YOLO in Batu Beriga Indonesia Oct 2013

 

 

In Batu Beriga, Bangka Tengah, Indonesia we visited a Confuscious Temple.  It was a colorful building with giant urns of sand for folks to poke their burning joss sticks into.  Like incense sticks for praying for good things.

 

 Inside, there was a warrior guarding the gate, very tough looking.

 One of the several altars inside the temple.  Those candles are about five feet tall!

 Very colorful and ornate decorations inside.

 Giant headdresses of dogs and dragon for ceremonies.  The temple tender uncovered them for us to look at.  They fit over a man's head, but the size is hard to determine in the photo.

 Giant candles in front of the altar.

 

The bloody, gory murals on the walls of the temple were unsettling.  If your name and the sins you committed are in the book in front of the seated man, this is the torture you get in hell.

Other sins/crimes get different tortures,

More bloody executions.  Guess you don't want to be a bad person in the Confuscious religion.

Sam's katar to sail the last 2 stops in Sail Indonesia.  We sometimes referred to these canoes with outriggers as 'spider boats'.

Jason checking out Sam's new ride.  Note the 2 propellers on long shafts on either side of the canoe.  The blue barrel was their only means to keep food or clothes dry.  Imagine sitting in this boat for 3 days in the rain while sailing.... not my idea of fun.

Sheryl bought us some cotton candy (aka fairy floss in Australia) to enjoy while we waited for the festivities to begin.  The whole affair was like a carnival or fair for the tiny village of Batu Beriga.

Jason with some boiled peanuts on a leaf.  This was a snack offered on our tour of the Pelawan Forest.  The black vehicle in the background was serving honey juice and boiled corn on the cob out of the back for us.

The big brown blob is a honey bee hive in a pelawan tree.

This guy is ready to smoke out the bees so he can collect the hive so we can feast on its honey!  Just some green leaves rolled together to create the smoke.

Bill from Water Musick getting the bee stingers pulled out of his shoulder.  He got stung at least 3 times and his daughter and our guide are trying to pull out the stingers still in him.

The honeycomb retrieved.  There are still a few bees hanging on, but they broke it into pieces and gave us cups with the honey and comb to eat and/or drink.  They served honey juice (see a container almost empty in the background) and provided boiled cassava pieces to dip into the honey to eat it with. 

Karen slurping honey right from the comb.  Oh my, was it sweet and delicious!!!!

pieces of honeycomb for the taking

The very dark yellow part of the comb is used in making medicine and cosmetics.  The propolis has a bitter taste, somewhat like anise.  Apparently, the bees use it like a resin and to fill spaces that aren't sealed with beeswax.  It's extremely expensive as it is a limited resource.  The whitish part contains the cells that have the baby bees/larva in them and are covered with the wax.  That's what makes them look white.

A monkey in a cage at the Pelawan Forest site.  They kept a few animals to show the tourists that come to see the forest.

Honey bees of Styrofoam on the real honeycomb just harvested.

After the honey, we had lunch at this restaurant in the rice paddy nearby.

Jason enjoying our traditional lunch in the rice paddy.  No utensils, just our fingers for eating.

A full hand of bananas the restaurant gave us to share on the bus back.  We all hacked off a bunch to take back to our boats.

A dragonfruit before I cut it up.  A guide bought a bag full of them for us to share.

Back at the village, we watched as the men played a game with their homemade tops of wood.  This man is showing off his top.  They wind a string around it and throw it to the ground and yank the string at the same time, sending the top spinning across the ground.  Others try to hit the spinning top with their own tops in a game of top 'tag'.

The dinghy landing at Batu Beriga, with Sam's katar in the water.

The 'egg flower tree' that the women decorated for the mass wedding held here.  Each of the baskets held a hard boiled egg.  After the wedding ceremony and lunch, the cruisers were given all the eggs to take to their boats.

You don't wear shoes into people's homes or into temples here, so there is always a mass of shoes outside the buildings.  This is where the brides were being dressed and readied for the wedding.

Our guide Robbie.  He is sitting in the village chief's home, along with a bunch of other folks just visiting and enjoying some shade.  Note the motorcycle in the living room, too.

The beach at Batu Beriga.  It was a pretty beach with big boulders strewn about.

locals enjoying the carnival atmosphere of the mass wedding area,

Sam sailing away in his katar from Belitung.  They made and painted the sail especially for him to use on this journey.

Sam sailing past the beach where the wedding was taking place.  He did a sail pass just before he took off for Bintan, the final stop in Sail Indonesia for the rally participants.

A couple awaiting the religious leader to marry them.  They were loaned this traditional dress for the occasion of the mass wedding.

Each couple to be married had their own religious representative to marry them.  They sat at these tiny tables on the platform built out over the water.  We yachties were invited to sit around the outside to observe the ceremony up close.

Lunch platters set out on the tarps on the ground.  After the wedding, the newlyweds and yachties joined here to enjoy the homemade feast.  The egg flower trees were also brought in and distributed here.