Madura Island

We decided to go to Madura Island, though alot of people didnt recomend it to us.  We were told that its hot, the roads are bad, no forests,  its flat, and the people are hostile.  In truth its hot here, the island is flat, but not tottally flat, in the middle there are some nice hills, the roads were not the best but at least we had for the first time a brake from the traffic and crowded roads.  here the only problem are wide trucks that transpord lime stone and salt.  We drove through the center on small roads, that are being in constant reconstruction.  The people seem not to ever see a foreigner and as soon as we stop to buy water, or some fruits or vegetables, we become the main attraction. No foreign tourist so far as we traveled.  We were hosted by a familly who held a restaurant, in Ketapang.  We learned that here has been a large emigration from saudi arabia and other african muslim countries, that make the islands peoples very muslim and variable, dark skinned.  As we followed along the beach we fell upon a beautifull festival in Ambuten, girls decorated with jasmin flowers and painted yellow almost like statues, were dancing on horses accompanied by musicians and dancers (see film).  It was so beautifull and non commercial that we were really surprised and so amased byt the procession.  Once the convoy arrived at the village cemetary, the girls were lined up for photos and people were offering (see film) the money to the girls whispering to their ears their wishes, and they in turn give to the dancers.  Soon however the painted girls stood alone without attension as the whole village seemed fascinated with us. Taking photos of us from every angle with everyone who had a camera... as we made our way slowly to the bus, they couldnt end staring at the interior camping setup of the bus!  We soon parted with some  regret, and let them continue their celebrations, otherwise, I think, the whole village would simply be looking at us instead of admiring their festival... We continued on our quest to find a nice hidden beach, that was a bit sandy.  In deed we found one, but the sea was hotter than the air, so we quickly left the beach to make our way to Sumenep.  But to our surprise, something strange happened to the bus: it was driving on its own, driving in zigzag, hard to control!
So as soon as we found some shade, Filip inspected the bus to find that the main steering rod box had almost detached it self from the front beam.  We auickly asked our indonesian friends how to call a welder = it was "las" like forest in polish. Sure enough as soon as we entered in a gungle forest village, there was a las near the beach dune.  So we tryed to bend back the rod into place and get it wesded and than reinforced.  It was a hot sandy sticky job, but we accomplished it!  Than night we ended up in Sumenep , and we cracked, to get a hotel for 100 thou = about 10$ to get a nice hot shower and sleep well and hard in an airconditioned room.
A brake we deserved, a first hotel since one month;)