What Sorong with you?

Rawr

Insert collective groan here. Nope, not hitting the bottle early, though as they say 'It's 5 o'clock somewhere.' Just a little slap-happy waiting around in Sorong for our visas to be ready. Immigration opens again on the Thursday after New Year's, so today should be the Big Day. Unless it isn't (because it's Indonesia and you never know).

4 boatloads of kids at Sapta Ratna Pagoda

As we hear about the subzero temperatures in Chicago and elsewhere around the U.S., we're trying hard to appreciate the blistering, foot scalding Indonesian sun. But you know it's hot when the locals complain that it's hot. This is in a place with a perpetual summer that hardly ever gets below 80 °F (26 °C), yet the Department Stores are filled with jeans, sweaters and hoodies.

Sapta Ratna Pagoda

This time of year especially, I feel the distance of family and friends that we have left on the other side of the world. As we start our sixth year of cruising, we're miles away from land life in the States, both literally and figuratively.

Goat on Doom Island

I've written before how routine errands are a much bigger deal than on land. Even in a place like Sorong, which is one of the biggest cities we have been in over the past year and has relatively convenient stores, there have been challenges. Diesel is inexpensive because it is subsidized by the government but generally foreigners are not allowed to buy it directly. So you have take your chances with a local middleman, which can be a Russian roulette of dirty fuel and usually involves hauling jerry jugs across the anchorage in multiple trips. This last time, we took a special trip to Waisai to get fuel at the marina. We enjoyed the trip, but in a boat it involved a couple extra days of motoring.

One of the reasons we have decided to go to Darwin to fix the bent propeller strut (and possibly shaft) is the difficulty of bringing in parts. The bureaucracy involved with importing parts means you're risking your package in Customs purgatory indefinitely, paying 30% tax, or paying out the ears to a local agent. Although Australia is far from a bureaucracy-free Shangri-La, Indonesia makes it seem so.

Indonesia, more than any other country we have visited so far, seems foreign. Most of the other dozens of countries we have visited have had a familiarity for us--a language that we had experience with, a majority Christian culture. From the local perspective, we stick out like a sore thumb. A Caucasian guy with an Asian wife and half-Asian kids--they don't know what to make of us. When I'm on my own, people assume I speak Indonesian and yet they think I look out of place too, so I'm not exempted from the selfie requests from locals.

We have been reveling in the new sights, sounds and tastes. People are extremely friendly. But we certainly don't feel like we belong here. These new experiences are what we sought when we went cruising, but they are also what make us seem far away from our former lives.

Not wanting to burn too much of the hard-gotten diesel we had just purchased, we stuck around the Sorong area around New Year's to wait for our visa renewal, making one side trip to nearby Crocodile Island to desalinate water in a slightly cleaner place (we got to see dugongs there). We have also made some side treks to the limited local sights, including Sapta Ratna Pagoda and Doom Island.

Church at the top of the hill. Stainless steel
seems to be the accent material of choice,
including the cross.

No cars on Doom but lots of motorbikes
and passenger bicycles for hire

Local cemetery

The mosque.

A spontaneous drum parade

Of course we joined the parade

 

Although appropriate for the time of year, this
Santa art seems permanent

 

Ringing in the New Year with a Bang



Fireworks rarely turn out in photos...no exception here: This really fails to capture
 the ridiculous amount of fireworks that were being set off.

Indonesians love their fireworks. Large stalls that popped up all over Sorong in the last month were selling nothing but loads and loads of fireworks.  Have you ever been to one of those fireworks stores you see from the interstate just over the border from the state where they are banned (and are invariably named "Crazy Mike's" or "Wild Max's" or somesuch)? Well imagine a town of only 200,000 people having about 100 of these stores.  We were treated to fireworks leading up to Christmas, at Christmas, and the week after.

I noticed that as New Year's Eve approached in Sorong, all the local live-aboard dive boats seemed to be anchored farther from shore than usual, which gave me pause about being so close. We didn't have much choice because we have to anchor close to shore due to depth. As darkness fell on New Year's Eve, the fireworks started and there was one fairly large display near the Navy ships. But other than that, it wasn't too different from the previous nights. We wondered what midnight would hold.

We stayed up a bit watching fireworks but were too tired to stay up past about 9:30. The kids begged to be woken up if the fireworks started getting really good. At about 11:30, Matt and I woke to a barrage of booms and the smell of sulfur and gunpowder. Every part of the shoreline, for miles in each direction, had fireworks overhead. The air was cloudy with the smoke and you could feel the vibrations. Mixed in with the fireworks were emergency flares. It would be a bad time to be a boat in distress because your signal would just get lost in the confusion of light. At one point, Matt ran to the back of the boat with a bucket of water in case he had to douse one flare that was tracking straight for the boat but luckily ended up landing about 50 feet short. Not that water would have done much...the flares continue to burn even as they sink into the sea!

