Dear Char-Wel-Dor-Sue:

Pat and I have been to Indonesia on two previous occasions, and the question may well be asked, why a third visit? And particularly at a time when our country is virtually on the brink of a shooting war in the Mid East. In answering, I can only say that my presence at home would not alter circumstances in the Mid East, and I can pray (if I choose to do so) as well here in Indonesia as at home.

Indonesia, in the words of Bill Dalton, in his "Handbook of Indonesia" has this to say of the country: "A country of incredible and diverse beauty, Indonesia stretches over one-seventh of the globe between Malaysia and Australia. This sprawling island chain encompasses mind-stupefying extremes: five thousand meter high snow-capped mountains of Irian Jaya, sweltering lowland swamps of eastern Sumatra, open eucalyptus savannas of Timor, lush rain forests of West Java, with lava-spewing volcanoes the whole length. After existing as a Dutch colony for over 300 years, Indonesia fought for and won its independence in 1949. The Archipelago, astride both the Indian and Pacific Oceans, has been the seed bed of unique Asian and Australian tropical marine, animal and plant forms. The most complex single nation on Earth, each of Indonesia's six thousand-plus inhabited islands has customs, native dress, architecture, dialects, ethnology, and geography all of its own. Its Wayang Puppets, unearthly Gamelan music, exquisite textiles, matchless and varied cuisines, hundreds of tribes, ancient ruins and historical sites, wild life and nature reserves and friendly people make Indonesia one of Asia's last travel discoveries."

There is yet another reason to revisit Indonesia and it is that I know, in a superficial manner at least, the Judeo-Christian world, somewhat less of the worlds of the Mid and Far East (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Jainism), and far less of the Animism and Shamanism of the more primitive cultures, particularly as in New Guinea and Borneo.

As one travels, one learns that there are no "absolutes" except perhaps in the sciences such as mathematics and physics, etc., and that there are certainly no "absolutes" in the world of religions, ethics and cultures. Each of these areas is based upon its own heritage and, unfortunately, has developed while unaware of the world outside of it's own. Perhaps that is why we are in our present dilemma today in the Mid East as we cannot resolve social problems with different religious values and beliefs.

On this trip, Pat and I were again reminded of the statement "If you have time to spare, go by air". Our flight was delayed 17 hours in Los Angeles due to a hydraulic leak in the nose landing gear. As a consequence, we were transferred to the Airport Viscount Hotel and given a voucher for dinner and breakfast. On this trip, we were also reminded that Bali is a long way away; in fact, as I mentioned last year, there is 21 hours of actual flying time, (LA-Honolulu five hours, Honolulu-Biak eight hours, and Biak-Bali eight hours). To make matters worse, since the airport at Bali is closed from 12 P.M. to 6 A.M. every day due to construction, we were obliged to fly to Jakarta, lay over four hours, and then fly back to Bali, a flight of two hours. Thus, we had accumulated a loss of vacation time of approximately one day and our more extensive tour of Bali had to be abbreviated. For us, having been to Bali previously, it was no great loss, but to those who looked forward to the sights and sounds of Bali, it must have been a major loss.

Our visit to Bali was "deja vu". As you know, we had been there twice before and really, nothing was new to us. The hotel was the same Nusa Dua Beach Hotel at Sanur, and indeed one of the best of its kind in Indonesia. Our city tour had to be shortened because of our late arrival in Bali, but we did return to the capital of Denpassar, and then on to several villages that are famous for their arts and crafts. The first place was the stone-cutters village where beautiful objects are carved from dark volcanic lava. Secondly, we moved on to the silver and goldsmiths village where original works of jewelry were created and finally to Mas, the wood-carving center of Bali. Once again, we were impressed with the beauty of the wood carvers art. Unfortunately, because the day was a holiday, the artisans were away at the Temple, celebrating Metal Day, expressing their thanks for all articles made of metal, i.e., their cars, refrigerators and the like. This is yet another expression of the Balinese pantheonism and animistic beliefs that everything in nature has a spirit or a life force and should be recognized, and thanked with a ceremony at the Temple. Offerings of food and flowers are laid at the foot of the statuaries as an expression of gratitude. Every village, large and small, has its temples and there are a great many festival occasions and celebrations performed throughout the year.

