Hounded by Hondas in Sumbawa

Dear all

here we are sat at the port of Bajo waiting to go to Flores, last night was zero fun with Hondas using the road outside our stop over as a race track.

I now officially hate Hondas....

It went like this

7 to 11 pm Honda racing

11pm calls to Allah

11.30 pm Honda racing

00.30 am Hondas went to bed

00.30 the dogs took over the streets and howled like lunatics until 02.45

(Perhaps they where calling to Allah also)

03.00 am more calls to Allah

(Perhaps to ask for the dogs to pipe down)

After a short prayer, we got to sleep at 03.30 sleep, until

A mixture of Hondas, hounds and more calls to Allah woke us at 06.00 !!

On a more positive note

TWO islands to go

Tomorrow Flores

Then onto Timor

Then fly to OZ for the run down to Melbourne....

Clutch is slowly disappearing

Haynes reads as follows

1. It is best to remove the engine to carry out a clutch change.

So stop right there !!!

Lets hope it holds out until OZ..........

Indonesia Part one

Nearly there !!!!

A quick note from us....

We are in Bali

Pictures from Java to follow

Quick thought on Java

We have met some fantastic people in Java, everyone has a smile and a wave, some take photos.

BUT

What on earth happens to them when they get on the road ????

Never, ever, have I seen so much traffic !!!

They must have the patience of saints, how anyone ever gets anything done on Java is beyond me and where do all these people live ??

Longest Jam, 42 miles.

Shortest driving day 11 hours and drove a staggering 297 KM !!

My Patience was nearly fried, unfortunately, my clutch is, its been hammered, so its out with the Haynes manual when we get to Melbourne and I will learn how to change the clutch component's of Tiny.

Its the least I can do for him......

Next stop

Lambok

Indonesian Island of Sumatra

Looks like a few people I know!!

The third longest bridge in Asia, links George town and the main land of Malaysia.

Tiny gets that sinking feeling as he is lowered into the hold of the Lestati 3.



He was very brave......

Tiny hanging tuff as he gets unloaded at Belawan docks

A tree, with lake Tobo in the background.

same, same

Far southern tip of Lake Tobo

Lots of scenery

Managing to stay on their own side of the road for a change, the normal route of travel is to sort of drive in the middle of the road honking your horn to move you out of the way......

An Indonesian man using his head.....

same, same

The bus was carrying the phone !!!!!

(note the buses position on the road - in the middle!!)

The Eagle (Tiny) has landed !!!!!

Well shiver me timbers....

Tiny and titchy are safe and well, unloaded and rolling down the roads of Indonesia !!!!

We had a bit of a shock when we where asked for a total of $600 to clear the port, including having to bring in heavy lift equipment, in the end we paid up and we are now around 450 KM south of Medan.

Indonesia continues to test our Britishness, the road manners here are odd (that's proper polite) the Asian flow that we had become accustomed too has disappeared for a slightly more random version of wacky races...

This is another country that I hope to get out of in one piece, I have already shared a few choice words with a more than impolite bit of carve up served to me by a microvan at a fuel station....

More to come, almost for sure...

The roads here thus far are not quite as bad as Kaz however great they are not, prone to disappearing under stones and mud, and due to the nearly every vehicle leaking oil, the roads are slippery when dry and turn to treacherous when wet..

We have noticed that despite being only a couple of hours from the equator the temperature has dropped considerably and its raining more than normal, so we have to assume the rains are upon us...

Which in turn will make the journey a little more interesting.

I know for sure that at least two cars in Sumatra have wind screen wipers, the rest is anyones guess.

We are now full on into Ramadan with the fasting festival concluding on Saturday, we hope this does not hinder our planned ferry journey to Java, scheduled for Saturday.....

So then we are a quarter of the way down Sumatra, about a tenth of the way through Indonesia, and therefore around 3500 KM from OZ and our final destination......

We are slowly starting to wish the next couple of weeks away so we can finally stop and gather our senses.

Tiny in Malaysia, Us in Indonesia and the AWOL agent....

Pictures to follow....

We are now sat in Medan, Indonesia, the shock of Indonesia is slowly sinking in after the relative order of Malaysia, we are back in the thick of chaos......bugger springs to mind.

Tiny is now somewhere out on the ocean in a very small boat, he only just fitted in the hold, the fit was tight enough to have me springing around making sure we did not put a hole in the wooden ship!!!!

We used Cakra free shipping agent as suggested by previous overlanders, thanks Dave for the red hot tip, Mr Lim delivered as promised, unlike the Indonesian shipping agent who took an early finnish so we now must wait to Monday before we can clear Indonesian customs.

We now intend to travel through the Islands of fire as fast as possible, we expect Sumatra to be a bit of the challenge.......

Its a waiting game......

We are now sat in Malaysia, waiting for a ship to carry us and Macbeth across to Indonesia......

We have provisionally booked Tiny, tichy and Bertie (macbeths ride) on a small boat due to leave Friday.

We will all go on the fast ferry ready to meet the cars at the other side.

Tiny is going to be hoisted by crane onto the boat, this will become a picture to end all, 4 tonnes of defender onto a little boat.....sounds too good to not take a picture or two.

Lets hope not too much water is involved........

Photo Gallary Laos -

The french connection is still very evident in Laos.

As per the label !!

Real working ellies...

Pat with her new disciple's......


The Mine victims center in Laos packs a bigger punch than the millions of bombies dropped over nearly a decade during the silent war, words fail to sum up the devastation and suffering this one way war continues to effect Laos many many years later............




Most of the victims are children......imagine this in Europe !!!!








Our first view of the Mekong, just below the 19th Parallel.

Stunning views.....

And mountains.......

Not bad for a back yard.....

The average house in Laos is made of wood, straw and mud.

Tiny sat pretty beside the Mekong

They go willingly to their God early in Laos

Photos from Angkor Wat - Cambodia

As always Tiny managed to stick his nose in the shot, he never was camera shy....

If you ever needed a reason to come to Cambodia, without question, Angkor Wat is it !!!!

Trying to get artistic with the frame......

This place is proper old!!!!

He seems a happy chap!!

Even Pat managed to get on a picture or two...