Now just some general stuff about Indonesia and the kind and gentle people here. I’m sitting at a Bar, asked the Barmen what be makes an hour? “$150,000 Rp a day” he said, so about $15.50 nz dollars, I almost tipped him a days pay after hearing that, this guy also has a family he hardly ever saw due to living onsite, I took him and his mate out to the boat for a beer. This was on Gili Air, one of the popular Gili Islands, tourists arrive from Bali on the fast ferries daily. Driving into Mataram a few days later was like a video game, but for real, the horn is essential, overtaking mandatory. Arai says “Mosquitos everywhere today”, meaning motor scooters, hardly anyone with a helmet, we approach the roundabout, he doesn’t bother going around just cuts straight across to our exit, it seems to work, try it. When I say 'We' I’m talking about Arai and me, Arai being my driver, he's cool, good English, I’ve meet both his ex-wifes, all his kids, Mother, Sisters, Brothers, ex wife’...

Hello from Indonesia. After the great site "following sea" announced they're closing I'd moved over to Noforeignland and if you want to find me on a map this is your best bet for now, altho the site and "app" is a clusterfuck compared to following sea. And so I intend to use this site again from now on, I like to write and write I can here. Before I forget while in Sydney my new Genoa arrived from Lee's in Hong Kong, many thanks to Sarah&Paul, friends of my sister Lynn, who allowed me to have the sail delivered to their place and cheers to Paul who kindly delivered the sail, thank-you both so much.   Since I arrive in Indonesia three months ago I've been having a look around, I sailed across to Bali, my Niece Em (Emily) was arriving from Melbourne with her friend Pamela in a couple of weeks so I thought I would check out Serangan harbor, which is one of two enclosed harbors down south Bali, it turned out to be very untidy, full of rubbish, a ...