29th March 1992 Day 253

The Diary
Checked out and went to the bus stop. The bus went straight past. We managed to hitch a lift with the owner to the bus station where we caught up with the bus. The Regal Bus Company was less than that. The bus was so old it probably outdated the Model T, the seats were so close together they would have cramped a small Indonesian, the conductor and driver had a running argument (about the standard of driving as far as I could tell) and the journey took 2 hours to cover the windy 60km to Tapah. "We survived" said a fellow squashed traveller as we arrived. I couldn't have agreed more.

We changed to our Express Bus to Lumut. A rather more luxurious affair with Predator on the video. As with Dances with Wolves it was cut off just before the climax. At Lumut we caught the ferry across to Pangkor Island and then a minibus to the far side. The Wheeler recommended accommodation was crap and over-priced. We hunted around but everything else was over-priced. We eventually discovered the "Standard" huts. A bit better than Pangkor Anchor and marginally more expensive. Then it was time for food - we hadn't eaten all day - but unfortunately the choice of restaurants was limited and surprise, surprise, over-priced.

Oz trying to look alluring  in out A frame  hut

I did some running before retiring to the A-frame hut and "Roots" for the night. I could do with some 'roots' at the moment but I don't think I could get too excited over Oz. That's Beth's territory!


2012
This is what I was listening to on my Sony Walkman. Bought it cheap on a whim in Malaysia, hadn't heard of the band. Thought it was brilliant and still do. Oz thought it was noisy. Shame it was the only decent album they did. 

Nevermind

28th March 1992 Day 252

The Diary
We did a jungle walk and ended up about 10km from Tanah Rata by the lake. Very hungry by this time, we spotted a place that could have been Ye Olde Smokehouse's twin brother - with prices to match. So we ordered a taxi back to town and we were surprised to find how much more direct it was through the jungle than along the road. We spotted a few people that could have been Jim Thompson but....no, he'd be 25 years older.

Back in town we had an Indian special lunch which turned out to be a great chicken biryani and at a fraction of the cost of the previous nights meal. We were just about to set out on another jungle walk when it began to rain so we headed back to Balas. We'd been joined in our dorm by a very pretty German miss, the first time we'd had to share since Katherine. Our evening meal was a very good, very cheap chinese.

2012
Jim Thompson - more of him in Bangkok.

27th March 1992 Day 251

The Diary
Caught the 8:30 bus to Tanah Rata and the Cameron Highlands. The rooms in Balas Holiday Chalets turned out to be pretty grotty but at least it was cheap, M$7 each. Malaysia is far more advanced than Indonesia but the standard of accommodation has been much lower so far. Nothing like the Ibunda Inn or the Metro in Yogya.


The Cameron Highlands felt like a warm summers day in Europe. None of the humidity of KL and almost a nip in the air. Some of the buildings could have been from England or continental Europe. We wandered to a Chinese Buddhist Monastery and went down past the golf course and waterfall to the town and back to Balas'.

In the evening we went to Ye Olde Smokehouse, a hotel in Tudor style. The decor, inside and out, was really well done and even before we were greeted at the door we felt a little under-dressed. We sat down in the bar and had a drink and ordered a meal. It was very expensive but we decided to go for it. Best meal for ages but also the biggest bill by miles. M$73 or 5 nights at Balas' or USD30. The most expensive accommodation was the Mata Hari at Kuta - USD22 for 3 people. A big hole in the budget.

26th March 1992 Day 250

The Diary
Discovered to our gloom that England had lost the Cricket World Cup Final but then decided it was all part of a grand scheme to get rid of the Tories. Had a trip to Batu Caves and saw all the Hindu statues and then returned by a very round-the-houses route in time for dinner. Shakey's revisited - I'll bet Bop misses it.

Batu Caves

Searched for a book exchange and managed to get rid of Leslie Thomas and Stephen Hawking in part-ex for a dictionary. We went in search of the park but only got as far as the national museum and it's exhibits about Borneo and skulls. I never knew there was so much head-hunting and cannibalism going on around the world - some of it fairly recently. Skulls was an exhibit fit for the Natural History Museum in London.

