New friends – shared friends and fruit bearing friends 

New friends

We had enjoyed such a wonderful walking tour of Pulau Genting the previous day and wanted to show our gratitude to our new friends  – one of the local school teachers and a government administrator – who had shown us round, so we decided to invite them them for afternoon tea and to look round the boats. 

Our daughter and our guest sit and chat

Shared friends

Unfortunately the school teacher was unwell but our administrator friend was able to come. She and our daughter had discovered a curious bond the day before – they both knew the same radio presenter from Delhi! Our daughter had met him a couple of times through friends and been to a party with him. Meanwhile our new friend had been on holiday in Thailand with a group of people and they had met the same guy holidaying there and had become friends with him. What are the chances of that?! And what are the chances of the two of them discovering the coincidence while having a chat about India walking around a remote Indonesian island?

Our guest is shown round by our daughter

Fruit bearing friends

A little later we had some more visitors and they came laden with beautiful fruit for us – massive grapefruits, bananas and some oranges. We were extremely touched as these lovely people have very little and they absolutely refused to take any money in return. 

Generous gifts from local residents

Afternoon tea time!

Such delicious fruit!

The children as usual were an absolute delight and we spent a happy hour or so with them. 

Capt’n Birdseye unwittingly bought these balloons for the children not realizing they were such a menance to marine life. Last ones even though the children love them!

It is a pleasure to give these children some simple gifts. Judging by their reactions, I seriously doubt that they would have received many gifts over their short lives.

Soon it was time for everyone to go as the sun was starting to creep down and the sea was beginning to get rather choppy. 

Lovely to see the smiles on these shy little faces

Our fruit bearing visitors head home

Our fruit bearing visitors took off in their motor powered canoe while “Captain Yantara” took our other guest back to the shore in the dinghy.  

It’s getting late the sun is low in the sky.

The anchorage at Pulau Genting had been wonderful – despite high winds it had remained comfortable with little swell and the people who had visited from the tiny islands around and those from the villages we had visited couldn’t have been more delightful or welcoming. However, all good things come to an end and we had to get a move on to get to Pulau Belitung in plenty of time to extend our social/cultural visas and to buy fresh vegetables and other provisions for the trip to the Kumai River. 

We were on a deadline as we had arranged to meet Australian friends there and sail up one of the Kumai River tributaries in a local Klotok to see Orangutans in the wild. Exciting times!