TARAKAN ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~April 01-02

~ don't cry for me Indonesia ~

Apr. 01. No day for fools! And it's a public holiday tomorrow. But still he fucks around and it's just before noon when he gets to the office. Immigration officers seem helpful and are aware that his "thirty day on arrival" visa can be extended. However, they insist on purchase of an air ticket out of the country.

How much can that cost? And is there time to do it all in the afternoon before a long weekend?Short answer: No. The nice officers say they can't do it today. Eventually they offer to extend his visa for the full fee until Monday. He can then book a ticket and pay again for the real extension! He wanders out a bit confused. This is not entirely due to his recent bout of sunstroke. They have the power. They can extend today. In a cute and friendly way they're just playing with him. He thinks it over for about 5 seconds and blurts: “I'll go to Sulawesi some other time, thanks, bye”. These same officers man the Nunukan border. He'll be the making the boat trip to Tawau, Sabah via Nunukan the day after tomorrow at the latest.

Walks back to town rather than taking a return micro. It's his way of working things out. He's pretty exhausted. He likes Tarakan a lot. It's a great place. However he's not really seen much of it or done anything here. It's an island not just a town. Due to the heavy fighting Aussie v's Japanese at the end of the Pacific war there's an historical angle to the place. It apparently has some beaches worth visiting too. These days Tarakan's an important port for the interior. Many boats depart making inland exploration a real possibility. Or should I say exploitation. It's most likely an "entrypoint" for Indonesia's 'economic development' of Kalimantan. Something to do with natural resources. One hopes that Greenpeace, the WWF and other environmental agencies monitor what's going on around here quite closely. Not that they can really do much more than apply pressure to put a finish to jungle clearance for the proliferation of oil palm plantations.

Apr. 02. He's about to leave Indonesia. He has some first person stories and incidents that he's heard about in the past month. The first two he believes to be true. The last two he knows to be true.

The one about the ardent soccer fan who became an instant celebrity. He ran onto the pitch during an international soccer game to save goal because he felt the national team was performing disgracefully and he could do better himself. Interviewed on TV, most people agreed with him. He made a lot of money appearing on the shows for a while. In fact it is said that a government minister heartily agreed and praised his action. He never faced any charges.

This is a blast. The one about the exploding cigarette. A guy got half his face disfigured when one of the cheaper brand cigarettes literally blew up as he inhaled! The manufacturing company paid paltry compensation. The brand...theyr'e still on the market, of course. Presumably caused by a former disgruntled company employee, payback style.

Along the same lines and one that I personally encountered more than once in the last month. The old bits of plastic in-the-biscuit trick. You're munching happily through a pack of cheap biscuits and can come across all sorts of flotsam and jetsam. Happened. Only good healthy plastic! Can't remember the biscuit brand name though.

Some well-intentioned visa-extension advice from a Surabaya travel agent went as follows: I was advised that it was best to do the extension the Indonesian way...through contacts, rather than go to their office myself. I'd be a sitting duck if I did that.

Back at the room at the Jakarta I relax. I'll need to be a bit together and have some energy for the next couple of days. My 2010 Indonesian journey's come to an end.

TARAKAN ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.26-31

~ much too much sun ~

Fri. Mar.26. Moves to the Jakarta! The Rp.50k rooms are basic, clean and quiet as expected. There's an outside window and it has a shared mandi. The Jakarta's run by a 'conservative' but friendly family originally from around Solo in Central Java. The father's originally from Jakarta...hence the name. He relaxes and heads out in the mid-afternoon because there's good light. Heads down to the old style commercial buildings and on to one of Tarakan's 3 port 'facilities'. The sun finally goes down on time. It doesn't malinger around. It's lovely quality sunset light just made for pfotos. He indulges.

On the way home, he eats at the market...at the same restaurant as last night. The giant plate of 'mee goreng ayam istemiwa' is chicken fried noodles. It's special...which means with an egg. It's Rp.13k. Tarakan's great for cheap food. He then heads back to his room feeling very tired. His head has an ache and is hotter than usual. There's a slight pain when he looks at normally mellow street lights. He's been out in the sun for hours without a hat or sunnies and he's about to pay the price over the coming days!

