Ambon has been very official, it’s a larger city than the others we have been too and it’s the first place I have been asked for a bribe by the polici. They are very careful to keep reminding us that Ambon is a safe city, we think they maybe still trying to shake a bad rap after there was a massacre here 2002 ish.
I went for a walk through town; every street seems to have its purpose. One street all for people making clothes another for hair dressing, another for wood work.
Upon arrival into the port we were greeted by a welcome ceremony and a banquet of fish, squid and prawns with local salads and stacks of rice and potato / taro, a lot of food and not a lot of order, a bit of get your elbows in there you may say. So far the experiences are that Indonesians are extremely hospitable and happy people but so far not good at logistics. We are a spectacle here and people are bringing their kids down to look at us all along the dock. It sometimes feels like a bit of a zoo.
We have spent a couple of days repairing the main sail with glue and spare sail cloth which Lydia dad brought over from Australia. There are many official looking people walking up and down the wharf which we are tied up to. It seems the Navy’s job is solely to look after us and keep us happy, we have had a 3~4 Indonesians helping us each day with the gluing and moving around of the sail. Not speaking much English the conversations so far have consisted of talking about soapy with lots of hand gesturing.
After leaving Ambon we spent a nights a Tengha which is the most picturesque beach we have been too. The locals where a bit cranky with some of the other cruisers parking over the place where they lay the fishing nets so they were yelling at us while snorkelling and we thought it was because of sharks not there livelihood.
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