21::On the road: Singkang to Biru Beach
2.10.97 Monday

Long drive to steaming hot beach crowded with Indos on vacation. I think even Yunus was surprised at how crowded it is.

Our room is airless, no electricity or water till 5:30 P.M. Bad food service. I break down, don’t want to be here.

A snorkeling trip only makes it worse. We are advised not to leave anything on the beach, so we make a long trek across road and rocky terrain without glasses, shoes, or towels. The locals gawk and laugh. It’s not a bit funny. The snorkeling was not that great either: the seas were heavy and I kept losing Jim. We did however see a poisonous sea snake hanging around the bathers. I was in a bad enough mood to hope it would bite some of their rude asses.

We were supposed to stay two nights but agree that one night will be plenty.

Biru Beach to Ujung Pandang
2.11.97 Tuesday

Biru Beach was better this morning. We went snorkeling again after finding the easy shore entry near our cabin. The sea was quiet and the area redeemed itself a bit for me. Walking back. some young women asked to take our picture. Yunus asked if they’d touched me, said it’s a superstition that if you touch a white person your baby will be blessed with white skin.

Visited the boat builders who build wooden sailing ships along the beach. I am impressed that such boats are still built entirely by hand. Even more impressed to realize that commerce between the islands still depends on them. Now I realize that these are the boats we saw in the port in Jakarta.

Back in Ujung Pandang. we visited antique shops, made some purchases. Dinner at the hotel was a sorry affair: bad Euro food, worse singer and sax player.

Thinking about investigating the Carter Center (would I be good as an international poll watcher? How do people get those jobs?), Asia Watch, Amnesty International. I want to go home but I am worrying about the world.

 

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