Skulls

There was a massive downpour in the evening but we braved it long enough to get to Kentucky Fried Chicken.


2012
The 92 Cricket World Cup Final - double disappointment as we'd left Australia and hadn't got to any games but especially because England had bowled Pakistan out for 74 earlier in the tournament and were cruising to a win when the weather caused the game to be abandoned. The point that Pakistan got kept them in the tournament and ultimately eliminated Australia. Without the rain Pakistan would have been out and England would have been world champions (obviously).


I don't recall reading a Leslie Thomas book, maybe it was Oz's. If you want to read A Brief History of Time then you can find it here in it's entirety. I bought the dictionary because I was trying to read some difficult books and struggling with some of the words. Honestly. No such trouble nowadays.


I tried to use to Apple Voice Recognition to see if I could transcribe my diary more quickly. This is what it came up with. Back to the drawing board.


Discover 12 blame the payment lost cricket welcome final but then decided to talk leprechauns came to get rid of the toys. have a trip to buy two kids and so all the Hindu statues I'm been returned by a very brown the house is great in time for dinner. Jackie's repositions I'll bet hope this is.


Searched for book Xchange manage to get rid of lesson Thomas I'm Steven hoping for exchange prediction. we went in search of the pole but only got this file as the national Museum and its exhibits about polio and schools. I Nevin you do so much headhunting, but wasn't going on around the world some of his failures. Schools was an exhibit fix the natural history Museum in London.


It was a message down pool in the evening but we granted long enough to get to Kentucky fried chicken.

25th March 1992 Day 249

The Diary
Caught the bus to KL and quickly found a room in Chinatown. Hunted out the GPO and came across South African Karen (from Uluru) and Angus, her latest beau, who was on leave from Waterloo BR. Last time we saw her she was heading south and we were heading north and this time she was still heading south and we were still heading north. She's done an odd route in the meantime as we're much further north than we were.


We then went to the mosque at the river junction, saw the world's tallest flagpole, a cricket pitch and the mosque-like railway station. In the evening we wandered through Chinatown and the central markets. 

Massid Jama Mosque

Federal Secretariat

Railway Station

2012
If we went now I'm sure we'd have been taking photos of this. And climbing it.

And the only movie I can think of that featured KL was this rubbish...

24th March 1992 Day 248

The Diary

Looked around the independence museum, the replica Sultan's Palace, failed to find the GPO and played three dreadful games of ten-pin bowling. The scores have been deliberately lost so posterity will have to wonder. It was cheap though.

Shopping

Replica Palace

We had a guess what's on the menu Chinese meal in the evening. Ever imaginative we came up with chicken soup and sweet and sour pork.

23rd March 1992 Day 247

The Diary
Another day, another country. This time a 5 hour bus journey to Melaka - or Malacca, take your pick. Malaysia seems like a slightly more civilised version of Indonesia. Cleaner, slower drivers and less hassle from the natives. Because of this it may turn out to be less interesting. It has an interesting mix of races though, with a large Chinese community.

We got a room near the old part of town but the European castle ruins and churches are not as interesting as similar things in Europe. I wasn't impressed. The tourist board did a good job selling it and keeping it clean though. We watched the sound and light show in the evening which was memorable for the many Pat Jennings/Richard Burton renditions of "Melaka" and "Merdaka" (independence).

2012
Pat Jennings - the deepest voice in football.

22nd March 1992 Day 246

The Diary
Another very easy going day. 30 lengths of the pool and some sunbathing, the football league on the TV and a cornish pastie. At the British Club we played two very slow and even less skilful games of snooker. Honours even at 1-1. 

We watched "When Harry met Sally" on the video. 

I spoke to Christy on the phone again and we waited in vain for live coverage of Arsenal v Leeds.


