[AKSA]

Folks,

Off to Indonesia to visit the wife's family! 

I'm taking a large plastic container so I can be emptied into it for the return journey.  It's hot up there!      

Those wanting to contact me urgently can do so by PM through this forum.

I'm taking LOTS of work in a memory stick, so I can entertain myself as the bahasa goes over my head......

Should be quite a hoot, long time since I've been 'home'!   

Happy New Year to all AKSAphiles and thank you for all the support for Aspen through 2008, should be a lot of fun with recession, regional wars and climate change on the horizon.....  never mind, oil is cheap right now!

Ciao,

Hugh

[AUDFILE74]

have a great time and safe trip hugh.

[kyrill]

be back in one peace tuan

[AKSA]

Peace, Kyrill,

Presently at Changi in Singapore, my golly, what incredible development since I was here last, three large terminus building each bigger than the entire Sydney International, the dream of a Far East transportation  hub is now a reality.....

I'm suffering withdrawal from my pcb program already!!

Later,

Hugh

[gaetan8888]

Hello Hugh

Have a nice time in Indonesia and...

Happy New Year to you and every AKSAphiles

 

Gaetan

[Tliner]

Hi Hugh and all the AKsaphiles,


Have a good and successfull New Year and enjoy your music.

The weather in Melbourne is under 20 degrees and light rain (mist) is falling today.

We all no doubt will be awaiting Hugh's return when we expect him to have more ground breaking designs ready to pull out out his bottomless hat.

Hugh, have fun old son as your fingers slip on an even hotter keyboard!

The Soraya and the VSonics provided a few hours of pleasure to some visitors yesterday. They were amazed that recorded music could sound "real".

Enjoy!

Cheers, Laurie

[AKSA]

Thanks Gaetan, Laurie,

I'm now at an old school friends home in Sanur, Bali, staring out across his pool, surrounded by geckos and a fitful breeze, connected by wifi to a local network, and sweltering in high humidity which surely must break soon in a downpour.  My wife and daughter are out swanning around, I've just had a lovely siesta, a cold beer is on my table, this is really quite nice....  it must  be about 28C.

I have all my work on an 8Gig memory stick.  I've been working away at a pcb layout, and am hoping for elegance to dazzle the gods.  I find that my Indonesian has not been forgotten after all and I had quite a chat with a lady at a warung about the Bali bombing and the effect on the local economy.  It's recovering, and the goodwill from the Balinese is a lesson for all westerners.  An old man from Holland, near Eindhoven, who married a Javanese lady forty years ago, walked up to us in a restaurant and showed us all a picture of his daughter, aged 32.  She looked very like my own daughter, Alessandra, he was very, very nice, lovely manners.  I'm amazed by how many Europeans come to Bali, it's a long flight.

I remember everything which entranced me about Asia when I came here first as a young man nearly thirty years ago.  The timeless manners, the constant smiles, even in difficult situations, the disinclination to confront, the hardships of life.  It's all here still.  In my own welfare society, a sense of community has broken down, but along with strong family values it's a daily and enjoyable part of Balinese life.

This is the first OS holiday in a long time, I am very impressed by the change of scene!

Happy New Year to all Aspen customers, past, present and future, and may this recession prove a short one.........

Ciao,

Hugh

[lonewolfny42]

Hugh....
I just came across this........be careful there.

[Tliner]

I saw most of the TV news last night (Monday) and there was no mention of earth quakes in Indonesia. But there are quakes every other day in that region along with the occasional tidal surge and even tsunamis apart from bombings and plane crashes due to poor maintenance and piloting etc.

[SuperMart]

So it's not all bad then?

[Seano]

Quake was in West Papua (western end of Papua New Guinea)....which is about 4000km away from Bali, where Hugh is.

[Tliner]

Marty, Life just goes on!

[AKSA]

Thank you Chris,

No quakes here;  far away in West Papua as Sean has said, but quakes of another kind - Bali belly is alive and well, and could last another week, dammit.

Marty,

It ain't all bad.  Even found a good cup of coffee - a cappucino at a local doughnut franchise.  Life here could be very comfortable....

Constant trail of relatives and friends, all anxious to meet and chat.  An old Army friend of Sri's came around with her daughter;  she is married to a physician in in a city about 150 kms from here.

More later;  preparing to go out again, and tomorrow leave at 7:30am for Jakarta en route to Pekan Baru in Sumatra.

Cheers,

Hugh

[kyrill]

JKT Hugh?

A terrible city, once an oasis of European rest and   tranquility now a hot un-restful place full of
snail slowly crawling traffic jams, dust and over the top modern anonymous skyscraper world full of asphalt
Only two temperatures HOT HOT HOT or cold airconditioning
Good luck.

[lonewolfny42]

Thank you Chris,

No quakes here;  far away in West Papua as Sean has said, but quakes of another kind - Bali belly is alive and well, and could last another week, dammit.

Cheers,

Hugh

I had to look that up Hugh........Bali belly....

[AKSA]

Folks,

Now seated in an internet cafe on the top floor of the best Mall in Pekan Baru - very comfortable.

Big oil city of 2 million in the Riau province of Sumatera, about 400 kms inland from the eastern side of this very large island adjacent to Malaysia.   We've just visited a huge, imposing mosque of astonishing Islamic architecture built by the Saudis 25 years ago to build OPEC solidarity in member countries.  It is the centre of religious life here and truly impressive.

A lot of wealth here, as you'd expect.  All Asian cities give the impression they will be very nice when they are complete;  nothing seems finished, road surfaces are appalling, often no sidewalk at all, lots of big pools of water and mud.  But teeming with life and dynamism, and more relaxing than Semarang.

