Oh dear.....

It appears that I have slipped up. Somewhere about 5 days ago I crossed the Equator and I never really noticed! No fanfare, no ceremony and no fireworks. I feel somewhat let down that the occasion wasn't marked. Whilst I may have been to the Southern Hempishere four times before Reverence should surely be paid at the passing from one hemisphere to another? So apologies for having let the side, and the Equator, down. Tut, tut.

A full day of travel. 10 hours in a bus to Malung in East Java. We have come down from the hills and are on the plains, so we are surrounded by scenery that you see in the brochures, coconut trees, teak trees, cassava plants, coffee plantations and lots of rice paddies, all surrounded by volcanoes.

We arrived in Malang, a city of 3 million mostly students. Dinner was pizza which made me very, very happy! A change from the chicken & rice!

Neil, Stafford, Karen and I decided to head out for one more beer and ended up in some high class night club downtown. There was no one there. Just us, a DJ and 13 bar staff! Not that this stopped us! A live band came on and sang covers. The lead singer had 12 inch platform heels on and a dress that looked like she had used the foils from an entire tin of quality street! I bet that Robert Smith had never expected Lullaby to be sung in an Indonesian nightclub in quite that fashion! When other people started to arrive it was apparent that they don't really "throw shapes"! The girls just sit there looking glum, waiting to be bought drinks, so we dutifully provided the entertainment off them and even attracted a couple of groupies! Luckily there are no photographs to evidence our evening!