Which Way to Go - Left or Right in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong (Hongkers from now on) is a funny spot. I was there many months ago and have been meaning to share an observation. A good friend recently commented on the same thing so I’ve decided I’m not crazy, so here it is:

People in Hongkers drive on the left-hand side of the road, but walk on the right-hand side of the footpath.

I’ve been to plenty of places across the world, but I don’t remember this phenomenon occurring anywhere else I’ve been. Whether it is consciously or subconsciously, people walking will usually stick to the same side of the footpath (or hallway, stairs etc.) as to which they stick to when driving or riding their vehicles. Even when I lived in Tanzania, where only a tiny percentage of the population actually drove, they still followed this general rule when walking. I guess it gets drilled into us like rats getting electric shocks – when we bump (or nearly bump) into someone we learn from the mistake and adjust our actions accordingly.

So why are the people in Hongkers so bonkers? I assume that the reasons are as follows:

-          Hongkerians drive on the left because they used to be a British colony, and Brits drive on the left

-          Hongkerians walk on the right because most Hongkerians have a Chinese mainland heritage, and the mainlanders walk and drive on the right

Assuming this is the case, I find it interesting that the passing of time has not caused the walkers to veer to the left. Maybe they will in the future just to give the Chinese government the s***s!!!

Formula 1 in Kuala Lumpur

 

Less than a week after returning to Jakarta I was off again!

As a man with no responsibilities, I made the financially ridiculous decision to go to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for the weekend.

The objectives of this weekend were:

1.        Meet up with my mate Ade from Bangkok

2.        Attend the Formula 1 Grand Prix

3.        Meet up with my mate Robert from Cyprus

4.        Eat laksa

5.        Meet up with my sister-in-law’s brother, Craig

6.        Win a game of pool against Mark Webber

Well, I achieved 5 out of 6, but this was only because I didn’t play pool against Mark Webber. Given his form this season I’m pretty certain I would have kicked his arse if I had played him. I probably could have raced him around the F1 track as well!

My flight into KL on the Friday night was a bit late, but Ade had arrived a bit earlier and had a bottle of wine ready for the taxi-ride to the hotel. Although some might frown at drinking red wine from cardboard KFC cups, we found it to be a delightful way to pass the time while our illiterate, innumerate taxi driver got completely lost for an hour or so. Without the red wine, and without the knowledge the taxi-fare was fixed, we might not have been so relaxed! Unfortunately this idiot (trying to be nice) wasted so much of our time that by the time we checked into our hotel it was about 1am and we gave up on going out. Good for the physical health but not so good for the mental health. The bonus of arriving late was that the hotel had given away 1 of our rooms so they had to upgrade me to a special suite, though it was only for 1 night.

On Saturday morning we woke up sober, had some breakfast and wandered the streets on our way to the train/bus station. We took the bus out to the track and settled in on the grassy hill that comprised the “cheap seats”. We managed to track down Robert pretty quickly, and had a good old afternoon of chatting while the F1 engines screamed around us.

It was a good day out but I would have to say that the “Sepang International Circuit” could do a bit better at catering, even for us lower-class citizens in the cheap seats. The food options were:

1.  Option A - Cold hamburger and chips in a plastic container

2.  Option B - Cold hotdog (????) and chips in a plastic container

3.  Option C - Cold fried chicken and chips in a plastic container (this was my personal favourite)

4.  Option D - Cold fish and chips in a plastic container

Not exactly what you see on Master-Chef. It was hardly surprising on the Sunday when they were trying to sell all of this rubbish off at half-price because nobody could bring themselves to eat it. It was interesting to note that the food options in the more expensive seats were considerably more appealing, with the prices being about the same.

Anyway, the cars were fun and so was the company. When we left the track we hitch-hiked to the bus depot with a couple of locals. Very nice of them to pick up a few foreigners, and it was good for Ade to face his fear of strangers!!!! We survived and saved quite a bit of time waiting for the bus. All good.

That night the 3 of us headed out for some dinner and drinks. I was disappointed when I couldn’t get myself a laksa at dinner, but I did manage to eat a stingray, quarter of a duck and a bit of pork to compensate for it! It was difficult to find a decent bar that wasn’t obviously a prostitute collection point, but we found enough alcohol to keep us going. Robert headed home pretty early while Ade and I moved on to a different area which was much nicer. Although the evening never really hit top gear, we did have plenty of fun (unsuccessfully) hitting on Iranians. After hardly meeting an Iranian in my life I had met several in only a week or two – spooky.

