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…..