After leaving Bali, we sailed north on rough seas for a day along the west coast of Java (Indian Ocean) to land at Cilicap, the port of entry for Yogyakarta. This city, formerly the old capital of Java, was some 200 kilometers from our landing site and took four hours in a speeding bus, escorted by two uniformed police officers on motorcycles and a police cruiser with its red lights rotating and its siren sounding. President Bush could not have been provided with a speedier or better escort. Everyone and every form of vehicle was pushed aside as we raced ahead, through one red light after another, and even in the city itself. It was hair raising and frightening as we dodged one vehicle after another. No one will ever forget this experience, and the only casualty was a small goat hit by a second small van in our party that was traveling immediately behind us. Our visit to "Yogya" was primarily to see the magnificent Buddhist Temple at Borobudur, the largest Buddhist shrine in the world, and Prambanan, a magnificent complex of Hindu temples which is situated not far away. When we were previously at Borobudur several years ago, a fair proportion of the temple was covered with scaffolding and reconstruction under the auspices of UNESCO was under way, Today, all of that has been removed and one can see it in its full glory. There is a lovely park surrounding the temple which is situated on a high hill and pilgrims must descend a long series of steps to reach the lower level or Terrace #1. Because we were with Society Expeditions, we were driven in our bus to the very base of the temple and were told only the President and very few other dignitaries were accorded this privilege. Because of the tremendous weight of the temple, the paneled walls of the lowest level had been pushed aside and the soundness of the entire structure was in danger. As a consequence, it was necessary to reinforce this level and in so doing, all of the reliefs and carvings were photographed and covered up by the new supporting structure. It was said that these panels depicted the lowest levels of humanity, i.e., greed, vice, lust, etc., and that perhaps this foreshadows the fate of man as he learns to depart from his baser levels and ascends toward the God Life or toward Nirvana. Beginning with the second level and walking upward on each successive terrace, one can follow a pictorial history of the entire life of the Buddha. This is one way the disciples of Buddha were able to teach the illiterate masses the story of Buddha's life and his quest for release from the pain and suffering of an earthly existence. The final three terraces at the top are essentially devoid of human and animal figures except for an occasional figure of the Buddha in a sitting position. The forms that are seen are largely geometrical in design.

On the very top of the Stupa is a blunt conical spire representing Nirvana, a state devoid of human consciousness and an escape not only from this world but also from the process of reincarnation. There is planted at the northeast corner a tree taken from the Bodhi tree at the Buddhist "Temple of the Tooth" at Kandy, Sri Lanka (we visited this years ago), and which in turn had been taken from the original Bodhi tree at Varnasi or Benares, India. This was the tree where the young prince finally obtained "enlightenment" (Jesus at Gethsemane) and started out to teach his philosophy. He had left the security of the palace and his wife and child to seek a way to relieve the sufferings of his fellow man. His requests of the local priests for help and guidance were fruitless and it was then through intense meditation he discovered the Truth, namely that "greed" was at the basis of man's problems, and by casting off all earthy possessions, one could escape from the pain and suffering of this world. It is a great story and depicted all over the world where Buddhism was introduced. He never considered himself a God, as Jesus claimed to be.

Borobudur was built in the Eighth Century and took thousands of workmen generations to construct. Unfortunately, it was abandoned as a wave of Hinduism descended down the Archipelago from India. Gradually over time, it was covered by volcanic debris and ash and was lost to history until Sir Thomas Stafford Raffles, the Founder of Singapore, discovered it during a period of British occupation of Java.

The other great religious shrine in Java is the Hindu complex of Prambanan, built in the late Ninth Century. It is presently being restored as much of it was broken down by a succession of earthquakes. There are three main temples, each with a square base and pyramidal in shape. The largest, (45 meters high) in the center is dedicated to Shiva, the Destroyer, or God of Destruction, and it is flanked on each side by temples dedicated to Brahma (God of Creation) and Vishnu (God of Preservation). These represent the Trinity of Hinduism. There are also many other temples devoted to the pantheon of gods in the Hindu theology. There are three principal colors among the Hindu pantheon and Brahma may be represented as white, and the other two colors are red and black.

Just beyond the park like setting at Borobudur and at Prambanan there are stands where religious reliquaries are sold as well as all sorts of souvenirs of interest to tourists.

Our night in "Yogya" was spent in the Ambarrukmo Palace Hotel, the same place we stayed at years ago, and once again, we were greeted in the lobby by a Gamelan orchestra, all seated on the floor. Each had his special instrument and all surrounded a singer in the center whose singing was painful to my ears. Her voice was high-pitched and sounded more like a screech than anything else, I suppose our classical music must sound very strange to them.

After dinner, we were entertained by Javanese dancers and the essence of the art is slow movements of all extremities, especially of the hands and fingers. Hyperextension of the fingers was carried out beyond anything that an orthopedist would consider possible without breaking a carpal bone or tearing a tendon. During our stay in the city, we also visited both a traditional batik factory and also a batik painting factory where framed works of art were available for sale.

Batik is the major industry in "Yogya" and is the world's finest, acknowledged by all. It is sometimes called negative painting, wax printing or wax resistant printing and can be done on cotton, linen or silk. Finely detailed designs are first drawn with a pencil on the textile, then hot wax impervious to the dye is applied with a pen like instrument called a canting and equipped with a spout which holds the melted wax. The cloth is dyed after the wax has hardened. After dyeing, the wax is removed and the clear areas can then be dyed. This process can be repeated many times. The art was considered at one time a spiritual discipline and was only performed by ladies of the nobility.

A brief stop was made at a three dimensional puppet factory. These puppets are manipulated by rods rather than strings. Shadow plays use two dimensional puppets and are seen through a screen.

