Badas!

Pagi once again Boatbloggers®

Apologies if the Boatblogs® seem to be coming at you fast and furious right now, but Indonesia is such an amazing place we can’t help ourselves.

Our next stop was Badas. The anchorage was quite small, so we had to raft up together to all fit in.

Badas is a place that lives up to it’s name. The people here spend their leisure time racing buffaloes through the swamps.

Without even a nod to the concept of Health & Safety, they let members of the yacht rally have a go. This was our friend Mark on Memo, who much to our surprise made it to the end in one piece.

Ju was going to have a go, but decided he rather likes his arms and legs where they are now. Besides, that swamp they’re running through isn’t just mud…

But nevertheless, not wanting to appear a wimp, he bravely got very close to some of the more aggressive beasts that were too wild to race.

When Badas people aren’t racing buffaloes, they’re making machetes out of old car springs.

Lethal stuff.

But not as lethal as the chillis, which are properly Badas. (Ok – enough with the Badass jokes – Ed)

This may look small, but these are apparently the hottest chillis that grow in Indonesia. And that is a very high bar.  What makes it worse is that the heat doesn’t kick in for about two minutes after you’ve eaten it. It’s like eating a parachute flare. Apparently some of the more reckless visitors bite just a little bit off at first, and then when they can’t see what all the fuss is about they show off to the locals by chewing the whole thing. Ha ha ha. Glad Ju’s not that stupid. 

We went to the coffee plantation and watched as they roasted the beans.

And then taught us how to grind them.

All very delicious, but I think we’ll stick with the Nespresso capsules.

They showed us how to make a traditional flute out of long pieces of reed.

It takes many hours of carving and shaping to get the perfect flute.

Unfortunately, it sounds like a cross between a dying recorder and a punctured bagpipe, but at least they look good.

Lyn got a tattoo!

Very nice.

But all too soon we had to bid a fond farewell to the people of Badas.

Next stop – Lombok.

Sampa Jumpa for now

Ju & Lyn