Similar, but Different - Bawean Island, Java Province, Indonesia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 23 Oct 2010 07:59
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05:43.820S 112:40.129E
Every place we've visited in Indonesia has its own feel, it's
own character or personality, and although there are constant themes throughout
the country - lots of friendly, smiling people, over the top hospitality, deep
spirituality, tidy living spaces surrounded by rubbish filled streets and
harbors - the differences sometimes come as a surprise, or at the very
least, a pleasant reminder that you can never lump the people or places that
make up a country into one big, boring bucket. Every time we visit a
village, we marvel over how it is slightly different than the last, not just in
terms of population size, architecture or level of prosperity, but in the way
the people greet us, the size of the kid parade we do or don't generate,
and the general atmosphere of the place. It's these sometimes subtle
differences that keep us addicted to this traveling thing. That and the
endless parade of panoramas nature continues to place in our
path. Oh, and the joy of traveling with one's own toilet.
Can't forget that.
The small village near our Bawean Island anchorage was just
that - slightly different than other villages we've visited throughout Muslim
Indonesia, but with enough of its own character to set it apart. Of
course, it was vastly different from Bali, but as we've said, Bali is a whole
different world.
Getting to Bawean Island was an exercise not
recommended for the faint of heart. We left Bali as the sun
rose on September 27 and aside from breaking the record high temperature in
our cabin again (93.2F this time), the first day was an uneventful
motorsail. The distance from Bali to Borneo (land of the
orangutans) is about 400 miles, and Bawean Island sits conveniently in
the Java Sea, half-way between the two. Two days and one
overnight took us from Bali to Bawean, and a repeat of the
same took us from Bawean to Borneo. As overnight trips go,
this would normally fall into the 'piece of cake' category - at least that's
what we thought when we started out.
After our stifling first day of motorsailing, we welcomed
sunset and the slightly cooler temperatures it brought. As darkness fell,
we started noticing pinpricks of light ahead of us in the distance. A
closer look through the binoculars and the night scope revealed a flotilla of
fishing boats, floating rafts used as fish attraction devices and flagged buoys
marking the ends of fishing nets - all lying directly in our path. This is
a night watch nightmare, and one we had never experienced to this degree
before. Throughout the night we navigated through close to a hundred small
fishing boats and their accompanying paraphernalia (nets, buoys, FADs).
All especially stressful when motoring, since fishing nets have a
tendency to wrap themselves around props if given half a chance, making it
very ugly for both the boater and the fisherman. We emerged unscathed
at sun rise, but not without a lot of effort on our part. For the first
three hours of the night, I was stationed on the bow with the night scope while
Don was at the helm responding to my suggestions to turn to port or starboard to
avoid this or that. During the remaining nine hours of darkness, Don
and I alternated three hour watches while the other person tried to sleep.
The conditions were flat calm in the usual zero wind, so at least
it was easy to jog back and forth between the bow (to peer through the night
scope) and the helm (to make any necessary adjustments) in the dark
every five minutes. Our usually tedious 3-hour night watches went by
super fast with all the excitement, so that was good, but we still don't look
forward to a repeat performance. We arrived at Bawean at 3pm on the second
day and spent the remainder of the afternoon napping.
The following day I ventured to shore with Tom and Suzie from
the American boat Priscilla (both are ex-Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees
from Washington, but we don't hold that against them) for a tour of the
town. Below are pictures.
 The walk from the bay where our boats were anchored to the
town was a mile or two along a winding, narrow road filled with motorcycles
buzzing by this way and that. Tom loves to take close-up photos of
the Indonesian people, and did his best to photograph every man, head-scarved
woman and family of four that scooted by us on their cycles. The women
often tried to cover their faces (in modesty or for some other reason?), which
was only a problem if they also happened to be driving the motorcycle.
Thankfully no Muslim women crashed and no 30-scooter pile-ups occurred. As
we neared the town, we walked past this school where the kids were more than
happy to pose for Tom (as they always are).
 Indonesia's version of the ice cream truck. - complete with
ice cream truck music to attract Indonesian kids and American foreigners
alike. The three of us bought one, of course. It was the equivalent
of $.50 and tasted mighty good.
 A few of the local women and girls preparing a meal in their
front yard. Food preparation always seems to be taking place outside, but
when it's 90F, who wants to cook inside?
 Tom capturing the rice toting ladies up close.
 A few older gents taking the air.
 Bawean Island seemed fairly prosperous with several houses
like this one equipped with its own satellite dish and built beautifully with
ornamental window frames and ceramic tile floors and siding.
 As is typical in Indonesia, tidy family homes are often
right next door to the town dump. This lovely trash heap is actually a
water inlet from the sea. At high tide, the trash (mostly plastic) is
washed out to the open ocean. No wonder we see more floating trash in
Indonesian waters than we've seen anywhere. Certainly from a tourist's
point of view, the lack of an effective trash management program is one of
Indonesia's biggest problems.
Unfortunately, this blog entry will end on that sour
note...but regardless of the trash, we still enjoyed our two-night stay at
similar, but different Bawean Island before pressing on to Borneo.
Anne
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