Muntok and Radji Beach

A Tin Port Where Sukarno And Hatta Were Held In Exile In 1949, And Where In 1942 Japanese Troops Machine Gunned Twenty Two Australian Army Nurses Into The Sea · Muntok, Bangka Belitung

TWO THINGS HAPPENED AT MUNTOK AND ALMOST NOBODY GOES TO EITHER. IN FEBRUARY 1942 THE VYNER BROOKE WAS SUNK FLEEING SINGAPORE, and survivors including AUSTRALIAN ARMY NURSES came ashore at RADJI BEACH. Japanese troops ordered the nurses to walk into the sea and MACHINE-GUNNED THEM FROM BEHIND. Twenty-two died. ONE SURVIVED - VIVIAN BULLWINKEL, shot through and feigning death, who hid, was taken prisoner, SURVIVED THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF INTERNMENT AND TESTIFIED AFTERWARDS so that it was known at all. A memorial stands on the beach. AND IN 1949, DURING THE DUTCH POLICE ACTIONS, SUKARNO AND HATTA WERE HELD IN EXILE IN MUNTOK, in houses that still stand - months before Indonesia's independence was finally conceded. Around both is the TIN: Bangka has been mined for centuries and the pits, dredgers and moonscape spoil are everywhere. Both sites are free and neither is signposted usefully, so a local driver is worth more here than a guidebook, and the flooded workings are dangerous to wander near.

Muntok and Pantai Radji, West Bangka, Bangka Belitung, Muntok, Bangka Belitung, Indonesia

MUNTOK IS ON THE WESTERN TIP OF BANGKA, roughly THREE HOURS BY ROAD FROM PANGKALPINANG, which has the airport; FERRIES ALSO CROSS FROM PALEMBANG to Muntok's port. THE RADJI BEACH MEMORIAL is open ground on the coast north of town with no gate and no fee - a LOCAL GUIDE OR DRIVER IS PRACTICALLY NECESSARY to find it. THE SUKARNO AND HATTA EXILE HOUSES in Muntok keep daytime hours, charge very little, and CLOSE ON MONDAYS as most Indonesian museums do. THE OLD TOWN has a Chinese temple, a Dutch-era mosque and the tin-era buildings, all walkable. ACTIVE AND ABANDONED TIN WORKINGS ARE EVERYWHERE and SOME ARE DANGEROUS - flooded pits, unstable ground, and they are not attractions. Bangka is hot, flat and coastal; go in the morning. Accommodation is simple.

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