BP GEOGRAPHIC

I got a sunburn because I walked under the hot desert sun in Dubai, I got wet because walked through rain and permanent humidity in Hong Kong, and I didn’t sleep one night.

Raindrops kept falling on my head… First cold rain in Munich and Frankfurt, then warm rain in Hong Kong.

Then I arrived on the island where I would stay longer. I even went by motor scooter over Bali’s roads. The problem is not the left hand traffic, although I almost left the parking area on the right side, but rather that I got used to traffic rules before…

Later I went to a volcano but the further up the mountain the more it rained. But it was ok on the motor scooter. However, the rain was worse than fog and it got colder and colder. Fortunately I took enough to wear… Not everyone did so.

It is possible to go further eastwards than Bali, and I did so. I went to Jayapura on Papua, the hometown of a best friend, a Chinese Indonesian girl.

Afterwards I was on the way from Jayapura via Makassar, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi.

So exhausting, the journey. I only slept three hours and then had three flights, the next day another one in the early morning, so I slept even less…

At Jakarta Airport there were Formula One and the National Geographic Channel on the TVs there.

Announcement by an Indonesian flight attendant: “The seatbelts have been switched off”.

When I arrived in Hanoi I was so impressed by its development. So many things improved since my last visit.

For the second time I was riding a motor scooter on this journey, but that time it had an automatic gearbox and there was right hand traffic. Unfortunately the brakes of the scooter were not the best. However, people don’t really mind if you bump into them as those scooters are reinforced.

There was a very strange bird outside of my hotel room. At least I think it was a bird. Sounded as if it needed some oil.

Back in Hong Kong, that was a day, so hard to get a room, even my usual hotel was fully booked that one night. I spent some time in the Chungking Mansions, then I walked from Tsim Sha Tsui to Prince Edward.

When I got back I had forgotten the door code…