Mar.27-30. Yep. Sunstroke. Painful eyes. Very painful. He must've been looking into the bright direct equatorial sun when he got carried away yesterday. Feels a lot like dengue fever again too. So, four painful days of lying it out, staring painfully at the wall. He's unable to eat and manages only shakily to move at all...for the tea left outside the room and to the mandi. The painful head and feverish thoughts gradually subside with the passing of three days. But he's not sure how long it's been. The daughter of the hotel family who turns out to be 36, married, and with two kids feels sorry for him. She urges him to eat. Occasionally she supplies him with biscuits and cake. “Must eat”. Just like a mother, eh. He thought she was about 19 when he checked in!

Mar.31. He's back to something resembling normal. About 90% that is. He's eating again with only a slight headache and no fever. When is it that his visa expires? It's also time to check the finances. He emails to check the balance of his Sacom Bank account. The charges at the ATMs must be outrageous. Both the Indonesian and the Vietnamese banks are in for the kill. He's got about US$600 left with Sacom! He also has about US$600 in his Thai account. Lastly there's about $450 in another Vietnamese bank but which he needs to be there to access! And that's it! And he needs a new passport. He reckons it's more than enough for another month in Indonesia. He might just pop over to Manado in northern Sulawesi from here or from Nunukan if he can sort a visa extension. He remembers having a good time of it there ten years ago now. The Togian Islands and Tana Toraja also beckon. By then it'll be work time again.

He's sure that Indonesian Immigration officials have so few tourists to scam these days they now allow extensions of travelers' thirty day "visa on arrival" visas. Nevertheless he decides to pursue the extension idea tomorrow at the local immigration office. It's out opposite a golf course! Just a Rp.2k micro ride away. He's still not a hundred percent health-wise but feels he has to do something to try to stay in Indonesia longer. His current visa expires on the third just two days away now. There's a public holiday which could get in the way. If an extension isn't easily and cheaply obtainable, he worries that perhaps ferries to Tawau in Sabah won't run. And although he went from Jakarta through Batam to Singapore once in the '90s a few days overstayed without financial penalty he'd rather not risk it again.

TARAKAN Flight ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.25

~ sri wijaya air to Tarakan ~

Thurs. Mar.25. Morning. Up. Meet a middle-aged retired Dutch guy. He tells me that he can live and travel for two months in Indonesia much more cheaply than he can live in his own house in Holland. Same old story. It's true. Then it's out to the airport by bus. The plane's on time! After a little over an hour in the air we land at Balikpapan airport. It's thronged with people whose flights have been delayed. Not ours. On to Tarakan where our plane takes up all the strip landing. Extensions to the runway here just completed now allow bigger, longer distance carriers to service this 'gateway' to Kalimantan's north-eastern interior.

Matching the runway the airport terminal's new. Its built in traditional Kalimantan culture style. Very nice but touristy. All over new airport terminals are seen sporting local architectural styles and motifs such as at Padang in Sumatra. A taxi into town costs Rp 50k/US$5. There's an 'official' ticket window. Yet the experienced traveler knows that there are local micros up on the main road about five hundred metres away where you can get into town for at lot less. Rp.2k. less. Once again it's a hot walk but with a good feeling. The twenty plus kilo backpack's not such a heavy burden. It's such a good feeling that I walk all the three kilometres more into the town. As I pass under the 'Welcome To Tarakan' arch I'm so happy to be out of Surabaya.

