The "harrowing" pass at Wangi Wangi -- not so bad in daylight
I have come to the conclusion that Asia is exhausting. It is amazing, awesome, a whirlwind of color and smells and heat and textures and tastes, and impossible to absorb more than a tiny fraction of at any given time. In the past few days I have been overwhelmed by cultural events - dancing, feasts, snorkeling, more feasts, more dancing, markets, people, more people - all of which have been... over the top.
We arrived in Wangi Wangi on Monday night. We were led through the extremely narrow and poorly marked pass by Gino, the head guy for Sail Indonesia Wakatobi. It was rather nerve wracking to shine a flashlight over the side of the boat and see shallow reef hugging either side, but miraculously we made it to anchor without hitting anything. I whipped up fish burritos from a little wahoo we caught along the way before passing out into blissful post-passage sleep.
Our Sail Indonesia Wakatobi rally began the following morning when we were herded off our boats by Gino, who insisted we be on shore by 9:00 AM. For most people, having to be somewhere at a certain time and place in the morning is not an issue, but for yachties - who have been doing whatever they want, going wherever they want, whenever they want - this can be difficult. Alas, we made it in on time for our first "Cultural Event".
We were greeted by a group of locals, mostly young teenagers, who were working as Sail Indonesia tour guides to show us around and practice their English. Each yachtie got their own personal guide for the whole time we were in Wangi Wangi, and Kyle and I were lucky enough to become friends with Dian and Cayu. These girls led us around all day every day, making sure we didn't get hit by motorcycles, making sure we weren't ripped off at the market, taking us to their school and to the water cave.
Cayu and the sea urchins
The only problem was that the morning after we arrived in Wangi Wangi my stomach had a bad rumble to it, the kind that said, "please, please don't mess with me." Unfortunately it is considered very rude to refuse food from somebody, especially when you have a whole village watching in anticipation, with cameras trained on your face, waiting to see how you react to eating roe from a freshly cracked open (live) sea urchin. All you can do is scoop the goo out with your fingers which have shaken the hands of say, 50 random people, pop said goo in the mouth and swallow as quickly as possible. If you are lucky you will only taste salt with a hint of low tide. Smile, laugh, and hope somebody has a TicTac.
It would be overwhelming and, I am afraid, downright boring for you if I described every dance we saw, every village we went to, every trip to the market... so I will try to keep it to the highlights. I do want to convey, however, that Sail Indonesia treated us like absolute royalty. Sure, I whinge that they were over the top, tried to fit too much in and did not give us any free time, but really, they just wanted to show us everything Wangi Wangi had to offer.
Our first night we had a Welcome Dinner at the Patuno Resort, a five star resort on the other side of the island. We were greeted by the mayor and an Indonesian movie star, entertained by beautiful dancers and fed a lavish feast. All free - all included with Sail Indonesia. As far as I could tell we were mingling with the upper echelons of Wakatobi society and while it was very nice, all of us were ready to get back to our boats after a huge day of cultural events. We are just not used to all the excitement.
That is another thing - just as in Saumlaki, everybody here wants their picture taken with us. We are treated like rockstars. I can finally appreciate why famous people snap when one too many people ask for a photo, because after a few hundred photos, Kyle and I were finding it hard to keep a smile on our faces. Fortunately, neither of us snapped.
Highlights. Other highlights. What comes to mind is dinner with Mom and Dad's tour guide, Ade. She invited the four of us to dinner at her house with her husband and baby boy. They picked us up on their motor bikes, but there was not room for all of us in one trip, until my guide, Cayu, offered to take me on her bike. At first I thought she was joking, she - being a small 13 year old girl, couldn't possibly drive a motor bike, could she?? But she was not joking and soon we set off into the night down the bumpy, sometimes paved sometimes dirt roads to Ade's house. This was my first time ever on any sort of motorized bike. Cayu couldn't believe it.
Dian and Cayu accompanied us to dinner at Ade's and it was a very special evening. We sat around playing with the baby, who at first was absolutely terrified of the white people - crying anytime one of us got near - but overcame his fears as we took pictures and made funny faces at him. Ade prepared a traditional dinner with smoked fish, rice and vegetables, which we ate with our fingers sitting on a rug on the floor. It was so meaningful, to be invited into somebody's house and fed their precious food, and we were all blown away by the experience.
Cayu, Sesi and Dian on Rutea
Another highlight was bringing Cayu, Dian and their friend Sesi out to the boat. Kyle and I had opted out of the cultural event for the morning so naturally the girls waited at the harbor for us until we decided to come into shore. After going to the market and meeting Dian's mom, we decided to bring the girls out to visit Rutea. They all squealed with excitement when we told them about the field trip and jumped for joy in the dinghy.
On Rutea we served them Coca Cola (traditional drink of America), cheese - which they thought was disgusting, and hummus - which they said they liked although I couldn't tell if they were being polite or not. We took pictures and showed them photo albums of life back home, a little tour of the boat and then it was time to go back in for another cultural tour.
I know this is getting extremely long but I have to tell you about the last cultural tour. It was insane. First, we all piled into bok-boks, long wooden boats with very few windows and very unstable feeling, to get over to Kapota island. Once we arrived (the whole way over I was planning my escape route through a tiny window if we capsized) we were ushered through the village - people taking our photos and filming us the whole way - until we came to a massive procession. Young boys and girls, between the ages of maybe 3 and 12, were dressed in gowns, head dresses, makeup, and very fancy costumes, being paraded around in carriages carried by the village men, to demonstrate that they would be available for marriage (some day).
It was probably one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. And amazingly these kids did not cry, even when they had to sit with their huge head dresses on in front of massive baskets of food and were not allowed to eat anything, even when we were invited/forced to eat right in front of them. Of course, we - being the guests of honor - were made to eat all sorts of food at many different places in the village. The locals got great pleasure out of feeding the white people, I guess it is a sign of status or means.
I managed to swallow a few bites of food at every place we went, but for the past three days my stomach has had a horrible watery, cramping feeling that makes me hesitant to go anywhere there is not a bathroom readily available, but that is not exactly an option so I keep the Immoduim flowing freely.
We are now underway to Hoga island, feeling the need for a bit of zero structure and freedom to dive and snorkel all day if we so desire. We had a very tearful goodbye with Dian and Cayu last night, who were absolutely devastated we are leaving, but I don't think they are used to people coming and going like we do. We also declined an invitation to the mayor's house for dinner to celebrate Indonesian Independence Day today, which did not please him, but at some point we have to say enough is enough. The guide books were not lying when they said Indonesians are known for their over the top hospitality.
And so, the epic of Wangi Wangi is over. For now. We are still in the island group of Wakatobi and I hope to have a few more tranquil, idyllic island paradise stories for you yet.
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At 8/16/2013 5:05 AM (utc) Rutea's position was 05°19.78'S 123°32.02'E
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