Beautiful Evening Light

Spring is on its way to Denmark. The winter has been quite mild but very grey. Now finally the sun is starting to get through the clouds and the weather is great for some evening photography. This picture was taken in the Dyrehaven just North of Copenhagen and is of a beautiful old royal hunting lodge called Jagtslottet-Eremitagen.

The Biggest Ship In The World

The biggest ship in the world the Majestic Maersk was in Copenhagen last week. Luckily I had a ticket to go round it as my wife works for Maersk. The views from the top were incredible. As Copenhagen is not a city of many tall buildings you do not get this sort of view often.

If you want to go and see some more pictures I shot on the day go check out my flickr pages.

Images of the Majestic Maersk

All the best JW

Jonny Rides 52 Miles For Charity

Hey,

Why don't you sponsor me, I'm riding 52 miles around London in aid of Leukaemia Research on Sunday 19th July 2009.

http://original.justgiving.com/jonnyrides52

All the best JW

Semarang to Surabaya or 15 Minutes Of Fame And Champions League Heartache Part 1

Yes that’s a picture of Lyns and I in a radio station. It's called a ‘hook’ to get you interested in reading lone reader because it’s at the end of this tale and not the start.

Allow me to begin where I left of in the jungle at 5.00am.

It was an early start that saw us travel back down river on our Klotok to catch a plane back to Semerang and then a train across the north of Java to Surabaya.

There was a reason I didn’t talk about Semerang in my last post, there was nothing to say. As a very long day unfolded in Semerang it became clear that it was not my lack of investigative travel skills, to unearth the hidden gems the city had to offer, basically what looks like a shit hole normally is a shit hole.

(Apologies to the people of Semerang who I could potentially have offended with my comments. In order to set the record straight and provide fair balance to the debate upon reflection I have uploaded a series of images to flickr which can be found here in order to allow people to take a rational fact based assessment based upon the cities esthetics and cultural landmarks.)

Anyway I digress from the story at hand. The journey out of the jungle was as spectacular as the journey into the jungle. Our guide Ferri and the crew must get an honourable mention for looking after us so well on our time with them. Ferri was a real character who has lived in Pankalan Bun all his life and is studying to be a lawyer, having already tried his hand at seeking election in the regional parliament but failing I feel sure that I could have met the future president of Indonesia.

To digress slightly further Ferri and I struck up a bit of kinship during the trip he would tell me his stories and I would tell him mine. This I think was a way of understanding our cultural differences. Let me give you a small example;

Ferri; “Jonny did I tell you about when an Orangutan chased me with with a machete?”

Jonny; “No Ferri please tell me some more.”

Ferri; “A female Organgutan was watching the workmen in Camp Leakey, when they were on a break she picked up the machete and chased

me with it, copying the actions of the workmen by swinging it from side to side.”

Jonny; “Ferri that sound very dangerous you could have been killed!”

Ferri; “Yes I laugh now but at the time it was very scary!”

Jonny; “The Queen of England tried to shoot me once”

Ferri; “No way she seems like a nice old lady!”

Jonny; “I was having a picnic in her garden and she shot her gun at me through the window of the palace.”

Ferri; “I have never heard of this happening!”

Jonny; “No Ferri it is all covered up by the secret police. She has killed many people who have tried to have picnics in the palace gardens.”

Ferri; “That is horrible you could have been killed.”

Jonny; “Yes Ferri I laugh now but at the time it was very scary!”

This is a picture of Lyns, Ferri (In the reversed hat) and the rest of the crew.

Anyway after a plane ride back from Pankalan Bun we arrived in the city of Semerang to collect our main luggage before catching the 2.00pm train to Surabaya.

At the airport we were greeted by our guide Nofri. Why we needed a guide didn’t become clear until we found out that our train wouldn’t be leaving until 3.30pm. It was now a little bit before 9.00am!

Nofri has lived all her life in Semerang and was clearly on a one woman mission to turn Semerang into the cultural icon of central Java.

I have made my feelings about Semerang very clearly earlier in the post so let’s not get back into that one. I would rather highlight the main points to you.

Chinese Temple - Went to see fortune teller. Luckily by number was 13! Nofri kindly translated for me.

Nofri; “Your married life will be good, if your health has been troubling you it will get better”

All going well so far (I feel I have written those words before)

There then followed a period of silence on Nofri’s part. The fortune teller became increasingly animated and talked for around three minutes. I noticed that during this time he gave me little eye contact.

I asked Nofri what he had said; “Ah thats bit is not important to you Mr Jonny”

I feel that vital information about my future has been witheld. Perhaps information that I may some day need..

After the Chinese temple, came an old disused dutch colonial office (a bit like looking around a condemned house). Highlight was a tour of the dungeons used by the Japanese in the second world war. Had to put wellingtons on for that bit and Lyns didn’t join me. In fact neither did Nofri. Just me an a 17 year old girl with a taste for the macabre, “this is where the bodies were put Mr Jonny”.

Then we went to a shopping mall and had some ice cream (Lyns had some tea, Nofri and I had the the ice creams.)

From the shopping mall we went to the ‘historic’ train station (Sh**h*le) to catch the train.

Nofri sat chatting to Lynsey whilst I prepared for the epic train journey across Java. I had visions of Michael Palin waxing lyrical about the’ ‘sights and sound of the real Indonesia’. My heart was filled the the romance and adventure of it all.