Sunday morning I got up to meet Craig for breakfast. It was great to see such a cheery, familiar face after many years and it was a bit of a bummer we didn’t have more time to catch-up.  Next time. Ade had a good sleep in and then we met up for lunch where I finally got my laksa! Laksa is not as popular in Indonesia as I would like so it is rare to have the opportunity to consume one. Although this wasn’t the best I’ve had, it ticked a box that needed to be ticked. After that we thought we better get to the track to see a F1 race. We found Robert at the track and settled in for the afternoon. The crowd was great and it was another wonderful day. Although the rain threatened it never eventuated.

The disappointments of the day were:

1.        The beer running out

2.        The food being the same crap as Saturday

3.        The video screen breaking down temporarily

I think that this is all part of the marketing ploy of the Sepang International Circuit folk. I’m pretty sure they know we will have a good time in the cheap seats, but that we will feel it necessary to upgrade to the expensive ones the next year. Clever? We will see if I decide to return next year.

So, Robert took off soon after the race while Ade and I went to investigate the pit straight to see how the other half lived. They lived very well. We even caught a glimpse of Sebastian Vettel celebrating with his team. Even though I can’t stand the smug little s**t, seeing a driver almost made up for the beer running out. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stick around for the concert afterwards as I had to leg-it to the airport in time to eat a laksa before my flight. That was the end of a wonderful little weekend! Now I just need to work out if I blow some more cash on the same thing next year!

Shock of a Lifetime - Lightning Strike!!!

Well, I am proud to say that I am a survivor of a lightning strike.

I don't know how the statistics compare with spotting Komodo Dragons in the wild, or with catching piranha, or with snorkelling with manta rays, or sitting on a tiger, or many other things. However, as a mathematics teacher I am pretty confident in saying that I believe I am the only living person on Earth to have been hit by ligthning, seen Komodo Dragons in the wild, caught 2 piranha fishing, snorkelled with manta rays and sat on a tiger. However, I could be wrong. It is a big planet.

After leaving Pulau Rinca we headed back towards the port of Labuan Bajo. To break-up the 4 hour trip we stopped to do 30 or 40 minutes of snorkelling around a spectacular coral reef on a little island. It was great. I even had a Clown Fish (Nemo) swim right up to my mask. As we finished snorkelling it began to rain quite heavily. A storm was coming in. We set sail for home, but it became apparent we were going to get very soaked before we got there, despite our little boat having a canopy.

The rain got heavier, and the lightning began. The captain instructed me to put my camera away, which I did. It didn't occur to me that a camera could be a target for lightning. In hindsight I'm very pleased I put it away. There was still about 2 hours of water between us and home, and it was going to be a long and wet 2 hours for the 7 on-board (captain, 2 crew, 2 Dutch, Thommo & I). However, the scenery was spectacular and the lightning strikes even more so. Slowly the strikes came closer, and one struck about a kilometre away. At this point we started getting a little nervous, which we had not been before. The boat chugged along, while we mostly just stood or sat about with little to no talking. I was standing up bare-foot (stupid) and holding on to the (wooden) roof of the canopy for support, just behind the bow (front) of the boat under the canopy. There was a metal anchor on the bow nearby. There were also metal support cables joining a mast to the canopy. The canopy itself was wooden, as was the floor. However, everything was wet. When the lightning hit, it hit the anchor and the support cables. The support cables were less than a metre from me, while the anchor was probably less than 3 metres away. However lightning will conduct through anything, even wood, just with much less power than it would through a natural conductor. I assume the lightning did not hit me directly. If it had there is little chance I would be typing away now. However, I still consider myself to have been "struck" by lightning. I was certainly "engulfed" by it.

I don't remember hearing the fizz or sizzle that accompanies lightning strikes. I'm not sure if that is because the rain and motor drowned it out, or if I don't remember it, or if it was overwhelmed by the sheer noise of the strike itself.

What I do remember is this:

An extraordinarily loud sound. White everything. White everywhere. Electricity flowing from my hands through to my feet. An understanding of what was happening. The complete clarity of thought "Well, it's a shame it had to end now, but it has been a great life". Vision restored. Hearing uncertain. 2 or 3 seconds of quiet. A crew member sitting on the deck where he had been blown-over backwards, staring at his hands in a daze. Everyone else looking around quietly at each other. Realisation that I was alive. The word "f**k" slipping out of my mouth. And again. The crew member still staring at his hands. Me removing my hands from the canopy and staring at them. Sitting down. Thommo and the Dutch tourists saying "f**k", repeatedly. Moving my hands. Smiling - they worked. Frowning - I couldn't feel them. Frowning again realising my testicles were experiencing some sharp pain. Grimacing. Starting to communicate with more than "f**k". Feeling for my testicles but realising I had no feeling in my arms so having limited success. Grimacing a little more. Laughing nervously a little. Talking a little.

