Gordel van Smaragd

I: Sumbawa

Sat, 29 Mar 2014 23:34:45 -0700

The next morning we arrived early in the port of Badas, on the north coast of Sumbawa. For such an isolated place, a visit of the cruise ship is a very important event in the town. From the port we walked to the village of Pamulang, which was located close by. Soon we were joined by a group of villagers in ceremonial garb. Who were they, we thought.

left: The bridal party walking to the town hall.

Well, we found out to our delight that to welcome us, the villagers were going to reenact a Sumbawa wedding ceremony in the village town hall. Everybody looked happy and festive, as we all walked together to the center of the village, even though this was probably the tenth time the bride got married to the same groom.

right: The bridal couple is led to the elders on one side of the town hall for ratification of the marriage.

And after the ceremony, short and sweet, the bridal couple is seated and they (as well as we) were then regaled with several dances of Sumbawa.

left: One of the dances of Sumbawa which followed the ceremony.

After the ceremony there were the shows for our pleasure. The first one was a demonstration of the skills to steer a buffalo-drawn sled. We all repaired to an adjacent pond where the water was maybe 1-2 feet deep. Very soon afterwards we saw a buffalo sled going at full speed in the pond.

An official looking person had waded into the water earlier and planted a doll in the middle of the pond. Soon afterwards, two buffaloes came charging into the pool, harnessed to a sled in between them carrying a young rider. The idea was to steer the buffaloes into the doll.

Which was not as easy as you might expect, since the buffaloes were bigger and stronger than him, and they didn’t know they were supposed to run over the doll. They missed the doll by a mile.

right: The buffalo sled with the young driver missed the doll by a mile

After his run, a second sled came charging in the water steered by an obviously more mature driver with better control of the buffaloes. Also, he was aware that the impetuosity of youth is not always useful, so he drove slower and with a better mastery of the situation. They each had three runs; the young man only toppled the doll once; the older man obviously had more experience, and he succeeded in all of his three tries. For which he was rewarded with a colorful piece of cloth by a committee of five lovely lasses. He accepted his prize, then gave a little impromptu dance and sang a song for us. Very nice

From there we walked to a clearing for a demonstration of jousting and wrestling. The picture above shows two fighters really going at each other with gusto with stick and shield. You see the referee keeping a respectful distance from the flailing fighting sticks; he really does not want to get swiped by an errant blow.

left: Demonstration wrestling match.

After these two we had a wrestling match of two young men, also full of vigor.

But we were not finished with our visit. After the show a tour bus then took us to the capital of Sumbawa, Sumbawa Besar, to visit the sultan’s palace.

There had been 17 sultans in the history of Sumbawa; three of them were women. Women have an important position in this community. The last sultan abdicated when the region became part of the Indonesian republic. He was then appointed the governor of the region.

right: picture of the sultan’s palace.

So we walked around the village to look around. The natives were friendly. There were women weaving and there was a shop with beautiful woven products for sale.

left: Women doing their daily chores; pounding rice kernels to dehusk them.

It is difficult to see clearly on this picture, but the women have a smeared a white paste on their faces as a protection against the sun and to improve the skin tone on their face. It is similar to the thanaka paste we see on the faces of women in Myanmar.

right: These two children are ready to get their evening bath.

Interestingly, in this area has also been found old manuscripts dating back to the 14th-15th century Majapahit Kingdom era. (1293 to around 1500 AD). Although not well known, this kingdom was the greatest and largest in South-East Asia, stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea, comprising of present day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and Southern Thailand.

These are manuscripts written on palm-leaf. This tradition of preserving, copying and rewriting these texts on palm-leafs has apparently continued for many centuries in this region. A different kind of alphabet is used for these manuscripts, as you can see in the adjacent picture.

left: The “alphabet” used on the palm leaves, and the pronunciation of each symbol.

right: And there was this pond with beautiful water lilies, which I cannot resist including in this journal

Oh yes, for those of you interested in stuff to buy, the local specialties are cashew nuts and pearls, two items of rather divergent interest.

II: Komodo Island

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 23:49:43 -0700

When we were there in 1990, it was not easy to get to the island and the “Oceanic Odyssey was the only vessel who would visit this island on a regular, scheduled basis. Even then, there would be on the average still about 100 tourists/day, with the number increasing rapidly. Nowadays quite a number of behemoth cruise ships make Komodo Island one of their regular stops, where one ship would disgorge as many tourists in one year, compared to when we were there.

The “Oceanic Odyssey” arrived at the island at around 5:30 a.m. and at 6:45 a.m. the first Zodiac left the vessel to visit the Komodo National Park on the island. We were in the second Zodiac, which left at 7:00 a.m. If this sounds early to the uninitiated, I remind you that we are in the tropics, where it gets very hot, humid and uncomfortable during the day. At 6:00 a.m. there is already a lot of daylight and the air is still cool and comfortable.

left: To get on the island from the Zodiacs, we had to have a wet landing.