In typical fashion I undertake a hotel search without reference to guidebook. This takes a couple of hours. But the payoff is that one gets familiar with the layout of the new town and inevitably meet a few locals. In this instance, I'm sitting at an intersection drinking and smoking. A helpful young high school student about 16 on motorbike stops. After some light conversation she goes and checks out the Jakarta Hotel for rooms. It's about half a kilometer inland from the intersection. There are no sexual connotations from either party. She reports back that has good, clean, quiet and 'cheap' Rp.50k rooms. For some unfathomed reason and after her trouble, I opt for the 'original' Barito hotel right on this intersection. Probably I'm just exhausted. They have a newer establishment too. So this one's probably about to be demolished. It's decrepit and more expensive than the Jakarta too. But it's right on the intersection, so it's convenient. And there's a convenience store right here. The girl drives off waving but is no-doubt somewhat puzzled. She spoke reasonable English. She could understand my words but probably not my actions. She's definitely not the only one!

Out for a late afternoon wander. Tarakan's got some older, commercial but post war...buildings. Great. Then after dark it's off to check out the nearby market. To eat. Back at the decrepit room again the rats don't even keep me awake. I fall asleep thinking how good it is to be away from the overcrowded heartland and here even though it renowned as Indonesia's 'wild west'.

SURABAYA ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.22-25

~ where to next? ~

Mon. Mar.22. Heads off mid-morning. Being on a bus in the heat of the day is generally a good strategy. Off to the Terminal Bis in an becak...bicycle taxi after a soto daging, at the usual place, for the usual price. Thinks of saying that he's leaving and goodbye but doesn't. Decides to take only videos on the bus trip from Sumenep to Surabaya. Some of them are very interesting. Getting more adept at shooting moving pictures? Makes it all just more than another bus ride...through towns, across countryside and along coastline that passed unseen the night in from Surabaya. Great day trip. Arrives Surabaya without incident. Meets a friendly student on the bus who points out the right city bus to the Paviljeon hotel. Just as well. Would've got very lost without him.The cheapest rooms at the central, very clean and acceptable Paviljoen Hotel are Rp.88k/US$9. Relatively expensive. But this is the centre of the second largest Indonesian city. Checks-in hot and tired then showers and briefly rests. After that, strolls down the street for coffee and cigarettes. On trips on local buses it's no problem smoking. He's not making up for 'lost' smoking time...getting his nicotine levels back to normal, as like coming off a plane. More about getting out and about and meeting the locals. On down along the 'river'. Stops at a stall for more coffee and some of the deep-fried, greasy, sweet things. The locals are astonished. It's the kind of stall that is remembered from earlier visits to Jayapura, Irian Jaya. There, such places are always run there, by friendly and jovial Javanese and Maduran trans-migrants. Then it's on round to Tanjungan Plaza supermarket for supplies and back to the very comfortable room.

Tues. Mar.23. Today's early morning music consists John Mayall, St.Flavas, Reggae Hits and Jonny Lang. About 8.30am it's time to head out and about on foot. Needs to check out a visa extension. There's a local immigration office near Gubeng Train Station. Taking the long way walks round other side of river past graffittied walls tries to find the Surabaya backpacker's 'institution' called Bamboe Denn. Once upon a time it was renowned as the only traveler's place in town. Maybe it's a Chinese language school these days. Heads on towards the train station, sticking to river along walkways with graffittied walls. Opposite there's a maritime park with it's shark and crocodile statue (what's that about?) and the Pasopati submarine. On Jalan Kayoon, where the immigration's supposed to be, comes across an English First language school. Walks in and has a long talk with Jules who he sees outside having a smoko break. Jules's is from England and has been working for them now for 5 years. He's got a local wife and is a good source of information. He explains how to find their head office to make inquiries about a position. He pulls in about US$800 a month for around 20-25 hours/week. Accommodation or an allowance for it is thrown in. But there's a 1 year contract that's not so easy to renege on without paying your way out of. 'The authorities' won't let you out of the country without the schools' permission here in Indonesia! All-in-all..not my cup of coffee!

Not ready and don't have the need to stop and work again just yet. Walks past the inadequately indicated immigration office, realizes this. Doubles back. It's getting hot by now. It' 11am. The immigration officer tells him flatly: “This visa no extend”. Should have asked to see the boss! Now needs to go see the main office out near the Juanda Airport a long way to really find out what the real story is. But it's been a good exploratory walk. Overheating. The body's never really gotten used to the heat, even now after almost 14 years of tropical living. Just gotten used to the discomfort of constantly perspiring and doing a lot of washing!