Christmas Island, (Australia Territory), is situated 360 kilometers southwest of Java, far out in the Indian Ocean. It is best known for its phosphate mining which closed down in 1987 by order of the government, and inspired by the threat of extinction of the Abbott's Booby, a large endemic pelagic bird. In order to mine the phosphate, the overburdened (tropical forest) had to be cut down and this not only destroyed the forest but tore up the landscape, creating a moon like landscape. Big business was shut down by conservationists and environmentalists! Today, two-thirds of the island is a national park and immune to any further destruction. We made two tours of the island to see the Abbott's Booby, the Red Tailed and White Tailed Tropical Birds, and the Golden Bosun. We also saw the Christmas Island Frigate Birds which are similar to those that we saw in the Galapagos and Antarctica. I, for one, was happy to visit Christmas Island if only to get away from the rough sea and a feeling of mal de mer.

The single most distinguishing feature of Society Expeditions is their faculty on board ship who lectured to us in a small modern theater well equipped for slide, movie and video productions. On this trip, perhaps the main attraction and star performer was Lawrence Blair, co-author with his brother Lorin, of the book "Ring of Fire" and of the four part video production of the same title. The latter was shown at home on Public Educational Television. In addition, there were two renowned ornithologists, a marine biologist, and an Asian historian from Brown University. Each are outstanding in their own fields of endeavor and do a fine job presenting their material and in answering questions.

Every evening before dinner, as mentioned previously in my Dad-O-Grams, there is a 45 minute "Recap" where each lecturer reviews the highlights and unique findings of the day. One cannot be everywhere and with all of the field guides at the same time so it is a splendid opportunity to see what was collectively observed by the group.

On all of the previous trips, I was accompanied by a pair of cameras and rolls and rolls of film; this trip is different, as my constant companion is a Sony Video-Eight Camcorder. It is so complicated that I need a tutor to enable me to operate it effectively and to its maximum capability. However, I do know, most of the time, how to start and stop it, and hopefully I shall have something to show at home. This will require considerable editing if it is going to be really worth seeing.

Our second "Expedition" was to Ujung Kulon Reserve on the north tip of Java. It is a national park set aside in an effort to save the rapidly dwindling population of the Java Rhinoceros, of which there are only 45 still alive. The other sites in the world for the rhino are East Africa (white and black rhino), Sumatra and India. We had a Zodiac river trip that was completely unproductive as we saw no birds, no flowers, no fish, only vegetative chlorophyll. Krakatoa lies mid way between the north end of Java and the south end of Sumatra and today, Krakatoa is represented by the remains of the island of Rakata Besar. It consists of a small central volcano called "Anak Krakatoa", (Child of Krakatoa) and some surrounding islands which were probably the peripheral areas of the base of the island which erupted. We went ashore on our Zodiacs and I had every hope of making the summit (450 feet high) and to look down into the smoking crater. However, it was all I could do to make the top of the mini summit. Bill Dalton in his "Handbook Of Indonesia" describes Krakatoa as follows: "Over a century ago, in August of 1983, the island of Rakata Besar disintegrated in the most violent explosion in recorded history when the central mountain erupted, an enormous amount of rock was heaved out and the island collapsed, allowing sea water to rush in to the fiery crater. The resulting explosion was catastrophic. Countless tons of rocks, dust and pumice were hurled 27 kilometers into the sky. Volcanic debris landed on Madagascar on the other side of the Indian Ocean. The boom was heard in Brisbane, over four thousand kilometers away. Atmospheric waves circled the globe seven times. Tidal waves reached 30 meters high, wiping out 163 villages along the coast of western Java and southern Sumatra and rocking vessels as far away as the English Channel. After the initial eruption, all remained calm in the middle of the demolished crater until 1927, when a thick plume of steam roared from the sea bed and before long, rocks and ash rose far enough to form a small cone which is the one that we climbed while we were there. The Mentawais chain of islands lie 150 kilometers off the west coast of central Sumatra and we visited Siberut, the largest of the islands. Their belief in magic is still prevalent and they still practice ritual taboos. Their brand of Animism is again based on the belief that everything, everywhere, is alive and possesses a soul, including states of nature such as floods and rainbows, phases of the moon, trees and animals. No object is ever thrown away while it is still functioning for it's soul would be offended. Souls and the bodies they inhabit are interdependent so what happens to the soul or spirit influences the body and vice versa. Too much "soul stress" is the primary reason for illness and death, as well as all other forms of adversity. They also believe that every human enterprise interferes with the environment. Misfortune occurs when harmony between themselves and the environment, or nature, is disturbed. This is not a bad philosophy! They search for the fault within themselves. Harmony is restored by deliberately changing their behavior, abstaining from certain activities. Thus taboos proscribes altered behavior. It is a working system evolved over long periods of time, and enables tribes to live with changing living conditions such as floods, food and animal shortages and so forth. They respect nature and live within its boundaries and do not do anything to endanger or to destroy it. They hunt ecologically. They are gentle people and even paralyze (poison-tipped arrows) the fish they spear to lessen it's pain. Animism has more to be said for it than many of our man made religions; at least, they are deeply concerned with the protection and maintenance of the land, fauna and flora of their villages.