It was a “wet” landing, and we had to step out of the Zodiacs to wade to shore. Nowadays (2014) there is a jetty, where the passengers to the Park can arrive with dry feet from their respective vessels. From the landing place we formed a group and under the watchful of the local guide we hiked about 2 miles through the jungle to look for these lizards. The guide did his best to scare us by telling us to stick together closely, because he claimed that recently a man got lost and when they looked for him, all they found was his Panama hat and his walking stick. I think he made that up, but the tale was effective in having us stick together. And it does feel more adventurous to be skirting with danger close by.

There are over 3000 species of lizard worldwide, and the Komodo dragon is the largest of them all. Their head is long and their snout is rounded. Their legs are bowed and they have a huge, muscular tail. There are some 2000-3000 of these reptiles on the island, some of them as large as 10 feet long and up to 200 lbs in weight. In the wild they can live up to 30 years. In the local dialect, they are called “Ora”. They are good hunters but are inherently lazy. After they catch their prey, they will swallow the animal whole, after which they become lethargic for a week or two until all the food had been digested and they need to get a new supply to feed their stomachs. In one sitting they can eat as much as 80 % of their body weight. They only kill to eat, and they are known to follow a pregnant wild horse or buffalo for miles until the birth occurs, after which they will pounce on the helpless little baby. They will also follow an animal they have bitten for miles, because their saliva contains several toxic proteins, and the victim usually dies within 24 hours because of blood poisoning. These dragons are carnivores and their diet consists mostly of carrion. But they will attack deer, goats, pigs, dogs, birds, and sometimes even humans.

right: A large male and a smaller female Komodo dragon.

Even then, it is still the survival of the fittest, because a Komodo dragon will pounce on a smaller of their own species for food. To protect her brood from another adult, the mother dragon will bury their eggs as much as 2-4 feet under the ground, where they will stay for 8 weeks before hatching. The smaller dragons will then try to climb into the trees to escape predators and also the larger lumbering adults, who cannot climb these trees anymore because of their weight. A whopping 10 % of the diet of an adult Komodo dragon are juvenile Komodo dragons, which makes it more imperative of a junior dragon to stay out of the way of senior specimens.

There used to be a clearing where these dragons were fed, but this had recently been discontinued, because it upsets the ecology of the islands, as the dragons would just congregate there and wait for the handout of food. They are inherently lazy by nature; on the other hand, there is really nothing much to do than look for food every so often and, if you are a male, look for a female during mating time. They don’t play social games as we do.

The male to female ratio of these lizards is about 3 males to 1 female, because the males are much larger and are better able to survive the “lizard eat lizard” attitude of these predatory mammals. Conservationists are concerned because of the low number of breeding females. Come mating time, between May and August, there is a lots of fighting between the males because of the limited supply of females.

III: Pantai Merah

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 23:50:05 -0700

We left the Komodo National Park a few hours later and were back in our air-conditioned quarters on the ship by 9:30 a.m. Half an hour later we were back in our Zodiacs to motor out to Pantai Merah.

Pantai Merah, or Pink Beach, has a gorgeously beautiful white, sandy beach against the background of a pristine tropical landscape. However, as you get closer, the beach becomes light red because that was the color of the sand . There is almost no signs of human habitation around; neither were there any megahotels nor huge condo complexes. As a matter of fact, even at this moment the closest place for lodging is in Labuan Bajo; some distance away by boat.

And what you see off Pink Beach is the impressive collection of the most beautiful tropical fish underwater, such as the Angel Fish on the left.

My brother-in-law owns a tropical fish aquarium store and I have often walked past the displays admiring the amazing colors and variety of tropical fish and the surrounding coral. Well, there they are, in their natural surroundings, looking more brilliant and alive than in the sterile surroundings of an aquarium. Look there, an Angel fish which would cost at least $49.99 in the aquarium store. And there and there, the school of Discus fish which would cost at least $29.95 in the aquarium. There were angelfish everywhere, some of them quite huge. No wonder Johnny believes this is the best place to snorkel to view tropical fish.

The picture above is actually taken in the Maldives, because I did not have an underwater camera at that time; but the incredibly beautiful and colorful tropical fish seen in the picture is quite similar to what you see off Pink Beach. The big fish in front is an orange-lined Triggerfish. The black and white colored fishes are Humbug Damselfishes; The blue-green Chromis usually hides in large groups in the coral. On the left of the Triggerfish is a Yellow Moon Wrasse.

The water was surprisingly cold, except for the layer of 3-4 feet on the surface which have been warmed by the sun. It is interesting to note the changes in water temperature as you swim along and go through water layers of different temperature.

IV: Back to Bali

That evening we lifted our anchor and sailed back to Bali, this time in a straighter line by going south of West Nusa Tenggara and Lombok. This is the open sea, the huge Indian Ocean and the swells were considerably larger than the ones earlier in the more protected Bali Sea and Flores Sea. The next morning we were back in the port of Benoa.