The ferry to East Java drops you at the foot of a jungle clad volcano right out of National Geographic, the road after a couple of hours enters the vast teak forest. Now Ringo tells that this road is home to bandits who roll rocks out of the forest at night, when a car or truck hits one in the night they come to "assist" you and take money or goods for their help. These same forest folk probably illegally take teak wood which finds it's way to the dodgy traders. It's known as the bad lands of Java.

In the day time it's better, but we were still stopped three times at unofficial tolls, a "broken" truck blocking the road and dodgy guys with buckets claiming to be collecting for Ramadan.
The good news is that this forest is controlled by the government, and in the last year have made big steps to enforce the control. The road has been upgraded to a good tarmac road, every twenty kilometres or so there is a ranch style police station with round the clock security.

Eventually we made it to a small coastal sugar cane town. The industry was devolved by the Dutch who built cute narrow-gauge railways running through the plantations bringing the sugar cane to the port. Some parts of it still working. There has been a half-hearted attempt to make a tourist industry here. It's certainly beautiful, stunning mountains, mangrove swamps and white sand beaches. But no tourists, Ringo and I hired the two best (teak lined) rooms in a big run down beach road hotel for about £12, there was just one other guest. Ringo said the Muslim call to prayer from the many mosques at four am and lack of alcohol, put many tourists off coming. Sad because the people were lovely and the place stunning.

But there is a thriving handy-craft industry. We found marble carving, shell jewellery, mother of pearl boxes and the like, and teak wood of course. We were taken to workshops practically on the beach where families worked together making lovely stuff. Eventually we found a village with teak wood work-shops, we visited them all.
One guy in a small factory told us he was "just the local chief of police" (pointing to a police station along the road), his wife was the boss, could we come back later.
What we learnt was the the government have cracked down hard on the teak wood trade to ensure the sustainability of supplies. Local artisans can (or should) only buy from the official run logging company, and the police enforce the rules, hence the police presence in the forest.

Teak wood of course is mainly used for furniture and flooring, the roots are a by-product and of less interest to the bad guys because it's more work to dig up. But the most beautiful bowls and plates are made from the random root shapes all slightly different. Yes a little expensive, but will last forever and help support families like this.

The lady on the right is the boss. Her son and his wife are part of the business, and the little guy with long hair in a Man-united shirt is their son who just wanted to be in the picture.

More news next week.

Is this your first time with us?

You will receive First Order Bonus worth £100 of stock at retail value. You are entitled to claim it on your first order with us when you spend over £100 + vat. Just quote BONUS 100 in the shopping cart message box.