Belitung Island Pt 2

Eating was a little more complicated to schedule on our weekend in Belitung because it was during Ramadhan. Most restaurants are closed until late afternoon as they prepare for customers wishing to break fast at sunset. However, our guide took care of us finding places which were open for breakfast the first day and for lunches on the other days.

We ate dinner one evening at the time for breaking fast for Muslims during Ramadhan. As a result, we were served a traditional Belitung breaking fast meal. It was brought to the table on a large serving plate called a bedulang. The meal included really tasty hot tea which I suspect had kunci orange juice in it. And probably lots of sugar. The breaking of the daily fast usually includes a large dose of sugars. The items served included: fish balls, tiny fried fish, green beans, clams, mollusks, fish & potato curry, rice, fried chicken pieces, water spinach and cucumber slices. Our guide excused herself so she could break fast with her family. Our driver delivered us to the restaurant, then left to break fast and pray. He returned before we were finished with our meal.

Later, we wanted a little something for dessert. Back at the hotel, we ordered an non-alcoholic Oreo drink to share. Yum!

We were able to visit the oldest and largest Buddhist monastery on Belitung—Dewi Kwan Im Goddess Temple. The Temple is more than 266 years old, uses a lot of Chinese decor and has a lot of stairs!

The Temple is famous for the number of folks who claim their wishes were granted after praying here. There are gardens included on the site.

I'm still fascinated at how gasoline is often sold here. While there are large gas stations, these little sub-stations are far more common and sell gasoline in plastic soda bottles. In the background is a shop of some kind. The little stand in the foreground is the "gas station."

I mentioned that the Bangka/Belitung Islands are famous for giant granite boulders, right?  Very interesting works of art courtesy of mother nature.Here are few more granite boulders.