14 August 2015 Wanci, Wakatobi
No peace for the wicked, we had to report in at nine o'clock to be taken to the Bajo village.
The Bajo people are a marine, nomadic tribe that originate from the Solomon Islands, but some groups have migrated to the eastern part of Indonesia. Historically, they used to live permanently in boats at sea, sailing the ocean between the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia catching and selling seafood.
However, nowadays, more and more Bajo people are abandoning their traditional nomadic lifestyle to settle in permanent homes in stilt villages built over the water. In the village on Wangi Wangi island, they are going a step further and are dumping tons of coral rubble and stone underneath their stilt houses, slowly building a solid village including streets from the sea.
We were invited to a traditional ceremony called Duata, which asks the spirits for good fortune and to help cure diseases. A double-hulled boat approached us with a percussion band and girls performing a traditional dance. The shaman then danced while another healer was placing offerings of rice and fruit in the sea.
It was interesting to see some of the villagers sitting in dugout canoes, processing sea food such as seaweed, sea urchins and fish. Some of the older ladies had their faces covered with a traditional sun-protecting powder called Burak, made from water-weed, rice and spices.
The village had prepared a feast of Bajo food including crabs, fish, a type of Poisson Cru, Sea Urchins, curried clams and sea cucumber (too chewy to eat). It was another mid-morning meal, but that didn't stop us tucking into the delicious dishes. After the meal, we had a quick walk around the village looking at the way that the Bajo are making their stilt village permanent. They’re even building a huge Mosque on reclaimed land.
After a couple of hours rest on boat, we were ordered to go back to W.I.C. and join in a parade. It’s Independence Day on the 17th and there’s a series of marches taking place though the town. Yesterday was the children's parade and today was the adults - they gave us cruisers a slot in this parade. It’s some kind of competition, so all the various government departments have a team entered. It was funny to see the well-practised teams marching in time in three straight lines and then the shambling mob that was the cruisers.
As we walked around, I had five teenage girls accompanying me as guides (how lucky am I!). They were paranoid about letting me walk away from the parade, but I still managed to persuade them to let me to visit one of the many water caves in the town, which are used for washing clothes and bathing.
My guides also helped to translate when I wanted to take a picture of a lady on the side of the road selling petrol. There are no petrol stations in the town, instead there are hundreds of small stalls along the streets selling fuel in one litre plastic and glass bottles - they look like Molotov Cocktails.
Back at the boat, I arranged to do another dive in the morning and later, we went with “Red Herring” for a few beers on “Laragh”.
Just as the sun was going down, we watched “u’Batu’ba” come in through the channel and suddenly stop. Gino had jumped on board, grabbed the wheel and grounded one of the hulls of the wide catamaran. Graham and I zipped over to see if we could help, but the tide was rising and Alex didn't want to risk damaging his hull by being dragged off. He eventually floated off at nine o'clock in the evening.
15 August 2015 Wanci, Wakatobi
I woke up in the middle of the night with a bad case of Bali Belly. I took a couple of Imodium tablets and then another in the morning, hoping that it acted quickly. There’s nothing worse than having a bout of dysentery when 30 metres underwater and trapped inside a wetsuit.
The dive boat took us to Shark Point, where we descended to 25 metres and headed north. We saw over a dozen Blacktip Reef Sharks, but they were very shy and almost impossible to photograph. It was still a nice dive and, thankfully, the Imodium worked.
Back at the boat, we had lunch and then crashed out for three hours, catching up on lost sleep. I then zipped over to “Catimini” to look at their navigation computer again, but couldn't make any progress. I've had to admit defeat and think that the video card is damaged. Roger is going to try to get another, but it will be difficult to replace before we get to the next big town of Bau Bau.
In the evening, we were piled into cars and taken off to a big hotel for a welcome party hosted by the Regent of Wakatobi. We had a buffet dinner, speeches, traditional dance displays and then they had everyone up on the dance floor doing a kind of line dance. At the end, there was a presentation by the Regent giving us a scarf, a certificate and a plaque, which was very nice of them.
They asked the cruisers if anyone wanted to sing a song, so Dave from “Laragh” and Peter from “Per Ardua” (both Irish, of course) stepped up gave a well-received performance of “Molly Malone”. It was past midnight before we climbed into bed.
16 August 2015 Wanci, Wakatobi
The organisers had organised a cultural visit to Liya Village. Five of the boats in the anchorage decided to do something else, so only four boats with eight cruisers attended the event, which was a bit of a disappointment for the organisers and the villagers who had laid on a welcome and food expecting over twenty five people.
However, it was an interesting visit. Liya village is actually four villages (housing 5,000 people) which are located around an old colonial fort made from coral rubble. The fort was built in the 13th century and there are old rusty cannons lying about the place.
