Cruising from Bali to Irian Jaya and down to Cairns

[JohnM]

Next morning we arrived at Maumere on the island of Flores. Quite a large town, but we are taking a 1 hiur bus trip into the mountains to a remote village.

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A convoy of about 8 busses of varying sizes, with a police escort, necessary to clear the road for us. A good paved road all the way, but only one effective lane with wide shoulders.

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Arrived the village and the school kids were excited (only a couple of cruise boats make it up here) and were taking photos of us, taking photos of them.

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AN elaborate welcoming ceremony, unfortunately only view-able by a few at the front.

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Then led down to the performance area. Quite flash.

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The band

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Several perfomances, this one related to marriage involves an elephant tusk and the gradual chopping down of a banana tree.

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Ouch.

Unusual phallic symbolism...

 

[bPeteb]

Ouch.

Unusual phallic symbolism...

I think Roo was very circumspect in his description

 

[JohnM]

I think Roo was very circumspect in his description

Circum what?

 

[RooFlyer]

Basically involving defence against attack, necessitating climbing up bamboo to fire arrows from there

 

[RooFlyer]

Then it was to the demonstration of weaving of the local ikat.





Then to the shop! I virtually never buy stuff from places like these (last time was on the Silk Road in Uzbekistan), but given multiple assurances from the exped crew that its the real McCoy, I bought what will become bed runner for 50 euros.




About 50 mins back to the boat for lunch.



as we sailed on



Afternoon talks are good; this one, given by a 'geomorphologist' was a decent effort on that is a massively complicated topic.

 

[RooFlyer]

Couple more pics - and if worried about photographing children, they were being proudly brought forward by their parents and multiple OKs from the boat.

 

[RooFlyer]

Next day, we arrived at Kalabahi on the islad of Alor





Moored offshore and a short zodiac ride to a dry landing at a pier.

Just to show the marina on the Le Soleil







As before, on a convoy of air con busses for a 30 min ride to a village, not far from Kalabahi, but still up a mountain. The last bit was on foot.

 

[Cossie]

50 euro? I would not be able to help myself, especially after having seen the cloth being woven and dyed.

 

[RooFlyer]

50 euro? I would not be able to help myself, especially after having seen the cloth being woven and dyed.

I could’ve easily resisted except that I actually had a use for the thing I bought.

A$100 would be a huge amount of money in the village and they would’ve easily sold 10 or maybe 15 pieces between the various sellers.

The weaving is a hell of a lot of work, but if you think they could have a cruise ship visit or not, it must make a huge impact on the village.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcomed to the village with a dance

Then they preformed a series of dances - very entertaining and I'm certain authentic. I'm generally not a fan of 'cultural experiences' but this was very worthwhile.

Finale with audience invided to join in.

 

[RooFlyer]

Some scenes of the morning

 

[RooFlyer]

After the village we returned to the town and a market. Pretty standard stuff, I think.









Then onto a museum, greeted by another village dancers - wearing very old style bark clothes,

 

[RooFlyer]

An afternoon and night transit and we arrrive at day 6 of the cruise and the Banda Daya Islands. We landed at one, small sandy island for swim, snorkel and dive (for those who could).











Not being much of a snorkeler, I stuck to the shallow water (the deeper snorkelling didn't show much more apparently). WOnderfully clear water, but still a sad amount of rubbish on the beach. There were fish, but I hadn't adjusted my camera screen, and with a bit of fog on my mask, I couldn't easily point to capture them