Year 2- 19th October 2025 – Belitung Island

It is Steve’s birthday so happy birthday Steve. We were up at a reasonable time as we were going on a tour of the Island. I put out the happy birthday signs. It was unusually grey with some threatening clouds but it did not rain initially as we had breakfast and prepared to go ashore. We took the dinghy to the beach and hauled it up in front of Ervan’s restaurant. Ervan had arranged a minibus for us and we had a guide called Anto.

 We set off for Tanjung Pandan which is the main town on the Island. What I noticed immediately was that the road condition was very good in comparison to other islands and there was a sense of sort of more wealth here. The houses were mostly made of breeze block and rendered although there were very few tiles here and it was mainly corrugated iron. It was a lush island with quite a lot of agriculture -mainly of growing pepper and palm oil and other crops. There was less paddy fields.

The town was quite a large one with lots of traffic and people seemed busy. We first went to Kong Djie Coffee House which is the oldest coffee house in Belitung opened in 1943. This was busy with lots of people, many smoking and Motor GP was on the television. The coffee was black and strong and if you asked for milk it was carnation milk. The coffee had a slight chocolate taste and they also offered a mocha version. We all had coffee and a few cakes. It seemed a very social place and one to be seen at. There was quite a funny sign which said “Depresso: - the feeling that you get when you are out of coffee!” which I thought was quite good.

We were then taken to a supermarket but really there was little there that we wanted so we then went to the Traditional House of Belitung. This was what appeared to be a large wooden house raised on stilts. You had to take your shoes off and there was a family celebration going on inside. There were old pictures on the wall of past times – mostly I think during the Dutch occupation. There were old ceremonial costumes in cabinets. Our guide’s English was not good but this was actually only built in 2004 and was a replica of an old Belitung architectural style featuring a Malay design. It is also called a Rumah Panggong or Rumah Gede. It looked old but clearly it was not and interesting to look around. The family who were having the celebration insisted we have some food which they had prepared which was traditional Belitung dishes which were nice. They then asked for us to have a photograph with them and that is today’s picture.

We were then taken to an open cast tin mine (called Kaolm) where diggers were piling sand into lorries and they were then driven away. Apparently the tin is extracted and which begins with gravity separation, which exploits the high density of cassiterite (tin ore) to separate it from the lighter sand and other minerals. This is followed by crushing and grinding the ore which to assist concentration. Finally the tin oxide is smelted with carbon in a furnace to reduce it to molten tin. At this site were a number of jewellery sellers selling a lot of jewellery made out of black rock. This is known as Satam Stone and it comes from meteorite debris that fell on the islands years ago. It was discovered accidently by miners in 1973 and some of the features on this stone reflects the water passing by it. According to ancient local stories, some people believe that the stone has its own powers, such as electromagnetic energy than can repel evil and demons.

Once we had finished we set off again and headed deeper into the island where it was more rural and we came to the Batu Mentas River and a sort of nature reserve which had water activities such as rafting or floating on great rubber rings. You could stay here in traditional wooden huts and walk around and use the river. It had a netted off area which housed Tarsius Monkeys.  

 A "tarsier monkey" is actually a misnomer, as tarsiers are a type of small, nocturnal primate, not a monkey, found in Southeast Asia and obviously in Belitung. They are known for their enormous eyes, which are so large they can't move in their sockets, forcing them to rotate their heads almost 180 degrees. As the world's only fully carnivorous primates, they hunt insects, lizards, and even small birds and they communicate using ultrasound which is why we cannot hear them. We went into the enclosure and saw a few in the trees. They were only about 8- 10 inches long and had long tails like a rat and as it describes huge eyes.

We then went back into Tanjung Pandan where we went to the traditional market and managed to get some fruit and vegetables and we found somewhere to have an ice cream and a piece of cake.  

We then drove on to the traditional boat building yard where they make the traditional designed wooden boats that we see phutting around. This was fascinating and great to see. They make the boats out of a very hard wood and it is heavy. They bend the planks into shape by securing the plank at one end and using a heavy stake with a slot in it they place this over the plank and the weight of it curves the plank into shape which is then fitted into the boat structure. They use traditional methods and tools and it looks beautiful and it is a shame we have lost a lot of these skills in the UK. The cost of quite a large boat which takes 6 months to build was about £80,000 which I thought was very reasonable.

 By this time we had enough and were driven back to Kelayang beach where we had left the dinghy. We quickly came back to Stormbird and changed and then we were straight back to the beach where we got a taxi to the Sheraton Marriot where we met Crawford and Elaine and the crew of Aquacadabra for dinner which was nice although the service was not good.

 We returned to Stormbird having had a full day. We intend to relax and chill tomorrow as it is Janet’s last day.   

The picture of the day is a picture of us with the family in the traditional house.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com