The Sambas section of the Wonderful West Kalimantan rally had come to an end but we decided to delay our departure for one day as we needed to restock with fruit and vegetables before taking off.
We booked our car to leave early and made it to the market around 9 am to make sure the market stalls were still serving.
Although there was plenty of vegetables on sale many of them were ones we didn’t generally use in our cooking – lots of greens and herbs we didn’t recognise and not any of our usual staples – cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms etc. However, there were delicious long beans, carrots, potatoes, onions, white cabbage, corn on the cob, beans and onions as well as chillis, ginger and garlic.
While wandering round the market we met one of the workers who could speak a little English. I asked him if he usually practiced with tourists who came to the market. “No never” he said, ” you are the first tourists I’ve seen here”!
When we arrived back at the boat shed a couple of customs guys came down to wish us a final farewell. One of them gave us some semi precious gem stones as a parting gift – such a lovely gesture and so typical of the generosity we received during our time in Sambas.
Back on the boat and the goodbyes and generosity still weren’t over – a family from the local village came on board – we had previously been visited by the children but this time their parents came too. We had given the children some pens and notebooks earlier on in our visit and the parents came to thank us and brought oranges and a pawpaw as their gift to us. So typical of the lovely people we met in Sambas.
Salty tales from Bali Hai on Sunday 