Stick fighting!

17/7/11

Spending time waking and sleeping with the light meant that we were both awake at 6am. James was not impressed so we maintained the pretence of sleeping until 8am when my stomach demanded food. After breakfast I was dispatched to carry out a number of jobs whilst James reclined by the pool. This you see was part of our wedding vows… balancing my need for activity and excitement with James need for rest and relaxation. We had agreed that following the adventure there would be three days of rest a concept which would normally terrify me but usually was a welcome prospect.

But before resting I had my jobs so I waddled off to the town to book a trip over to Gilli Air (the fab diving island), find accommodation for when we retuned, book some flights for when we were in Flores and tell the Boat people who would take us to Flores where they could pick us up from. A simple enough task list but in Indonesia organisation and speed is not something that comes naturally to local businesses. As such I took part in a pantomime of disorganisation and procrastination lasting the best part of two hours.

Eventually I returned to the pool side spot occupied by James. Alas not a happy James as it was overcast and threatening to rain and as you know “it does not rain abroad!” After a few hours of R&R we skyped carol and then headed out. Yes the plan had been to do nothing but there was Indonesian stick fighting taking place in the village. Normally we would have walked the 15 minutes to the village but instead opted for a moped to whisk our weary asses to the spectacle.

Now stick fighting is as brutal as it sounds. Two men each armed with a 1.5meter length of bamboo attack each other. Both have a shield but never the less the contact leaves a welt on the skin. A number of times the fighters came towards were we were standing causing us to duck out of the way and move back. The common practice appeared to be to locate fighters within the audience and inevitably the attention turned to me. Normally I am one to jump at the opportunity to take part but this time I firmly declined as the travel insurance would not cover injuries sustained in this way!