[East/Central Indonesia] Day 06 / 1st June 2006 - Swim, then Injury

I didn't realise we had slept for so long...

Before I continue, I shall introduce one special member of the family - Dusta. Dusta is this dog which is slightly bigger than the rest of the dogs in the household. What makes him stand out is that he is just like a friendly giant, big in size but gentle in manner - he would just go about without any hassle or barking. He could be lying down on top of the water tank, enjoying the warm of the afternoon sun, or he could be just policing the outside of the house, ensuring that the other dogs do not break out into fights. On the other hand, there were a couple of small dogs that were constantly standing off against one another during meal times, and they had to be (literally) kicked out of the dining area...

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Ok, the reason why I introduced Dusta at this point of my log is because...

I had been "complimented" on my snoring - everyone else in the household heard some low growl-like noises and had thought that Dusta had wandered into our ( Naga and me) room earlier on in the morning. It turned out that it was my snoring! I almost wanted to jump up in protest of my innocence - how could snores be likened to growls of a dog??? Were my snores really THAT BAD??? Anyhow, it left me face-reddened, and MD would continue to tease me throughout the day by "promising" the real Dusta beside me on bed the next morning! That aside, MD did recount an experience where he had been awakened by his family dog, when the whole family wasn't around; still, the growl-like snores had already left a deep impression on everyone. GRRRRRR...

We also woke up to a scare - MD had been bitten by a scorpion that had came out of hiding from one of the holes in the brick wall during his sleep. For awhile, there was some concern and talks of a scorpion hunt were on the cards. Eventually, everything settled down, except for some pain and discomfort, MD was otherwise well and healthy.

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After we had our breakfast, MD suggested bringing us to the outdoor chapel that he had came across several days ago. We went ahead and came to this place where it looked like an amphitheatre without the tiers of seats. The rostrum/podium was elaborately built from rocks and stones and all, and corals were actually brought up to decorate the place:


Small statue of Virgin Mary (or Gua Maria, I think, in Indonesian); the green thing above is a large piece of coral


The rostrum/podium, where the priest would be standing...


A closer look at the rostrum/podium


A panaromic shot

Before we left, we came across this cluster of bamboo trees, and MD was trying to climb up the trees using the trunks as support, like this:


Never fails to amaze us with his dexterity and agility!

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We took a route that Naga and I had not came across before, and we were soon in Nil - this extreme end of the Nitung village. We stopped by a few households, and saw how the Palu'e sarongs were painstakingly made; instead of merely sewing on the designs onto the cloth, the designs had to be laid out on this huge board, and then the threads/strings had to be aligned so that the designs were already visible even before any sewing or knitting had started. The result is not a piece of work where the designs are added to the cloth; instead the cloth is the design itself. Normally, a piece of sarong would take 3 weeks to make, and MD was singing praises of how good a quality these handmade sarongs were (Pelé had given him one, and so had someone else whom I can't remember the name of). We also saw some houses that were entirely made of wood and ratten and bamboo - the other houses we had seen beforehand mostly had zinc roofs and walls made from bricks. The womenfolk were happy to receive us with the warmest of hospitality, but the dogs did not seem to welcome the three strangers.

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We went back just in time for some lunch. I had not been my usual self in the morning, possibly because I was still recovering from the sickness that plagued me yesterday. I found myself talking alot less during the morning walk and visits. However, news of swimming and hot springs in the afternoon brought some life back into me. I was eager to check out if there are indeed friendly sharks in the waters as told to us by the village folks. At the same time, I realised that we have to negotiate the way up to the village from the shore again; I still haven't gotten over the difficulty we had encountered the first time we tried climbing up. Lunchtime provided a window of opportunity to sort out the assorted feelings within myself...

And then, there were two lunches! *FAINTS*

First time, we were served food that were more or less similar from what we had for breakfast. We were told to eat first because Pelé was not yet ready for the swim; when we had finished eating, he was still nowhere to be seen. So, after eating, there wasn't much to do except to chat! And then, we found out that today would be our last day on the island; we would be heading back to mainland tomorrow morning. It came as a surprise to Naga and myself, for we had thought that we would be staying on the island till at least Saturday. It turned out that MD had to reach SG on Sunday for some meeting the next day, while Pelé had to go back to work in Batam as well. To me, it was quite a pity; just when I thought I was getting to know about the island and its people, I had to pack up and leave. At the same time, though MD repeatedly encouraged us to stay on and told us that there wasn't any need to follow them back to mainland, we decided not to - for me, I guess it would be extremely embarrassing to hang around and yet unable to carry out a decent conversation with anyone in the village. What turmoil!

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When Pelé did arrive, MD could sense some reluctance in pursuing the activities planned for the day. Firstly, a second lunch was served - this time, there was instant noodles, pork (but not in soya sauce; just boiled I think), rice, fish and other stuff (Speaking of fish, I hardly had any fish since the first day on the island...). After the 2nd lunch, we waited again...

