sv evi

In May we continued adventuring south. We visited the Blue Lagoon at Labengke and had a lovely refreshing (even got cold!) swim.

After an overnight sail, we arrived at Wangi Wangi, in Wakatobi National Park. We docked at a free marina, and ended up staying for a week! Yes, free marina. No power or water, but the docks were in great condition. Apparently the government built the marina for the Sail2Indonesia Rally, but doesn’t pay anyone to maintain it. Just at the end of the dock was a bouncy house and trampoline that opened each evening. The kids were in heaven!

We had a glorious time in Wangi Wangi. I did morning yoga on the dock, instead of on a rolly boat. We ate out–a lot–so I got a nice break from the galley. I took advantage of the nice paved roads in front of the marina that were almost deserted in the daytime to learn how to drive a scooter! After practicing, I took Tomu on the back, and Riki took Jade and Luz on his scooter. We went through town and to the south for a few kilometers before I realized it was more stressful than fun, so we turned around.

Our friends on Rampetamper made a local friend named Aris in Wangi Wangi, and he came to visit us. He asked if the kids and I would like to teach an English class. I ended up teaching an hour long class using my OWL (Organic World Language) method! It was a lot of fun, and also tiring! (I’m out of practice!)

Igna and Kili caught up to us in Wangi Wangi. Igna treated us to a fancy dinner to thank us for helping him to get White Wings III floating again (back when we were in the Togean islands). The next day was Igna’s birthday! We had a pancake party on evi with the other boats on the dock, including Maki from sv turu (whom we met in the Philippines and hadn’t seen since). We also had our second chess tournament, and this time Jade and Luz participated. I prevailed as the victor in this one. 🙂

We went for a fantastic snorkel with Albar, a local Bajau (Sea Gypsy). Later, we walked through the Bajau village with Albar and visited his home. We had a group of about 10 kids following us all through the village. The streets were narrow pathways built over the water.

Whenever we went anywhere, we got asked for selfies. Here are a few pics from the selfie requestors.

Here is a classic story of how kind Indonesian people are. I was walking away from the marina carrying a big bag of dirty laundry in my arms. I saw a guy on a scooter, and asked him where I could do laundry. He answered, “it’s far”. I asked where I could find a scooter taxi, and he gave the same answer. Then he set his 5 gallon jug of drinking water on the side of the street, and told me he would take me to the laundry place. After I dropped my laundry off, I asked him to stop at a fruit stand so I could get a few things on the way home. The fruit stand vendor was gone, so then we turned around and went back towards the laundry to a different fruit stand. Then he drove me all the way back to the marina. I gave him 50,000 rupiah ($3.33 USD) and a dragonfruit. He protested that it was too much money, and I responded that he’s not a taxi driver, he just took time out of his day to help me out. Imagine someone in the States driving a stranger around to do their errands… A few days later, the kids and I were walking to a fresh water pool in a cave in town. The same man saw me and said, Ana, where are you going? I told him, and he gave us a ride for free. (in two trips).

After Wangi Wangi we sailed upwind to Hoga for a few nights. I prepped food for our next passage and we went for a nice drift snorkel. Then we sailed 300 miles to Labuan Bajo.

Labuan Bajo is on Flores island, and it is the gateway to Komodo National Park. We saw more foreigners there in one day than we had seen in all our time in Indonesia (6 months in total) combined! We stayed there three nights and visited the fabulous Maison Belmont for ice cream every day. Tomu’s review: the best ice cream he’s had in his life.

We sailed to Sebayur Besar and took a mooring there. The snorkeling at Sebayur Besar was phenomenal. We saw 9 turtles on one dive, along with healthy and varied hard and soft corals, and tons of fish. The kids and I went on a hike one afternoon.

Next stop was Komodo Island! We saw a Komodo Dragon on the beach from our anchorage, and Jade insisted we go to see it in the dinghy. We convinced her that wouldn’t be smart because we needed to go with a guide. The following day we met our guide Sahril at 6:30 am in the village of Komodo. The Komodo Dragons are pretty sedentary most of the day, so it is best to try to see them in the early morning before it gets too hot.

We had barely left the village when we saw our first two Komodo Dragons. They were walking slowly. One stopped in front of us. Then it peed! It was voluminous and sudden. It started to rain, and the dragons didn’t seem to like it. They would lift their legs and flick them in the air. It reminded me of a cat.

Sahril had a long forked stick. He always kept himself between us and the dragons. He would walk us behind the dragon, tell us where to stand, then go around to the front to take our photo. He told us to act like Komodo dragons in this photo.

He explained that the Komodo Dragons can move quite quickly for short distances. They rely on camouflage, then quickly move to bite their prey: water buffalo, wild boar, and deer. After biting a water buffalo, they wait about a week for the buffalo to die from the bacteria in the bite. Then they eat their prey.

We were back on the boat by 9 am, and the kids got out their school books. Pretty amazing field trip!

Our next stop was the island of Padar, home to a very famous hike. We hiked up around 3 pm, and had the top to ourselves…but we saw about 200 people on the beach getting ready to hike up for the sunset.

Next we went to a lagoon in Makassar Reef, near Manta Point. We stayed there three nights, and we snorkeled with Manta Rays four days in a row! Wow! We are so lucky. The most we saw at one time was 8 — they were swimming in formation, like fighter planes. They look a little like they are flying underwater, with their graceful fin flaps. These ones were big, the Oceanic Manta Rays.

After that we went back to Labuan Bajo to re-provision and visit the immigration office. Indonesia recently implemented a new law: foreigners must visit an immigration office in person for biometrics (fingerprints and photos) in order to renew their visas. Previously, one could renew the visa online, as I did in November. Additionally, foreigners MUST visit the immigration office that is listed on their online application as per their address. I applied for the visa renewal on May 29th, but the online system (notoriously buggy) wouldn’t allow me to change the address from Manado, in north Sulawesi to Labuan Bajo. After many unsuccessful attempts to change the address, I just submitted it anyways. All five of us went into the immigration office in Labuan Bajo, but were told that they couldn’t help us, since our application was routed to Manado. They advised me to call the Manado immigration office. After calling three times and texting the WhatsApp number for the Manado office, I was starting to panic. Would we need to fly to Manado ASAP? Would our boat be safe left alone? Then the office called me back, and told me that our extensions should be processed within three working days. They said I didn’t need to come in person, because we had applied May 29th, and the new rule takes effect June 2nd. Whew! Tomorrow will be the third working day, so fingers crossed …

Luz and I have been learning Japanese in earnest, in preparation for our two week trip to Japan in August. We have learned Hiragana and Katakana (Japanese syllabaries), and are working on radicals, kanji, and vocabulary words. Luz is really talented at remembering the mnemonics to remember the kana, and it is a joy for me to learn them with her. I’m also doing Duolingo daily for Japanese.

Jade decided she wanted to make challah bread one day because she read about it in Food Anatomy, a book Po Po gave her for Christmas.

The past few days the kids have been playing Extreme Catan — they each get two colors, and they play to 25 points. They have invented victory points for various things, such as “Most Stuff”.

We are getting very excited for our trip home — first time in almost two years! We check into Marina Del Ray on June 22nd, and fly to Singapore on June 27th. Riki is busy ordering parts that we can’t get here. We are wrapping up the year of home schooling — the girls did their final maths assessment today. Tomorrow we will visit a waterfall here on Moyo Island, then we will carry on west towards Lombok.