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

9th March 1992 Day 235

The Diary
A 6:30am start to catch the minibus to Borobudur and Prambanan. we were joined by two young looking and uncommunicative Danes. A 1.5 hr journey through Yogyakarta and the surrounding countryside to Borobudur. The five of us hired a guide for 5,000rp between us and he showed us to the info centre and gave us a commentary about the history of the temple and the meaning of some of the scenes carved in the rock. He was a Muslim and a few of his views about the life the Buddhists have seemed a bit cock-eyed to me. Praying 5 times a day and fasting for a month doesn't sound like having a good time but he thought it did.

This was by far the most impressive temple we've seen but it's renovation has been funded by the UN. If it was left to the Indonesians it would probably be under a pile of used aqua bottles by now. We were then left on our own to wander around and take pictures but Oz used his time to relieve his sloppy botty. Tony Wheeler reckons 50% of travelers get the trots and so far 66 2/3% of our group have had it so it looks like I'll be alright.


Back to the minibus and off to Prambanan. Very nice of the Indonesians to build their two biggest temples so close to each other. When we got there our driver suggested we eat first. I was the only one that wasn't hungry but I was voted down and we went for food. This turned out to be a mistake because about 5 minutes after we got to the temple it started pouring down. We sat in the main temple with a lot of so-called workers for about 40mins waiting for the rain to subside. The rain stopped when our Danish friends put on their cagoules. Oz went back to the Minibus to rest his bottom while Beth and I wandered around being tourists. It'll be good when they finish the other 996 temples, UN funding permitting.

On the way back a big, bad orange no4 Bis Kota drove into the back of our minibus while we were stationary at traffic lights. Our driver had to accept 10,000rp (less than 3quid) for the damage and he wasn't happy. We explained to the people on the desk what had happened and then escaped to our room. It soon started raining so we spent the rest of the day there with a brief dash for some food.


2012
These two amazing temples. one Buddhist and one Hindu, are only about 50km/30miles apart.

View Larger Map


And for fans of the Amazing Race - this is when they got to Borobudur. It may also feature the Sultan's Palace in Yogya.

8th March 1992 Day 232

The Diary
We went to the Sultan's Palace and had a proper guide to show us around. They were trying a bit harder here. At the entrance they even had graphs of the geographical breakdown of visitors over the years. The palace wasn't particularly photogenic but there were lots of Dutch, German and French influences especially in the dress the young sultans and sons were made to wear.

We found better burgers today at the Californian Fried Chicken. A real fast food place, but, unlike western fast food joints it was almost empty. Afterwards Beth went to watch some puppets and buy some batik while Oz and I went to the zoo in search of the elusive Komodo dragon. We found some and they performed well for the camera although they were a little on the small size as dragons go. The rest of the zoo was pretty run down, the cages dirty or too small and many of the animals appeared to be on their own.

We caught a becak back. Not the fastest way to travel and you quite often get a mouthful of fumes but at least it's safer than a bus.We all took some film in for developing and went out for a meal. When we returned and picked up the photos Oz and Beth were disappointed by the shoddy work and demanded that the photos be re-printed.


2012
Elusive as we only went as far west in Indonesia as Lombok. If we'd kept going west a few more islands we'd have got to Komodo.


If you're an animal lover I'd advise staying away from non first-world zoos. I've seen a few in my time and most are quite depressing and the animals usually look pretty sad. Having said that, it can happen in first world countries as well - Waratah Park in Sydney, home of Skippy, was closed down because of it's poor state.


No developing problems with digital cameras. It was a bit hit and miss get shots developed around Asia.

7th March 1992 Day 231

The Diary
We walked around Yogya, fighting off the becak drivers, assorted guides, people wanting to sell batik and uncle Tom Cobley. The Sultan's Palace was closed and the Water Palace was crap. We found the main street and wandered around real shops, a market that showed the squalor that some Indonesians accept as normal, listened to dodgy knock-off tapes and had a real stinker of a cheeseburger. We found cornflakes but no milk. What a downer. We found a tape shop and bought a couple of tapes each - I don't know where I'll find room for them though. 

