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News March 2007   (Bima/Sumbawa / Indonesia, March 30, 2007)

 
Website statistics: In February, we were able to welcome on our website 34'358 visitors who did 1'233'758 (= record) hits.
                                           (January = 34'745 visitors ??? countries* 765'296 hits)
                                Record days since 12/17/1998 - the birthday of our website: 2/19/2007, 2'518 visitors and 293'778 hits
                      (*= the country counter, which stopped working March 23, 2006, has still not been repaired by the
                              ISP Goldnet - frustrating! - usually there were monthly between 100 and 118 different countries!)
                   
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Again we are a little bit late with the news – this time because we are "back on the road" and also because in this
part of the world Internet isn't introduced everywhere or doesn't work properly. The more East we drive in
Indonesia, the more difficult the communication gets (no English anymore, only Bahasa). That a westerner shows up
here, particularly with an own car, seems to be a miracle, as we are greeted everywhere by a big crowd yelling
"Hello Mister! – where are you going?"
 
While the island of Lombok – about 90 minutes by ferry from East Bali – still attracts some tourists, the following
Easterly island of Sumbawa, another 4½ hours by ferry, usually is flown over or transited non-stop. Now we are
approaching the next island, Flores, about a further 8 hours away, which is more touristically developed thanks to
the "Dragon Islands" of Komodo and Rinca, sandwiched between Sumbawa and Flores.
 
A new island means always a "new ferry" what means a new risk. After another Indonesian ferry vessel sank about a
month ago – this time burning out – it doesn't look like the common safety conditions at sea, land or in the air already
improved. We had the luck to board between Lombok and Sumbawa a relatively "new" vessel. It is a river ferry,
most probably outmoded in Japan, which is now running here on the open sea.
 
But not everything is negative: The weather seems to improve – the rainy season is fading away. The Indonesian
people are still extremely nice (the only problem remains the communication). Fortunately we didn't (yet) experience
the famous corruption; the landscape is diverse – sometimes volcanically looking mountains and hills, sometimes lush
green rice paddies, sometimes palm fringed coasts and beaches.
 
 
Rinjani/Lombok/Indonesia: Mountain track between Sembalun und Sapit

 

The border of Timor-Leste - the previous Portuguese East-Timor - continues to be closed due to the local unrest.
Most probably it will remain like that until after the elections of April 9th. But we are still hoping to be able to do a
"visa-run" to Dili to renew our third Indonesian visa extension, which expires on April 16th, thus avoiding a forced
two-week bureaucracy stay in a bigger city that's exactly the time needed for the procedure to get the permit for
another one-month's stay!
 
Therefore, please check from time to time the progress of our "Indonesia-Trip, Part 3" on our pictured site!
 

New Reports/Pictures

SOUTHEASTASIA:                                      mouse over picture shows comments
                     click a picture to see details

 

 
Sarawak/East-Malaysia
(Island of Borneo), Part 2
(Nov. 2006)
 
Kuching/Sarawak/East-Malaysia (Borneo): Proboscis monkey in Bako National Park
Sabah/East-Malaysia
(Island of Borneo)
(Oct. 2006)

Mount Kinabalu/Sabah/East-Malaysia (Borneo): Early Morning View

Brunei
(Sept. 2006)
 
Brunei (Borneo): ’The 'Ali Saifuddien'-Mosque at sunset in Bandar Seri Begawan
Sarawak/East-Malaysia
(Island of Borneo), Part 1
(June - Aug. 2006)

Miri/Sarawak/East-Malaysia (Borneo): Traditional stilt houses reflecting in the water of the Miri River

Myanmar
(May 2006)
 
Myanmar: Waiting for customers in Kawthoung
Thailand
Temples, Pagodas, Shrines 

Thailand
People, Beaches, Nature

(Nov. 1993 - Jan. 1994)
(Nov. - Dec. 2005)
(Febr. - April 2006)
Thailand: Ho Phra I-Suan Temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat

Laos

(February 2006)

Laos: The ’Patuxai’, the Laotian replica of the French ’Arc de Triomphe’ in Paris

Vietnam

(January 2006)
Vietnam: Two women cultivating a rice field

Cambodia

(December 2005)

Cambodia: The main temple of Angkor Wat with its five towers viewed from the hill of the ’Phnom Bakheng’ - Temple

Malaysia

(Oct. - Nov. 2005)
Malaysia: The four minarets of the ’Sultan Salahuddin’ State Mosque in Shah Alam are visible already from far

Singapore

(September 2005)

Singapore: High-rise buildings pop up everywhere - here behind the Parliament House

Macao

(September 2005)

Macao: The ’St. Paul’ ruin is an inspiring sight also at night

Hong Kong

(September 2005)

 

Hong Kong:From ’Hong Kong Peak’ we get an excellent view of the ’skyscraper jungle’
+ our Indonesia Trip, 3rd part

Lombok, Sumabawa, Flores – April 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 2nd part

Bali – Jan.-March 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 1st part

Sumatra, Java – Dec. 2006

+ our Borneo Trip

Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, Kalimantan – Sept.-Nov. 2006

+ our LandCruiser on a "Rejuvenation Cure"

in Miri/Sarawak - the East Malaysian province on Borneo June-Aug. 2006

+ added from a earlier visit to the USA:

Las Vegas    (Millennium change)

+ added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip:

Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996)

+ Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour:

Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997)

+ Follow-ups about Toyota-Experiences:
Encounters resp. "Ups + Downs" with
Toyota Companies since 1982
On July 7th, 2005, we were able to celebrate after a journey through 150 countries the car's
600'000th Kilometer - very prosaic in front of the post office in Cayenne/French Guiana.
Are you interested into the LandCruiser History, prepared by Toyota Motor Sales USA and taken over by
Toyota Motor United Kingdom? (after some loading-time please klick "IN LEGEND" and afterwards "HAIR TO MAGELLAN
- and you will see that we already belong to it too!)

 

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