Debut, Kei Islands, Indonesia

We are cruising Indonesia on the Sail 2 Indonesia Rally. A rally is a great way to experience somewhere like Indonesia, which is our first experience in the Far East. 

The rally organisers have provided an introduction to and information on travelling and cruising in Indonesia.  Raymond, a native Indonesian, helps with clearing in and out of the country, and arranging and renewing visas. There is a lot of bureaucracy and requirements can change so it’s great to have someone that knows the ropes and is looking out for us.

The main religions in Indonesia are Muslim and Christian. They sometimes live in the same villages, in their own areas in Debut, but it seems to vary from place to place. There are villages or towns that are all one or the other and everyone seems happy. We are careful to show respect to the local inhabitants through our actions and dress.

Having said that, halfway into the rally, it seems that no matter how we try to blend in, we are strange and exotic to them. They do not meet many Caucasians or English speakers and they are hungry for photos with us and a chance to practice their English. 

The rally brings in some money through tours and lavish dinners, but more importantly to the communities, the hope of attracting more tourism. Many of the places we have and will visit are off the normal tourist routes.

Everywhere we’ve been has welcomed us with open arms and great pride is taken in showing us their culture and their country. We are very fortunate to have this experience.

Our itinerary.

Wonderful Indonesia is a site with gorgeous photos and shows many of the best places and things to see, though not necessarily by boat!

Our first stop in Indonesia was the town of Debut, in the province of Maluku. Tual is the normal point of entry for yachts entering Indonesia but the rally arranged for Customs and Immigration to come to us in Debut. 

Once cleared in we were invited ashore for the Opening Ceremony.

The dock and central meeting place of the village, dwarfed by the church at the top of the road.

There was one gentleman who helped with the disembarking and tying up of the dinghies. He was always there at whatever time we arrived or departed for the whole of our visit. He’d also indicate to us which direction to head going back to the boats. When the tide was high, we could go straight over rock reef between our anchorage and the village. When the tide was low, he’d describe the direction for us to with emphatic gestures to ensure we’d miss the reef. 

Once we were all ashore, we waited behind the coconut frond ‘ribbon’.

There was some milling around as we waited for all the dingies to arrive. 

It began with the trumpeting of a conch shell.

The conch sounded, the ribbon was cut and we were officially welcomed.

Each person on the rally was presented with a scarf.

These are our scarves. You’ll see the design in the blue scarf repeated a little later. 

The Welcome Dance.

The band.

A welcome song in Indonesian.

A sneak shot of two of the previous singers and a happy moment when tradition and present day embrace.

This young lady was one of six dancers. She was the one the others looked to check what came next. All the movements were graceful and precise.

We adjourned to the shade for refreshments.

Next was a walk through the village to the sightseeing part of the ceremonies. The road from the dock went straight up to the church. On each side of the road were streets of houses with, we were told, Muslim on the right and Christian on the left.

At the church we turned right. More about turning left later.

This was fascinating. The cassava/embal flatbreads are a staple of the Kei/Kai islands. A mould is used for the shape and pattern. I have learned since that they are cooked as well and maybe this drying is the final step for longevity. 

Remember the design on the blue scarf?  Embal is food and art in the Kei Islands.

Across the road, bags of embal for sale. I expect there would be all sorts of things for sale on the table if it wasn’t for the day’s celebration.

Ayu, our guide and friend, has a lovely blog she has created to help promote the Kei Ilsands. There is lots about the local food including embal - Kei Island Guided Tour by Ayu.

This is a fascinating article on Cassava found while I was trying to find the name for this type of bread. Eat more cassava!

We walked down the hill, across the river and ….

… on to the waiting yellow buses for an island tour.

We visited fresh water filled caves. There were two caves. One for drinking and one for swimming. The most impressive was the bathing pool.

We were warmly welcomed to Letvuan…

… with traditional music,…

… beautiful dancers and much enthusiasm from all.

Our tour continued with a visit to a bomb shelter. It was part of an air field built by the Japanese during their occupation of Indonesia in World War 2, March 1942 to September 1945.

For more in a Wiki article - Japanese Occupation of the Dutch West Indies and an interesting abstract from A History or Modern Indonesia by M. C. Ricklefs (Professor of History).

Our next stop was to a coffee plantation and we were encouraged to participate.

The trees produce two types of coffee bean on the same tree. Sadly, all I could remember of the information was that a pod had either 2 or 3 berries and each was a different type one being Arabica ( for sure) and the other ‘possibly’ Robusta.

My coffee tree, which was labelled with my name so I could check on it on future visits. You can see I’m a little frazzled. It is hot and humid!

The last event of the day was a gala dinner on the waterfront over looking the river and seaweed beds.

All this was setup for us! All around the seated area were the people of Letvuan, some with food to sell or the local coffee, which is rich and sweet.

I bought a tray of little fried parcels filled with vegetables and fish and something bright pink and sweet in a bag. The fried parcels definitely won. 

No Indonesian event is complete without a sound system and enthusiastic DJs.

There were many dances showcasing daily activities and industry, like sugar cane.

The Coffee Dance enacting is the land clearing, planting, care and harvesting of the coffee bean. Very good advertising.

After the performances, we had a wonderful buffet dinner before becoming part of the performance ourselves.  

We were led a winding path between and around the tables by the performers.

Some time later, it all got wild. 

