18/11/2024
Hello everyone good morning. Here is a major update for our JetSki trip from Australia to Bali
I have a new rider join now as Benjamin Nock has gone back to work.
IGusti Agung Indra Palguna from Bali will resume the trip on “Wowbooze Voyager” and I will continue the trip on “ Bali Bogans”
Thank you Ben for your Stirling effort. It was a hardcore first 6 days and wouldn’t be possible without your energy and sense of adventure.
Alor island is a stunning place with vast natural scenery and wildlife. On arrival at Alor island we parked our Jet skis on a beach near the airport and were welcomed by all the locals.
We checked in to Celyn guesthouse and had a bungalow on the beach front at around $30 per night which included all our meals. Celyn guesthouse is run by a Mr Elim, his wife Mrs Emi and their daughter Celyn who is 9 years old.
We went to visit “Mawar”, the most respected figure in the village - a Dugong. Mawar lives at the front of where we were staying and feast on seagrass all day long and loves a belly rub from visitors.
The day Ben left I hung out with the locals at Mali beach, Alor island. In all my travels I’d say they are some of the friendliest, most humble, happy and honest people I’ve ever met.
They had all never seen a JetSki let alone try one so I taught them all (around 20 of them) how to operate our seadoos and let them play with them in the bay all afternoon . They all loved it.
That night we went to Kalabahi town nearby and ate the best bbq fish I’ve ever had. Pictured on right foreground is Elim. The owner of the guesthouse who I had made good friends with and went above and beyond to take care of me, Ben and Indra.
After a great day hanging out together we had an early night as we were pretty tired.
Around 1:30am I woke up to the sounds of Mrs Emi and her daughter screaming and crying yelling “Tolong Tolong” which means “help, help”
I ran outside my bungalow and they led me inside their house next door. Elim was lying in his bed. I checked for breathing and a pulse and he felt cold to the touch. I could see the gravity of the situation and that even CPR was not possible. I called some of the other locals and neighbours to come and help carry him into a truck and take him to a nearby hospital. I stayed with their daughter Celyn and comforted her while her parents were gone that night.
The hospital called me when they arrived and had pronounced him dead upon arrival. He had a suspected heart attack. Elim was aged 39.
A few hours later at around 6am, Mrs Emi returned with her husbands body and the entire village was waiting.
We were planning to leave the next day day on our JetSki odyssey but decided to stay out of respect and to help with the funeral of Elim and the costs of the funeral as for the past 4 days they had looked after us so well as if we were their family.
I picked up Indra from the airport and updated him on what had happened and that we need to stay to help Mrs Emi and her daughter who were still upset and hysterical.
Pak Elim was put to rest beside the house in a traditional ceremony at 11am on Saturday morning. The village of Mali was closed and the burial was attended by hundreds.
Under the local Protestant Christian traditions everyone sang songs and played music next to the tomb until well into the next morning.
The next day on Sunday while everyone Was at church we cleaned up the small amount of rubbish around the village and on the beach and went to to visit an old village in the hills with Indra that had traditions dating back thousands of years to times that pre dated most religions we are familiar with. They still lived in the same way and hunted wild boar in the jungle using arrows.
Indra and I left Alor island at 5am on Monday morning and yesterday we arrived in Lembata island. We will depart westbound towards Flores today when the tides come back in.
This part of my trip was quite confronting in ways that both made me so happy and also saddened me very deeply. It serves as a reminder to all of us to stay healthy, be good kind people to each other and live your life to the fullest, as everything can be taken away from you “in a heartbeat”.
Pleass remember everyone we are doing this trip to raise awareness and donations for Sole Family Bali. Please make a donation if you already haven’t. Wowbooze Bali will match all donations. I will post the links in comments below. Please remember to write “JetSki” when donating to make it easy to track.
Will update you all again soon.
RIP Pak Elim. 🙏🏻
