Banda Neira Part 2

 

From our anchorage in the Island of API, we would dinghy over to the visit the main island to shop and sightseeing.

The dinghy dock to the town. The catamaran is moored stern to the shore and would need to dinghy ashore the same as us, although the ride would be much shorter.

Nearest the dock were the food stalls. We saw so many smiling faces as we went along.

The pale yellow and green woven packages are parcels of cooked rice called Ketupat. The link provides a wealth of information as ’…in every Ketupat served, there’s a story of faith, family, and festive spirit waiting to be told.’

Next to the ketupat are highly seasoned and grilled fish on a bamboo skewers.

The dry market with sacks of things like rice and spices as well as all those goods you use every day.  

Beautifully arranged fresh vegetables and fruit.

Traffic jam! There are some cars on the island but, as most people in SE Asia, scooters are the main mode of  travel here.

Some type of fresh tuna by the main dock.

Split fish drying in the sun. The distant shore was were we were initially moored.

This was also near the ferry dock and Tim was disappointed to see as the passengers disembarked, the crew swept the plastic bottles and other rubbish off the deck and into the sea. I’ll explain more about this later as the problem is endemic to SE Asia.

There are many small shops at the front of houses, though not as many as there are cats.

This is where a car or truck would come in handy. These guys are trying to load bags of cement onto a scooter. This is their second try.

Drying in from of a shop we found nuts that looked rather like almonds, but they are not! They are Kenari, a nuts that grows on wild trees and can be used as almonds because of their buttery feel in the mouth. Behind the link, is a really good BBC article about how the kenari nut could help save the rainforests. Try asking for products featuring them at your local health food store. :)

We were served Kenari nut brittle on a restaurant dessert display along with curls of candied nutmeg husk, which you will see more about in Banda Neira Part 3. This one is quite long enough.

Part of why it takes me so darn long to write the blogs, I do the research as I write and I should have done at the time.

Fort Nassau built during The Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands. A history as ugly as the fort.

An entrance to the fort and a link to another view of the history of the Banda Islands at Histori Bersama.

It is hard get your head around the fact that the people we met are not the ancestors of people who lived here during the Dutch invasion in the 1600s. The indigenous people were killed, sent or escaped to distant islands. 

If I remember correctly there was one gentleman currently on the island who purported to be a direct descendant.

Having said that, the people we met were welcoming and treated us very well.  On our walk around the town, we were stopped by a man who introduced himself as the teacher in a nearby school. He asked if we’d like to visit and we did.

Indonesia is predominantly Muslim and difference in behaviour between the girls and the boys was quite marked.

We were met by laughing curious girls. They either love having their pictures taken or hide shyly.

The boys were very much more subdued, a little standoffish or maybe just shy.

This pose of the girl covering her mouth is something we see quite often from both girls and women. 

This a little video I found on the internet that explains this and a couple other things - https://youtube.com/shorts/2aK_Ym0PGbI?si=MV4QpIyH8yQtVzEq

One of the island’s mosques.

A new church being built. Not quite the same scale.

School boys sitting the shade.

Old walls hide modern life.

The cats I have seen, and one of the cats you will see. :) 

The Cilu Bintang Estate 

Enjoying a Bintang Beer on a balcony in the Estate, which also houses a restaurant, with Philip, Tom, Patricia and Claudia. Bintang is the most common beer in Indonesia.

The Part 3 to come is of a walk we did from where we were anchored with Philip and Claudia on Api, the volcanic island.