It was an incredible experience, obviously. Not one you order from the tour brochure, but certainly the most unforgettable experience of my life. Although I assumed that I was dying or dead, and somehow my brain had time to have a very quick reminisce on life, I wouldn't say that "my life flashed before my eyes". The white all around me certainly was not heaven, it was simply my brain getting blasted by sound and light at unimaginable levels. It did take several seconds to realise I was alive, and it was a great relief to me!

A few minutes after the strike, after we had had time to discuss it a bit, I went into shock. Although it was wet, it wasn't exactly cold, but I shook uncontrollably for half an hour or an hour. Evidently I was very pale and not very communicative. The lightning went on around us for a while before eventually moving further away. By the time we were approaching port I had got myself back together, and the feeling was returning to my arms. My testicles were still struggling but there was no way I was going to investigate that issue without a hot shower. As we disembarked the boat we discovered a large split in the hull. Luckily it was just below the deck and was not too close to the water-line or it could have added another twist to the tale. Everyone was alive and relatively well. We said some strange farewells and moved on.

Thommo and I headed back to our hotel. I showered and surveyed myself, finding everything to be in order, at least to the naked-eye. We then went to the only "bar" in town where we downed 5 or 6 quick drinks each, with some intermittent conversation involving plenty of "f**k" words. Thommo had not been blasted quite as badly as me, sitting further away and not holding the canopy, but he was still pretty shaken-up. The drinks were a nice anesthetic for us both.

In the week or so to follow my body was a bit shaken up. I'm not sure how much was to do with the cold I had, how much was to do with drinking too much in Bali and how much was to do with being blasted by lightning. My hearing was a bit funny but is fine now. My body temperature fluctuated quite a bit but stabilised after a few days. My hands regained full feeling and are fine. I don't believe I've gained any super-powers myself, but I'm pretty sure I have some super-powered sperm on board (though my testicles seem otherwise fine). That is probably enough references to my testicles for the internet today.

Anyway, to conclude a long story, in the last few weeks I've been out of the swimming pool much faster when I hear thunder in the distance.

Komodo National Park - Astaga, Naga!!!!

I've seen Komodo Dragons in "the wild". That's pretty cool. The chances are that you haven't seen them, unless it was in a zoo, so I'm obviously cooler than you! Having said that, it didn't feel much different to a zoo, but it was still pretty cool. Do you think I've said "cool" enough in this paragraph?

Thommo and I decided that we had better get off of Bali before we got liver poisoning. We didn't have time to wander around Lombok, and we didn't want to do the same as everyone else in the Gili Islands, so we booked a flight to Labuan Bajo on Pulau Flores (Flores Island). After plenty of fun at Denpasar airport (as discussed in the previous post) we hopped on our little plane to Flores. It was a pleasant enough flight, and it was all very quaint landing at this tiny airport with very few facilities. The quaint-ness (?) was lost soon after disembarking and discovering that our luggage had not come with us. Considering there were only about 30 passengers on the flight we thought it was pretty form that Merpati Airlines had left behind 25 of our bags. It turns out they had a back-log of scuba gear to get there, so our luggage had to wait until the next day. Bastards! If they had mentioned that at check-in we would have just taken what we needed as carry-on for 2 days. As it was we ended up without everything but my camera and our wallets. Not perfect, but at least we could survive and take snaps.

So, Labuan Bajo is a pretty small town with little to offer the visitor by night. We had a quiet night that didn't even involve getting drunk! We had booked a 1-day trip for the next day, starting bright and early. Thommo, myself and a Dutch couple arrived at the office of the tour company at the arranged time in the morning, but it was 30 minutes before our guide arrived. Poor form again. Eventually we got underway, and had a lovely boat ride to Pulau Rinca ("Rincha" Island). Komodo Dragons live on Pulau Rinca and Pulau Komodo, but Pulau Komodo is further away from Labuan Bajo and requires a 2-day trip to get there and back, so we decided to stick with Pulau Rinca.

