Indonesian Life

Our first experience was a cooking demonstration. These ladies produce award winning goodies and were keen to show off their culinary skills. It was impressive to see them produce such delicious food in a very basic kitchen area. Great to have everything made from scratch using fresh, local ingredients.

The first stop on our tour was a war bunker. The Japanese occupied this part of Indonesia in World War 2 and, in Letvuan, they built an airstrip and bunkers. Today, very little remains of their structures and the area is overgrown. We went inside the bunker and occasionally glimpsed remains of the runway.

Second stop was a seaweed farm. The shallow waters were covered with plastic bottles, below which hang long lines for the sea weed to grow on. The seaweed is harvested by hand and laid out in the sun to dry before being shipped off for export.

The local community are working hard to develop new industries and one of these is Letvuan Coffee. It would have been very easy to miss this small coffee ‘nursery’ which is being developed to cultivate new coffee bushes. Kenny also showed us the start of their ‘plantation’, a simple clearing in the forest. It was fascinating to learn that here, two types of bean grow side by side on the same tree! This is wha makes Letvuan Coffee so special.

Our final stop was the freshwater Hawang Cave. Here a refreshing dip in the crystal waters was followed by the opportunity to try Letvuan coffee.

No tour would be complete without the chance to try the local cuisine and we stopped at the waterside restaurant Forganza. Here we had the chance to choose from an amazing selection of foods and even pick out our own fish. Kenny advised on choices and the meal was delicious.

Kenny was not only our tour guide; he was also very helpful for our day to day jobs: He managed to find us an ATM which accepted foreign cards where we withdrew 10,000,000 Indonesian Rupiah (about £500). Then, it was off to the supermarket and finally the fuel station. All jobs we take for granted at home, but which can be challenging when you don’t speak the language. Even with a translator things sometimes go wrong: a misunderstanding at the fuel station meant we ended up with 100 litres of petrol instead of diesel. Luckily, we realised at the fuel station and not after we had put it in the boat!

Boat jobs complete, we bid farewell to Debut and set off north towards Raja Ampat.