Tropical Paradise but reality knocks…

So we’re now in Pulao Mojo, or Moyo Island, and it’s really eye opening.

At a very long stop along the way where I wish I got food

After a long trip on a rusty bus that was shaking itself to pieces, we arrived in Sumbawa Besar – what I assume to be the capital of Sumbawa. Even in this bigger city, like most of Sumbawa, there is not much accommodation for travelers. We faffed around when we arrived, with google maps sending us to the wrong place and bemo drivers looking to make a quick buck, but eventually arrived at a homestay that was a little more than what we would’ve liked to pay (~25AUD). After paying, we tried to go to our room but found we were not allowed as they were “cleaning”. We had already seen the room, and the room was very clean, so I’m not sure what they actually had to do. We waited in the ‘foyer’ area, a large bungalow, for them to finish whatever they were doing.

Sights of Sumbawa: growing food in the river,
fertilised with garbage

While waiting to get into our room, a man introduced himself to us as “The Chief of the Mojo Island”. After talking a while, we found out he is the chief of Labuan Aji, one of the two villages in Moyo Island. He was in Sumbawa Besar for business meetings and travelling with a Korean man who had already invested in Moyo Island by purchasing land with an Indonesian partner and opening a diving center there some number of months ago. After talking for a while, he invited us to lunch with him once we had all checked in.

The Chief of the Mojo Island approved food

Thinking we were in for a free lunch with The Chief of the Mojo Island, we were a little disappointed that we were paying for our own meal. The eatery we were taken to was much fancier than anywhere we would normally opt to eat at, but it was nice to see beef on the menu – and although it was very tough, I liked the style it was cooked. While at lunch, the chief propositioned us to visit his land while we were on the island as we could buy it for 50 million rupiah per hectare (about 50,000 AUD). We realised he must think us to be richer than we are, and so we made plans to get away after lunch. But that would not be the end of the chief.

Old Wooden Palace of Sumbawa Besar

We walked (much to the horror of the chief) from the restaurant to where we thought the center of Sumbawa Besar should be. The city never really climaxed into anything as we walked and we realised it was mostly sprawl. The two highlights being the old palace (a large wooden building) and a march from the local schools. Heading back to the hotel, we walked along the closed road, which meant lots of people sitting on the road to watch the march instead had the amusement of seeing a white foreigner, many taking and requesting photos with Mimi and myself.

Who was on parade? School kids or a white monkey

Getting back to the accommodation, we got our stuff ready for the evening and then headed out to pick up some food for dinner. Bringing it back to the homestay to eat, we crossed paths with the chief again. He spoke for a while about this and that and about his business dealings in the next few days in Sumbawa. I somewhat jokingly mentioned that he wouldn’t be in Moyo Island to show us his land, which his response was shock, how could he forget? So he said a friend of his will take him on his speedboat, he was to come to Moyo to show us his land, then go back to Sumbawa. Oh dear…The chief also translated for us with another guy at the same accommodation, one who owned a homestay on Moyo Island. The chief had previously told us we should stay with his brother-in-law, but he had since found out that his accommodation was booked out, and so we were offered to stay at this other accommodation for a price of around 40 AUD a night. This is expensive for Indonesia (most nights we pay around 10 AUD), but is the lower end of the going rates on Moyo. The only other alternatives we had been told about were to ask a local to stay at their place or camp in the forest. Not knowing any Indonesian, nor the state of the forest on Moyo or the weather forecast, we somewhat reluctantly took the accommodation offer in the hope we weren’t being conned.

Pleasant place to spend the morning

We ate the next morning wondering if we would meet the Chief again, as he had said he wanted to meet for breakfast. Not wanting to wait for him and miss the one public ferry to Mojo and have to pay a lot of money for a private boat, we walked down to the harbour. We had heard that the boat leaves at 9, 10, and 11 am, that there was only one boat, and that it was a very long walk to get down to the harbour. We left our accommodation at around 8 and got to the harbour in about 15 minutes. We found the boat, a somewhat concerning looking fishing boat, and learned that it would leave at 11. That left us with 3 hours to do nothing on a hot morning in a dirty harbour. We waited around a while in a shady spot out of sight from the ferry. At 10:15 we headed back to the ferry to find the chief there, who told us the ferry had been delayed until 12 for other guests to Moyo. We don’t know who made the decision, but we suspect the chief had some influence as the day before he had been asking what time we wanted to go. But we hadn't quite understand what he was asking and so only mentioned that we would be getting up early and walking to the harbour.

