Larantuka and Ambon Indonesia

We stopped at 2 smaller ports in Indonesia and had an amazing cultural immersion. The environment was very foreign, but the people were some of the most delightful people we’ve met in our travels. So far, maybe the two most memorable days on this cruise….

Larantuka is on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Larantuka is a small town with few services. We chose to leave Larantuka to visit a remote village. Padang, was far up the side of the mountain and involved a rough ride over a Jeep road in a non-air-conditioned bus. We sat in the back seat, near the back door, which provided better airflow. We just had to be careful to not fly out when we hit a bump!

Our first stop on the way to Padang, was to visit a Catholic elementary school. No one had ever visited the school before and the principal became noticeably emotional when we presented him with our meager offering of pens and pencils. The children danced for us (Picture 1) and we visited a classroom. Indonesia has a very strict educational policy, mandating 10 years of school, but they do not provide adequate funds for supplies and teachers. In this school, the state provides for 3 teachers and the Catholic Church provides 3. There are not enough notebooks and books to go around, so they must be shared by the children. The children were delightful.

At Padang, we (13 of us) exited our bus just outside of town to walk in. The ENTIRE TOWN had turned out to greet us! We were first met by the welcome committee (Picture 2), that made offerings to us. Traditionally, guests are given betel nuts, local moonshine, tobacco and a locally woven scarf. One woman in our group served as our representative, touching the betel nuts and tobacco, taking a sip of the moonshine and accepting the scarf. We then walked into the town square, following the women dancers (Picture 3) and warrior dancers (Picture 4).

As we walked, people would rush out to shake our hands or have their picture taken with us. Many people had not been out of the village or seen “white” people. As I shook hands, I was amazed at their hands—hard and calloused, obviously the hands of people who work very hard. My lotioned, soft hands must have felt very strange!

Once in the main square we were treated to coconut water, which is common in this part of the world. On other occasions, however, we were given straws to ease the drinking. Not here! As you can see in Picture 5, we drank it directly out of the hole on top.

We then had a show that included more dancing and a demonstration of a traditional marriage ceremony. Flores Island is Catholic (one of a few left in Indonesia). A couple is first married in this traditional ceremony and then is married in the church. Once the couple decides they want to marry, they tell their parents and the parents meet to discuss the dowry, which is given by the man’s family. It usually includes elephant tusks, goats and/or money. In Picture 6 you see the couple standing between their families and getting ready to share their first meal, which included rice and a chicken that was propped up to look like it was alive. The woman’s family then presents the couple with some of their beautifully woven cloth and the woman leaves to join the man’s family in their home.

Speaking of the beautiful cloth, Picture 7 shows one of the women weaving. The women take the cotton “balls”, remove the seeds, spin it into thread, dye it with indigo and tree bark (which makes the red color) and, finally, weave it. Yes, there’s cloth coming back to NC….

Finally, we followed the dancers, shown in Picture 8, back to our bus. There was more hand shaking, picture taking and waving before our bus could depart. This is the first time “outsiders” had visited the village—they thought it was wonderful and so did we!

Our second stop was at Ambon City on Ambon Island. In the 1990s, Ambon was a regular stop with some cruise lines. From 1999-2005, however, Christian-Muslim fighting took it off the tourist map. The Muslims “won”, although there are still a lot of Christian churches and Christians also have seats in the legislature. There seems to be a respectful truce. A couple cruise ships returned in 2012 and we’re the first one in 2014.

Our first stop as we headed out of town, was the WWII Cemetery (Picture 9). The Japanese took this island and created a small landing strip for airplanes. In an attempt to retake the island, almost 700 military men, mostly Australians, were captured and put in a prison camp here. Most were beheaded by the Japanese and are interred in this cemetery. It’s a lovely, tranquil place. In school and through our parents we learned about the war in Europe, but we weren’t taught about how far-reaching it was. We have yet to visit a country that was not touched in some way. It truly was The Great War.

Then it was off to remote villages. Bali subsisted on rice for its carbohydrates; Flores, on its corn. In Ambon, carbohydrates come from sago. After cutting down a sago palm tree, a sharp implement is used to scrape out the interior, which is a substance that resembles sawdust. It is then washed in river water and is then stored as a pasty substance, shown in Picture 10. After drying, it is baked as bread and, with a little brown sugar on top, cakes. Picture 11 shows a woman making cakes and baking them over a wood fire. They also produce alcohol from sago and a still sat next to the fire for the cakes.

Picture 12 shows a group of men doing the Bamboo Dance. 7 men carry a large piece of bamboo and are chased by a man carrying a lit torch. They move together to avoid the fire.  As a man gets exhausted, another man jumps in and replaces him. To keep in time, another man beats on a drum. Exhausting just to watch….

Our final stop was in a small village, where we visited the sacred eels. As we entered, we were met by the local brass band (Picture 13). Rick found the instrumentation interesting! They followed us, playing, to the hot spring, where the eels reside. (It’s also where the local people bath and wash clothes.) The eels are lured from their hiding places by fresh eggs. As you can see from Picture 14, they are good-sized—this one is a good 4 feet long.

Picture 15 is the view of Ambon from our ship. You can see the roof of the largest mosque. You can also see the tightly packed downtown area of Ambon. As we got ready to sail, a thousand or so people gathered on the dock to sing and dance for us. We got an amazing sendoff.

I hope you can sense from this entry how delighted we were with our visits to these ports. Big cities are just big cities. But to visit the smaller towns and villages and see how the people live is a truly amazing experience. We have wonderful memories of the people of Indonesia.

On to Malaysia!