Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
On Ternate the third afternoon of October 2024 was very wet – a not unusual circumstance on an island where annual average rainfall comfortably exceeds 2,000 mm.
At 3.46 pm the rain was easing, as we stood on the rim of Tolire Lake.
We failed to see any of its resident crocodiles, but the view across the crater lake – and up to Mt Gamalama’s highest peak – was becoming progressively clearer.
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Our first primary destination was the quintessential “spice island”,
In eastern Indonesia’s North Maluku province, Ternate is small in area, but handsomely that province’s most populous island.
Its active volcano – Mt Gamalama, which rises 1,715 metres ASL – has long been Ternate’s key benefactor and destroyer.
The Maluku Islands are also known as “the Moluccas”, or “the Spice Islands”.
In pre-colonial times the Sultanate of Ternate was wealthy and powerful, thanks to it then having a global monopoly over a highly prized commodity.
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I took the photo at 8.54 pm on 04 May 2024.
At that time my vantage point – an entertainment barge – was loud and lively, as the preceding several posts have illustrated.
However, if one looked out across the waters of Dal Lake – and up to the ridge overlooking its southern shore – the scene appeared utterly serene, unruffled, “silent”.
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As this post shows, our Dal Lake entertainment barge’s singer-dancer was a very effective encourager-teacher.
During the course of the evening, most physically-able-enough members of our party were coaxed onto the dance floor.
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By 7.15 pm, as pictured above, the singer and dancer on “our” Dal Lake entertainment barge had already shown us that she was a capable and committed performer.
Relatively speaking, however, she was still in “low gear”…but only for another minute or so.
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By the time it was fully dark outside – and we were well away from inhabited shores – our “party on Dal Lake” had become very exuberant.
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As we slowly glided our way out of the “Toorak/Peppermint Grove” end of the houseboats-fringed section of Dal Lake, the musicians were tuning up, plugging in, preparing.
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At 5.36pm on 04 May 2024, we were on board a barge, in front of “our” houseboat.
We were about to head out into the quiet, unpopulated part of Dal Lake, well away from houses and houseboats.
Late afternoon light was flattering the houseboats that were directly opposite “ours”.
A few minutes later MV Bulbul (pictured in immediately-preceding post) would fire up, and begin to tow us, very slowly, toward the lake’s more “open” waters.
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What was going on at 6.40 pm on 04 May 2024?
Why were we under tow, on the quieter end of Dal Lake?
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Not very many paddle-strokes – and a short walk – distant from Dal Lake’s floating market is the pictured, “pagoda-esque” mosque.
Srinagar’s older mosques are distinctly Kashmiri in style.
They surprise and delight many visitors – ourselves included.
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