We were welcomed by village elders in traditional costume, who performed a graceful traditional dance. Our group was led to a meeting hut called a Baruga, where a fabulous pyramid of food had been prepared - this is called Livo and is the traditional food for ceremonies, such as births, circumcisions and weddings. After a rather lengthy prayer given by a village elder, we were invited to tuck in. With lobster, crab, barbecued fish, curried eggs and rice on offer, we obliged happily, even though it was only just past ten o’clock.
After our second breakfast, we gathered with a crowd on a field and watched a traditional kick boxing event called Posepaa. The opponents fight in pairs and have to hold hands throughout the bout. The teams are young men from two rival villages. It started off very controlled with some single-pair matches, but emotions soon too hold and it quickly turned into a full scale battle with tens of pairs of young men fighting. We kept well out of the way.
On the way back to town, we asked the driver to stop off at a seaweed farm. The seaweed is grown on thin lines held up by thousands of polystyrene floats and plastic bottles. Using a long canoe, the seaweed is harvested and then taken to stilt platforms, where it’s spread out to dry in the sun. Some of the harvested sea weed is reattached to the lines and replaced in the sea.
Back at the boat, we did a few jobs - Glenys scrubbed the green slime from our waterline, while I caught up on my blog and editing hundreds of photographs.
Our time here is coming to an end because we have to be in Pasar Wajo on the 19th for a welcome ceremony there. We told Gino that ten or so boats including us were leaving on the 18th and this caused a little bit of chaos because they were expecting us to stay another week. We tried to explain that we were expected in Buton and that another rally was arriving in the next two days, but he seemed very upset. He rang his boss and (in desperation) told us that the people in Pasar Wajo were not ready to receive us.
We’re going anyway, so I assembled a list of the boats on our rally and the dates that they are planning to leave Wakatobi, so that he knows in advance. The port captain is supposed to issue us with clearance to the next port, but if we don’t get tomorrow then we’ll just leave anyway.
17 August 2015 Wanci, Wakatobi
It was another early start and we were ashore by quarter to eight to go to the official Indonesian Independence Day celebrations. We hung around for ages because only eight cruisers bothered to get out of bed and the guides were waiting for more - trying to organise cruisers is like trying to herd cats.
Initially, the event was a little dull with a brass band, some marching and a lengthy flag-raising ceremony, but things improved when a group of school children sang a couple of songs all dressed up in traditional costumes. It was strange to see the little seven year old girls in heavy make-up, but they were very photogenic.
The carefully planned agenda fell apart when a famous Indonesian actress called Anissa Rahma appeared and stood amongst the choir. The crowd went wild, including all our teenage guides - all clambering to get a photograph of her. The organisers then tried to have an official photo shoot with the Regent and various officials standing on some steps, but the crowds of adoring kids and adults were clamouring to get a better view of Annissa Rahma, so the event sort of fizzled out, especially when the actress was whisked off in a car.
With our guides in tow, we wandered around the market for a while and then took three of the guides (Lilis, Ica and Indah) back to Alba for a look around. Then we had a quiet afternoon pottering about tidying up ready to leave tomorrow.
In the evening, we’d arranged for a small get together at W.I.C. to play a some music and say thank you to the guides. Katrina and Dave from “Laragh” wrote a short song about Wakatobi, to the tune of Yellow Bird. Dave handed out photocopies of the words and taught everyone the tune. It was great fun and the young guides and the staff of W.I.C. loved it.
The head of the Tourism board happened to be there and decided that it would be a good idea for us to go to the Regent’s Independence Day party and sing our song. So we were told to be back at the W.I.C. office at quarter to eight. We nipped back to the boat for a quick meal, dressed up a little and scooted back. And then waited and waited for other cruisers.
I know that the cruising life is supposed to be relaxed and care free, but some people are so rude. We’d been invited to a formal event hosted by the Regent of the Wakatobi region and they couldn't be bothered to arrive on time AND kept everyone else waiting for half an hour. Eventually, at twenty past eight, I cracked up and told Gino to ignore the stragglers and get going. [Neville climbs down from his soap box.]
I’d expected the event at the Regent’s residence to be a kind of cocktail party/reception, but it turned out to be a formal presentation with several hundred people sitting in rows of chairs in front of a stage. There were a few traditional dances, a long speech by the Regent and then we sang our little song, which seemed to be well received. There were other long speeches and awards for the parade teams, but thankfully, we were let out early at ten o'clock because they knew that we were leaving at dawn.