2012
Here's the real Meg Ryan. 

I met Parky last year - what a nice man. 

21st March 1992 Day 245

The Diary
We booked tickets for Malacca, walked round Chinatown, sweated buckets, looked around the shops and bought Judith a plant. I did 50 lengths of the pool, a bit quicker than normal, and we had curry for tea.

View Larger Map


2012
History doesn't record whether it was Indian or Thai curry. My guess is it was Indian.

20th March 1992 Day 244

The Diary
Beth and Oz went to the airport early and I had a lie in. I got a few essentials from the shops and did little else. In the afternoon I did 100 lengths of the pool and in the evening we went for a sea-food bbq at the British Club. Oz and I had a couple of games of table football which didn't really excite the crowd Brian. 

I got an unexpected call from Christy which lasted about an hour - she's going to have a big phone bill this month.


2012
I obviously had to marry her so that we could live together and save a fortune in phone calls.


The world trip was back to just me and Oz.


Singapore Airlines

And we haven't yet had a Hitler parody so let's do it now

19th March 1992 Day 243

The Diary
We went to Sentosa Island, taking hours to get there but at least we had a good view from the chairlift. Sentosa still seemed to be being built and the map of the island was completely useless. It had a good beach though and we all went swimming. It took us hours to get off the island and I managed to lose my sunglasses on the way.

On the way back I stopped to phone Christy and it cost a whopping SGD120. Beth's last evening and she was ill, continually throwing up - at least Oz was still ill too so they could share illnesses on their last night together.


2012
Beth's sabbatical from work was just about up and she had to leave to fly back to the UK. It's pretty ironic that they both got sick in the cleanest, most civilised place we went to.


Sentosa was just being built and I think it's a much more interesting place now. Apparently.


That was AUD90 at today's exchange rates. An expensive phone call. I'd better say it was worth it or she won't be happy!

18th March 1992 Day 242

The Diary
Oz was still feeling ill so we took him to the doctor where he was given a huge collection of antibiotics. We then went to the Westin Plaza to climb the tower but due to the $15 minimum fee we didn't bother. We then wandered around Raffles and Beth had a Singapore Sling and I made do with a Tiger Beer.

Oz and Beth went back and I went for a wander round the shops and bought a lens for my camera. A lazy night in.


2012

The eagle eyed may notice that the original diary has today as day 244 not 242. That's because the original diary was started when a left home where as this blog has day 1 as the first day out of the country. 


This may have been the last beer I drank on this trip. I recall that we just stopped drinking, no conscious decision but everywhere was so hot and humid that we just drank loads of water and cut out the beers.


I've been to Singapore many times since, always for work, and have been back to Raffles a few times. Though it's an oasis of civilisation and a good, very easy introduction to Asia for the wary traveller it's a bit too full of shopping centres and shoppers for my liking. The really interesting parts such as Bugis Street have all been sanitised so much they've lost their authenticity. It's more like a Disney version of an Asian city nowadays. I'm sure out in the sticks it is isn't but the parts the tourists see are just too tame. Oh, and it's bloody hot and humid.

17th March 1992 Day 241

The Diary
22 lengths of the pool before breakfast, a look around Orchard Road and all the incredible shopping centres, a ride on the beautiful MRT, the crappy river boat cruise and a very good bookshop,. Oz felt ill, so Beth took him home and I walked round the shops. In the evening Beth and Oz went to Beth's friend's place, the others went out and I received a call from Christy. I'd phoned earlier and left the number.

I also phoned home and dicovered everyone was OK and Sean had got himself a new girlfriend. The evening was rounded off with 2 hours of the IAAF World Champs from Tokyo.

2012
"beautiful MRT" ? I was easily impressed with a bit of civilisation it seems
"crappy river boat cruise". Ah that's more my style.


The new girlfriend would have been Louise, now Sean's wife of 17 years and mum to Hannah and Joe.