Lots of people love karaoke, and Indonesians definitely do. During dinner we were aware of people singing along but it wasn’t until we heard someone singing a Celina Dion song followed by a Whitney Houston song, both surprisingly well sung, that we looked to see who it was.  It was Ayu! She is a great guide but she is a great singer too.

I hardly need to say that a good time was had by all.

The next morning with Philip and Claudia, a driver and Ayu we set for to shop and see some of the local sights.

Our first stop was a fresh food market.  It was the first day of rain we’d seen in a very long time.

The market was very good.  

What was different from anything I’d seen before were the meal-sized piles of prepared vegetables. Noodles (mei) or rice (nasi) and sautéed vegetables, seasoning, and crispy fried shallots topped with a fried egg is called Mei or Nasi Goreng. I suspect it’s one of Indonesia’s best know meals.

FYI, onions as we know them are very expensive. They are probably imported and a cheaper local option is shallots. 

Claudia and Philip getting their shopping too.

In the front row from bottom to top, candlenuts (which are cashew nuts like but not as rich), potatoes and galangal (like a mild ginger) or maybe fresh turmeric (though I think I see the yellow of turmeric on the upper shelf), a big bowl of ginger root, garlic with two white onions (I think, perched on top), little red shallots and finally lemongrass.

What I am sad not to have photos of is the fresh tempeh and fresh tofu in beautiful displays. I will try to do better next time. :)

We had lunch at Forganza, a very beautiful restaurant perched on the shore of a bay. It is famous locally for  special events like wedding receptions.

We had a lovely lunch with various seafood, stir fried vegetables and rice.

The deck adjacent to the restaurant where, I’m sure, many wedding, birthday and anniversary photos have been taken. Poor Tim on his own in the middle. :)

A functional photo! This will seem very strange to those from North America, Europe and the UK, but all or at least many toilets, in homes and public areas have not a bathtub, but a reservoir for water used to flush the toilet. At dry times of year, water can be scarce. Having a large dedicated tub of water to tide you over a dry spell is really good planning.

Me, Ayu and Claudia next to the bridge to Tual where we turned around and headed back to Debut.

Back onboard, I put into action what I learned at the market.

Mei Goreng was on the menu with our newly bought vegetables. We often have this with tofu or tempeh as a change from fried egg.

Tempeh is fermented soy beans and as the least processed soy product is supposed to be the best nutritionally.  This is tempeh that I thinly sliced and marinated in oil, soy sauce and a bbq dry rub from The Bin Inn in Whangarei.  After a few hours I fry it till it’s dry and we use it like you would meat in a sandwich. Yum.  

I will talk more about tempeh later.  I am on a huge learning curve.

At the start of the blog, I mentioned, ‘turning right at the church’ on first day out in Debut.  Two days later, we turned left and found a local industry.

Probably up to 15 people work here making fishing floats out of coconuts.

The assembly line.

The finished product. 

The cleaned coconut shells have a loop of rope attached and are sealed with a latex glue. Useful, better for the environment and a sustainable source of income. They are not short of coconuts.

Further along to the left we found the local shop.

Behind the eggs, from left to right, is black rice, white rice, mung beans and a big bag of raw peanuts; in the pink bags are shallots and garlic; the bags against the wall are different types of rice.  With some greens from the garden, you could make a variety of meals before heading to the supermarket.

The currency here, the rupiah, has been interesting to get used to. The smallest note is 1,000 rupiah and the largest 100,000. Today 100,000 rupiah is $6.58 US.

The rupiah (symbol: Rp; currency code: IDR) is the official currency of Indonesia, issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. Its name is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, rupyakam (रूप्यकम्).

Our last night in Debut was the closing ceremony.  Village officials closed the event and we had last meal of tasty and interesting local food. 

We were sad to leave Ayu and now I wear with pleasure a handbag (made of tree bark though you’d think it was leather) from Papua where she studies. 

We left the next morning in search of clear water where Tim could clean the hull.

The place we found had a beautiful white beach. It wasn’t until a day later that I realised it was the beach that we had been to before with Ayu on our shopping day. 

It looks quite different if you arrive by sea rather than land.

The blue and white sand is very lovely.

The sand is so soft and white that it seems almost impossible.

I was interested to see this guy decanting pre-mixed petrol and oil into old water bottles. Scooters and motorcycles are the most common mode of transport and one can buy this ‘pre-mix’ at many places along the side of the road. It seems like anyone at all can sell it.

While I was taking photos, Tim and Philip disappeared into the distance.

We had a couple of memorable moments in our time there.

The first was this. Between where the boats anchor and the beach is a long rocky reef.  The tide rose and fell between one and two metres.  At low water the white sandy beach had a rocky ledge and the reef further out was only half a metre (maybe) under the water.  

We learned much of this when friends went ashore for dinner (high water). After dinner when they got back to the beach, they had to haul their dinghy down over the rocky ledge, discovered the off shore reef when they came to a sudden stop on it, and had to wade over to hunting for patches deep enough for the dinghy to get over. It took awhile but they got back safely. We were glad we were there to watch it, if only for moral support

The second was that we had a meal ashore for lunch that did not agree with Tim. He felt pretty awful and this kept us in the anchorage an extra day.  It also made him empathise strongly with Claudia who has bouts of seasickness when the conditions are wrong.

We did leave eventually and our next stop was an over nighter to Bandaneira.