Then Nofri piped up that the train was going to be two hours late arriving. Michael Palin never did a piece to camera in the dark. I never watched enthralled as he crossed Africa at night looking out of a window at blackness.

No wonder Nofri hadn’t translated the fortune teller. She already knew that he said, “Mr Jonny you will undertake a great journey with little to light your way. No great wisdom will come your way other than watching some Indonesian soap operas on a BRAVIA TV for five hours in the darkness.”

Gutted I shouldn’t have bought Nofri that ice cream. She wasn’t telling me the whole story.

But Surabaya did beckon and I'll tell you more about the radio interview next time.

Out Of The Jungle

Over a week has gone by and no blog entries. First of all apologies,I thought all this chat about going into the jungle was just the tourist version of the jungle (with broadband). Unfortunately not, I should have suspected something was up when the airports began to get smaller and I didn’t even take much notice when the planes got smaller. It wasn’t until we boarded our small boat (klotok) and turned left up the river that I realised, I was in the ‘freakin jungle’. (With hindsight the lack of any western faces, intense heat, huge mosquitos and panic on Lynsey’s face probably were the key signs that I was actually going to the jungle.)

‘So what’s the jungle like Jonny?’ I hear all one of you asking me. Well lone reader I have to say it wasn’t really what I was expecting.

First of all I thought it would be brimming with wildlife. In fact it’s not. It takes about a day to get into the flow of things so you can start picking out the monkeys, rare birds and other creatures that like to call the jungle home.

Secondly its very very hot. So hot in fact that you give up trying to keep the sweating thing under control, even the animals were sweating!

Thirdly any most importantly, it’s very beautiful in away I can’t really describe. It’s incredibly quiet in such away that makes any noise stand out like a bright colour on a dull day. Even though I’ve been out of the jungle for a few days I can still remember everything we did on each day we were there. I could thoroughly recommend the jungles of Kalimantan to any one who has the time and inclination to find their way there.

Of course the main reason we were Kalimantan anyway was to see the Orangutan. In case you did no the word Orangutan means ‘person of the forest’ in Indonesian. Orangutans have been identified as the second most intelligent animal on the planet after humans. They come in three different flavours, cute baby, cuddly female and shit scary male varieties. They are, as I have discovered, very difficult to photograph properly but try I did and when I’m back I’ll upload as many as possible to flickr.

Our days were spent on the Klotok boat, sailing further up river from our lodge to visit various feeding stations located 20-30mins trekking time into the jungle. The feeding stations are there as a result of the re-orientation of captured or orphaned Orangutans into the jungle in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s by Dr Mary Galdikas and others. These Orangutans have had contact with humans and some still live in around Camp Leakey where they were originally released.

In the evenings we would return to our lodge at sunset for some Indonesian dinner before getting an early night to start the next morning. (Earliest start was 5.00am!!)

Oh! the Orangutan pictured is called ‘Sweet Po’ she is one of the ones sitting in the ‘cute baby’ classification.

Singapore Diary

Hello and greetings from Singapore. Sitting by the pool was a nice way to overcome the jet lag and I also attempted a bit of light camera lens shopping at the ‘Funan Digital Life Mall’ (Six floors of tech).

My lens shopping was a bit of an experience, check this out for a customer journey.

Jonny, “Hello I’m looking for X lens”

Shopkeeper, “Ah yes here is the discount I can give you.”

(All going well so far I think you’ll agree)

Shopkeeper, “I don’t have the lens here but I can get it from my other store.”

Jonny, “When the lens arrives can I try it on my camera?”

Shopkeeper, “No”

Jonny, “Can I not try the lens on my camera to check it is working?”

Shopkeeper, “No”

Jonny, “Can you tell me why not?”

Shopkeeper, “The lens is new and no-one gets to try new lenses, they must stay in the box.”

(I was now trying to make sure the exits were clearly visible).

Jonny, “So I can’t try before I buy?”

Shopkeeper, “All lenses must stay in BOX!”

Jonny, “OK thank you”

(I then walked around 12 yards away, tried the lens in his competitor and bought it for around £100 less)

I think the morale of this story is that one must sample life to the full before deciding it is worth living. I’m sure the shopkeeper was very disappointed when his wife gave birth and his child finally came out of the box!

Picture from the aforementioned lens coming soon.....

Welcome to Indonesia!

Actually that should be welcome to Heathrow Terminal 4. As the sun sets over sunny Staines I sit, excited, flying on the only BA flight which still leaves from T4. T4 in case you haven't been here for a bit is half closed for some sort of huge re-fit to welcome some of the airlines that are currently being denied entry into European airspace; most of which I intend to fly in the next two weeks.

Welcome team and welcome anyone else who has been let into the circle of trust that is Jonny's blog. Alternatively welcome to anyone who has searched the term 'naked girls' and 'hot' into google blogs in the hope of some 'titalation' (welcome to search engine optimisation JW style !)

I hope to excite you over the coming days with tales of adventure and some fascinating photographs of Indonesia. Last time I blogged I hit the front page of google search for 'Jonny Blog' here's hoping that some judicious use of language such as 'naked bush' will push me up there once again.

Anyway sit back and enjoy the 'ride' together with the power of Google Analytics we can be famous 'if just for one day'.

Jonny