18 August 2015 Wanci to Pasar Wajo, Buton
We left around half past six and didn't have any trouble with the narrow channel this time. The tide was 1.3 metres above chart datum and the minimum depth that we saw was 3.2 metres at the outside edge of the channel, so there appears to be about 2.0 metres at chart datum.
There was hardly any wind as we crossed the bay, but as we rounded the headland, the wind picked up to 10-15 knots. Five other boats left around the same time and I saw “Red Herring” put up their spinnaker, so the race was on - up went our spinnaker, closely followed by everyone else's. Unfortunately, we were severely thrashed as "Red Herring" zoomed off over the horizon, closely followed by “Laragh” who cruised past us a while later.
We arrived in Pasar Wajo mid-afternoon, and anchored in the south west of the bay at 05°31.34S 122°50.89E in 17 metres of water. The holding is good, but the prevailing east winds have put the fringing reef fairly close behind us. There are lots of turtles surfacing around us, but the water is cloudy and there are haloclines here, which are layers of fresh water and sea water. I guess that there are underwater springs nearby.
There’s a Buton Information Centre (B.I.C.) ashore, who started to call us as soon as they spotted the first sail. They don’t have a boat, but directed us to the best anchorage. All of the five boats who arrived this afternoon gathered on “La Passarola” for a few beers - no one wanted to go ashore and be organised just yet.
19 August 2015 Pasar Wajo, Buton
We had a late start and went ashore at around ten o’clock. The B.I.C has set up a tent by the main dock and we were met on the beach by a gaggle of guides. Again they are all volunteers who speak good English. The head of B.I.C., Rusdi, told us that they have organised for us to attend a “baby” ceremony on the 24th - not quite sure what it’s all about, but it seems to involve 500 babies… The Takawa (a colossal dance with over 20,000 dancers) is not taking place this year, which is a bit of a disappointment.
However, there is a big Expo taking place here over the next week, with various exhibition stands set up where government departments and private companies are promoting themselves. We've been invited to the opening ceremony this afternoon and there’s a party tonight. After that they will organise events and trips depending on what we want to do.
Some guides were allocated to us and, together with “Red Herring”, we jumped on a Pete-pete (mini bus) and zoomed off to the local market, where we spent a happy hour wandering around looking at the fish, vegetables and other goods on sale. It’s a riot of colours and images, so it’s difficult to stop myself taking photographs. We stopped off at a small eating place and had Nasi Goring (Fried Rice) and Gardo Gardo (Vegetable in Peanut Sauce). At $1.50US for a meal, it’s not worth cooking here.
In the afternoon, we picked up “Red Herring”, to go to the Expo opening ceremony. On the way, Graham noticed a two foot long Banded Sea Snake in the bottom of our dinghy. These are one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. They are normally shy and keep away from humans, but unfortunately, this one was trapped in an enclosed space with us and couldn’t get out.
The snake became more and more agitated as the four of us lifted our feet out of its way, while trying to stop it hiding behind the fuel tank or disappearing under the hollow floor. It started moving faster and faster as I frantically pulled the paddle from the end of one of our oars. After a couple minutes of panic, I finally managed to get the paddle under the snake and flip it overboard - phew!
We arrived at the opening ceremony a little late, so the Regent of Buton had already started his speech to the local dignitaries. Embarrassingly, they made some people give up their seats near the front of the 200 person crowd and shuffled us in, while the Regent paused his speech to welcome us. Everyone was very friendly and they didn’t seem to be annoyed by our scruffy attire or the interruptions.
Two guides, Erick and Lisnansari (Lis) seem to have adopted us and accompanied us around the Expo stands, where we had fun as the locals practised their English and had their photos taken with us. The Regent was also walking around the stands and he found us at a stall giving away samples of Araq (strong alcohol similar to Anise). Glenys had already partaken and was dancing with a small group of locals. The Regent poured me a glass of Araq and watched delighted as I downed it in one - if nothing else, we cruisers know how to drink.
We nipped back to the boat at sunset and come out again at eight o'clock to attend the party. The B.I.C. had organised a take-away dinner of fried chicken and rice for us and we were then allowed to wander around with our guides. There’s a little fun fair been set up for kids and lots of stalls selling bling and luminescent toys - just like anywhere else in the world.
Erick and Lis took us for a walk to the Blue River, which is a fresh water lagoon that that has been made into a huge swimming area with concrete walls and a promenade with plenty of little food stalls. It’s obviously a place where young people come to eat and have a good time in the evening - we’ll be back.
Back at the Expo, we were given seats on the stage where a big band was playing. The Regent was sat behind us and he had two cases of Bintang beer brought out for us - warm, but nice of him. The organisers had us all go onto the stage and dance in a big cirlce with dancers in traditional costumes. We were escorted back to our dinghy just after ten o'clock.