One of the finest features of an expedition occurs when we meet people who welcome us to their islands or villages, and who, then in return, are welcomed on our ship to share dinner and entertainment with us. On Christmas Island, a group of Australians connected with the National Park Service, our local guides and bus drivers and their families including children were taken from the shore on our Zodiacs and given full run of the ship including the bridge.

On Ujung Kulon, a dozen students from Oxford University in England were welcomed aboard for dinner and for them, it was a welcome relief from their research on reptiles in the area and from living in tents along the coast as they had been doing for a month or more.

Arriving in Siberut in the morning, we anchored in the mouth of an inlet or wide river and rode our Zodiacs upstream for seven miles! It was a "wet landing"; in fact, the tide was out and we had to walk a considerable distance in the mud to reach the shore. The welcoming ceremony was brief and we were escorted into the "Long House" or Communal Hall. Several dances were performed and the music consisted of a bamboo drum and a tablespoon struck upon a piece of metal and was the worst I have ever heard by any tribe. We wandered about the village and saw absolutely nothing in the way of art; no paintings, no wood carvings or sculpted figures and no stone objects. I understand the tribes living along the coast or on rivers have an easy time in life as their sustenance is largely obtained from the river and as a consequence, they do not need to appeal to gods or spirits for assistance. Those residing in the highlands, however, have to subsist on hunting and minimal agriculture, and are largely nomadic. They are the ones who have the carvings representative of the spirits to whom they can apply for help.

Our afternoon in Siberut was spent snorkeling and Pat and I saw some remarkable corals. The sun was not out so their full color was not appreciated. I wore a life preserver or flotation and had no difficulty staying afloat. With negative buoyancy, I previously had to struggle to keep my head above the water. It is more fun now!

The visit to Bawomataluo in South Nias was spectacular, exciting, and totally different from anything I had ever seen anywhere else in Oceania. We landed at Teluk Dalam, a ferry port for vessels from the mainland, and serving as a central bus depot for various villages in the area. We sat in a truck with benches and rode uphill on a narrow road for almost an hour to reach the fantastic "Fortress Village" of Bawomataluo. It is situated high on a hill and reached by a series of 80 stone steps. Upon reaching the central courtyard, the view was striking. The town is laid out in the form of the letter "T" with housing on each side of the street and, at the central point where the cross forms the stem of the "T", there is an enormous Chief's House that tapers about 40 meters high. Each street was lined on each side with homes attached to one another and two stories in height. In front of each were rectangular blocks of stone and round stone tables on which are carved representations of plants and animals. It was very clean and the people smiled and were most friendly. We were, however, besieged with souvenir sellers and could hardly escape their pleas for a sale. A formal greeting occurred, followed by dancing that was wonderful to watch and needed no explanation. The costumes were colorful with head dresses of bird's plumes and skirts of grass. The men wore masks to create a frightening or war like appearance and each carried a spear and shield. The music was a combination of the marimba and drums. This village represented a zenith of the stone culture indigenous on the island of Nias. There are many other similar though less accessible megalithic villages, and it is possible to walk from one to another with a guide. One can use the Chief's House as the equivalent of a B and B accommodation. I used my video camera a great deal and possibly, I may have something to show at home that will give a better idea of this most unusual megalithic village.

In order to get to Lake Toba, the largest and highest lake in southern Asia, we had to anchor at Sibolga on the northwest coast of Sumatra. Buses then transported us to Prapat on the lake where we were taken by a colorful chugging ferry to the island of Samosir. The bus trip was long (six and a half hours) over a very serpentine road with innumerable curves, U-turns, switch-backs, etc., and several suffered from motion sickness. Personally, in all of my travels everywhere, I have never experienced anything like it. Pat had no lunch at our stop at Gur Gur and resorted to aspirin for her headache. I concluded that Lake Toba must indeed be heaven for else, why would man build a road to it? It was a single lane road but the trucks, buses, vans, bicycles, motorcycles, made it a stressful experience. Our driver, however, manipulated our Mercedes Benz bus with the skill of a race driver and I have great respect for anyone who has driven to Lake Toba from the coastline. I am quite sure he could drive anywhere in the world.

The Batak people around Lake Toba are most unlike all other Indonesian people. They are vigorous, vibrant, exuberant, and they say a church service on a Sunday morning would outdo any Black Baptist Service deep in Dixie. We heard an example of their enthusiastic musicality in the evening at our hotel, but had I closed my eyes, I would have sworn I was in Guadalajara, Mexico, listening to mariachi music.

Our day on Samosir Island was delightful as we traveled from village to village in a small two tiered lake ferry boat. Our first stop was Ambarita, where we saw some old typical Batak houses and saw the stone table and chairs that were used 200 years ago by the Chief and his Council as a meeting place, and a "Law Court" to decide the punishment of those who had violated tribal law (theft, adultery, etc.) or were captured in raids upon neighboring villages. Using my video, I recorded an enactment of a form of punishment which consisted of preliminary torture and final execution.