The flare that landed so close to our boat you could smell it.

Matt tried to rouse the boys but they were dead to the world and missed the whole thing. The pyrotechnics continued for hours and Matt and I were too tired to stay up. We just crossed our fingers and hoped that nothing would land on our boat and went back to bed.

90 degrees F in the shade: Christmas Weather!

Decorating gingerbread

Back on land, I was always sick of Christmas music by the time Christmas rolled around. I think that's because you start hearing it earlier and earlier each year.

This year I have been getting into Christmas songs for the first time since I-don't-know-when. Around here, you don't hear them everywhere you go starting in October. Also, I have been teaching myself the guitar and downloaded some Christmas songs on my Tabs Pro app. It's much more entertaining to play the music yourself so I have been playing for the last few weeks and have been able to convince the boys to sing with me occasionally. I'm pretty sure I speak for EVERYONE on the boat when I say Christmas music played over and over this way is not at all annoying.

We spent a few hours on Christmas Eve with our friends on Field Trip and their visiting Nana decorating cookies and drinking eggnog and champagne (and enjoying lots of yummy snacks). It was good fun. Later, as I was attempting to hook up our dinghy, the strong current almost pulled it away from me and I only saved it by getting into the water (Matt would probably describe it as 'falling' but he would be wrong). Not surprisingly, having a few glasses of eggnog and champagne is not the best preparation for tasks involving physical agility (also known as 'things I do almost everyday without incident').

Later that evening, while Matt was in the middle of frying up the French fries to have with our burgers, the water pump failed. So he got to replace that right after dinner (yes, folks concerned for our sanitation, we did manage to wash our hands beforehand). Living on a boat keeps you on your toes.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Mother's Day with the President

Our plan was to stop in Waisai for a day, buy diesel, and then head over to Sorong. When we got to town, it seemed overrun by various uniformed military personnel.

 

The waterfront area, which doubles as a town square, was bustling with hammering, painting, tent-raising, and general clean-up. The whole area looked spiffy and new, compared to when we were there just two weeks previous.

We approached a group of official looking people relaxing near the entrance. They turned out to be some Army guys and the mayor of Waisai (the king of 'Raja Ampat' as one guy joked). We found out that all the hubbub was in preparation for the Indonesian President's visit on Mother's Day. The mayor told us we should come. We chose to view it as a personal invitation from the mayor, rather than just an offhand comment to some goofy foreigners. So we stayed, of course. I mean, how often do you get to see the President of a country?

The Presidential car

 

 

 

On the morning of December 22 ('The Big Day'), microphone testing started at 6 a.m. (preceded by the call-to-prayer at 5 a.m.) 'Testing-one-two' sounds a lot more exotic in a different language. A couple of hours later, we were treated to front row seats as a boat parade, complete with drummers and dancers weaved through the anchorage. Then we headed in to join the festivities with Steve and Dinkie from Pikudiku. When we arrived, we found out that you needed a special badge to get in, which we didn't have. Eventually, after making nice-nice with one of the event organizers and mentioning 'We came all the way from Chicago' and 'The Mayor said we should come', we wrangled some passes.

Before the President took the stage, he was entertained with cultural singing and dancing in elaborate costumes. President Joko Widodo, especially in his official photo, resembles Barack Obama with maybe a little Mr. Sulu thrown in. He had the crowd roaring with laughter as he bantered and pretended to haggle with some local produce ladies that he had called up to the stage. I really wished that I knew more Indonesian so I could understand all the jokes. Seeing the crowd's reaction and speaking with some of the attendees, President Widodo seems to be much loved.

President Widodo

Afterwards, as he was being hustled off the stage, Matt followed all of the folks that rushed over and got to shake hands with President Widodo. In another part of the event, various regions of the Western Province had booths set up with crafts and local foods. We even got to try roasted grubs (they tasted good but it was hard to get past the squishy interior and image of writhing live grubs in a nearby tub). We had some good conversations with local folks and people that had traveled from all over Indonesia to see the President. Everyone's mood was friendly and somewhat jubilant.

Grubbing for grub

It always seems like we miss the festivals in the places we visit, so we felt doubly fortunate to be able to be a part of (worm our way into?) this one.

The fish boil after it had calmed down some.

Sadly, no photos of the whale.