Moving, at last

After waiting again until 12, we were finally ushered onto the ferry. They then started loading the ferry up with all the crap that would be taken to Moyo. Why this didn’t happen in the previous four hours the ferry had been sitting on the dock I will almost certainly never know. The ferry was loaded and finally was pushed off its mooring, then tuned around in the river by using a big stick. This didn’t fill me with confidence. Then the engines started up. I don’t understand how such a loud engine can be so inefficient. This was the slowest, loudest, smelliest boat I have ever seen. And if it wasn’t the diesel fumes getting to you, the smokers made sure to stand at the front of the boat so the smell of cigarettes flowed back to everyone on board. And if there was noone smoking (rare), you had the smell of the feet of the person next to you, because there weren’t seats - just a raised platform everyone sat on barefoot, such is the Indonesian way.

The kind of boat that has you continuously wondering:
Could I swim to shore from here?

Earplugs Mimi had packed for us for our flight here saved us, and we arrived in Moyo. When getting off the ferry, many different prices were screamed at us that we should pay for the trip, despite noone else paying and all these prices being higher than what we were told back at the port. We payed what we were originally told and moved on our way. We were lead to our accommodation which was about a three minute walk from the jetty. The owner told us that his place is only eight months old, and though we can see that it is new, and they’re really trying hard to make it nice, its a long way off what the price should buy.

Views of Mojo Island from the 'ferry'

The water here is really amazing, very clear and warm, and there are plenty of corals and fish. But the sand is filthy, and there is rubbish everywhere you look. The small block our accommodation is on has been cleaned up, but the beach directly next door is completely littered. We looked past this knowing that rubbish management anywhere in Indonesia is not really something anyone has ever heard of, and tried to look at the positives.

Mimi cooling off at the first swimming spot

We set our bags down, and waited for lunch. Normally breakfast is included at homestays, but because there aren’t really any restaurants on Moyo, the homestays here also offer lunch and dinner – perhaps explaining part of their higher charges. Lunch was the popular Indonesian take-away special of a Sunnyboy triangle of rice and mi goreng, with a piece of chicken. I’m pretty sure they brought this on the ferry from Sumbawa as it wasn’t very hot, and the chicken piece was a concerning pink.
Finishing lunch we said we would like to go to Mata Jitu, a must-see on Moyo island. After spending 5 minutes explaining we wanted to do the harsh one hour walk, not hire a motorbike, we left with the homestay owner insisting on guiding us. One thing we’ve noticed in Indonesia, and especially here on Moyo, is that only the poorest of the poor walk. Everyone has scooters or motorbikes. Most of the street vendors have their shop or food box attached to their bike. Kids pile up in fours on bikes. And I think the constant smoking and petrol fumes has destroyed the lungs of all who live here. Needless to say, the walk nearly killed our host. We got to the first spot of the falls and he jumped straight in, not wasting a moment.

F%$#ing poser at Mata Jitu

The falls were really nice. The water was crystal clear and flowing abundantly. We spent a long time swimming in the different pools and the host insisted on taking many photos of us on his phone. Eventually we started to return, possibly a bit too late, as we caught glimpses of the sun setting over the ocean from up on the mountain we were coming down and, thankful we had packed our headlamp, walked the last kilometer or so in the dark.

As viewed from the hills on the walk back

On our walk back from the falls Mimi and I discussed, given the option, whether we should actually consider buying the land on offer from the Chief. We also spoke to our host about this, who so happened to also have land for sale. Initially we had thought he was telling us it was 40 million rupiah per hectare, roughly 4,000AUD. At this price we figured it would be worth buying, no matter everything else, as the future potential is so high for tourism. Now at this point we were comparing to what the Chief had told us, 50,000AUD per hectare, and we were somewhat skeptical, given our past dealings, that the Chief was giving us a fair go. However, we later found that the host was telling us the land was worth 400 million rupiah (40,000 AUD) per hectare. Now it didn’t seem the Chief was trying to rip us off, at least not by too much. We figured we’d have a sleep, definitely not committed to anything, and see what would happen the next day.