Sinanindo was our second stop and there we witnessed a series of dances with very slow action and with deliberate and detailed movements of the heads and feet. The small orchestra sat on the balcony of a beautiful Batak house. The presentation concluded with a puppet show using full size or almost life size characters.

Our last village was Tumok, where we visited the royal tombs of the founders of the Batak dynasty on Samosir Island. It was there that I acquired my "Magic Wand".

On our last day at Lake Toba, we boarded a bus and drove to Brastagi, a resort area high in the mountains, and there we enjoyed lunch at a beautiful hotel and restaurant and with a golf course! En route, we stopped at the last king's home (Long House), which today is a museum. He was executed by the revolutionaries because he was considered a "Quisling", or friend of the Dutch, from whom independence was being sought at that time. Also en route, we passed through Medan, the capital of North Sumatra. The roadway was again almost impossible and consisted of a one lane job with two lanes of speeding traffic and with a thousand or more near misses. Yet, nary did we ever see a sign of an accident, either old or new. The traffic within the capital was bad, with busses, trucks, motorcycles, petty cabs, and bicycles all competing for position and progress, and our driver actually got out twice to argue with the others for the right of way.

Singapore is the garden spot of Asia and is perfectly beautiful. Perhaps there is nothing else in the world to compare with it. Certainly, the shopping is comparable to that of Hong Kong but the immaculate cleanliness of the city is such that one is prompted to say it has been sanitized. The streets are clean, the architecture exciting and unique, and the shopping a problem for there is everything from everywhere. The problem is in the decision making process. Given my choice, however, I would choose Hong Kong because it is so hectic and disorganized. The Botanical Gardens were re visited and they are indeed wonderful, and the display of orchids is simply fabulous. Although China Town has been reduced in area, it retains some of the vitality and exuberance that was present on our two previous visits. Lee Kuan Kew, the President, is a brilliant graduate of Cambridge, England, and a master of social and city planning. His political philosophy is "Democratic Socialism". Compulsory saving is one of its pillars, and everyone must save! At the age of 55 or 60, all of one's savings plus three percent interest is returned to the individual free of all taxes. Each individual contributes each month 27 percent of his salary and his employer 16 percent, or a total savings that is mandatory of 43 percent each month. Any income above the figure is taxed at increasing increments from one to 33 percent. Primary education is free but secondary schooling, high school, and university are paid for, and can be paid for "on time". Education is not compulsory but simply taken for granted. There is no unemployment insurance and everyone must work. Even for those who have little or nothing only "work welfare" is available. Medical care is excellent but again, nothing is free. You either work and contribute to the economy or starve! The population is 2.3 million, 75 percent of whom are Chinese, 15 percent Malay, seven percent Indian, and the rest everything else. It is a melting pot and racism is decried. All religions are tolerated but a Quaker would be quarantined as everyone must serve a period of military service in order for them to create a core of reservists. There is a President, Prime Minister, Council Advisors (Senate) and a House of Parliament. It all adds up to a very successful Republic of Singapore. Can you imagine being fined 150 Singapore dollars for failing to flush the toilet!! An unparalleled economy has been built on bare rock; no natural resources, no oil, coal, iron, timber, etc. Their only resource is people and the incentive to work and to create. There is a Wall Street which is overtaking the financial capital in this area of Hong Kong and there are innumerable small industries which manufacture "Offshore" for many American corporations, as well as those from Japan and Europe. Our local tour guide remarked, as we drove by many beautiful homes, that he suffered from AIDS, but what he meant was he suffered from "Acute Income Deficiency Syndrome".

En route to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, and our first stop in eastern Malaysia, we were once again informed in the lecture room about Wallacea, the general area in which Alfred Russell Wallace lived for eight years and conducted his research on the flora and fauna of this region. In my Dad-O-Gram last year, I mentioned this line, which is a theoretical line, but which actually provided the boundary between two major tectonic plates, one being the Mainland of Southeast Asia and the other being the New Guinea and Australian plate. On the north or west side, or the so-called Continental side, are found animals that are peculiar to its region and include elephants and tigers, whereas on the other side of the line, the Oceanic side, are found animals that are distinctly different, like the marsupials. The reason is that during the last glaciation period, when the sea level was much lower than at present, all of the islands, such as Bali, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and so forth, were all connected to the Mainland and animals could travel down from the Mainland to this area. On the other hand, the Oceanic group were indeed real islands and separated from the other group by deep Oceanic trenches. It would not have been possible for animals then to have bridged this gap of ocean.