... while Pelé was busy bringing out some weapons that he intended to bring down to the beach - a bow and some arrows. These weapons aren't the normal ones used in those kind of competition; rather, the arrows are quite long, and the bow is almost the height of an average human. We took turns getting our hands on the bow and tried tightening and loosening the string. Sali and Edo, on the other hand, were busy sharpening and de-rusting the arow heads. Exactly how the weapons were going to be used during our swim, we had no idea, but we were let in on some history of the weapons - the last time they were used was during the last major conflict with the neighbouring village almost some twenty years ago. There had been some fatalities, though it wasn't clear if this particular set of weapons had seen bloodshed during that conflict.

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We finally got to set off during mid-noon. By then, it was apparent that we would have time only for the swim, and that we wouldn't be able to do the hot springs this time round. Which wasn't a bad thing, for we were told that getting to the hot springs would require a fair bit of climbing as well. This time, we went down to the shore via this part of the village called Chu'a - the route is this winding path without any steps, but at the same time, most of it consists of rocky terrain that threatens to destroy our footwear again! Luckily we went through it unscathed, and it only took us about half an hour to reach shore. Even then, we were still too slow - a family whom had bidded us goodbye at the village had already settled down on shore for some time when we just arrived.

The weather was just perfect for a dip. The kids were already enjoying their time in the water for some time:



MD was, as usual, game for a chat with the local folks; and, as usual, he's always a guaranteed crowd-puller :D



We brought out the swimming masks and googles that MD had bought at Maumere and began adjusting them for our use. MD and Naga would use the masks, while I would use the googles, since I couldn't fit my face plus my specs into the googles that came with the masks. After everything was fine and adjusted, we went into the water...

... and discovered that the depth of the waters increased steeply after about 10 metres away from shore. We also realised that the sea water was super-duper salty, so much so that I could feel my throat dry up when I had accidentally tasted some of the water. Nonetheless, we kept swimming further and further out...

We could see the beautiful corals on the seabed, though I didn't dive down and hence didn't get as good a view as the others. We also caught sight of schools of fish swimming amongst the corals. MD soon ventured off farther than we had imagined, and we lost sight of him for awhile.

It got to a point where the saltwater became abit too much for me to bear, and I slowly made my way back to shore...

... I finally felt my feet touch the ground, the rocks; while traversing the rocks, I felt my toe hit something, something sharp...

... I continued; as I got closer to shore, I tried to spot where the others were...

... And was about to go look for them, when I lifted my foot to check...

... Only to see fresh blood slowly leaking from an open wound on my toe...

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I made my way onto shore; once I left the waters, I took note of how the bleeding went on - the blood flowed much more freely than in water, and before long, my big toe was already covered with fresh blood.

Edo came over to check what was wrong; when he saw the injury, he motioned for me to follow him. He plucked some leaves and proceeded on to administer some traditional plant remedy that I thought only existed in Chinese period kungfu dramas, involving the chewing of the leaves and then applying the chewed leaves on the wound to stop the bleeding. The first round of treatment was not as effective; by now, another lady had come by and offered more help in the form of chewed papaya leaves. This time, it seemed to work better - the wound was temporarily bandaged up, with the leaves still there. Meanwhile, everyone else came over to check on the extent of the wound, and MD jokingly asked me if I had intentionally self-inflicted the injury in order to over-shadow his scropion bite last night.

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Our swim ended soon, but not before Pelé was done posing with his bow and arrows along the beach - how narcissistic! HAHA!

Given the rate at which the sun was setting, we decided to decline the folks' invitation of staying for some food cooked over the fire and head back to the village with a few others as fast as possible. This time, it turned out to be easier; although we were still left panting, although we rested at the same places as the first time, and although we took a longer route this time for the last leg of the climb, we rested for much shorter perioids of time, and we managed to reach our place just before last light.

It was quite amazing that my wound wasn't much affected during the climb; in fact the climb might have helped keep the wound closed. I managed to wash up the wound with the help of Md and Naga, and after a while's rest, we proceeded to wash up. Today's bath had been exceptional because our hosts specially prepared hot water for us and our sore muscles. There was an additional candle in the shower room as well, for it had already turned dark. The atmosphere was simply heavenly - with warm water plus candlelight, and a shower under the stars (the shower room was outside the house and had no roof), I took my time savouring every minute - no one knows when I will be coming back again...

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Shower was followed by dinner, then followed by satellite TV - finally, everyone would be able to catch a wider variety of programmes on TV instead of just karaoke and movie VCDs. After spending the evening watching various local channels, what left a huge impression of us was the ability of the producers of different shows to get the same faces to act in the same type of roles, especially for the baddies. In one evening, I spotted at least one actor appearing in three different shows, but portraying the same type of villian role. At first, it was quite hillarious, but then after awhile, it got monotonous, with the similar types of storylines no matter which channel you switched to. Howver, it seemed that the locals enjoyed the shows pretty well, judging by their gasps and exclamations whenever a twist occured in the shows.

MD rounded off the evening by showing everyone the video that he had taken during the volcano climb, and we agreed with him that it did look like some National Geographic showcase. After the photos and videos, we went back to do some packing for tomorrow - the boat would be leaving at around 8am.

And so, our last night in Palu'e ended on quite a high...

To be continued...