Back to JKT tomorrow.  I agree with you, Kyrill, but I've adapted to the heat now and I'm really looking forward to seeing the changes of 25 years.

Cheers,

Hugh

[Johnny]

Hugh,
Thanks for the Asian despaches. Great travelogue.
How’s the belly? Hope your not resampling the flora at every stop   
Acidophilus is what you need mon!
Cheers!
John

[AKSA]

Hi John,

Thank you for listening!  This is quite an epic.......  Bali belly still going strong, but I'm used to it now and it doesn't bother me.

Now Jakarta.

25 years since the last visit is a long time, almost a generation, but nothing prepared me for the changes.  This is a city of skyscrapers - an entire horizon of them, much like any very large western city - huge freeways, tollways and transport interchanges.  The numbers of cars and particularly motorcycles boggles the mind, perhaps because the road system is completely inadequate.  You could double all the carriageways, and I'm confident things would improve by perhaps 20%, no more.  The road chaos would be completely unsustainable in a western city, because our sense of community has all but broken down and road rage is common, and road discourtesy routine.  But in Indonesia, it works.  People are unfailingly courteous, there is less blowing of horns than I remember, and although it can be slow, progress is steady.  People are given to spontaneous U turns in major roads, it's hilarious, but no one seems to mind, even if it's a minibus and takes up three lanes during the process.  Motorcyclists are definitely lesser road users;  they are acknowledged, and no one is actually rude to them, but when an august four wheeled contrivance approaches, they are politely requested to make way.  As I gaze morosely out the window at three approaching bikes, thinking they surely won't be able to avoid us, somehow they always do, it's a remarkable dalliance with the laws of phsics.  Moreover, they are expressionless, this is just life, let's get on with it and move on.....  and often a Honda 125 will have Dad, a child behind him, and Mum at the rear, often with a baby in a sling.  It really does make the Health and Occupational Safety Guidelines in good old Oz look like ridiculous nanny state baggage......

But then there is the environment.  It's pretty dirty.  Asian roads are seldom built with sidewalks, and with the heavy rain there's often a cesspit of mud and rubbish along the road, not helped by the offroaders who like to chase the lead!!  We could all make suggestions that they should do this, or that, or throw all the two strokes off the road, yada yada, but the truth is this is an extremely competitive, cash strapped economy, and there is not the money yet to indulge fantasies of low emissions and green thinking.  Seems a bit incongruous anyway in a country where a stick pressed into the fertile ground grows leaves after a few weeks.

There is extraordinary grace in Indonesia.  You see it on all streets and in the shops, particularly amongst the working people.  JKT is not strictly a tourist destination, you see few westerners touring the streets here;  they are mostly in Denpasar, the way Suharto intended it - he sought to 'protect' Java from tourism.  I felt very safe wandering around Jakarta, Bogor and Semarang.  While we were in JKT we stayed with an old Army friend of my wife - her husband is a retired General and a man of great kindness and substance.  He drove us to Puncak on Sunday morning for a cold breakfast overlooking a tea plantation to remind us of Australia (Indonesians have highly developed irony and at the end of it he suggested we might like to stay in Indonesia where it's warm rather than return to Oz for winter!) - it dropped to 19C and was very cold, we were all almost shivering.  It was a breakfast to remember, from about 2000 metres, swathed in clouds.

The weather was good all through, and we stopped in Bogor at a famous shopping strip where Sri, Alessandra and all the other girls bought handbags, mostly ripoffs of good names, but very nicely made and dirt cheap.  My daughter was in seventh heaven, it was quite amusing.  While we were there the rain bucketed down, and I thought the whole street would float away, the intensity of the rain is extraordinary.  We returned to our friends home and enjoyed a movie, their life is very comfortable, but they do not have domestic help, which is unusual in this country a domestic is around $US50 a month.

Today we travelled the express train from JKT.  We left Gambir Stasiun in JKT at 7:15am and arrived around 2pm.  The train was clean, on time, food was served at no extra charge, it was air conditioned, and very comfortable.  Things have really changed;  I recall when Sri and I travelled this same train in the eighties and it was hot, very crowded, and stopped every few miles, taking about 12 hours to make the trip.  And despite global warming, I feel it's not been as hot as all those years ago.  I hesitate to say it, but it's even cool at times.

We have another four days here, then a stopover in JKT, then on to Singapore, and then Melbourne direct from there.  I am astonished at the development, the emergence of a well defined middle class with the dynamism that goes with it, and the levels of investment I've seen in this country.  Recommended travelling.

Cheers,

Hugh

[kyrill]

well written,as usual : )

the Puncak is very cold even 19 degrees Celsius..brr and when it is raining you surely need the open fireplace. Have you not visited the (world) famous botanic garden in Bogor?

I dont hear you say much that with a little investigation, you can eat heavenly nice Chinese and Indonesian dishes ( not in the same restaurant.) in whatever city you are

[AKSA]

Kyrill,

I'd no idea you were so well travelled in Indonesia.  What brought you here?

Ca va sans dire, concerning heavenly food.  Wherever you go in Indonesia, there is always a good restaurant close by, and all of them will serve magnificent food.  However, this is true all over Asia, indeed the States, Australia, Netherlands, I think it is axiomatic that wherever there are human beings, there are good restaurants, I'm sure even North Korea has a few!

I failed to mention that we are again in Semarang, fast becoming my favorite city.  It's very nice here, a hilly place, and not as hectic or polluted as JKT, or as hot as Surabaya.

Ciao,

Hugh