Malaysia is an interesting nation and consists of Peninsula Malaysia, or the land lying between Thailand and Singapore, and Eastern Malaysia, which is composed of the provinces of Sarawak and Sabah, both on the western coast of Borneo. The little republic or monarchy of Brunei separates Sarawak and Sabah. Kuala Lampur is the capital of Peninsula Malaysia and is a beautiful city that Pat and I have visited previously. There is distinctive Moorish architecture all over the city and some Tudor buildings that remain from the period of British occupation. There were many high rise commercial buildings which had been built by the Japanese with moneys loaned by the World Monetary Fund. The economy of Peninsula Malaysia is based largely on palm oil, tin and rubber, whereas that of Eastern Malaysia is based primarily upon the export of timber and that of oil and natural gas.

Our trip up the Rajang River to visit the rapidly growing town of Serikei was fascinating, as much of the shoreline was covered with huge logs or tree trunks of iron wood or, the equivalent of what we could call Philippine mahogany, and all were waiting to be shipped all over the world. Timber is the only export in this area and it is indeed big business. One can understand what they mean by the "Rape of Borneo" as the wholesale clearing of the tropical rain forest is occurring at the present time. It takes some 80 to 100 years to replace these magnificent trees. Borneo, however, is the third largest island in the world so while there is an immediate concern, there is, nonetheless, the realization that it cannot go on at this rate, or else the biomass of this area would be severely depleted.

Entertainment in the evening frequently will consist of a documentary educational video film or a popular movie and on this cruise, we saw "Driving Miss Daisy" and also "The Dead Poets Society".

Lectures on board ship, as I have said, are the hallmark of Society Expeditions, and at Singapore, we ]lost two fine ornithologists and gained an English Environmental and Mammalian Ecologist who works for the World Wild Life Fund of Malaysia. He presented in a comprehensive fashion, in both words and slides, all one needs to know about the ecology of this area, and the real need to preserve our rain forests and endangered species. His job is to do original research as there is so much in the natural sciences that is unknown or undiscovered in Borneo. Who knows what incalculable resources are waiting to be found to be added to our medical armamentariums such as new antibiotics, tranquilizers, and medicinal drugs?

Our visit to the Niah Caves was promised as a "Long Day" and started out with a long Zodiac ride into the city of Miri (Sarawak), where we boarded buses for a three hour trip to the Niah National Park. Here, we were registered and visited the local museum and then crossed over a small river using narrow unstable canoes with a small outboard motor. Then we began a three kilometer walk on an elevated wooden walkway to reach the entrance of the cave. It was in this cave that evidence was found that homo sapiens may have been here as long ago as 37 thousand to 40 thousand years ago, and cave paintings were found with burial urns containing human remains. No bats were seen as they were resting prior to starting out in the evening in search of insects. A few cave swallows or swiflets were seen and we saw how the local people, called Ebans, climbed tremendously high bamboo ladders to dig out the swiflets bird nests so highly prized by the Chinese for their bird nest soup. Vast quantities of guano are still being harvested from these caves.

We started down the river in our Zodiacs but since trouble had developed with two of them, we had to double up and took some 18 to 20 people instead of the maximum of 12. Our going was slow, the sun set and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset with its afterglow. It gradually got darker and darker and lightening appeared on the horizon. What promised to be a two hour Zodiac ride turned out to be three and a half hours and most of it, certainly the latter part, was in pitch darkness. Soon, one after another of the Zodiacs developed problems. Several ran aground on sandbars and had to be towed off and all finally ran out of gas and had to be refueled in the dark. Fortunately, we had several spotlights aboard and could see the river bank and only the river bank! In short, we were driving blindly in the river for some time until we saw the brilliantly illuminated ship far off in the ocean. At this point, we ran into the ground swells and the bow rose and dropped approximately eight feet and it was rough going. We were all covered with sea spray. It was a harrying experience but our Zodiac drivers (two) handled the boat well and we never really felt threatened with a capsize. These Zodiacs are sturdy seaworthy vessels and when we finally arrived back at the Mother Ship, the Captain personally assisted us aboard. Free drinks were served to all for it had been a most exciting experience.

The Sultan of Brunei is the richest man in the world, or so it is claimed, although I would think that the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia and the former Monarchs of Kuwait would rank ahead of him. However, his family is small and after what we had seen today, I am inclined to go along with Forbes Magazine's rating of him as #1 in the world. His magnificent palace, 500 polo ponies, a half dozen polo fields with viewing stands, a super race track and three golf courses adds up to a personal opulence beyond anything I have ever seen. No doubt in times past, there were monarchs who may have surveyed empires that were more opulent but in this present day, he appears to be the wealthiest in the world. Here, there is no redistribution of the wealth for it is an absolute

monarchy, hierarchical autocracy, all based on its wealth of oil and gas. A high standard of living prevails and the average per capita income is $23,000. However, this is misleading as the Sultan's wealth is used in calculating the average wealth of the 200,000 people who live here. Brunei is the size of Luxembourg in Europe! Shell discovered offshore oil here early in this century and today, 50% of it is owned by the Shell Oil Company and 50% by the Brunei government. The natural gas is distributed with one third owned by Shell, one third by the government, and one third by Mitsubishi of Japan. The gas is liquefied by cooling and then shipped to Japan, and we were told that it is adequate to light the major cities of all of Japan! Most everything that we saw or that moved in the way of cars, trucks, tractors, hoists, were all made in Japan. I did not see a single American car.