Once on Pulau Rinca we did a short walk to the "village". This is where the Dragons hang-out. Although the locals say they don't feed them I find this hard to believe. I doubt the Dragons just chill-out here because they like having their photos taken and they delight in tourist-watching. Regardless, it makes it very easy to get an extremely good, close-up look at these enormous lizards. The guides carry big sticks to protect the tourists, but you can still get surprisingly close without feeling terribly threatened. They are big, ugly and lazy looking creatures, but not always so. We went for a one-hour hike around the island but didn't see any outside the village. I had imagined scenes similar to those in "Jurassic Park", with Dragons roaming through the fields, frightening the lesser creatures by opening their big jaws and breathing out fumes from their giant infectious gobs. It was not to be. We did see lots of photos of them fighting and hunting, but the best evidence of them doing anything except posing for photos was the occasional hole which they had dug for laying eggs.

One of the undoubted highlights of this little sojourn for a relatively new Indonesian resident was that I got to use my favourite phrase:
"Astaga!!!! Naga!!!!" which translates to "Oh my God!!!!!!! A dragon!!!!!!!"
My Bahasa Indonesia teacher was very proud upon my return.

Big-Game Fishing & Manta Rays

Early in the trip we met up with parents from my school. The father took us about for the day, eating pig and visiting some nice places. Later in the day we collected the wife and kids (two of my students) and went to a fabulous restaurant at Seminyak. Of course they wouldn't let us pay for anything so that was very nice indeed. When the father was asking us about our plans for the coming few days Thommo said that we hoped to go fishing. The response from the father was "well come with me - I'm going out on Tuesday and you can come on the boat for free". This was an offer way too good to be true, as it would have cost us $500 or so between us, and I don't know anything about fishing and generally don't enjoy it much. This was a good result.

The views as we left Benoa Port were beautiful, with volcanoes and islands visible all around, along with some incredibly expensive boats. The conditions on the water were far from ideal, which ruined the fishing but made for some other fun. We did some "Jigging" and some "Popping" - both terms of which I was completely unfamiliar previously. Jigging and popping are both hard work. I didn't expect fishing to be hard work, apart from mentally. After jigging away for half an hour I was completely stuffed! Luckily Kris (the father) caught a fish. It was a lovely 8 or 9kg ruby snapper. Of course Thommo and I had to get our photo with it to make-out we caught it. Since the age of 14 I think I have now caught 1 squid and 2 piranha. Unfortunate record for someone with a surname to do with fisheries. After the obligatory photos we jigged a bit more, and then we swapped positions and jigged a bit more, but then everyone was getting a bit tired so we gave up on jigging. We headed for the popping spot, encountering some very large waves along the way. It was pretty cool "surfing" on waves in a big boat in the middle of the ocean. We even had to dodge a floating tree once!

When we got to the popping spot it was a bit too rough, so we pulled into a spectacular little bay for a snorkel. This place honestly looked like something out of "The Beach" - beautiful. So Thommo and I had a snorkel for half an hour, checking out some nice coral and fish. We then hopped back on the boat for a bit of lunch. Half way through lunch the crew spotted a manta ray! And another! We grabbed our snorkels and jumped straight back in. They stay quite close to the surface so they are easy to spot from the boat but not easy in the water unless they are close-ish. So, I would watch for signals from the boat then paddle myself as fast as possible over that direction until WOW! The first time I saw one coming towards me I almost **** myself. These things are big and crazy looking. It was coming directly toward me, at exactly my level. When it was about 5 metres away it turned and dipped gliding past just out of my reach. Breathtaking view. We spent the next half an hour or more having close encounters with these beautiful creatures. 2 more times I had the "close-call" but generally we were watching from more of a distance. At this point one of the crew members told us he had seen some sharks over by the rocks. This did not relax us. We were back on the boat very smartly. After a few minutes on the boat the same fellow decided it must have been the mantas splashing about, but there was no way we were hopping back in again! We watched the mantas frolic about for a while longer from the boat. There was one in particular that seemed interested in the boat and did many passes close-by. He had a huge scar on his back (pictured) which could have been from a harpoon/spear or possibly a shark. If it was indeed caused by humans then he was remarkably brave to be hanging about a boat again. Anyway, it was a completely magical hour or so, and an experience that was completely unexpected. Much more fun than jigging and popping!

Well, after that excitement we finished our lunch and did a bit more popping, then went half-way back to Bali and did some jigging, then gave-up and went home. Although the conditions for fishing were terrible, it was still a great day and I'll never forget those manta rays. Wonderful!

