Bawean - 05° 44' 15" S 112° 38' 45" E

Following a very uncomfortable night in a rolly NW swell, our crew was seasick and we were fed up, so a full day ashore was prescribed.  We tied the dinghy to a palm tree on the beach and set off down the single-lane road into town.  Our destination was the warung run by Hartono, just before the bridge (as recommended by Ben, a fellow yachtie we met in Kumai).  As we walked along past rice paddy fields and banana plantations, we received waves and hellos and cries of 'Tourist! Tourist!' from the passing scooter traffic.

Hartono's children, Akna and Firman, loving the iPad!

And then, who should ride down the road and stop to say hello but Hartono himself!  In very short order, once it was established that we knew Ben, we had eaten lunch at the warung, Heather and Charlie were installed in his children's bedroom in their home for the night and we were sitting on their front porch surrounded by half the kids in town.

Hartono and Fusama's house

Fusama with Akna, Firman and baby Fira.
Indonesian minivan.

Abandoning Heather and Charlie to the kids, Sean and I headed out for a walk and were promptly 'kidnapped' by a gentleman named Pak Adi! We were almost forced into his home and fed the tastiest satays.  All the neighbours came to check out 'The Tourists' and. of course, have a 'selfie' in every combination.  As we were figuring out how to politely extract ourselves, we were taken next door to his son's new house.  Very proud of his sone and works on a cruise ship and looks very dapper in his white uniform.  We know this, as naturally, we were shown photos! Only once we had poked our nose into every bedroom, inspected and complemented each bathroom, particularly the one with the western shower and toilet, admired the view from the balcony and had the obligatory multitude of photos taken, were we able to leave; or so we thought!

From the pavilion...

Instead, we were herded to his best mate's home, who has the tallest house in town.  He is in the process of building a rooftop pavilion for his daughter's upcoming wedding.  After admiring the rest of the home, to the chorus of hati hati, we stepped over construction material, edged past the chap sanding and clamboured up a very ornate ladder to the pavilion.  The 360° view over the town, ocean and jungle was quite spectacular.  Following yet another round of selfies, we were allowed to descend to street level.  A couple of final snaps and we were on our way!

Just one final snap...

The short walk back to Hartono's took ages as our celebrity spread and we were stopped for hellos and selfies. Sean found himself 'captain' of a football team and took an hour before he could extract himself.

Sean's football team...

Back on the front porch, we discovered Heather and Charlie hidden beneath about 15 kids who squealed and giggled at their attempts to pronounce Indonesian words.  We took our leave and headed back to the dinghy and the sanctuary of the yacht.  But not before we were tracked down by an English teacher from one of the high schools.  It was duly arranged that he would pick us up at 6:30am and we would present to his class, so they could practice their English, the following morning.

Local kids

'Selfie Mr.? Selfie?'

Gorgeous Fira having a good chew on the phrasebook