An Indonesian Drive

I was reminded of this story I wrote from a few years back by the spotlight thread but it probably is better here. No reason for posting other than references to trucks.

Lang

An Indonesian Odyssey

Or
A Quiet Drive in the Country

Lang Kidby

The totally expected transport-arrangement debacle took place and the expedition finally got away just on dark, instead of the planned 6.00am departure.

I had a 500-kilometre/12 hour journey in front of me, from Ujung Pandung (the old city of Makassar) to the INCO nickel mine at Soroako in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

There were 5 of us in the ubiquitous Toyota, 3rd world station wagon, the

By the time I had made sufficient observations to formulate the above theories, death had its hand firmly upon my shoulder. So, after wiping out two dogs, sideswiping a makan cart and running authoritatively up the arse of an unlit truck, I called a halt to proceedings. We spent the rest of the night in

Lang , excellent observation of the driving abilities of the persons whom are from the whole South East Asian area, they appear to be incapable of grasping the idea or concept, of what is actually required out on the road.

Stuck in Singapore 1974 for the whole year, the

Greenie,

I also did one on driving in China if anyone is interested.

Lang

Very interested, go for it

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regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

The Chinese Motoring Experience
Lang Kidby

The recent survey trip to China for the 2005 Peking to Paris expedition may be of interest to some motoring enthusiasts.

A vehicle was organised for me by Jason Li, the NRMA manager in China, to survey the 1907 car race route from Beijing to the Mongolian border. Gao was a delightful young fellow supplementing his income as a car club break-down mechanic by

into the channel, totally ignoring any whimsical directions the brown clad conductors feel compelled to issue.

Meanwhile the green light has also released the sharks travelling in the same direction as the sardines.. This is fine until one wishes to turn right. He may of course freely do so because he is the only vehicle on the road. Totally oblivious to the fact there is a stream of sardines flowing across his path he sticks his snout into the flow. When it becomes obvious there are objects brushing up against his car he comes to a halt half on the pedestrian crossing with his tail blocking the traffic lane.

The pedestrians, also oblivious to the fact there may be a car turning, come to a sudden stop. Such is the press from the mass behind that numerous people are introduced to gay society or suffer unwanted pregnancies, as the case may be, as a result of their unobservant leaders

As a result, Gao got away from me a couple of times. It was only the sun shining in my eyes instead of the back of my neck which alerted me to a recent navigational disaster. I managed to speed up the process by allowing Gao to make the decision without any input from me then selecting the exact opposite course of action to that he proposed. The sun-in-the-face correction system was only employed once after this.

When we came off the bitumen it was on to a total outback dirt track without any nice gravel road transition. It was obvious Gao had never driven on dirt in his life. After a couple of attempts to launch us into orbit and some strongly worded admonishment he slowed down.

Once again the Beijing licence test came into play.

May as well complete the list and do my India one as well if there is any interest.

Lang

Come on Lang, bloody brilliant.

TDU