Striking up a conversation about the Sugar Commodities Index he slipped in that he was looking for a place to stay. The manager, only too happy to accommodate an international visitor of intellectual standing, gave him the run of the adjacent executives' guest house, an old Dutch colonial mansion complete with maid. After a very pleasant night it was very hard to get Mr Pumpy back on the road in morning. Leaving Bali , and crossing into Java at Ketapan, all of a sudden thrusts one into a world gone crazy. It's like a bad acid trip.
Trucks pass within inches, buses come down the wrong side of the road and cars belch smoke.
Indonesia is an archipelago made up of many different 'countries', and each leg of this ride reflects this diversity of people, land and attitudes to Westerners on bikes. Bali , despite the impact of thirty years of Australian tourism, has maintained a surprising ambiance. This says a lot about the Balinese themselves, who are racially and culturally distinct from the Javanese and come from the opposite end of the gene pool to the Australians. It's a beautiful place, easy to ride if you don't mind a few big hills and has great food. Java , as I've said already, is a world away from Bali.