A few days ago we visited the town of Bima on the island of Sumbawa. It is the busy port town for the island, about 10 miles down a creek. We anchored close to all sorts of interesting traditional wooden cargo and fishing boats. It's a very Muslim town, and from the anchorage we could see a variety of mosques, a gold dome, a cream concrete dome, a large bright turquoise dome, and a dull metal dome perched on a tiled roof with the sickle moon hanging at a broken angle from the top. At 5am, they all sang out their calls to prayer, and it was a signal for the small fishing boats with their single cylinder diesel engines to start chugging out to sea.
So an early start, and we decided to walk the couple of km to the market rather than get a pony cart, ride in a bemo (communal taxi) or hop on the back of a motor bike. Along the road a group of men were shovelling cement into bags and loading it onto a lorry. The air was thick with dust, and only a few of the men even had a piece of cloth tied around their faces. They, the road, and the building was thick with the dust. Plenty of health and safety hazards around. Always deep holes in the pavements, maybe there were once manhole covers but probably not since independence. The waste water drains below look awful, and we watched as a young guy put his motor bike too close to the edge of one of the open ditches and he and his bike toppled in. No harm done, but hope he had a shower available not too far away.
The market was larger and more crowded than any we have seen, an absolute swarming mass of humanity. Very narrow passages between the stalls, which are only low wooden platforms, and many people sell their goods on the ground. We actually found chicken - dead, plucked, and oven-ready! There are places at the edge of the market where the live chickens are prepared, best not to look! At least you know it is fresh, and although there were flies, we've seen worse. (Cooked that night it was delicious). All the inner bits and pieces were for sale too, including yards of intestines. Could also have got beef, they were busy hacking up a carcass with a machete at another stall. Huge range of vegetables, lots of green stuff, and several things that we didn't recognise at all. Long strings of tobacco on one stall, betel nut of course, bottles of diesel for the motor bikes, and piles of rice and grains. Ancient machines grated up coconut. Huge piles of eggs (one thing there is no shortage of). There were 4 of us, and we decided to get a ride back to the boat in a pony cart. The carts are 2-wheeled, so climbing on and off needs care, and they are made for a population a head shorter than us, so getting legs, heads and bags of produce under the little sun awning was quite a feat. I had quite forgotten that I'm quite allergic to horses, so spent the next hour or so wheezing like mad. Worth is for the fun of the ride though.
We have now arrived at Medina Bay Marina on the island of Lombok. Next island is Bali! It's not really a marina, but is a pleasant place with mooring balls, a beach, a restaurant and bar, and cold showers and a 'proper' flushing toilet (a first). The mooring balls are far too close together, and some are right on the edge of the shallows so you have to choose carefully. We, like several other boats have picked up a second mooring on a stern line so that we don't swing into another boat. Only 50 yds from the dinghy dock so we row over in seconds. And on the dock is a water hose, the easiest water we've had in this country. It's not drinking water, but we put some bleach in it and are filling up the tank. Actually scrubbed down the decks today, not a drop of rain since before Darwin so quite grubby. Easy to organise diesel and laundry so all in all a good place for a few days. The manager is married to an Englishman and has a good idea of the standards required for westerners. Everything clean and swept. Vegetable materials composted, and plastic bottles and drink cans recycled.
It is the third day of the Ede festival which marks the end of Ramadan. Lots of local families have been arriving by boat (and probably by road as well) to picnic on the beach further along. We went for a walk this afternoon, and the beach, the shady area above, and the water line are all full of rubbish. Three days of picnicing, and it is doubtful whether one single piece of rubbish has been put in a bin or taken home. This country is the worst we have ever seen for rubbish pollution. One interesting/amusing thing we noticed is that all the little boys run around and swim naked on the beach, and the little girls are well covered in trousers and t-shirts.
Going back to the toilet situation, all the toilets we have seen so far, and we tend to make sure that we don't need to see them (not a problem in this hot weather), have had a large tiled tank of water next to the toilet with a scoop. They may be hole-in-the-ground type or western type, but they don't ever have a flushing mechanism. And no toilet paper of course, but we were used to that in Oman. Essential to carry tissues to dry off, ever tried pouring a plastic jug of water onto the right place while keeping your clothes dry!!
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