02-05-09

Departure at 6.30 am by boat just in front of our hotel for a snorkelling trip to Pulau Moyo, an island off the coast just north of Sumbawa Besar, a nature reserve, with coral reefs teeming with fish. 4 of us were guided by a guide to an incredible beautiful part, magnificent. The water was 30 C, very pleasant. We had a view of at least 30 mtr down there. All kind of beautiful coloured fishes and coral.
Returning to the beach for a rest, it took us a while before we understood that something went wrong with a group member (the one of the tooth paste tube....), stung by most probably a stingray in his knee (on which he sat in the sand among the coral to take pictures, quite stupid thing to do because of the in the sand hidden nasty stingrays, stone fishes and scorpion fishes). He was in terrible pain, and being a kind of Rambo, we understood we had to get him back as soon as possible (1,5 hour by boat) to bring him to the hospital. The venomous spines of stingrays can be fatal! A couple in our group is cardiologists and together with the Lonely Planet they did the right thing: suck out the venom, bind off his leg avoiding the venom to move higher and bathe the wound in hot water. He didn't faint but suffered a lot. Anyway, he is doing fine again after a treatment in a nearby not so hygienic hospital and after having paid a bill of only Eur 30 incl. ambulance he returned to the hotel after a couple of hours.

We continued some hours later another excursion to a nearby traditional village with amongst others Ikat weaving (no time to buy anything, Trijnie...). Some water puts were installed by the Dutch welfare foundation Het Schone Streven. Also a common bath house transformed in a cattle food storage; visibly an example of wrong spent donations...

We visited as well the market of Sumbawa Besar, the (former) Sultan's Palace (Balai Kuning), all together not that interesting.

We returned approx. 5 pm, time for a swim in the swimming pool before dinner. For the first time I complained about the food: the rice and sateh were cold, once again. Finally they reduced something of the bill for compensation.