Friday 14th April

Struggle with the internet

I wake early as my back and hips are hurting a lot. Catch up diary and ponder and edit and add to the never-decreasing "To Do" list. Hags goes off for an 8.30 am dive, but I stay in the bungalow working. About 11.00 a.m. I head down to the beach to use the Lumba Lumba Dive Shop's internet connection, which is playing up. Hags gets back from his dive and we have breakfast. I struggle with the internet again, trying to send off some important messages, but it keeps cutting off, which is maddening. Hags and I go for a quick snorkel-swim and see a turtle and lots of fish. Pay all our bills, and at 2.30 Mr. Fir arrives to collect us. He is going to drive us to the Tuna Cafe where we will be staying at for the next 3 nights near Sabang, and then on to Pasiran for a 5.00 pm Show.

Ringing by the rubbish heap

We have scoured the area here for Haggis's phone, with no results, so we stop in the village/camp of Pria Laot where we did the show yesterday afternoon. We go up to the open space where I ran the games to look and we hunt round the small garden where Hags did the show, but no joy. Hags rings the lost English mobile from our Indonesian mobile - it rings, so it obviously still has some battery in it, but we can't hear it ringing anywhere in the village.

We hang around for a few minutes looking miserable, so that people realise what the problem is - and after a while a chap turns up with it! He had apparently found it by the side of the road by a rubbish heap (and it is possible that it could have fallen out there when we first arrived yesterday). We are so pleased to see it that Haggis gives the man a 50,000 rupiah reward - actually only about £3.50, but a lot of money out here.

Happier Hags

We drive on, with Hags a great deal happier! We go and check into the Tuna Cafe, on a tiny beach, about 4k outside Sabang, where we are going to stay for the next 3 nights. It is really charming - about 6 wooden bungalows with balconies around a green lawn - ours actually overlooks the sea. There are little "salas" or "balais" that one can sit in overlooking the sea to eat or have tea - it's really lovely. Dump our stuff in our bungalow (which is basic, but very sweet, and has a much-needed mosquito net as it is fairly open to the elements!) and rush off to our Show at Pasiran.

The Show at Pasiran goes really well with an audience of at least 150 children and 200 adults. A man is filming the show, and apparently it may be shown on (all!) Indonesian Television on Monday, which would be great.

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