Our trip to Sorong from Waisai was unusual in two respects. First, we were able to sail rather than motor. Almost all our other journeys within Indonesia have been motoring, usually with headwinds and adverse current. This time we had decent wind and the current was with us. Second, we were treated to a huge boil of baitfish, jumping tuna and slashing sharks with a mass of circling frigate birds and gulls. In the midst of it all was a big whale feeding. At one point it surfaced straight up into the boil and we could see its huge jaws agape, swallowing in fish. We couldn't identify it from its back and blow--it wasn't one we were familiar with. As we got closer, we could see dozens of big sharks swimming in the water. Conrad and Mark were extra careful not to fall in the water.

We are spending Christmas at an anchorage not far from Sorong but away from the hustle and bustle of the 'big city'.

Mantas--they're like pigeons around here

We are definitely getting spoiled by the diving in Raja Ampat. Matt has joked that we should just sell all our dive equipment when we leave here.

Conrad and his pet turtle. The little guy had no fear (I mean the turtle).

Besides the fact that there seem to be big mantas everywhere, the coral and fish life is hands down the most abundant we have ever seen. We have been enjoying diving paradise with our friends on Field Trip.

Sarah from Field Trip

We did have a hiccup of sorts at a dive site called 'Blue Magic,' known for manta rays. We dove the site with Field Trip (and their guest Kerry). There was a 3-knot current as we were entering the water (it was a lot of effort to hold on to the dinghy and I could barely pull myself towards the anchor line from the back of the dinghy). We had read in the dive guide we had that dive boats sometimes tie a marker to the site to allow divers to descend together, so we anchored our dinghy on some dead coral at the bottom and descended.

After we had been down for a few minutes, the dive master from one of the live aboard dive boats started signaling to Mark of Field Trip and Matt that he wasn't happy we anchored there. His gesticulations indicated he was concerned that manta rays would possibly swim into the anchor line. As Matt had his head turned away to signal to the dispersed divers to come back to the line so we could leave, the dive master took out his knife and sawed through the dinghy line. Matt turned back in time to see the line (and dinghy) floating away. Luckily Kerry was able to grab onto the line in time and prevent it from flying free. The dingy anchor was recovered and everyone surfaced. Matt and I didn't realize until later that Sarah had stayed in the dinghy but if we had not caught the dinghy, it could have drifted along quite awhile, leaving scattered divers in the water.

We were livid and let the captain of the boat know how irresponsible the behavior of their dive master was. They seemed not to care. We always try and respect the local practice when we're diving, so had we known about the concerns for mantas we wouldn't have anchored the dinghy.  But we're still amazed at the overreaction of the dive master. We are also much more aware of the lengths that some people will go to.

Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words.

A type of sea cucumber (Colochirus robustus)

 

These guys are rare around here.

Matt is becoming an expert at spotting these Wobbegong sharks.

Another a Wobbegong shark.

 

A shrimp busily cleaning out this hole for the resident Goby fish.

The orange ball on our tow line is yummy.

 

Nudibranch (Phyllidia varicose)

These guys are so darn photogenic.

 

Trio of lionfish

 

 

This heron decided to park on our boat for a bit.
Note the proximity to the grill--makes you wonder if
he tastes like chicken

Conrad got this shot of him doing a mating call.

 

A view of mini-Wayag

Waisai musings

Anchorage near Kabui Pass on the way to Waisi

We stopped at Waisai for a couple days to get some provisions. While there, we enjoyed some tasty, cheap eats and took advantage of the availability of Internet and ice-cream. As in Sorong, we (mostly Matt) attracted a lot of attention everywhere, with calls of 'Mista! Mista!'

Over water homestay

Waisai is the up-and-coming provincial capital of Raja Ampat. Eight years ago, the area was covered in jungle and is now a charming town with an abundant fresh market and good collection of stores. It is always a bit of an assault to our senses to come back to civilization after being away for a few weeks. Between the startling bang of firecrackers being set off randomly (we haven't figured out why yet--For Christmas? Just for fun?) and the ojeks (motorbikes--sometimes carrying a family of four) darting around, we get a little overwhelmed.

But it's never boring. While Matt was running errands one morning, a bunch of taxi drivers waved him over and convinced him to have a cup of iced coffee with them. As Matt's Indonesian is, let's say, limited and the taxi drivers didn't speak much English, the time was spent mostly by the men laughing at Matt and taking selfies with him.

Later in that evening, some cute toddlers were roughly throwing a tiny kitten onto the ground and giggling. Matt reflexively said, 'Aww, don't do that!' The kids just gaped at him and their parents pointedly ignored us. A group of young men walking in the same direction as us for a couple of blocks were laughing and, it seemed to me, to be jeering at Matt about his concern for the cat. We obviously have not gotten used to the difference in attitude towards animals, especially dogs, that we have seen in most places outside the U.S.