit with it as well but I didn't get to try any. We had some fresh coconut water at a stall on the deserted beach
and then further out of town found a traditional instrument maker
and weaver. It is called a sassando -this original version has 10 strings arranged round a bamboo pipe and the fan amplifies and enriches the sound.
I don't think the silly hat helps the sound -certainly my
attempts were clumsy. My fat fingers were not ideal for picking
out the notes. The weaver was in the next room producing traditional cloth on a
hand loom. I bought a small piece for Diana. We finished the tour at the museum- rather run down but two nice young girls showed us round and explained the exhibits. A little archeological section, a Magellan wall (he stopped in Kupang), some masks, wood carvings and weaving, pots and weapons and a bit on the war. A full blue whale skeleton in its own building. It felt due for an update and there are plans to do that and a model of the proposed enlarged museum in the foyer. We've seen so many really good museums and this was not in the top league, but worth a quick wander. Back to the beach and a fond goodbye to Ayub. He is certainly genuine and determined to be helpful and get good reviews. He taught himself english from a dictionary and relies on the few yachts he acts for for his income. He won't get many now for the wet season so probably has a hard time surviving untill the new batch start arriving in April. I had to make a rather undignified exit from the anchorage as the wind had swung round and I was hanging next to the fishing boat and at risk of taking a bash. I must have dragged at some point. The wind was a fresh easterly and I was able to drift while recovering the dinghy and outboard. I am aiming for Rinca or Komodo -256 miles away.
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