Pulau Kramat - the good

After exploring the east end of the island, we wandered the area closer to our anchorage. We’d seen a dim light the previous night, and a traditional boat on the beach.

Behind the high tide line, we could see an immaculate coconut plantation, and a simple dwelling and outbuildings. A figure was sitting on the steps so we waved and Dale called hello. The person seemed friendly so we wandered in.

Up closer we could see it was a middle-aged man. We checked we were welcome via sign ‘language’ then Dale introduced us. Our host’s name was Adun. He spoke no English so I tried to ask him about the ruins using Google Translate. He was chatty but on reflection he seemed a bit puzzled with the questions on the app, so am guessing he speaks and reads a different dialect or perhaps is not literate. Back to sign language!

He happily showed us around - he, of course, had lots of chickens, including tiny baby chicks. Only one rooster in evidence - he was a leggy, reasonable sized thing with nice colouring. Adun called the chickens to him so we could see them better.

Then he showed us his coconut grove- between the trees the ground was raked clean and very tidy. Next stop was his vege patch. It seemed to have only eggplants, or at least that was all we could see. Again very tidy.

He invited us to pick an eggplant, which we did and thanked his profusely. He ended up picking about a kg of them, and insisted we take them. This kind of generosity when people have so very little is really moving!

Nearby was a field which had been harvested. Tethered were a billy goat and a goat kid. They were making short work of the nutgrass!

Just outside the coconut grove, there were a couple of large thatched-roof structures, as well as about 6 smaller ones.

He managed to convey that he (?) is building a hotel with a restaurant/ bar and showed us the ‘Kantor’ (office).

The small buildings - all just at frame and roof stage seem to be ‘kit’ structures (due to the numbers written on the components), and I’m guessing they will be small accommodation bures, once finished. We did notice a woodwork place on Lombok making these huts so perhaps they came from there. The uprights (posts) on the larger structures are nicely milled, perfect rounds. Adun said they were coconut wood. I had no idea coconut could be used for construction like that!

Whether this is really an abandoned tourist development next to his home, or it is a work-in-progress by him, we couldn’t really tell. It didn’t seem like any work had happened there too recently though.

As we all walked back to the beach where the dinghy was tied up, he was pointing out the plastic and expressing his sadness. I could see areas where he had raked some off the beach into a pile. But boy that’d be a disheartening task as it’d be back the next tide. It was so ironic seeing the beach like that, when his whole place was so tidy and well tended.
After a quick late lunch on the boat, we decided to head to a nearby island that Dale had been to before with other boaties.

I’ll post about Pulau Bedil separately.Read more