Semarang Sept-Oct 2015
We arrived in Semarang mid morning after an overnight sail from Bawaen. Semarang has a large industrial port where relatives of Kims had organised a birth for us. As we motored into the maze of the port itself we were met by a welcoming party in a rib. Ton hopped on board and after much deliberation of where we were to tie up we finally tied up to a police patrol boat in the upper reaches of the port. it was a stinking hot day and I think Warren and I must have been quite tired. ‘Ton’ who had hopped on board seemed very familiar with us and the boat and to our embarrassment it wasn’t Ton (who we didnt know, but met a bit later) but Fendi, who we were well acquainted with from his time in NZ. He had sailed with Warren from the Bay of Islands down to Gulf Harbour, so after apologising for not recognising him we set the record straight with a few hugs, secured the boat and set off for Ratnas village of Polaman where Morg and I were to stay for a few weeks. Warren flew home for 12 days and Morg and I enjoyed the luxury of a beautiful house concentrating on school work for a couple of weeks. Kim, Ratna and Dan arrived 10 days later and Morg was extremely happy to see Daniel again. We had a great time here, met a few hundred more of Ratnas family, explored around Semerang a bit and generally relaxed. Morg was adopted by Ratnas sister Wati, children Tita and Bella and their cousin Vivan and also some young boys who had fun playing with.
We also had the privilege of being invited to Veras (Ratnas niece who had spent 9 mths in NZ)wedding and experiencing a traditional Muslim wedding. A mere 2000 guests Vera said. The wedding ceremony was held in the morning, very traditional with many lovely rituals conducted between the bride and groom.
The wedding party was also huge, lots of groomsmen and bridesmaids who were made up exquisitely and dressed up in the same material motif. The women looked like Geisha girls, very beautiful. Morgan and Tons son were the equivalent of paige boys and looked very handsome in their costumes. It was a unique experience for us and admittedly the first dry wedding I have been to! Drank a lot of sprite. In the afternoon there was just a constant stream of people coming in to congratulate the happy couple with lots of yummy food and………….sprite.
Morgan also had his 6th birthday in Polaman and was very spoilt. So it was going to be hard to leave after we had become a part of Ratnas very large lovely Indonesian family. There was also the horror of a boat covered in industrial grime from a 4 week stay in Semarang port that we wern’t looking forward to. We managed to give it a bit of a hose down and finally on the 8 October we headed out for Balitang and Karimunjawa with Kim, Daniel and 5 relatives. It was a nice sail to Karimunjawa, about 65 miles out from Semarang. A few people were finding it hard to cope with the heat and motion, but once we arrived we had a nice time ashore with the best seafood meal ! Fresh Morton Bay bugs, squid, prawns and fish, enough to feed all 10 of us for about NZ$75. A lot of Javanese people come here for holidays . The next day was spent touring round on a local boat snorkeling and sight seeing, and then it was a final farewell to everyone and MS was back to 3.