Back at the room helps himself to cups of delicious tea provided in a thermos by the hotel. Hotels generally give you a snack for breakfast too, “a light breakfast” some would call it. This is a convenient Indonesian hotel custom. Even in the cheapest. The snack is often a couple of slices of bread with rancid margarine and the old chocolate 100s and 1,000s to sprinkle on top! But not here. It's rancid marge all right, overlaid with a kind of marmalade...not bad! Or maybe it's just the thought that they do this for their guests that makes it taste lovelier. Predictable siesta. What to do next crops up...again. Visa, ticket out of the country, passport with one page left. Where to from here? Inquires of the friendly hotel-staffer the cost of flying out to Tarakan in north-east Kalimantan. Tarakan's close to the Nunukan/Tawau border with Sabah, Malaysia. Thinks if he heads there soon he'll have about a week to explore a little of Kalimantan and still be able to get out in time to avoid overstay if he doesn't extend the current one month on entry visa. It could be possible to acquire the required extension in Tarakan, possibly with or without a booked and paid for ticket out. So the basic decision is to stay another 30 days after April 03...current date of visa expiry...or not. Needs to resolve this dilemma quickly and sharply and not spend a lot of time and energy. Out again late afternoon. Leaves the solution to the problem 'til the morrow. Round to the riverside stall he was at yesterday. He eats the sweet, greasy things again and drinks coffee. Has no meal today and has spent US$15 all up. Takes home some more of the deliciously greasy cakes. Fools around writing up and re-viewing today's pfotos...listens to music...and the rain which hits heavy at 10pm with accompanying 'donner und blitzen'...and a strong wind too. A real tropical downpour. But for how long? And not anyway, anywhere like as fierce as those experienced in PNG, or back in Karamea, NZ, for that matter.Out of Indonesia directly from Surabaya strikes Dave as a likely option too. Perhaps to Sabah directly! The old days' free sixty day visa, which at the time seemed too short a time to really explore this large county was a lot more user friendly. But then again, the world has changed quite a bit since the '90s.

Wed. Mar.24. Impressions of Surabaya do not imbue Dave with intentions of staying here longer. Up and at it. Today's focus is on booking a plane seat to somewhere! Heads out, by bus, to Pasopati Travel and in the end books a ticket to Tarakan, for tomorrow via Balikpapan with Sri Wijaya Air. Costs R900k or about US$90.

MADURANS ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.21

~ some impressions ~

Sun. Mar.21. Dave's last day in Madura.. After housekeeping to music, he heads out and has a soto ayam at the usual place then pedals up to the park for the wifi. He encounters lots of local tourists at the historic main street mosque and at the palace. Later on Dave takes Adi's bike back to him after washing it down. “Saka lang kong” friend. Out of 'the Maduran living-room' into the Surabaya kitchen tomorrow. No definite plan of where to go next. Where to stay? The Paviljoen Hotel is apparently an option. It's where Adi stays. Dave wants to check out Pelni boats to Kalimantan.

Madura and Sumenep in particular. The central park with its on-line hot-spot right across from the historic mosque. The park has always been a hot-spot of sorts. It's situated between the palace and the mosque. The Sultan of Sumenep used to hold court here with his subjects. Another contrast ~ the colonial buildings and the post modern.

Other observations. D. detects that the Sumenep people think they're a cut above other Madurans. The famed bull races pit different areas in competition and indicates perhaps that they are provincial and intensely competitive. Slightly obese people. Sweet sugar drinks and fatty, deep-fried snacks. Delicious! There are some old people wandering the streets and hotels begging for money. No family?

You're a big curiosity attraction. In Madura these days they don't see [m]any foreigner tourists. There's a terrific ambiance and atmosphere in Maduran towns.