16th March 1992 Day 240

The Diary
Washing day. We'd run out of clothes but were saved by an automatic washing machine. Judith took us to the Jurong Bird Park (amazing), to a Chinese potters, to the far north of the island and to an orchid farm.

We popped into the Thai Embassy to get some forms, went to Poste Restante (3 from Christy, 1 from Dileep and none from home). In the evening we had a sit down meal with Judith, John and their friends Joy and Michael. Very old-fashioned - after the meal the women retired to the kitchen and the men shared after dinner jokes.


2012
Ok then. Some old-fashioned after-dinner jokes

15th March 1992 Day 239

The Diary
Escape from Indonesia. Wasted a few hours in the morning and caught a minibus to the airport. On the way we saw the shanty towns and the slums along the canals. The airport was a different world, brand new, huge and very smart. It was also empty. We had trouble spending our last few rupiah due to the lack of shops but I wasted 9,000rp trying to phone Christy only to be told by Sarah that she's gone to her mother's to do her washing.

The flight was short, smooth and early. We raced through the gorgeous Singapore airport and were met by Oz's mother's schoolfriend Judith (Pinnick). We had a quick guided tour and then we were taken to their flat. Lovely - civilisation and a swimming pool. We had an evening trip to the British Club - colonialism hasn't died.


2012
I've never been back to Indonesia since. I suspect it's changed a lot in the intervening 20 years. Bali certainly has including the two dreadful bombings incidents I mentioned earlier. This article suggests that even quiet little backwaters like Lombok have changed. For the better or worse ? Probably depends on your perspective and how you make a living.

14th March 1992 Day 238

The Diary
Up early to escape the damp room, said goodbye to Neil and Sarah. who were going to Bandung and looked for some transport to the station. 2 becaks turned up so we loaded them up with Beth, Oz and the bags and I decided to run. The station was further than we thought but it was downhill and I had no trouble keeping up with the becaks. We caught a commuter train to Jakarta which was similar to the third class train we caught to Bandung, but considerably fuller.


After a couple of hours we arrived and tentatively stepped out into the station. The expected onslaught of hawkers, beggars and what-have-you never materialised. We caught a taxi to the cheap accommodation area. The losmen were all pretty grotty and nearly all full. We found a room in the Borneo hostel that we could bear for a night and ventured into Jakarta.

It was initially clean, nice and very green. The area around the National Monument was all parkland. After that we tried to walk to Kota, the old Dutch area but after discovering the dirt, pollution, traffic, heat and a cinema, we gave up. We spent the rest of the evening with Frankie and Johnny, Dairy Queen and Indonesia's most expensive meal in Pizza Hut.

2012
Jakarta? Alaska.


Me running alongside two becaks full of people and rucksacks must have been like a comedy movie scene. Wouldn't happen nowadays - we'd get a top-end taxi or limo I'm sure.

13th March 1992 Day 237

The Diary
We all woke up feeling a bit "chesty", as my mother would say, due to the damp room. We got out early, processed some photos and walked around the botanical gardens and museum. Big rats from Lombok.

It was Black Friday, the last photo developed was the 666th of the trip and the kids in the photo were making devil signs. But we're not superstitious. We walked round the market and round the shops. We decided to go back by walking around the outside of the park. On the way we stopped to help some students with their English studies. They get a bit lost when you go off the script. We walked on and found a new shopping centre. We were very excited when we discovered the Pizza Hut within. Thank god for standardised fast food. I used the free pitcher of Coke voucher I'd won in Yogya which was worth 5,200rp.


We walked back and at the pension we met and English couple called Neil and Sarah. They're doing almost the reverse journey as us so we spent 6 1/2 hours talking about India, Kenya, Indonesia and everywhere in between.


2012
The kids in the photo making the devil sign can be seen on the 11th March. 


666 photos. Assume 37 shots on a 35mm roll of film which means I'd got through 18 rolls of film in 237 days. That's 13 days for each roll of film or 2.8 photos per day. We were very careful when shooting photos as every one cost money. By comparison in 12 days in Tokyo with the family last year we shot 350 photos in 12 days (29 photos per day).


