It’s been over two months since we left Aussie, and also a long break between blogs. Finding a decent internet with any speed in Indo has been impossible so this comes from gay Paree. We have left the boat in Bali and hope it will be there (and intact) on our return.

We had a fun last day in Bali contributing to the local police retirement fund. Corruption is alive and well in Indonesia but one comes across it personally when hiring bikes. It goes like this. They pull you over for some minor, if not imagined offence and ask for and International driving licence. We couldn’t produce one, so they start writing a ticket and fine you 200 000 rupiah (about $NZ30) for no licence and another 200 000 for your offence, and you have to go to Denpassar, or, you can pay them now. We had been wised up by a mate prior that the going rate to ‘pay them off’ is about Rp50 000, about $NZ7.50. You open your wallet having already made sure that you only have Rp51,000 inside, and after much hurrumphing and saying sorry, off you go less your money and the cops split the money, three ways in our case. Oh well, the up side is we have had some fantastic meals in very flash restaurants in Bali, and paid about $25 for two mains, two entrees and two drinks.

We have seen and done so much it’s hard to put in one blog, so we’ll split it into three and put some photos in as well. One of the highlights of our journey so far would have to be seeing the Komodo dragons.











Giant monitor lizards that only live in a couple of islands in Indo. Very slow during the heat of the day but they can sprint at about 30km per hour over short distances. They have been known to attack wild buffalo and a couple of humans have met their demise from them so they should be treated with a fair bit of respect.











We saw a couple of small ones on the beach at this anchorage at the south of the island of Rinja, but saw the big fellas in the National Park on the north coast of the island. This anchorage also provided a great feed of big luscious oysters.

The diving and snorkelling here is fantastic with great coral and clarity of water. It’s like diving in an aquarium and with the vis at up to 50 feet plus you just slowly mooch around checking it all out.

Plus in a number of these great anchorages we have gone ashore at night, had a BBQ on the beach with a few other yachties in the rally, and watched the glorious sunsets that you get in Indonesia.

Indonesia has been very diverse. We have covered the whole spectrum, from dirty dusty cities such as Kupang where we started; traditional native villages that hardly ever see tourists; great anchorages with fantastic coral and snorkelling; through to Bali which is full-on tourism and very westernised. Although it has been great most of the time, you do realise that you are in a third-world country, with all the associated issues such as pollution, risk of disease (e.g. malaria), and lack of access to some things that we take for granted at home (clean water and good standards of hygiene).

Kupang was our entry point into Indonesia; it didn’t have anything else going for it really. The local transport in Indo is the ‘bemo’; small vans that you squish into the back of, with drivers – some who look barely old enough to be able to drive – and most with noisy stereos blaring out with the bass turned up to maximum volume. Shane thought he would sit in the front seat on one trip to get a view out the front window; fat chance when this is the view he got from the front seat!











Indonesia has been very diverse. We have covered the whole spectrum, from dirty dusty cities such as Kupang where we started; traditional native villages that hardly ever see tourists; great anchorages with fantastic coral and snorkelling; through to Bali which is full-on tourism and very westernised. Although it has been great most of the time, you do realise that you are in a third-world country, with all the associated issues such as pollution, risk of disease (e.g. malaria), and lack of access to some things that we take for granted at home (clean water and good standards of hygiene).

Kupang was our entry point into Indonesia; it didn’t have anything else going for it really. The local transport in Indo is the ‘bemo’; small vans that you squish into the back of, with drivers – some who look barely old enough to be able to drive – and most with noisy stereos blaring out with the bass turned up to maximum volume. Shane thought he would sit in the front seat on one trip to get a view out the front window; fat chance when this is the view he got from the front seat!


Keep going, there are two more updates below as we can only get five photos per blog;

After Kupang it was down to the island of Roti for Shane to have a surf. We went to a village called Nembrala; a really nice spot. The water here was lovely and clear, with white sandy beaches and palm trees…..postcard perfect.













After a few days there it was back to join the rally at Lembata. We did a tour to a village that they call ‘Nature’s Kitchen’, a lot like Rotorua where they cook/steam the food in the ground.
















As well as checking out the cooking, we intermingled with the villagers. Here I am sitting with one of the ladies, as she sits spinning her fine wool on to a spool. The locals got quite a bit of amusement out of me; what with my blonde hair I was somewhat of a novelty, and they continually pointed at my nose as us Europeans have quite big noses compared to the Indos. At least I didn’t get my nose pinched, as one of the other Kiwi yachtie ladies did – mind you, her nose was even bigger than mine!!

One of our next stops was at the village of Waimalung on the island of Flores. The afternoon we arrived, some of the locals came and visited us on their small dug out canoes. They were quite fascinated with the yacht and asked to come onboard. Conversing was a little limited, so Shane got his guitar out, and sang a couple of songs. They then proceeded to try and show him up, by displaying their musical skills. They were pretty good too!