Thank's for your coming

Stockton Markets

A big pushchair

Walking back it began to rain and as we were not quite sure where we were, we cracked and hired a couple of becaks to take us back. We amused ourselves in the evening reading the appalling translations of AC/DC's lyrics on Oz's tape. "Let there be light, ...sound, ...drums, ...guitar" became "Lookin' they like, ...sound, ...drunk, ...in guitar". And that was a good one.

2012
The side pocket of my rucksack had my collection of tapes. About 10 C90s. Add in the space that the walkman and headset took up then it was a little less efficient that today's ipods. It was easy to swap tapes and browsing Asian shops and markets for knock-off bargains was more fun than iTunes. 

6th March 1992 Day 230

The Diary
Over breakfast we met some ex-pat Brits who thought I was from Yorkshire or Lancashire and that Beth was my wife. Wrong. The bemo down to Probolinggo was almost as hairy as the journey up and it seemed to put Oz into a state of shock. When we arrived at the travel office it soon became apparent that something was amiss. They'd booked us on a bus that didn't exist. Somebody did some organising and we caught a couple of becaks to the bus station. We were shown to the bus and it left at 12 noon. Everything seemed OK.

Leaving Yoshi's for another helllish minibus ride

We were initially sat at the front but after several minutes of Javanese bus driving we decided our lives were safer at the back. The buses are generally the biggest and fastest things on the road so they just overtake whenever and wherever they want, horns blaring as they go. Blind corners and hills made no difference. We had many close scrapes with petrol tankers and other buses and I decided the best way to stay sane was to look as little as possible.

View Larger Map

It started to rain, the bus leaked all over and we seemed to stop everywhere. It soon became obvious the journey was going to take longer than the 7 hours we'd been told. We arrived at Solo and were told that we'd have to change buses. In the confusion of dragging our bags off and finding the right bus our conductor grabbed Beth's breast and then ran off laughing. She was very upset but we all tried to ignore it. Unfortunately the bus journey from Solo was crowded and uncomfortable which seemed to make us all the more angry.


At Yogya there was only 1 person trying to sell his accommodation so we hired a minibus and went there. The Metro was almost a hotel and by far the best thing that had happened all day.

5th March 1992 Day 229

The Diary
We crawled out in the dark and had porridge for breakfast and then climbed into the back of a jeep. It seemed that virtually everyone else staying at Yoschi's was about to climb the volcano too. We arrived at the starting point, parked alongside about 30 other jeeps and got the torch ready. Initially we walked down a steep hill behind a group of other people and some locals with their horses, offering their services.

It's pretty cold at the top of a volcano at 5am

I thought we were dawdling a bit and within minutes, we were on our own, in the dark and the fog, with no idea which was the correct direction. We saw a light and headed towards it stumbling as we went. The light was a motorcycle headlight that was gradually moving away from us but we managed to follow it and some guiding stones across the "sea of sand" until we caught up with the others. We climbed up the 246 steps to the crater and joined the several hundred Japanese, assorted Europeans and handful of locals at the top. 

It was 4:48am. We had to wait about an hour for it to begin to get light all the time breathing in sulphurous gases from the crater. Unfortunately as the sun came up the enveloping clouds got even thicker. So we headed back and arrived at Yoschi's sometime between 7 and 8am and went to bed. We got up, it rained, we sat in the restaurant, we ate and we went to bed. Oh happy birthday Andy, 16 today.

2012
Andy Clark - now 36, father of James, husband/partner of Jan, mate of Bobby Robson, Slough-based fuel manager, player/manager of Middlesbrough Supporters Club South, brother-in-law of the Middlesbrough Citizen of the Year 2012, Kung Fu Panda look-a-like, runner-up in the Boro Supporter of the year poll, Facebook king and twitterer @BoroSouthFC. Oh and my brother too (which is obviously the best bit).