With
the rally regrouped in Daruba, Morotai the welcome celebrations could
begin. As seems usual, the details of our itinerary were sketchy and
changed through the day.
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| war memorial |
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| water and beer! |
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| our local guide, Anna |
Our
young guides and interpreters showed us to two small coaches which
were our tour buses for the day and we drove out to a new monument to
mark the WW2 invasion of Morotai by Japanese forces and subsequent
recapture by General MacArthur, an attempted invasion by Philippine
forces in 1961 and the Indonesian General who repelled them. It's an
impressive monument surrounded by a 'work in progress' which will be
a museum. I'm not sure who will come to visit because Morotai is not
on the tourist track. It's too difficult to get here. We'll be one
of just 17 foreign yachts who come this year.
From
the monument we headed back to the centre of town for a welcoming
ceremony by the deputy Regent (the real Regent had a previous
engagement). There were speeches, dancing, a handsome meal and a
large can of Bintang beer for each yachtie. When the musicians and
dancers had been driven home in one of the tour buses we were taken
back to the monument to see the current WW2 museum which
unfortunately is labelled in Indonesian which we don't know well
enough to read. From the pictures we did make out how General
MacArthur's army chased out the Japanese and built aircraft runways,
a hospital and everything needed to be a base for the US attack on
Japanese forces in SE Asia.
While
we were out and about we saw many local taxis, known as bentons.
This was the racy Ducati version.
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| Family Ducati |
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| bringing home the eggs |
In the
spirit of fitting everything in to one day, and because this is a
Muslim island and the market will be closed tomorrow, Friday, we even
found time to grab our fresh produce and a tray of eggs. In these
islands where meat is almost impossible to find and fish sometimes
not as fresh as one would like, eggs are a great protein source to
eke out the meat in our freezer.
Hi folks !! Looks like you're still having fun !! I've just meet up with Saol Eile and Calypso in Jepara, Java. Everybodys well and good to see them all !! It sounds like the diving has been great for you ? I am heading back to Labuan Bajo soon as i thought the diving was excellent down there. I have also read that the diving in Raja Ampat is supposed to be excellent, have you dived there yet ? I was just wondering how it compares to Labuan Bajo ?
ReplyDeleteHope you are well. Regards, Simon
In Raja Ampat -probably the most beautiful part of Indonesia. Landscapes and diving incredibly fantastic though expensive with tour operators, ie $60 per dive!!! Happy travelling
ReplyDelete