Yophie & Corrie

We first met Yophie and Corrie on one of our early pioneering visits to lombok in 1993...

At that time Yophie was working for a freight agency in downtown Mataram (the largest town in Lombok). That night Andy Mackonochie (company partner) was staying in a particularly ‘divey’ hotel with $4,500 under his pillow with which he was to pay his supplier the next morning. To his horror he woke up to find the money had gone and began to ask himself how on earth anyobody could have known it was there and how they had taken it without disturbing him.

So now he finds himself £3,000 lighter in a strange country all alone with no way to even pay for his room, let alone food or a way home! He phoned the only person he knew in Lombok - Yophie, who was with him within minutes paying for his hotel room and generally sorting out his predicament. Since then Yophie and his wife Corrie have become friends and agents of ours.

Yophie and Corrie’s families came to Lombok from East Timor in the repatriations of the 1960s. They are strong Christians (the main religion in Timor) which puts them very much in the minority of Muslim Lombok. Yophie, who was once a Lombok football star, is an affably lagubrious character for whom nothing seems please. Corrie is bubbly and friendly. Both are scrupulously honest characters and they have become invaluable to us as agents in Lombok.

Lombok is a small island (about half the size of Wales) and sometimes we think Yophie and Corrie know every person on the island and their knowledge of crafts available is immense.