Day 76 - Towards Sumbawa Besar with onions halfway - Unfinished Business

July 15, 2023

Day 76 - Towards Sumbawa Besar with onions halfway

As many of you know, I am an eggs-in-one-basket financial wizard. Thus, I thought, for the benefit of those who have not been to Indonesia, that I'd start by talking about money.

That's 201,000 rp. The pink note is worth the sum of the others.

Indonesia has rupiah and as I speak there's about 10,000 to the $A and 15,000 to the $US. Many ATMs have a million rp limit - A$100. What will that get you, other than a huge wad of grimy notes? This nice accommodation, including breakfast is 300,000 rp; the lovely place in Labuan Bajo 250,000. Last night's dinner - 2 meals (rice or noodles and tempeh, vegetables, egg, coconut sauce, and a cup of tea) was 20,000. A 1.5 L bottle of water is 6-7000. A big papaya, 5-10,000. The fritters I had for breakfast yesterday were 1000 each. A nice cup of coffee is 5-10,000. So, a million rp goes a long way. My big splurge the other day - the trip to Komodo and a bunch of other places, cost 1.3 million.

20,000 rp, twice as expensive as Flores. There were 18 bananas that won't last long.

Today's lunch - rice, fried tempeh, fried eggplant, cabbage, cucumber, sambal, two cups of tea and a coffee, 35,000 rp.

Since reaching Sumbawa, I've been confused about the signs that direct me and where buses go in Sumbawa. I then figured out that my destination today, Sumbawa Besar, is typically known simply as Sumbawa. It's 100 km away and mostly flat, I think. It will be hot.

It's funny what a day gives you. After about 50 km, today gave me onions - zillions of small red ones. This means that I can give you onions too. But you'll have to wait. Stuff happened before onions.

I had gone no distance when I shot back in time to the 19th century.

A little later there was a conga-line of pedestrians. I assumed that I was joining a protest about garbage. I was going vto dump my bike and scream. But, it was far too orderly, and then they turned left into a school.

Despite trying, I did not get an explanation. Was it walk to school day? I doubt it.

I wasn't far from Empang when the road touched the coast. One of the first things I saw was a roadkill Asian water monitor. I've been looking out for these and assumed that this is a poor time of the year to find them.

Varanus salvator bivittatus. Other subspecies are found over much of Asia.

Aquaculture was all around, tucked in behind mangroves.

I've no idea what's in these ponds but I'm sure they sell it in Woolies.

One thing I like doing each day is stocking up on fruit and photographing the vendor.

I bought a pineapple, mangoes and mangosteen from this vendor.

I can't delay any longer! As I was saying, after 50 km I hit onions. I saw them being planted, harvested, processed, transported, sold. A continual line of overloaded trucks passed me carrying onions.

Looks like onions that they're selling. I ate one to get a feel for the type of onion - sweet and mild.

It was around here that I heard a siren - an ambulance coming towards me, light flashing too. The last thing I expected would be for the driver to hang his arm out and give me the thumbs up. Glad I'm on a bicycle and not in an ambulance although I suspect a clear link exists between the two.

The next weird thing was trucks of buffalo. Well, it's not that weird but these had a platform above the buffs for passengers. They were constantly dropping off and picking up.

Buffalo taxi with apologies for the poor photo.

And then I noticed a sign about narcotics. It's good to see a zero tolerance approach. Our young people need protecting.

Hidup sehat is healthy living. They may stop dope, alcohol and injecting but the fags will be difficult. It's hard to find a male who doesn't smoke. They smoke while riding motorcycles! And thus everyone smokes passively from the day they are born.

I easily rode into Sumbawa Besar, stumbled across a nice guesthouse and went for a wander. Interesting being in a bustling Indonesian city.

Perhaps my last day on Sumbawa tomorrow.

Today's ride: 102 km (63 miles)
Total: 5,814 km (3,610 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	7
Comment on this entry	Comment	0