Thursday 26^th  2013, Savu Sea, off Flores  South Indonesia   9 09.4S  121 01.3E  

Today's Blog by David (Time zone BST +7.00; UTC +8.0)

If arriving in Kupang, Indonesia was  a bit of a shock, it wasn’t because we weren’t expecting  Third World conditions, it was because I had forgotten how such a  large and vibrant town feels. It is more than a year since we have seen this kind of thing. True we have been to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia in that period (BTW,  Noumea itself is anything but Third World) but our interactions with those countries was mainly in small towns and villages, each of which had their own charm where we also got to talk to the locals.  And we also  spent six months in Australia and New Zealand too (‘nuf said!).

Kupang is a large town with 160,000 residents and ia the administrative capital of Timor. The buildings are basic, reinforced concrete and breeze block, two or three storeys, some backing right onto the sea – a sheer drop onto the rocks below from unglazed  windows.  The town brings back memories of  Praia, Santiago in the Cape Verdes Islands (our longer suffering Blog followers will remember how much we enjoyed Praia!).

It is full on, right from the open beach landing, where a dozen boat boys (some aged 50+) converge on your boat and a self-appointed English speaker explains that the fee for recovering the dinghy carrying  it up the beach and looking after it is 50,000 Indonesian Rupiah.(roughly US $5). No discussion of whether we would like the service …. Nor of the plainly evident consequences were we to decide against it! As it happens it was good value for money – it takes 6-8 people to carry our RIB – and they earned all their money on the final landing/relaunch with an onshore swell when two of them waded out chest deep to ensure we got safely off the beach against the wind and waves.

Once off the beach, there are people everywhere, cars, motor bikes, hundreds of mopeds all milling about - apparently randomly – and sitting about.  The sensory onslaught of  the noise, smell, rubbish  and dilapidation is overwhelming – reminiscent of downtown Lagos, Nigeria (on a quiet day!!). 

One of the quieter side streets

Teddy’s Bar (A World renowned Yottie Haunt)

All the usual issues: bartering with street vendors, security concerns both personal and property (we had to remove everything moveable from the deck, all the ropes, blocks etc….just in case) had us continually on guard.

By and large though the people we met were pleasant and helpful.  Our passage through the channels of officialdom to enter the country were facilitated by and on behalf of the Oyster team, shepherding the customs and biosecurity teams around the fleet before we were allowed ashore where they had managed to corall representatives of Biosecurity, Customs, immigration and the Port Authority into a single hall;  armed with 10 copies of each of  our Clearance papers out of Darwin, our Permit to Cruise Indonesia (obtained in advance), our Crew List, our Ship’s Registration and passports and visas, we navigated that room in about an hour. Heavens knows how long we would have taken had we had to go to each of their offices one after the other. 

Tuesday evening, we were invited to a party hosted by (I think) the Mayor of Kupang. We paid in advance for local food provided, which was excellent if rather too far up the chilli Richter Scale for my taste (buds). There was a display of traditional Indonesian Veil Dancing accompanied on traditional instruments.

                                                                                                                                                                      A traditional “Sesando”

The Veil Dance

Finally, in Darwin we went to an “OP Shop” (charity shop in English)  to get some clothes to give away to the locals should we get the opportunity. A small contribution to the Salvation Army and we were the proud possessors, we hoped temporarily,  of three bin bags of clothes: Children’s Boys’ and Girls’.  Quite frankly, though we had so many that we feared our possession might be closer to permanent and that  would have been of particular concern for Richard’s sleeping arrangements, (Yes it is he ….. he who has not yet had enough of us and he is joining us again in Bali) , because the bin bags completely filled his cabin berth.  

However, the Rally group found out about an Orphanage in Kupang; A small team visited and then encouraged all the boats present firstly to each divi up some cash to fund our purchase of sacks of rice, flour cooking oil etc, some mattresses for the boys (who apparently have to sleep on the concrete floor) and  toys, toys, toys (for they have none) .  A larger small group took all of this to the Orphanage yesterday  along with any other gifts and donations thus providing us with the opportunity we had been looking for to vacate Richard’s bunk.