Nice if you don't look too closely

We had a reasonable sleep, the room is very simple with mattresses on the floor. For whatever reason the mattresses were still in their original plastic, with a thin bedsheet over the top. Not wanting to wake up drowning in a puddle of my own sweat, I asked if I could remove the plastic, to which the owner agreed – so we knew we had nice fresh mattresses to sleep on. Unfortunately, for everything that seems nice here, there then turns out to be a downside, and this is really starting to wear on us. For the clear water, there’s the filth on the beach. For the nice outdoor setting at our accommodation, the owner and his mates sit there all day smoking. The new looking accommodation looks nice, but isn’t air tight or bug proof so it fills up with smoke from the cigarettes just outside our front window and the fires that the locals light and don’t put out, the promised air conditioning is a glorified fan, the toilet smells like a sewer pit, the shower is actually just a hose clipped to the wall, the home cooked meals are always the same bony fish in super spicy sauce with dried out deep fried bean curd; and since the whole town is powered by a big petrol generator from 6pm to 6am, the mosque pumps out its singing from 6 to 8 at night, and then 5 to 6 in the morning, and the locals play doof doof music from 5 to 6 in the morning. And that’s the story of how our reasonable sleep on the tropical island came to a bitter end at 5am. Needless to say, we asked our host to contact the Chief and tell him not to come.

Obligatory holidaying somewhere warm photo

After breakfast, spicy nasi goreng (fried rice), we waited to get ready for our snorkeling trip. We were told the boat was 300,000 rupiah (30 AUD) for the 1-2 hour snorkeling trip, which would be split with the other couple staying here, and that snorkeling gear is 50,000 rupiah (5AUD) per person. So I was a little shocked when the response to "Mimi has small feet and needs flippers to fit” was literally the word “no”, the goggles were scratched to all hell, the snorkels were a little old and a bit gross and held to the goggles with elastic bands, and the boat was some shonky fishing canoe that I could feel flexing and warping over every wave that had a similar loud putt-putt engine like the ferry we had taken to Moyo. Despite this, we were still taken to some really nice spots and saw some really nice corals and fish, and I enjoyed the morning snorkeling. Although, along with us and the other paying guests in this canoe, there were two of the owner’s mates who came along for a ride, and on the way back he slowly went along the shore so that he could find and pick up a large piece of driftwood.

Is this thing on?

I know I’ve sounded pretty negative about most of Moyo and I know I said I was in the cheap accommodation on the island, but the cheaper accommodation we’ve taken elsewhere has been much nicer. I can see this owner is trying hard to make this place nice, but it seems with most things he has only gotten halfway there, which somehow makes it worse. It’s hard to communicate with him due to the language barrier, and we also don’t want to offend with comments about smoke or running errands on snorkeling trips. We really enjoyed the waterfall and snorkeling, but I unfortunately don’t feel the money, time, and effort it has cost us to get here to Mojo has been worth it.

How nice this place could be

The reality that knocks is: Mimi is getting sick of the same food (mi goreng and nasi goreng) all the time and the unending heat. We all know I’m a bit more of a psychopath so eating the same thing doesn’t bother me too much (although I do miss milk and cereal for breakfast especially in favour of spicy rice). The insanity of it all is starting to bare on me as well. So we’re now looking a bit more ahead. We’re going to try to get to Komodo sooner, probably the next few days, and hope to find a quicker way back around to Java so that we can seek out some more variety on our way to Singapore.

It has been really eye opening seeing Moyo Island. The idea that such a beautiful place could be spoiled so rotten by literal garbage makes me ill. And I don’t blame the people. I’ve seen their lives here and it isn’t very pleasant – why would you worry about where you put your garbage when you’re probably worrying about how you’re next putting food on the table. This place could be amazing and it has been corrupted by packaged goods and wanting to make a quick dollar. I hope they soon start to invest in themselves and begin to introduce things such as solar power, garbage control, pollution reduction, health education, etc. I could see this village taking care of itself.