Back in the UK

[thelawnet]

Have been Indonesia the last 11 months.

Got back to the UK this morning. Went for a quick bike ride.

Some observations:

* my bike was a lot more upright than I remembered it!



Have in Indonesia been riding this:



With the swept back handlebars and super-upright position it went down hills much slower than my knobby-tyred mountain bike (Continental City Contact 1.75" at ~40psi vs Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.25" at ~16psi), and there was never any desire to pedal hard because it was so uprightg.

* hadn't been touched in a year, just put some air in the tyres and rode off. Rear brake lever very stiff. Tried some lube but didn't instantly fix things. Various rattling noises from d-lock mount, broken mudguards, etc. I should probably look into.

* car noise is horrible! Went on some 40mph Axxx roads, every car going past is the sound of death on wheels, really quite unpleasant. Not really present in Indonesia there you just get idiots with modified exhausts on their mopeds, but on the whole it's far preferable. Did here a rustling sound in the bushes, sort of conditioned to it being a snake, i think it was probably a rabbit though?

* bloody cold. Must wear hat! In Indonesia the hat is only for sun protection. Also I can ride for 25 minutes there and need to drink a litre of water. Here I did about 80 minutes and didn't feel like drinking anything.

* it's basically miserable (at least in Surrey), when I go out in Indonesia I catch the eye of little children who seem to be trained to wave and say hello, and sundry other people who like to greet you in some way. In Surrey, not even a smile.

* the road surface is better and it's much flatter here. But on the whole with the right bike going over broken roads, at least downhill, is quite good fun.

I guess I will go back in the new year.

[Cyril Haearn]

Do you have free choice, here or there?

Do people instantly identify you as a stranger over there cos you look different?

Might be worth visiting Wales, people are friendlier there

[thelawnet]

Do you have free choice, here or there?

Pretty much.

Do people instantly identify you as a stranger over there cos you look different?

Yes they tend to assume you are foreign, but not necessarily in a negative way. It's not a racially homogenous country but basically you are either 'negro', 'bule' (white), 'keling' (Indian'), 'Arab', 'China', or else just one of many different forms of 'native' Indonesian. This is true independent of your actual nationality, the Chinese who have been there hundreds of years are seen as 'China' rather than Indonesian.

Malaysia is a bit more cosmopolitan and if you speak the lingo they might assume you were born there.

[Cyril Haearn]

Why Indonesia, not Spain or Australia or Finland? Was the language easy to learn, can you read and write it?

Heard a programme about Cuba, allegedly the Negros and Europeans have mixed to form a relatively homogenous population