After finally being able to get off the ship for a few hours it was quite frustrating to have to get back on board. Dinner calmed us down and we sailed overnight to Den Weg Islands. These islands are known for their ancient rock art and many of the drawings are only visible by zodiac.
We were taken through the bay to the site, and after viewing and photographing the truly wonderful site, we were brought to a small village to be exhibited. I mean to tour around.
The whole community was there and everyone was taking everyone else’s photos. Blonde women especially were constantly being asked to have their photo’s taken and one poor woman couldn’t move for all the smiling people around her.
After the entire group of 110 was offloaded we were paraded through the village with drummers and dancers leading the way. It was a motley procession of people wobbling on their sealers, a million underfoot kids and a whole bunch of motor scooters inching along. It was quite surreal.
These villagers had not seen any tourists for over three years and we were quite the curiosity. There was a tour through the caves Japanese soldiers had carved during the war to a central square where an incomprehensible speech was followed by dancing and food, and rain. The heat was in the 30’s and humidity was at about 2 million percent prior to the rain and I was soaked through, so it took a couple of minutes to realize I was getting wet. It was a pleasant relief on the way back to the boats, and as we were loading the children of the village sang the Indonesian national anthem to us before we sped away.
I left wondering who had seen the most new sights, us . . . or them. It really didn’t matter because everyone had fun.
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