Big rats from Lombok. I seem to remember the museum had rats the size of small dogs on display.

12th March 1992 Day 236

The Diary
We had breakfast at Rusty Muchfree's Harley Davidson Rock Cafe Losmen, grabbed our bags, grabbed a bemo and went to the bus station. 10 people wanted us to get on their bus to Jakarta and another 5 wanted us on their bus to Bogor. We squeezed into the extremely small seats of a Bogor bus and we were off. The Puncak Pass was enveloped in cloud and rain and by the time we got to Bogor it was pouring down.

As usual we quickly found someone who knew a place to stay. We thought he was organising a bemo for us but he wasn't but this misunderstanding was soon sorted out and we hopped into a tiny 3-wheel bemo. The 4,000rp price was almost as much as the 6,000rp we'd paid to get to Bogor but we didn't care.

Oz and Beth checked the room out, said yes and we'd arrived. The room turned out to be damp and musty but it had a shower and a toilet. We sat out the rain until 5 or 6 O'Clock and then went for a walk. We had a California Fried Chicken in Hatty Town, checked out the trains, wandered through the main department store and went to the cinema. We saw an obviously cut and cheaply subtitled film called "Shattered" starring Joanne Whalley, Greta Scacchi and Bob Hoskins. Quite interesting with a good twist in the plot. 


Later we discovered that Oz had been saying Tampaksiring (a water temple in Bali) for thank you rather than "Terama Kasih". We had visions of Indonesians in Britain saying "York Minster" or "Westminster Abbey" or "St Pauls" instead of thanks. You've got to laugh and we did.

2012
Bogor - not to be confused with Bognor.


Strangely, yesterday I went to a meeting and all the rooms had names and the one next door was called "Bandung". The place I've just been writing about and that I probably haven't thought about in 20 years.


I've no idea what the reference to Hatty Town was about.


Can't remember Shattered at all but you can read all about it here. I'm sure it would be worth watching just for Joanne Whalley.

11th March 1992 Day 235

The Diary
Caught a 7am minibus to the station to collect our tickets and grab our seats. The train was pretty full and the toilets should have been condemned but it wasn't as bad as I'd been expecting. We hired some seat cushions, read, listened to our Walkmans and ate our Trebor fruit salads and Nice biscuits. The train aisles were full of boxes of who-knows-what, bags of what I would describe as leaves, beggars and the sellers that we had become accustomed to on our bus journeys. Beth bought a fan but we resisted the fruit, strange food, cuddly toys, fags, sweets, aqua and the rest.

Local kids playing on the trains

Overall it was a far nicer experience than the bus, even though it was an hour late and despite the occasional nutter who would sit down and stare at us. Bandung train station was clean, smart and very well kept unlike the rest of the town. We encountered our first full losmen but settled for a grotty room in a hotel full of single Indonesian men. Beth was a  bit put out by the atmosphere and I don't blame her. We had a chinese in a very posh restaurant but it still cost bugger all.


2012
For any ex-pat poms that might be missing fruit salads, nice biscuits and even blackjacks, sherbert lemons, bisto and daddies sauce then try here. They even stock Birds Trifle - it's a shame it wasn't around in 1991 as we could have avoided the Great Christmas Trifle Debacle.

10th March 1992 Day 235

The Diary
Oz still had a collapsed bottom so Beth and I had a busy day organizing reprints, reconfirming flights from Jakarta, sorting out travel to Bandung and looking for food for the following days journey. We'd already decided which train and which class we would travel on, but the train schedules changed on 11 March, the day we wanted to travel. After much deliberation we decided to go for the 8am III class which cost a whopping 4000rp.

Shopping for food

We caught a becak back and picked up the photos - they'd been done in matte for some reason, but we couldn't be bothered to argue. The evening turned out to be pretty much as the previous evening.


2012
Here's a bit more of The Amazing Race in Java including some terrible driving