Here’s a bike loaded down with the supplies to take off to sell at market. It’s absolutely amazing what can be squeezed on to one small motorbike……..














The last big city we visited before Bali was Bima on the island of Lombok. It was the first time Bima had been a stop on the Sail Indonesia rally, and they went all out to impress. The people were lovely, but again, Bima is just another dirty, grimy Indo city. One of the great things there though was the local transport, horse and cart, which were known as ‘Benhurs’ – don’t ask us why!














As you can see, as well as passengers, they also get loaded up with other things, in this case plastic water bottles. The bottles packed on to the back of the Benhur are like ‘water cooler’ bottles from home, and is how you buy drinking water in Indo. Twenty litre bottles, which sell for anywhere between the equivalent of $NZ 80 cents to $4. In the photo all the bottles are empty, but it was still quite a load for the poor old Benhur. The Benhurs had lots of bells around their neck; riding on them reminded me a lot of the donkey ride I had in Tijuana, Mexico. I don’t know quite how they made it to Indo, but…..

After Bima, we carried on further west, towards the Komodo dragon tourism industry and Bali, and you could sense you were approaching western civilisation again…..

We had nearly a week in Lombok. Lombok, we gather, is how Bali was 20-30 years ago. Tourism is happening, but they haven’t quite got it together. Off the north west coast of Lombok are the Gilli Islands; they are supposed to be quite lovely. We didn’t have time to get there, so will go on our return from Bali.

Then it was off to Bali. The rally fleet normally stops down the south of Bali – near Kuta and all the action – but with the number of yachts this year, there just wasn’t room so we were all up north at Lovina Beach. Lovina has a much slower pace than down Kuta. We went to the markets in the nearby city of Singaraja – lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and chickens ready to purchase.

Not quite packaged like Tegel do it, but at least you could see what you were buying! Note Fido hoping to find something of interest below the chicken stand! We had earlier in the trip, bought two chickens at the Bima market. They were quite tasty, and we lived to tell the tale!

At each venue we have been to, the local Regency (government) hosts a ‘gala dinner’, and Bali was no exception. Usually the gala dinners take the format of speeches, dinner, and then entertainment from the locals. Most have been great, but sometimes the dancing gets a little monotonous and goes on a little long.

Lovina was no exception – as far as the format of the gala dinner went – but the dancing was spectacular, as were the costumes. The dancers performed on the beachfront. They were the national champions, and had performed most recently prior to us, to the President. Describing the dancing on the blog would not do it justice, but hopefully this photo of some of the younger dancers gives you an indication of what a spectacle it was. It was like they were straight out of a Cirque de Soleil show.

The following night we were treated to another spectacle on the beachfront. There was a parade of the villagers, taking their offerings to the temple for the full-moon celebrations.

On their heads, the women each had a basket, especially stacked with fruits and other food to take to the temple. The parade was impressive to watch, as was the later dancing and celebrations at the temple.

We did a tour while in Lovina, of the northern part of Bali. There are lots of terraced rice paddies, and beautiful waterfalls. We also visited the processing plant for ‘Bali coffee’, and saw cloves being picked, dried and processed for export around the world. We saw a beautiful temple on the lake, and went to the local produce and clothes market. The locals are still doing it hard tourism-wise after the Bali bombings, and were almost pleading with us to buy their wares.

Lovina was a great stop, there was enough there to keep us busy, and we found a great spot to watch the All Blacks vs Scotland game at the Rugby World Cup. One of the Kiwi yeachties met up with a keen rugby supporter, who owns a resort in Lovina. He invited us around to watch the game, so we sat in the bar at the resort until start time, then 20 of us piled in to one of the villas – as he didn’t want us making a racket in the bar and disturbing all his paying guests! It was a good night, with a good win to the Abs.

After Lovina it was time for us to say farewell to the rally and head south to Serangan (near Kuta) to leave the boat while we went to Europe. We did the trip south in a two day hop. We set off on day two for the last 40 miles of the trip at about 6 a.m. in the morning.

For 180 degrees, right around us on the horizon, all we could see were these small fishing trimarans, most with brightly coloured sails. They had been out fishing overnight, and were returning to their villages on the east coast of Bali. There would have been hundreds of these small boats, and just when you thought they had nearly all passed by, another rush appeared from off the horizon. There are thousands and thousands of these boats around Indo; seeing the locals in them makes you appreciate what a hardy race of people they are.

So after five days in Serangan – surfing, drinking, eating great food, shopping, and inhaling lots of smoke and grit that comes with thousands and thousands of motorbikes being on the road – we are leaving the boat for a month, and flying off to Europe, to hopefully see the All Blacks achieve what they haven’t managed for 20 years…… victory at the World Cup. Paris will certainly be a contrast to Indonesia, but we are both looking forward to it; a change of climate and culture, and to catch up with Shane’s brothers.