Drawing Long Bows, Surf Gods and “Big Waves”

(Our month with Daz and Stuart)

My apologies to all those who find the title confusing. I’m sorry, you had to be there. This entry is dedicated to Daz and Stuart in memory of our journeys together to beautiful locations, our wide ranging conversations and witty repartee.

Our arrival in Bali was a late one followed by a quick taxi ride to Sanur and hearty greetings from our travelling companions at our accommodation. They had arrived earlier that day, dined at the local night markets and were relaxing on their balcony near the pool when we arrived.

After a brief one day stay in Sanur to acquire life’s essentials (Sim cards, Indo money, toiletries, nibblies etc.) we boated across to Nusa Lembongan. Kristy and the wonderful staff at Linda’s were ready to rescue us from the tender that brought us to shore and escort us to our rooms. Our upstairs room had a wonderful view of the beach and stairs leading to it that ensured I stayed fit during our stay. If you desire luscious legs I can highly recommend steep stairs with big steps for the job. At the end of a week, negotiating those stairs at least six to ten times daily, my legs felt like jelly and were happy to be moving on.

What can I say about Nusa Lembongan? Picture beautiful weather (not too hot, not humid at all), comfortable accommodation, a swimming spot for me straight out in front and ‘Shipwrecks’ surf break just a short boat ride or healthy paddle away for the boys, delicious food at our own restaurant or at many other restaurants along the beach, pleasant sand and village strolls, great snorkelling spots and best of all, great company – what would you say? Could I be so bold to call it a small island paradise?

During our stay there we met and enjoyed the companionship of a young Swedish couple, Sven and Josipa. They joined us for many of our meals, our snorkelling excursion to Nusa Penida and helped us celebrate Stuart’s 55^th. Friendships forged along the road are one of the greatest benefits of travel.

Another ferry ride returned us to the island of Bali for an overnight stay before flying to Kupang in West Timor. Kupang is not and never will be a holiday destination but as an overnight stopover it is a lively, friendly town (the wild, wild west). Strolling down the main drag late Sunday afternoon we proved to be a bit of light entertainment for the locals who resemble Papua New Guineans more than Indonesians and for whom bules (Westerners) present bit of an oddity. We had visions of walking to the night market but after venturing perhaps four kilometres we decided to buy some fruit from a nearby stall, catch a bemo back to our hotel and dine there.

Bemos (a mini bus of sorts) are the local form of transport throughout much of Asia. West Timor bemos are in a class of their own. They have to be the jazziest! Each bemo is heavily decorated both outside and in. They all sport large boom-box speakers under the back seats and disco lighting to enhance the ambience and give a psychedelic effect at night. Their horns are of the echoing variety. A ride in one of these little beauties wakens the senses with their cacophony of sounds and the vibrant visuals – a treat not to be missed and all for the princely sum of twenty cents.

As we were luckily forewarned that the Kupang/Rote ferry had not run for three days, the following morning we breakfasted early and headed for the ferry terminal. Yes it was running and yes it was filling up quickly. Darrel and Stuart who were behind us in the line got the last tickets before the ticket office shut its sales windows. The locals with their local knowledge were continually jumping the queue which had made it a little difficult to ever get to the front of the line – we quickly learnt to stand our ground or miss out. We ended right up the front of the bottom passenger deck which also meant that were amongst the last off the boat with our gear and almost missed our lift from Baa to Nemberala. Mus, who was taking us with him, had also been on the boat, hadn’t seen us on board, waited half an hour, decided we had missed the ferry and headed for home. Thankfully our phone had reception in that one and only place on Rote and he returned to collect us.

Mus’ family are the owners of Anugerah Homestay, room and full board for $45 a night, our accommodation - two of the front local style bungalows with attached outside mandis (bathrooms). Anugerah’s is right on the beach, a short stroll from the water’ edge, the hardware shop, which stocks all your daily needs, and Nemberala Beach Resort, the perfect location for  sunset drinks. Communal meals are served in a large lounge/dining room, the ice boxes are refreshed regularly with bintangs and ice-creams, the idiot box is available for the DVD of your choice, aerial ping-pong or reruns of McCleods Daughters and, most importantly, the staff/family are happy, friendly and helpful – everything you could possibly need for a relaxing fortnight.

Although the Rote is a low key surfing destination the local life of the twin villages of Nemberala and Sedoe continues on basically unaffected by the presence of bules, with very little accompanying tourism. This area of Indonesia is away from the well beaten tourist route and hopefully will remain that way. The island is an idyllic location, postcard perfect, peaceful and inviting (definitely up there in my top 10 favourite places).  The beaches are possibly the cleanest in Indonesia yet to be cursed by the scourge of Asia, plastic and Styrofoam rubbish. The pleasant pace of village life revolves around the local industries of seaweed farming, fishing, small scale market gardening, lontar palm cultivation and ikat weaving. The lontar palm is believed to be the nectar of the gods and the foundation of good health.

The island, like a small handful of others in the Indonesian archipelago, is mostly Christian. The Nemberala church celebrates its birthday with an annual month long gala event of daily football and volleyball matches to entertain the masses. It is a highly anticipated event with competitors and their audiences travelling from most, if not all, of the island’s villages and neighbouring small islands to participate in the celebrations.

The boys scored waves for the first week but unfortunately the swell dropped during the second. We filled our days with walking, reading, eating, sleeping, playing UNO, swimming, babbling on and generally having a relaxing time of it. Daz explored the surrounding highways and byways on his hired motor bike but Stuart, Neil and I kept our feet firmly planted on the ground.

At the end on the fortnight we had the reverse trip with another over-night stay in Kupang. This time round we found the night markets with bemo trips to and from. We successfully negotiated four cumi-cumi (squid) meals but had a slight communication problem when it came to ordering prawns. We thought we had asked for two grilled king prawns each and were just a little surprised when we were served two plates of chilli prawns each. Must have thought us to be very greedy or hungry bules! Chalk that one up to experience. Some of the locals got a tasty free meal.  Ours was washed down with delicious avocado juices. These truly are a taste sensation – chocolate syrup drizzled round the inside of the glass then filled with icy avocado juice – can’t be beat!!

Our return stay in Bali was a brief one. We had a day and a half to restock some necessities, enjoy some fine meals and relax around the pool with Daz and Stuart before we parted company on 31^st May. Neil and I flew on to Sumbawa and Daz and Stuart filled their final day with a sightseeing tour to Mount Agung and other destinations before returning to Australia the next day.

 

Thank you Daz and Stuart for your company. It was a memorable month.