SUMENEP Asta Tinggi ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.20

~ the dawn at Asta Tinggi ~

~Sat. Mar.20~ Dave has a broken-sleep night. Now outside it's a bright early morn. To Asta Tinggi it is. To see the graveyard wherein the royal line of Sumenep are buried! He leaves at about 6am. There's no cloud in the east. The light's getting stronger by the minute. He thinks he should hurry but...he might get lost. The camera comes out at the bridge at the foot of the hill. It get some use even as Dave pushes the bicyle up the hill. Hey young, old-kid, you're almost middle-aged now! There's only one 'annoyer' hanging around the entrance when Dave eventually hitches up the bike to a tree. It's about 7am by this time. 'What a great day for pfotos', Dave remarks to no-one in particular. He spends the next couple of hours wandering the monumental burial ground undisturbed. He warms down by taking some snaps of the self in the room~

~Dave takes off to his friend Adi's for lunch. Arranged the previous day. Before that though, he looks with a sense of satisfaction at this fine mornings catch of pfotos. Right on time, Adi arrives on his motorbike from his workplace to guide Dave, who rides Adi's bicycle to his home. It's not very far away at all. Dave eats a lunch of soto madura...Adi's wife too busy with the new baby to cook. Delicious akeaways...in Adi's very pleasant little garden. Caged birds, trees and shrubs and a colorful parrot look on. Glad he had the gumption to take a couple of large bottles of coke for everyone to drink. The parrot's of an endangered species. There's an amnesty on these sort of pets, Adi explains mischievously. He couldn't turn the bird in, after 4 years. It's on a tether, but seems happy...has the other birds in their cages for company. As well there's a couple of chooks that peck around. Adi 'jokes' Dave about perhaps investing some of his money with him so he can buy his old granny's house next door. Wants to turn it into a homestay...for when the tourists return! Dave probably would if he could, but he can't. As usual the poor transient~

~On Dave's laptop, Adi and Dave together look together at some of the Kalianget and Sumenep pfotos. Adi returns the favor and gets out his album of a one months' visit, 3 years ago, to Holland, Belgium and Germany. Snaps of many buildings and people. Mostly older Dutch friends. Adi points out a 15 years old Dutch girl who wanted him to take her back to Indonesia and marry her! But Adi is already 'engaged' to his present wife. This Holland trip's the final fling of a single man in his mid-twenties. Today, he talks about the different approach the European 'woman' has towards obtaining sexual satisfaction. Dave leaves at 4~

~The Adi family turn up about 7pm at Dave's room at the Wijaya. All partake in sate together over the fence at the by now usual roadside warung. The 'Adis' leave soon because of the baby. Mrs. Adi's a very polynesian-looking, big, dark-skinned wife. Her wide, bright smile's very pacific too. She just wants to get home. Dave knows that Adi made the right choice of a wife. Dave's in need of an early nite! He's too tired to go up to the busy-evening town, like he wants to. It's especially busy on a Saturday night, according to Adi. Dave remembers from earlier visits to eastern Indonesia from PNG in the late 90s, that the great majority of young locals habitually hit the streets in the early evenings to eat, drink and socialize. A great atmosphere. Possibly Sumenep's the same. Dave however, relaxes on the porch at the room. He has to fend off an uninvited tourist-tout. He's persistent, seems poor. Offers his services as a guide. His English is very passable...at least on Sumenep attractions. No doubt, he's fallen on hard times given the lack of tourists after the 2002 Bali bomb 'incidents'~

~Dave decides that he'll leave for Surabaya day after tomorrow. It's time to move on again. He feels that he's explored enough of Sumenep for the time being. The middle-aged Italian's still here and they chat in very broken English. This European can't stand Sumenep. All the attention he gets...his broken English coming to life as he re-enacts the locals' reaction to seeing a tourist. But it's his money-making motives that have made Madura annoying for him. He's going to go to Sumatra next. He's looking to buy Vespas to send back to Italy! The Madurans indicate that they'd be more willing to buy them from him! His opinion of Sumenep, and Madura has no doubt suffered. “Merde, Sumenep, Madura, Indonesia”. He sees them as dogs he says “Like dogs...shit”. He'd love em if he was making money, no doubt. Takes all kinds~

...So if you can't stand the heat of all the attention being a 'tourist' at the moment in Madura brings...don't visit just yet. Madura's a friendly, interesting place to kick back but not everyone sees it that way: depends on your motives!