Boys Behaving Badly in Bali

At the end of March I had a week of holidays, which I had arranged to spend hanging with my mate in Bali. Although I hadn't exactly loved Bali on my previous visit, it was the easiest place for my mate to get to from Australia for not-much cash.
My mate has a name. His parents call him Matthew. I call him Thommo (pronounced Tomo) but everyone else calls him Tomo (pronounced Tomo).
Thommo is a great mate from waaaayyyyyyyyyyy back - we've been hanging for almost 20 years now. When I visit Australia I normally try and skip-up (not literally) to the Gold Coast to visit him for a couple of days, but I hadn't got there during Xmas holidays, so this was a great opportunity to catch-up.
We had great "plans" for our week together. We were going to do some hiking, head to Lombok, head to the Gili Islands, go fishing and visit Komodo Dragons. We didn't tick all of those boxes as, unsurprisingly, we behaved badly, boozing most nights and the occasional day. We did however have an enormous amount of fun, ticked a couple of those boxes, and ticked a couple of others unexpectedly.
Given that we only had 9 days we did quite well to:
- get drunk 7 times
- only go shopping once
- eat seafood in large quantities
- only lose one ATM card between us (not me!)
- eat pig in reasonable quantities
- not lose any phones
- successfully act as a tout (me) for a seafood restaurant for 10 minutes
- only lose our luggage on a flight once
- survive swimming in the dirtiest water I've ever swam in (at Kuta beach )
- do some networking with school parents
- play guitar on the beach (well I listened and harassed women passing by)
- go big-game fishing
- snorkel with manta rays
- see komodo dragons
- get hit by lightning
It was a very happy time, and even more so in hindsight given that I am alive to tell the tales!
More on some of those in the posts to follow, but a quick mention here of the last photo above.

When we caught a domestic flight to go and see Komodo Dragons our flight was predictably delayed. This meant we spent a considerable amount of time at Bali airport, which has to be one of the worst world-wide considering the amount of tourist dollars passing through it each year. During this time I spent plenty of time talking with strangers. The bloke pictured above was hilarious. He took great pride in the fact everyone thinks he is Japanese despite being an Indonesian from Jakarta. He delighted in telling me stories about how he and his wife (both Muslim) sneak over to Bali once every month or so to eat Babi Guling (roast suckling pig) without being judged for it! The same went for drinking alcohol. His other great talent was spotting women with even less subtlety than myself. He would point one out across the room and say "what do you think of that one?" before giving me his analysis of their sexual history or lack thereof! Not what I expected from him when he sat down next to me! He also provided me with an "in" to start flirting outrageously with the Iranian woman sitting on my other side. This woman was incredibly beautiful (you can see her arm on my left!). I knew she was Iranian because I had seen her passport when she sat down. When I started talking to her she said she was Spanish, but she spoke worse Spanish than me! Maybe she was an international spy? Anyway, my "extreme" flirting was working a treat and we had quite an audience. Unfortunately she was headed to Jakarta but leaving again before I got back. Aaahhhhh....... What might have been????

January to March 2011

 

As always, life has been very, very busy for me. I can’t imagine how people survive having to find time for spouses, children, pets, house maintenance, team-sports, cooking and other “normal” things. I struggle to do my job, exercise, do my homework, have any sort of social life, and get enough sleep given the restrictions of 24 hours in a day. However, that is improving rapidly now that I know my job so much better than a year ago.

Work Stuff

My year 12s are rapidly approaching their big, scary final exams. As these approach the pressure on students is increasing, while the pressure on me has been decreasing somewhat. I have taught the whole curriculum and we are now revising, which makes for easy teaching. However, I am teaching 4 extra periods each week to help them prepare, and that will probably increase in the final week or two before exams. Regardless, I don’t need to prepare at home which is freeing up plenty of time.

Last weekend I went on a school trip with some year 11s to Pelabuhan Ratu, which is a surf beach about 5 hours drive from Jakarta. This was an “Adventurous Journey” for 22 of the students who are doing an “International Award”. Although I missed the first day of the trip, I got there for the last 2 days. I was the leader of the hiking party, and was then able to join the surfers at surf-school. Although my dodgy knees are not strong enough to even attempt surfing, it was great to do a bit of body-surfing for about an hour. We then had a trip to the local markets where the students had to haggle for fish and vegetables for their “Master Chef” type challenge that night. It was good fun, but unfortunately we got rained out just before the cooking started. Despite the cooking challenge and bonfire being completely rained out, and everybody being soaking wet, the students never complained once. That made for a very enjoyable, but of course exhausting, little trip.

