Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 623

We headed south again via a dormant volcano called Mount Abang. This was basically a small volcano in the blown-out crater of what was once a very big one. The journey up the rim of the crater was tough on the poor old staff cars and, of course, one of them broke down again. Coupled with that, the cars were open top and it started raining. We were drenched. Our ears were popping the whole way up and the top was literally in the clouds. As we were nearing the top, we came across a temple that was up a long flight of stairs. Up we went, but we soon regretted it - our legs felt like jelly and we were gasping for air, presumably due to the altitude and the lack of oxygen. It had ... read more

Kuta was not far from the main town on Bali, Dempasar, so we went there for a day to do some shopping (we were buggered if we were going to buy anything off those people on the beach). Dempasar was a true shopping paradise. It was a chance to pick-up some more gifts for everyone back home plus a few for ourselves. There were all sorts of wooden artefacts, but I took a liking to a wooden chess board with pieces in the shapes of Bali style 'Garrudas'. It was also excellent for clothes, which were not as good quality as those in Thailand, but were much less mainstream in design and were made from far more interesting materials. We could well be seeing the 'Bali influence' on the cat-walks back in Europe some time in ... read more

Jakarta's reputation preceded it and we were strongly advised to find somewhere safe to stay and then get the hell out. Consequently we decided that slumming it was not an option and we would go up market. For us, that meant ten pounds each, which actually got a surprisingly nice hotel - a swimming pool (which we were actually entitled to use - see ), satellite TV, toilets that you could sit on and, wait for this, air-conditioning. We also got single beds and didn't have to share doubles. We were taken to our hotel by their own bus. Looking around us, we could see why Jakarta had its reputation and we were glad we were securely in the bus. We kept the windows closed and our arms inside, as it wouldn't have surprised me if ... read more

As mentioned in my last post, my reason for leaving Fiji before the end of the crushing season in late 1973 was that I had a fully planned trip overland Asia to London with a number of fares already locked in, so I wasn’t about to let that opportunity lapse. I had been planning this trip for the best part of two years with my good mate, let’s call him Robert, so I also felt some commitment to him not to pull the plug. We had already pre-booked a bus tour from Kathmandu to London with Sundowners, starting in late March, so that was to give us two months to make our way overland from Sydney to Kathmandu, starting in late January. When you take off for twelve months of continuous travel, you don’t expect all ... read more