Narita Hotel Surabaya

... lift we found colleagues and friends assembled with copious amounts of food and drink....and more presents!<br>It was a truly memorable evening and our thanks to everyone who came along to help us celebrate.................but especially to Viki for putting the whole thing together ....you're a star! (and to Luke for letting me stay till the end.......cheers mate!) Ex-pats rock!

... and I relaxed with our friends Didi and Mukshin at the Zipp Bar and taught and played poker using Bintang bottlecaps with our Sasak friends. The most perfect sunset ever interrupted our poker game as I took Mary for a walk along the white sand and asked for her hand in marriage, steps away from the water's edge and with the colored sky and mountains of Lombok as a backdrop.

... noir mais les etoiles nous accompagnaient. Nous avons pris du vin chaud pour nous en remettre. Une nuit encore bien humide avec cette fois de la musique en back ground (Samedi soir oblige). 2ieme journee (4 janvier). Leve a 3.30 du matin les yeux pochees, pour un depart en jeep pour un autre point de vue du volcan. 1 heure pour se rendre dans des chemins sinueux accompagner d'oxyde de carbonne (quel changement du soufre). On a eu la nausee. Nous sommes finalement arrive a l ...

... were going to sing unbreak my heart at a Christmas concert. But, who I am to judge if Toni Braxton is christmasy or not. They were wonderfully horrible. It was so amazing god awful. It turns out if your husband was a donor, you can automatically sing. No need for talent. I know it sounds cruel, but it was so bad. The concert ended on an up swing the sang a powerful song of Messiah's King of kings. There really isn't much to ...

... br><br>The colourful name of Surabaya always had a mysterious and romantic sound to me, probably due to the old song of 'Surabaya Johnny' (Isn't it by Kurt Weill?) and that's the main reason why I wanted to go there, in spite of some warnings of thieves and none worthy attractions and desperate sex workers.. The city which gave this song its title now has more than 5 Million inhabitants and is much better than its lousy reputation. It has a ...

... my life is becoming richer. :) The finale of the program was the kids singing together. The song was cover the world with love and that was when I realized I was getting old. Because I was so proud of those little guys that the tears welled up again and I cried my little eyes out. I guess I am my father's child. Miss you all! See you at Christmas!

... we had selected, brought what we thought was chopped ginger (which we love) to sprinkle on our food and into our soup....only it wasn't - our Indonesian wasn't up to finding out what it was and anyway our mouths were frozen (bit of an oxymoron) by the fiery spiciness of whatever it was - you have never seen Bintang (local beer) disappear so fast!

... and tried to avoid stepping on this fragile thing. Nevertheless, in order to avoid her my left foot fell to the edge of the cliff and I tumbled to my left. With reflex I my hands grabbed on anything I can grasp and luckily there were bushes with strong enough branches to stop my fall. The dad pulled my hand and helped me up. I cleaned myself unconcern about my near death experience but rather worried that I broke my camera that was dangling around my neck. Thank God, they just ...

... call to check that it had been found. They thought it was a bit odd that we'd need to do that, but called up. Yes, it was there, yes, they'd send it down. The next day, it showed up right when they said it would, intact and apparently unopened. Even the $100 in rupiah (which is a LOT of money in Bali right now) was untouched. (Note: other tourists are not so honest, so one should still watch one's valuables.) Balinese religion is extremely ...

... sprayers, the whole nine yards. A huge Marlboro display was a bit perplexing; there was a lot of fake snow and a couple of skidoos. I'm not exactly sure what they were giving away but I am pretty certain that we were the only ones in the building that had ever actually driven a skidoo. I doubt most people even knew what they were. Internet was ridiculously cheap there, but as we found out, there was a reason for that. That's why you haven't ...