This week has been a pretty relaxing last week of school. The swimming carnival took up Tuesday, while “3-way meetings” (i.e. parent/teacher/student meetings) have taken up Thursday and Friday. The swimming carnival was split into two halves, with the serious stuff in the morning, and the games etc. in the afternoon. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the serious stuff, but did get involved later on. My weak legs showed up in a kicking race, but I got to show off my awesome raw power in the teacher v students relays! I even felt competitive briefly!

Other Stuff

The last couple of months have been good socially. There have been plenty of expat events, a bit of sight-seeing, overseas visitors and a few weddings. For no particular reason I celebrated Australia Day at the German Club in Jakarta, the highlight of which was some delicious pork chops. Any pork is good pork in Jakarta, but this was exceptional pork. I have also attended my first Sunday brunch – these are fancy “all you can eat and drink” events at fancy hotels, where foreigners and well-to-do locals go along, act posh for a while, stuff ourselves full of prawns, oysters and other goodies, while drinking gallons of wine (almost as rare as pork is), before stumbling out in not such a posh state a few hours later. I’ll do it again.

I’ve been to 3 weddings recently which have all been nice, but I have also missed another family wedding in Australia, which was sad. Chinese New Year is quite a big deal in Indonesia, and the celebrations start well in advance, with shopping malls covered in decorations, and lion dances happening everywhere – the lion dance at school was a bit more impressive than I’m used to in $10 Chinese restaurants in Australia! I also hosted one of the tamest St. Patrick’s Day parties ever. It was for work friends, and it started right after school at my place. I had a pretty good turnout of 20 or 30 people, but everyone had left by 8pm!!!! St. Paddy was probably offended, but it was a Thursday, and I do live at school. It is also impossible to buy real Guinness in Indonesia, so any St. Paddy’s day is going to be a bit disappointing. Next year.

While on the subject of alcohol I must mention a major accomplishment of mine in recent times - I have purchased large quantities of quality alcohol!!!!! This has been a big challenge for foreigners in Jakarta, but my persistence has paid-off, and hopefully my discovery will allow an easier life for many around me as well. Apart from drinking in bars here, it is very difficult to buy wine and spirits. This is because they are only sold in duty-free shops, and customs officials are generally monitoring the duty-free shops to ensure they only sell to diplomats etc. However, one of the shops agreed to do a sneaky home delivery service if I ordered a sufficient quantity. So, I had to order 24 bottles of booze! I now am the proud owner of 14 different spirits and a few different wines!!! Although that is a ludicrous quantity to possess, and a silly amount of money to spend, I now don’t need to worry about alcohol shopping for a long time! Since the success of this first order my friends are now organising group-orders so an individual only needs to order 1 or 2 bottles if they want. Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!

The highlight of the last few months (apart from buying alcohol!) was the visit of a great mate of mine, Ade. Ade is British, but I met him when we worked at the same school in Bogota. He now lives in Bangkok so it is not too far away from Jakarta. He came to Indonesia for a week of holidays, so spent 3 days of that with me in Jakarta. We booked a hotel in the city so that we wouldn’t have to spend as much time in taxis. It was a great weekend, despite Jakarta letting us down in a few departments. Warm beer was our first disappointment, then an empty nightclub, then an extremely dangerous nightclub that didn’t seem to be anywhere near as dangerous as we expected/wanted, a lack of an ATM at the said nightclub, a restaurant without beer (normal here but still annoying when you forget),  traffic-jams etc. etc. The list of small complaints was topped by the fact I got the last Whopper at Burger King/Hungry Jack’s, while Ade missed out. I didn’t know it was possible for Burger King to sell out of Whoppers! Regardless, Jakarta is never going to be a great tourist drawcard – Ade was here to see me and he did that. It was fantastic to have an old friend around with whom you can talk about anything. I’m going to see him again soon as well – we are going to meet up in Kuala Lumpur in a couple of weeks for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, even though neither of us are huge fans. Just a good excuse to get out of town!

I have been naughty, typing this at work – it is the last day of term after all! Flying to Bali tomorrow to meet my mate Thommo, who is flying up from the Gold Coast, and spend a week or so with him. We’ll probably head over to Lombok, Flores or Komodo rather than hang in Bali the whole time, but we’ll work that out over a couple of cold Bintangs tomorrow. Can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!