SUMENEP Birthday ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.19

~ fiftyseventh ~

Friday, Mar.19. What did you do on “three, nineteen” 2010? Another birthday has come bouncing and weaving around...again. Dave's special day. He's still tired from the exertions of the previous day's bike trip, and plans a quiet one. But it's a lovely fine early morning...no resting on his laurels t'day...and so he convinces himself by necessity to go out and take some 'good-light' photos...at the historic 'Agung' mosque on the main street, built around the 1780s, Dave thinks...by the Sultan of Sumenep, King of Madura. Dave's fotos turn out well on the whole. This is the story then...out early in the morning and in the late afternoon on pfoto expeditions from now on. Forget that middle-of-the-day exhausting stuff. To the Kraton the Sultan had built and the impressive edifices of the Royal cemetery, Asta Tinggi, up on the hill to the west behind the town. Must've been quite a guy. Sumenep must've been doing well economically in those days as an ally of the Central Javanese sultanates who had taken over from earlier Hindu, Borobodur rulers.

On the 57^th anniversary of his birth, Dave does the housekeeping. How mundane. He washes his clothes and shaves etc. He's got no shoes he can shine though. And he plans. He visualizes 'off to Kalimantan' next, in the coming weeks as the best bet. But today, he wants some techno-good luck in opening another g.mail address to start a blog. No, no laurel-resting t'day. By the end of the afternoon, he has had surprising success...considering the ridiculously slow pace of the public internet that he accesses from the KFC-style place on the square.

Dave has near-success with the first try at opening a blog but blows it by making a typo with the url address. This he corrects this later on in an evening session in the dark of the park. Amazing here in Sumenep in the park...people with laptops...no fear of muggings or theft! So eventually: daveinsoutheastasia is born, at 57 years old I suppose you could say. Dave doesn't realize the work ahead. An invisible fly on the wall notices that Dave has some 'moments' with the laptop in the park, though. Takes all his concentration...interruptions not tolerated. He rudely ignores an inquisitive country family who are excitedly showing their kids a foreigner...and a laptop. Dave hasn't got it all sussed. There's some stuff he can't work out, like how to upload to it. But he's on the right track when he rationalizes that this is not about his ineptness, but rather the tenuous, tediously-slow local internet connection. It's free.

The other techy thing Dave did on his special day was to check out the voice-recorder on his phone because it would be good to have some audio to put his pfotos to. It works but each time it's put into a new file...and he can't work out how to change this...a mere insignificant unsuccessful detail on March 19, 2010.And of course, his lack of computer savvy must've got him through...just follow the instructions! 'Hey, tick these off buddy' venting his happiness at being alive. G.mail addresses/check; blogspot/check; emails done/check.

So please...bounce me another birthday...but not too soon, OK.

KALIAGNET Madura ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Mar.18

~ exhausting but rewarding ~

Thurs. March 18. Dave is much rested and motivated to get out and about today. Bugger the beach, which is about 25km away and probably not really that nice. He's off on his Kalianget bike trip instead. Unfortunately he starts late in the not so fine morning. After a short time, howerver, it gets very hot. He keeps on going though. It's a flat ride past rice fields and through villages that line the road. Pissing perspiration he manages to get the camera out when he comes across an old warehouse, some goats and then some old buildings. There are some wonderfully nineteenth century warehouse on the outskirts of Kaliagnet. I really dig the doors and the symmetry and utilitarian aspects of such buildings. Across the road there is another like it was a granary for rice storage.

