Mepar Island
Today a bus has been organised to take us into town, so we were asked to be at the big jetty at 8:00am as they were holding a Heroes ceremony and they were “Sterilising” the water, which we presumed to mean no water traffic. So we all were at the jetty at 8am, however big black clouds were looming, and sure enough a storm squall came through. Half of the group went back to the boats to shut windows and check their anchors. The remaining half got dropped off in the town and returned to pick up the others, at 10am.
Our local guides, Anna, and Kam took us into a little local coffee shop. Unfortunately we have not had much luck with coffees in Indonesia. If you ask for white, it is made with condensed milk so it is really sickly sweet. I asked for black and it was thick and awful. They did provide a plate of assorted local food. There was deep fried Banana cake, Curry Puffs, bread rolls with the bright green jam, cooked bananas in banana leaf and a few other things. The deep fried banana cake was lovely. I don’t know how the Indonesian people stay so thin, as pretty much everything is deep fried.
We had a wander through the town and I was able to purchase some professional hair colour from a hairdresser/barber. He could not speak, at all, so it was difficult but we finally got there, between using the colour chart, sign language, and Anna’s help. He initially thought I wanted him to do the colour, but we eventually brought two tubes of colour, and the peroxide for 140,000 rupiah, or $14. That is so cheap. The brand is Boya, I have never heard of it so fingers crossed it will be OK.
Anna sourced a European toilet for us in the local hotel, it was very nice! The alternative, a local toilet is not pleasant! They are basically a hole in the ground that you squat over. I have seen stickers in the European toilets that I have been to, saying “no standing on the toilet” Apparently the locals stand on the seats of the European toilets!
The bus took us all to a restaurant, we were served Prawn cocktail (served in a Banana leaf), chicken and beef stir-fry with vegetables and fresh Papaya. It was very nice. Cost was 50,000 rupiah per person, or $5. The only trouble is that there is a ditch around the restaurant, and that is where the rubbish is thrown. No idea!
Back to the boat and had a rest for a while and then over to Stormvogel for 500 challenge. We swapped the pack of cards and Peter and I actually won a few rounds. Heidi and I had a few (too many) drinks, preferred Octsober to be honest.
Helen from Boffin, Robbie and I found a quiet room and did our minutes silence for Remembrance Day. It was quite emotional actually.