While in the city, we visited the beautiful Gold Domed Mosque, the magnificent Brunei Museum with its priceless Islamic calligraphy and heirlooms and dioramas of Islam life, the Churchill Memorial and the Sultan Hassan's Aquarium. Finally, we had a riverboat tour of the "Water Village", a sort of Venice built on sturdy wooden pillars and using outboard motored craft instead of gondolas. Twenty seven thousand people, or half of the city, live here, like the boat people in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. Everything they need is here including mosques, schools, markets, entertainment, etc., and, like in Hong Kong, the government is trying to get them to give up their traditional life on the waterways and go into public housing on land. At the end of the day, we were received by the Ambassador and Mrs. Phillips at their residence in the country and enjoyed "Tea" with soft drinks, beer and snack bits of food including crisp Chinese egg rolls and all sorts of cookies, pastries and fruit tarts. He was a gracious host and was really glad to see us for it must be lonely there as it is well off the tourist route.

Of personal interest to my cousin Muriel Hastings was the fact that the very first person I met in the Lounge after leaving Singapore was Mr. Frank Jungers, and his wife Julie. They live in Portland, Oregon, and he recently retired as Chairman of the Board of Aramco, the largest oil company in the Middle East. Formerly, Aramco was a consortium of American Oil Company but is now fully owned by the Saudi Arabian government. He remembered Mina Hastings, Muriel's daughter, who was hired as his Industrial Psychologist.

Many of the people on the second segment of our trip and who came on in Singapore were members of the World Wild Life Fund and included among these was it's President, Mr. Russell Train.

A few remarks in general about Borneo may be of interest. Eighty percent of the territory is jungle, though the lush native vegetation doesn't mean fertile soil. The rain forest soil, minerals and life energy never accumulate as humus, such as happens at home and in temperate climates. Nutrients are perpetually "stored" in the diverse plant life with the help of an extremely efficient recycling system; bacteria, fungi, insects, and animals. A naturalist with jungle experience recently traveled to the deep interior of Borneo for 28 days without coming into open sunlight or encountering any sign of cultivation. The elusive and endangered orangutan, "Man of the Woods", lives here (also in Sumatra) and is a mild tempered, playful vegetarian tree dweller or an anthropoid arboreal ape with no tail. Its young look very much like our baby infants and are adorable as pets. Since the orangutan is now an endangered species, it is illegal to possess one, and all must be declared and turned over to the Wild Life Organization of Sabah. Then they are transferred to the Rehabilitation Center and efforts are made over months of time to reintroduce them into their natural habitat. The extensive logging here has destroyed their natural home in the rain forest and many were killed by falling trees or shot for their young offspring by hunters. We saw them at the Rehabilitation Center at Sepiloc at one of their feeding centers, and they amused us with their antics, stealing anything available, including hats and camera lens caps.

We stopped briefly at Sandakan which was formerly the old capital of Sabah and visited the large market. It was very crowded and we had an opportunity to see the various varieties of fish that were caught in these waters and the wide variety of tropical fruits which were now just coming into season. There is a Chinese Buddhist Temple high on the hill overlooking the city and it was unlike any other Buddhist Temple that I had ever seen. The predominant colors were red and gold and there was lavish ornamentation.

After leaving Sabah, we cruised southbound for a day in the Sulu Sea and arrived at Towali, a small village on the west side of South Sulawesi. Our Zodiacs took us ashore to be welcomed by a reception committee, a small Gamelan type of orchestra and several dance groups. Various wooden objects and some woven silk fabrics were available for sale, but none appealed to either Pat or me. Later that morning, we had excellent snorkeling with a great variety of corals and reef fishes, and then continued south to Pare Pare, the real reason for taking this segment of our tour in Indonesia!

"Toraja Land" was the principal reason Pat and I decided to sign on for the second segment of our expedition. Of course we wanted to see Sumatra, the fifth largest island in the world, and Borneo, the third largest island, but Sulawesi was the island on which the Torajans lived, and it was their typical houses and their funeral rites that intrigued us, and which we wanted to see first hand. We were not disappointed, and their houses that resembled ships sailing in the forest were every bit as exciting as foretold. The roofs have a saddle appearance with the front and rear ends rising high in the sky, and both the front and rear aspects are covered with geometric designs in red, white and black colors. The structure is of tongue and groove construction and is supported with square wood columns, and can actually be lifted up and moved if desired, although it would take an army of men to do so. They always point north or toward their point of origin (Indochina). Behind each dwelling is their rice or grain house that resembles a miniature house, and is smaller and mounted on round pillars to prevent rats from getting at the stored grain or rice.