In the east of Madura there's a definite, clearly-evident Dutch flavor to the buildings. There's something else too. It's a sort of Mediterranean-like feeling too. It shows up in the Sultanate's monuments...in the ordinary dwellings too. White-plaster walls and tile roofs. Influences perhaps from earlier Portuguese contact. The Portuguese were the earliest European colonizers in Melaka and east in Maluku, the Spice islands. Renovated, old, commercial buildings line the main road on the outskirts of Kaliagnet. Up behind these is the old colonial commercial centre of town. Dave heads round to the passenger part of the port, the Terminal Penumpang Kapal Laut. The idea is to take a break and internalize some much-needed fluid. He also has it in mind to visit some off-lying islands in the coming weeks. Perhaps he'll even leave Madura by boat to Java. To Jangkar, a port near Banguwangi and near the main ferry to Bali. That way he'd miss out the Surabaya city...again.

Highlights of the Kaliagnet trip include the store-woman who wants Rp.12k for a 10k pack of Marlboro. The difference is only 20 cents but hey! Dave points out the price which is printed on the packet..and that's what he pays. Shit, this sort of thing starts to get annoying...especially under extreme heat conditions. The man with the bike just wants to relax not haggle about prices. In the past Dave has scoffed at tourists arguing prices to save dimes. Imagine doing that all holiday! One big long argument. Yeah great holiday...and it was so cheap! It's been an awful long time since Dave's ridden a bicycle too. It's at least 25km out to Kaliagnet and back...and in the middle of the heat of the day too. He reminds himself to upgrade his planning and not to attempt this sort of energy-sapping outing again for a while.

A Kalianget story...by Adi:

He's with a Norwegian anthropologist, who's doing fieldwork for his Ph.D on local traditions and ceremonies. This would be a couple of years ago now. They're opposite the copshop, main street...on right before the ferry wharf to the off-lying islands. There's a couple of shots left in the anthropologist's camera. So Adi shoots the police station...which has a sign out front saying... “Welcome Home”... meant for returning Maduran illegal migrant workers from Malaysia. Policeman comes over and takes them to his office...grills them...wants to see ID papers and passports etc. Then Adi politely explains that he works for the government tourist office. He's 'an official' too. And what's more...he comes from Sumenep. The tone of the conversation changes and the cop's very apologetic.What's wrong with taking a photo or three...of a copshop anyway. Just like cops anywhere...bored. Wanting to throw their weight around and in Indonesia looking for extra cash. Well, it's not really extra...it's normal. And understandable...they get paid such low 'official' wages!

Dave has his theory about the countries of South East Asia and their level of 'development'. His index of how developed a country is, is to assess the 'official' wages/salaries of government public servants...like cops, teachers, and nurses etc.. He has met Cambodian English teachers who have to work at private schools [for a third of what he got] because they get only $50-60 per month. OK, that's before they charge the parents 'special' fees too. But to bump their income up a relatively liveable $200 a month, they work private too. Have to. To be able to support their wife and baby, and other family members...or save up the $4,000 or so it costs for marriage. Annual salary of $2.500! Lao is pretty much on a par with Cambodia. Vietnam and Indonesia are slightly more developed in Dave's estimation. Thailand's the most developed.

Dave gets back hot, thirsty and completely buggered again. It's been an interesting ride though. The buildings. Not hardly any 'modern' style Indonesian ones. For some reason he recalls what an American teacher-friend Greg, used to say about the Thais. When he was pissed off at them for any one of several reasons he'd moan: “...these people were all living in grass huts a hundred years ago”. It's great to have had the use of a bike to do such adventures. Stopping when feeling like it or when something interesting appears. The guys at the gasoline-loading wharf...'No smoking mister'...and the girls at the port, with their 'Hello mister' in soliciting tone... and the mostly-unemployed guide, outside the Chinese Temple...when Dave was exhausted...and he could only manage a limp but annoyed 'tomorrow' in reply. Not the temple tour guides fault Dave's getting old and didn't have enough gas left in his tank. Back at the Wijaya it's a quick evening sate ayam with the delicious rice again and then rest... pondering the images of the day still floating around in his head.