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Sunday 5 June: Two nights at the delightful Chen Chay Lay guesthouse in Krabi is all I need to recharge my batteries. I finish reading Mike Parker's book Map Addict. It's mostly about Ordnance Survey maps but he does mention several people I know in the mapping business - he can't be much of an addict as he spells Bridgwater wrong on page 282.
Tuesday 7: Ferry to Ko Phi-Phi Don, one of my favourite islands in the Andaman Sea, then on to Phuket for a comfortable night in Talang Guesthouse in the surprisingly appealing old part of the town. I wish I could stay longer but I need to get to Bangkok to get Chinese and Russian visas for the journey home so, bus to Surat Thani (5hrs), second-class sleeper to Bangkok (16hrs).Photos of Krabi and Ko Phi-Phi.
Monday 30 May: Taxi to Denpasar, Bali's capital for the bus to Gilmanumamuk (4hrs), ferry to Ketapang on Java (1hr) and overnight train, executive class, to Surabaya's tidy, well organised, Gunbeng station (6hrs).
Monday 30: A day to kill in Surabaya, so I take a stroll inland, along the Kali Mas river to the main place of interest in town, the curious House of Sampoerna, a Dutch colonial-style building, where dusky maidens hand-roll and package Indonesia's best-selling cigarette brand, at lightening speed, all day, every day.
The forty rows of twelve rollers' work in pairs, one rolls while the other trims the ends and stacks the finished cigarettes. A roving supervisor randomly pushes the odd cigarette through a template. I put my stop-watch on one of the packagers. She pushes a flat paper carton into a mould, arranges twenty cigarettes in it, adds a card insert, folds the pre-glued carton closed, seals the ends and stacks it with the others - twelve seconds dead. Her body twitches as she works, her hands a blur to my eyes. All day long, with clocks on every wall and piped music. Originally set up by Leim Seeng Tee, cigarette baron and inventor of the 'healthy' clove infused cigarette, in 1932, it's a bizarre combination of factory, tobacco museum, very good cafe (with non-smoking area) and art gallery. They also runs free mock tram tours of the city, not much to see. Unusual day.
In the evening I take the executive-class overnight train from Gunbeng station to Jakarta's Gambir station (10hrs).
Wednesday 1 June: A day in Jakarta where dinner is a great chicken tandoori at Pappa Indian restaurant in Jalan Jaska area where I stay for one night for a wash and brush up.
Thursday 2: A green number 14 bus (40min) takes me to Jakarta's port at Tanjung Priok (pronounced . . . Pre-oak) where I join Pelni's KM Bukit Raya bound for Kijang (pronounced Key-jang) on Pilau Bantan. I have a second-class 4-berth cabin all to myself for the entire voyage (40hrs) on the 327 foot, 6,400 ton vessel.
Saturday 4: Arriving at Kijang two-hours early at 5:30am I jump on a bemo to Tanjung Pinang (1hr) to catch the 7am ferry (3hrs) to Johur Bahan in Malaysia. From here it's a train ride to Kuala Lumpur for the evening express sleeper to Hat Yai in Thailand, phew.Monday 6: Minibus to Krabi (5hrs).
Photos Bali to Krabi.
Friday 27 May: The sweet smell of clove infused cigarette smoke and I know immediately that I'm back in Indonesia. Three days rest in bustling Kuta, the primary Balinese resort, before the long haul home - laundry, hair cut and a massage.
I was diagnosed with a trapped nerve in my neck when in Adelaide " . . . if it's painful, take painkillers, see a physio . . .". Fortunately there was an Irish physio on the Kakadu trip, David, who treated me for free " . . . do these exercises, a massage might help . . .".
So, here I am in a back room in Kuta, "Sir, you like happy ending?". "No just a massage.", I can't afford a happy ending.
Saturday 28: Neck still hurts.
Photos of Bali.
Wednesday 25 May: This is a two-day trip into Kakadu National Park, Crocodile Dundee country, with an overnight stay in the bush, camping under the stars, but first, once again, we make a stop at the Adelaide River. This time there is an enormous male 'Saltie' basking on a mud bank. Too lazy to jump for mere morsels he is aiming to herd one of the smaller females onto the bank to dehydrate her - easy meat. Magnificent brown Kites swoop down on the boat trying to steal scraps as we return to shore.
Once in the park our first stop is Nourlangie Rock, a sacred Aboriginal rock art site, with views over Arnhemland escarpment. Dinner is a Kangaroo stir-fry and entertainment is didgeridoo music by the camp fire. We erect mosquito-net dome tents which I share with the only girl in the party, Sharon from Banbury, Oxfordshire who now lives and works in Melbourne.
