We were last staying in sunset cottage Gorontalo now we are in Sunset Hotel at Sunset Beach Togean Island

A big tall timber building looking over the beach with two generous rooms and a shared balcony. No frills. The walls open at the top for ventilation and as an animal thorough fare. The roof is half palm thatched, half tin. Plain simple and solid. The hammocks are the luxury.

I was aggrieved by the last place we stayed but this place hasn’t been misrepresented. It is what they said. Limited internet access (none) solar power and that little bit of irregularity you expect in Indonesia.

Oh fudge my phone is flat and there’s no way to charge it, so Steve says, write your blog on paper and take a photo.

They have little solar panels that get moved around the yard to charge motorbike batteries. At the end of the day they get carried to your room and then you use alligator clips to connect them to the lights . The lights are all on or all off

Cal and Jenny were here the day before us. They were the only guests here. They said they went to bed at 7.30. It had been rainy all day and the solar panel didn’t charge. They sheltered in hammocks and went to bed in the dark. The thatch in their cottage leaked but- hey it missed the bed.

At lunch Cal fills us in. Irina, the Russian owner is absent.. but the cook will be back later- she takes her daughter somewhere. Cal was under the impression that she slept here. I said umm she told me (in Indonesian) her Kampung ie home is 5 minutes by boat or an hour’s walk . Jenni looked at him . Astonished.

“That means we were all alone last night.
Cal said, “She just told us not to go on the beach at night because of crocodiles and watch in the forest for snakes”

At dinner we were joined by more two more couples . We are now eight and all cabins are full.

Dinner is rice, a whole fish and a fritter of some sort is it vegetable ? Is it vegetarian? I can’t detect a meat texture… but I ask the cooks husband and get the answer ,” lilin don’t know english. ” Hmm, to me lilin means wax or candle, so I ask the cook and she brings out the oddest vegetable , a little like a corn cob but long and skinny -like a candle- no silk and the inside is packed with crumbly damp semolina texture. Grows on a plant like a pandanus and they think only here in Togean.

After dinner the cook and her husband left in the boat. When the others knew that meant we were alone they were shocked…what if something happens? We are surrounded by jungle and our phones don’t work.

And unfortunately for Steve and I our torch doesn’t work. We had opted not to bring our good headtorches because they are heavier and we’ve got our phone as torches so just brought a lightweight cheapy which was kicking around and now its not functioning. Maybe that’s the one real change I would make to our packing. There is a light on the stairs..for a while.

There is a din and there’s a dog on the roof of our bungalow.
Little bats come whizzing over heads at dinner. Too fast for me to see anything but wings others are doing a circuit between the rooms in our bungalow.

Making less of a show is the coconut crab that has its burrow just beside the verandah. I can see it’s claws in the shadow. But only once saw it come out. It was dark and as soon as my torch got close he scuttled back in his burrow in a flash. Yes, he’s as big as a coconut.

After having a 13 hour ferry ride to get here I sure as heck hope we are going to get some dives in. The only way to organise anything is with the cook at meal times. There is no diving direct from here. We need a boat to come to take us to another island, where there are three dive places side by side but we either couldn’t get the dates or the emails didn’t go anywhere, in theory we are a short boat ride away….I’ve got my fingers crossed

But for now the sunset over the calm water ? Divine!