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| VILLAGE OF TANJUNG KUMBIK, INDONESIA |
PULAU SETAIH, INDONESIA - SUNDAY OCT 14, 2012
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| MORNING COFFEE IN THE LOUNGE |
After waking early, we were in the lounge drinking fabulous lattes and coffee by 7am - the latte is awesome, frothy creamy and not bitter at all. They serve continental breakfast here from 7-730am each day, and then full breakfast up on deck from 730 - 9:00am. They also have headline news printed from the USA and Australian newspapers to stay abreast of the news should you wish to.
We are now in RIAU Islands Province (about 3,200 islands), Indonesia consisting of the Riau Archipelago, Tudjuh Archipelago, and the Lingga Islands with the capital Tanjung Pinang located at the bottom of Bintan Island. This is located between mainland Malaysia and Borneo. The official language of the RIAU islands is Riau and is considered the birthplace of the modern Malay language and Riau is in the heat of what is often called the Malay World which stretches from Eastern Sumatra to Borneo.
TANJUNG KUMBIK
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| ON OUR WAY TO THE VILLAGE |
This morning is for a very special visit to the village of TANJUNG KUMBIK, Indonesia. On board the ship we have a 9 year old boy from this village with a huge growth on his face obscuring his vision and stretching from his eye down to his nose and across his whole cheek. On one of the visits the Orion Staff (namely Mick Fogg who has worked with ORION since 2006) found out that there were no medical skills in Tanjung Kumbik to help diagnose and treat this little boy, so Mick ultimately arranged with a foundation to pay for the boy to be taken to Singapore and treated there. The Chief of the Village and his wife along with the little boy's family have been in Singapore and are now returning home on the ORION II. He still has the growth but my understanding is further testing or analyses are required before they can actually treat and/or remove the growth. So even though ORION visits this village, this visit is special as the little boy and his mother, and the Chief and family return to Tanjung Kumbik.
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| TRADITIONAL FISHING BOAT |
We were all ready for the village visit and climbed aboard the zodiacs by 9am for the short ride to Tanjung Kumbik. The village is 99% Muslim, and the ladies were waiting to sing and welcome us onto the pier as we arrived - all 83 passengers, the Expedition team and a few other staff members. This is not a sophisticated village, but a fishing village with wooden walkways to each house joined by a concrete driveway down the middle - this central driveway, or road, is used by several men of the village who drive up and down many times a day on their motorbikes! First we had a short time to walk up and down, being greeted by everyone with big smiles and a few words of English - everyone happy to let us take their photos and proudly showing off their new babies and young children for photos. It was sunny and hot, and as every other day, all of our clothes were soaked within minutes but we were so enjoying the village and its' people.
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| WELCOME TO TANJUNG KUMBIK |
After everyone was off the zodiacs and had walked around a little, we were all called back to the village centre where we were treated to a cultural welcome including several dances by the children and directed by their art director, a vivacious young man who has taken to heart his responsibility for keeping the culture of the Sarawak Malaysians alive and in the heart of this village and specifically its' children. As guests we were all seated on plastic chairs in a 3 sided square - but this event is for everyone and so all the parents were there to watch their children, all the non dancing children were there to see their mates, and the returning little boy was there and meeting and greeting his friends.
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| TRADITIONAL DANCING |
The boys and girls danced to several songs played over a loud speaker - all of their movements very precise, smooth, gentle and rhythmic. The young couple at the front presented betel nut and ? leaves to a couple of the guests, accepted graciously but as Mick said, you don't have to chew the betel nuts but you must accept the gift. Then it was inviting the guests to dance with the children - all very nicely done, no fun taking at anyone's expense. Carrie did a grand job reflecting the movements of the little boy who asked her to dance, but Brenda had the most difficult job when the cultural director asked her to dance - he was really into the dancing and his chance to show his stuff - he was jumping around with arms and legs in every direction - Brenda made us proud dancing along!
We then had a short time to wander along, talk to the locals and the head back to our zodiacs. Most of the village waved us away and I will never forget the little boy, maybe 12 years old, sitting on top of the roof at the dock blowing me kisses as I waved Goodbye to him - what a wonderful experience we participated in today, AND STILL MORE TO COME!
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| GIRLS FROM TANJUNG KUMBIK VILLAGE |
Back at the Orion we quickly changed into our swimming gear, picked up our snorkel gear and were at the marina at the at the back of the Orion ready for the first zodiac to the beach. The Orion staff were already there and had set u p for an amazing BBQ. It was half of our group that set off on the first zodiac singing a rousing chorus of Oh Canada (the zodiac captain circled us back to the ship until we finished singing - then we headed over to the beach where we were given instructions about the reef, current and snorkelling - and where we had to come back to shore to avoid being sweat around the end of the island. Then we did our wet landing (feet and legs into the water) and on to the beach where Paul was waiting with a tray full of margaritas.
We had a wonderful afternoon on the beach - the snorkelling was fabulous - a reef drop off just a short distance from the beach, so lots of healthy brightly coloured hard and soft corals and quite a few fish, although being reasonably close to the island with the fishing village on it not far away, I'm sure they might fish lots around here! The current made for really easy snorkelling - just hang out and watch the incredible underwater world float by! After two drift snorkels along the reef we swam back to the beach and headed off for the BBQ lunch further down the beach. The ORION II staff had done an amazing job of setting up the BBQ - everything you could imagine, fish, shell fish, prawns, hamburgers, chicken, ribs and a variety of salads, buns and fixings. Somehow nothing ever tastes better than sitting on the beach with your toes wiggling in the sand and enjoying lunch while you can smell the BBQ still roasting the meat! And of course we enjoyed cold white wine to wash it down!
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