Thursday 26: Many of the four-wheel-drive tracks are still flooded from the 'wet' so today we visit three upland swimming holes with waterfalls, culminating at the spectacular Barramundi Gorge (Maguk) with superb views towards Arhemland from the upper swimming pools. The lower pool, at the bottom of the falls, was made famous in the movie Crocodile Dundee - the tree trunk is the site where he camps out with the female journalist. It was filmed in the dry season, so no waterfall. On the way back to Darwin we stop at a bar where the trained Water Buffalo that Dundee magically tamed in the movie is stuffed and mounted, nice touch.
Friday 27: Time to head homeward. I'm out of visa time and there are no freighter ships scheduled to call at Darwin, so I take a short flight back to Bali in Indonesia.
Pictures of Adelaide River and Kakadu National Park.
Monday 23 May: This is an organised day tour out of Darwin and the only way I can do it. First we take a boat trip on the Adelaide River to see the 'Salties' or Salt-water Crocodiles 'jumping' for lamb-chop baited lures. Actually, this is their natural behaviour when snapping-up fruit bats or unwary water-foul. Not really jumping, it's more tail-powered swimming. Great photos though as these large prehistoric reptiles appear quite suddenly above the murky ooze. Back on the river bank there's more pictures with a large Olive Python before proceeding to the park proper.
Next we stop to look at a whole field of Magnetic Termite mounds and one huge monolith created by Cathedral Termites before heading to the lowland Wangi Falls where Crocs may still lurk from the recent wet season, no swimming. In more mountainous country, is Florence Falls and Buley Rock Hole where a chili swim in each is welcome respite from the heat, good day.
Photos of the Adelaide River and Litchfield National Park.
Saturday 21 May: Nearly everything in Darwin is new thanks to a little lady called cyclone Tracy who leveled the city on Christmas eve 1974, just 30 years after the Japanese unsuccessfully tried to do the same. The State Library of Northern Territory, housed in the new state parliament building, is ideal for my purposes with free internet and a set of Lonely Planet country guides. I spent all my free time there planning a route home.
Sunday 22: A long walk north takes me to the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory which disappointingly, apart from the maritime section, isn't a patch on the Alice Springs equivalent. I walk back along the coast and am delighted to discover I'm on Ian Fairweather walkway. A Scotsman of some repute, I've seen his impressionist paintings in a number of galleries but found them difficult to get in to. He painted and lived in poverty in a homemade shack on a island near here. His friends built him a proper house nearby but he refused to move but instead he stored his artwork in the house. Also an adventurer who fought in both world wars he built a raft from beach debris and sailed to Indonesia where he was imprisoned for a month - no visa. My sort of guy.
Photos of Darwin.
Friday 20 May: The Ghan stops for two-hours in Katherine but there's not much for me here save a rusty unused bridge from the once busy narrow railway, now superseded by The Ghan.
Wednesday 18 May: Once gain I'm obliged to take a day tour to a place I'd enjoy much more if I had more time and travelled there independently.
Named after Scottish explorer John McDouall Stuart it's a long straight six-hour drive from Alice along Stuart Highway, with only two right turns, to get to Ayres Rock (Uluru). There are actually three rock outcrops in the area and first we stop to view the flat-topped Mt Conner (Atila), with a large salt-pan lake on the other side of the road, before continuing to the the majestically imposing base of Ayres Rock and a pool, once an important source of water for Aboriginal folk.
We continue on to see the mystical 36 domes of The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and spend some time exploring the large conglomerate rock formations and rock-pool reflections in Walpa Gorge.
Returning to Ayres Rock in the slightly cooler afternoon the fitter in the party scale the heights of the great monolith. It's a steep shadeless but thrilling climb with rewarding views back across to The Olgas. Exhausted, we retreat to a distant picnic spot viewpoint to watch the sunset and changing colours of The Rock while sipping red shiraz.
I could stay here for days trekking on the various trails but, sadly, it's time to leave.
Photos of Mt Conner, Ayres Rock and The Olgas.
Sunday 5 June: Two nights at the delightful Chen Chay Lay guesthouse in Krabi is all I need to recharge my batteries. I finish reading Mike Parker's book Map Addict. It's mostly about Ordnance Survey maps but he does mention several people I know in the mapping business - he can't be much of an addict as he spells Bridgwater wrong on page 282.
