Archives For October, 2007

Finally managed to sort out all the forum related stuff, like making it bilingual. Been wanting to have one for ages, and lately I have received a good few emails (well, three in almost two week) from people asking for advice on travelling and diving, so I thought I might as well make that information available to everybody in the future. Don’t know if people will actually use it, but I don’t care, I like it. It’s more focused on the general stuff related to travelling, but obviously people can ask for specific country information as well. So far the only country-forums I have added are the ones I can actually say something about and I will add more as I get to travel to them. If you want to have a country added and are willing to check the forum from time to time, then send me a mail or post in the forum. As part of the whole forum setup I have activated user registration on Travel-Junkie.com, so go ahead…

When I got back from Indo I decided to pick up the car we had left with work colleagues of friends. It wouldn’t start. Found this guy who figured that the smart lock was on constantly and he showed me a way how to hotwire and basically steal my own car. Since I got quite a few weird looks from passers-by whenever I pulled my little hotwiring trick I thought it’d be a good idea to get it fixed. Then I managed to find three people to share the costs with. On the morning we were supposed to leave Darwin the bloody car didn’t start. Again. Went back to the mechanic and apparently there were ants in the electrics. Got that sorted and we all left the day after that. That was a Saturday…

After 400 km we had our first flat tyre. The thing was completely destroyed. Changed that and then tried to get the broken one fixed. Just in case. But no such luck. Well, we thought, maybe the next day. There’s a few larger towns we’d pass then and one of them was bound to have a spare tyre for us. By then it was Sunday, and in the Outback that seems to mean that most businesses are closed. We made it almost to Mount Isa when the second tyre blew. No spares left! Got the tow truck out and those guys could luckily organize a spare tyre for us. Then the car started to make funny noises. It had needed loads of water and oil, a lot more than ever before and I was a bit worried about that. But it was working, so no problems, right? Wrong! It just wouldn’t start again after we had filled it up at a gas station near Hughenden. After it cooled down we were good again though and settled down for the night close by…

We didn’t even make 200 km the next day. The car just stalled while I was driving and wouldn’t move a single meter. Got a lift with a road train to the next village, called a tow truck and got driven all the way to Charter Towers, close to Townsville. The mechanics there worked for almost 5 hours on it, trying to find out why it wouldn’t start. The bill started to grow with the long hours, but eventually the mechanics admitted defeat and declared my car brain dead at 17.23. Luckily I did not have to pay for repairs (not that I would have, seeing that I still had no drivable car). Called a mate, who knew someone in Townsville, who knew someone in Charter Towers, just to get a second opinion. This mate of a mate turned out to work at the garage where I attempted to get the car fixed and then, finally, I accepted the truth that from now on I will have to take the bus. Took the number plates off and started to look for a way out of town…

Bandas underwater world is just unbelievably stunning. The coral is still intact and there are fish everywhere. Among other marine life you can see sharks and turtles, great barraccuda, dog tooth tuna, clown triggerfish, squid and napoleon wrasses while just snorkling. The walls, that start just a few meters off the beaches are so deep you can’t see the bottom, not even when you have 50 m visibility and freedive down to 25 m! Diving must be awesome there!! While I was there the one dive school on the islands was closed due to ramadan. No guides would go in the water, cause obviously you will get little amounts of water into your mouth and that counts as drinking! Just one more reason to go back to those charming islands…

Happy Times

For a very long time the bandanese people had it extremely good. There was no raja or king or whatever to tell them what to do. Only Orang Kaya, village elders, but they were…, well, old! So Life was great! They were in the unique position, that their little group of islands was the only place in the world, where nutmeg and mace grew naturally. They traded with Arabs, Chinese and Malay, made a good living off it and, because growing nutmeg does not actually involve much physical work, spend their time fishing or hanging out in the shade on the beach with friends.

First Encounter Of A Smelly Kind

Now, the Bandanese had known for quite some time that a lot of their produce ended up on the other side of the world with people with unintelligible names in strange countries and were therefore delighted when they finally got a chance to meet some of them in 1512. Those guys, Portuguese as it turned out, filled up their ships with spices and then left Banda mostly to themselves for the rest of the century, concentrating mainly on the northern clove islands of Maluku. Not that the Bandanese were really heartbroken over that fact, since those newcomers always insisted on wearing heavy long clothes at all times, while having an aversion to regular baths at the same time.

Second Encounter Of A Smelly Kind

In 1599 everybody in the Banda archipelago knew that something fishy was going to happen or appear, when Gunung Api, the little but volatile 666m high volcano, started rumbling again after a long time of inactivity. And sure enough, not long after another group of pale sweaty guys turned up, this time from the Netherlands. The Dutch then did not waste any time establishing trading posts, buying as much over prized spices as their ships could hold and then set sail for Europe leaving behind a few sailors to look after their interests. Now when the Portuguese found out that the Dutch had arrived they were less than happy and for the next few years those nations tried their best to kick each other in the crotch.

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Hey hey, just got back from Banda, well like 12 hours ago. On yet another Pelni boat. Anyways, it being the end of Ramadan I was clever enough to NOT book a room in advance. So, this morning (3 am) I have been walking around for ages looking for a room. Without success. Did find a 24hour internet place though, so I thought I could change a bit on my site layout. I had thought of all the changes before already, actually. What do you think? Any suggestions or bugs you found? I’d like to hear about that! And tomorrow, if I should find a bed somewhere, I’ll post something about Banda! Today, I’ve got enough of bloody computers…