FEAR OF BLACK WATER FEVER .

Wow, thank you for your lovely comment, Paul!

You’re lucky to have got to the Raja Ampat — we haven’t made it there yet — or Banda Naira, either. And 15 years in East Indonesia — WOW!

I have read the relevant bits of the Malay Archipelago, particularly the one where he talks about the Togutil coming into towns to sell their little birds, just as they still do today — and it’s fascinating how little it has changed, in some ways, when all the world around it has transformed beyond recognition.

15 years in East Indonesia? I’m VERY jealous.

What a super story, ………

Lived and worked in East Indonesia for over 15 years, found a japaneese destroyer offshore Ujung Pandang ………. and travelled across the Moluccas for many years, during one trip to NE Halmahera that uppermost right hand leg, eye got stranded at a failed logging site when our boatman took off with our provisions and boat …………. after four days eating only wild coconut n wild bananas was pretty burned on beach and thinking like robinson crusoe …………. we got rescued with a tug going by who saw us on the beach.

East Indonesia, eye can truly vouch as one of the most fascinatins places to visit for real adventurous travellers, and so much history from WW2 and thousands of years before, it also has some of the most most magnificient dive locations imaginable, many as yet un explored, …………. from Raja Ampat isles a little like Palau, to outer caldera of Banda Naira, and many many others ………. and lovely friendly kind and considerate local people ……….. anyone reading ………….. go while you can before it ever gets commercialised /……….. and if you can get a copy of a book called “the malaysian archipelago” read it before you go and take with you, its by Alfred Robert Wallace, whom Wallaces line originates from, a line between Sulawesi and Kalimantan on down between Bali and Lombok that is said to separate flora and fauna from Australasia and Asia.

In Irian Jaya is a magnificient rainforest, longest stretches of untouched mangrove in the world, no primates / monkeys, yet there are tree climbing wallabies and sawfish ……….. at Pulau Gebe and some other northern moluccan islands there are coconut eating crabs that are delicious to eat and served in restaurants in Ternate, from hardwood boxes as otherwise the crabs would eat their way out …….

Eye have most beautiful memories about east indonesia, ………….. awesome boat trips, sunsets, ……… my most favourite place on this planet, …………. from an irish guy who has lived and worked in a lot of interesting places from Montevideo, to Kazakhstan. and USA to Australia, Calabar to Babylon ……………

What a superb blog you have written and good writing on travels with your son, ………. good on you, it will do him the world of good, literally

Thanks for the extra detail on his Taiwanese background — the local Indonesians, however, considered both him and the other soldier they believed stayed with him as Japanese. I’m aware he wasn’t a native Japanese speaker but I’d be very surprised to hear that he didn’t speak any Japanese, given that he served in the Japanese army and would have been taking orders in Japanese from 1943 onwards.

I emailed you with Cam’s email contact details: did you not get it? I’ll email again if you didn’t…

I didn’t get down to meet her. Would have done it with a camera, or without Z — nearly did it anyway, but thought travelling 10 hours straight to meet a 105 year old witch who dated Nakamura, interested as he was in Nakamura, might be a bit of a stretch for him. Amazing that all these people are still alive, to be honest with you…