The seventies Hippy Trail 5

Tanjung Pinang is a very clean place and is a lot different to other Indonesian towns which are very dirty. (But they are nice people). We caught a ferry from Tanjung Pinang to Singapore and arrived here on Wednesday night.

After Singapore we plan to go through Malaysia by train (or whatever else is available) to Bangkok the capital of Thailand, and then fly to Calcutta in India. Then we will travel by train to Delhi. Then we might sidetrack to Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, which is at the foot of the Himalayas. And then we will travel back to Delhi and then trek on to Amritsar and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and then to Europe somewhere. I do not know - probably Holland where H has relations or Germany.

I have really been having a good time travelling and seeing different places and different people. And I am now a first class bargainer. They ask a price and then you halve it and arrive at a satisfactory compromise. It is fun to walk away from them and they chase you and give the article to you for your last final price. In Asia you bargain for everything. H, one of our travelling companions, got a Seiko watch here yesterday for twenty five Australian dollars. It is nearly the same as mine. By the way , mine is going perfectly and it never misses a beat.

P.S. I am sending some film to my home. Would you please get it developed? Two of them are colour negatives. What about my money for my Assurance? And my indentures from the BHP?
Please send me the addresses of John and and greg in South Africa and a few of the boys. We should be in Delhi in about two to three weeks so please write immediately you get this to : Poste Restante, Delhi , India .
before about the 17-4-74.
and then after about 28-4-74 write to :
Poste Restante , Istanbul, Turkey.

Do you have any addresses of our ancestors or relations who live in Germany or elsewhere and I might go look them up. It would be really interesting.

pps.
Bali has paintings, carvings(the best I have seen), dancing, kris knives, volcanos and hippies.
Jogjakarta has number one batiks, terrible quality leather goods. Australian leather belts and bags are by far the best I have seen. ie. made by Mousey and Dicko and the crew.
Sumatra has lions and tigers and elephants and Sumatran heads(both kinds).
Kalimantan has orang utans, and wildmen from Borneo.
Suluwesi has teak wood.

Singapore Resources

Next Stage on the overland trail to Europe

Waves of progress have rolled across the island and city state of Singapore, leaving in their wake a dazzling modern city with towering office blocks and new hotels set in a garden paradise. The new Singapore is most evident as you drive along the tree lined highway from enlarged and modernized Paya Lebar airport and along orchard road with its huge shopping complexes and impressive array of modern hotels. Dozens of skyscrapers , clustered at the harbour front appear heavy enough to flip the island over into the South China Sea.

Modern office buildings and hotels soar skywards overshadowing the sampans in the harbour. Chinese letter writers do a steady business on Sago Street and sidewalk stalls offer Chinese noodles and prawns. Singapore has counterbalanced its building boom by remaining an attractive and open park like city. A series of government enforced programs have transformed sidewalks, gas stations, traffic circles, and public squares into miniature park lands with flowering and fruit bearing trees and shrubs. This vale of green sweeps through the city like a flood.

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