The Torajans were once fierce headhunters and completely Animistic in their culture. Today, they are largely Christianized and instead of offering "heads" to their Gods, they offer water buffalo and pigs. Their funeral rites or "Feasts of the Dead" are most unusual and the celebration of death is a happy occasion!! We were most fortunate to attend such a ceremony and it is impossible for one raised in our culture, with our beliefs and value systems, to completely understand these rites. A person may die today but his body will be wrapped and wrapped in shrouds and may lie in his house for a year or more, and the spouse will never leave the body until the family has raised sufficient funds to provide a proper burial befitting his or her rank in society or caste. Then and only then can the ceremony be held, and all the family members from far and near and all of their fellow village friends gather together for the event. Each family and friend contributes according to their ability and, later in return, the deceased's clan members contribute the same with interest! It serves to redistribute the wealth and all take home part of the sacrificed animals and accumulation of foods contributed to the event. Unless these traditions are followed, the deceased's soul wanders aimlessly and does not leave the local area and can cause harm and misfortune. It may take a day or three days or five days or even a week or ten days to carry out the festivities. A single water buffalo and several pigs may be sacrificed, or else, in the case of those with more prominence in the community, as many as a hundred buffalo and hundreds of pigs may be sacrificed. All of this assures, so they believe, a happy dwelling place for the deceased's soul. The body is then placed in a wooden coffin and buried in niches in the sides of nearby mountains or in natural eaves throughout the mountain. The more prominent the personage, the higher the niches are dug in the side of the mountain and rendered more inaccessible. We saw such sites and saw deteriorating coffins and piles of bones and skulls. Also in front of the buried niche are wooden stereotype figures called "Tau Taus" that represent the spirits of the dead people. It is the strangest sight that I have ever beheld and represents, in a cemetery at least, an extreme example of the veneration of one's ancestors. "Toraja Land" is an unusual place and people travel from all over the world to see it!! To get there was arduous, with four and one half hours of frantic driving on narrow roads high up in the remote highlands or mountains. These people are Christian by virtue of their extreme isolation and the fact that it is only missionaries that have sufficient zeal to climb this high to effect their conversions. The Arabs, on the other hand, were coastal traders and they confined their evangelism to the shore communities, the trading routes, and to those small villages that were on river approaches and more easily accessible. Although the Indonesian Constitution states that there is only one god, the government tolerates all religions. It is evident, nonetheless, that all of the formal religions have a considerable admixture of underlying Animism.

After leaving Pare Pare, we cruised southwestward to the Sabalana islands, a beautiful chain of atolls with tall palm trees and brilliant white sandy beaches bordered with crystal clear waters and coral reefs. Our choice was Balobaloang Island. The sea was choppy and I elected to Zodiac ashore and to walk through the Moslem village and see the town. It was immaculately clean, as it is swept or broomed every day. No litter of any kind, only fallen coconuts and palm fronds. All the men were out fishing and the women were in thatched huts along the shore, engaged in removing seaweed or agar agar from strings that had been set up as sea gardens (lattice-like) just off shore. Agar is in short supply and brings a good price. Every bacteriologist knows about agar plates used as culture media, and women are familiar with its use as a vegetable thickening. We also saw a fairly large and traditional Bugie Boat being built, all by hand and using the crudest of tools. No nails of any kind, only dowels to hold the planks together. Some form of greenery is used to caulk the open spaces between the planks and apparently, these distend when wet to render the structure water tight. If my snorkel were three feet long, I might have ventured into the rough sea.

Our last day at sea prior to disembarking at Bali was spent on the island of Komodo, noted for its "Dragons" or large monitor lizards. A description of these was included in last year's Dad-O-Gram. This year, I was full of excitement as I was equipped with a video camera and, alas, the show this year was an anticlimax! All the dragons were assembled in the pit, or dried up river bed, and awaiting, as we were, the lowering of the freshly killed goat. Last year, there was a frenzy of feasting as they climbed one over the other to reach up and tear the goat apart. This year, they dismembered the goat and placed it just outside our enclosure high above the pit and only four dragons were interested. A tense moment, however, developed when a dragon broke through the gate, bit one of the rangers, and scattered the tourists far and wide, some falling over one another to get free of the beast. I was too far away, positioned for a beautiful shot in the pit (which never materialized) and I missed all of the excitement. Incidentally, I bought a replica of the dragon carved in mahogany from our escorting ranger. The village of Komodo was formerly a penal colony of the Sultan and the place looked like it, with no concern for its appearance and litter everywhere. Even the Mosque was hardly standing upright!

Our last afternoon was spent in snorkeling at a small cove and pink sand beach on Komodo Island and it was magnificent, especially when the sun emerged from some cloud cover. Then the full cover of the soft corals waving in the current was, for a landlubber, sheer pleasure. Last year, it was the same, with corals of every color of the rainbow, and reef fish of all sizes, configurations and color combinations! No place that I have ever snorkeled matches this for showing marine life so vividly and so beautifully. It is a fitting climax to our expedition and there only remains the Captain's Farewell Dinner this evening and a day and a half in Bali preparing for our return home.

Love,

Dad

CEJ/ngb