Indonesian Travels

Archive;'Indonesian Travels #1'{James MacMannis}(BB, interr, safe)[]

Indonesian Travels The Bank by James MacMannis

• • • • Warning * * * *

If you are under the age of 18 or if it is illegal to read stories of a homosexual nature where you live please do not read further. This is a fictional story, based on my life experiences. This is part of a series of stories about my travels in Indonesia. I hope you enjoy the journey. Please provide feedback to james_macmannis@hotmail.com Copyright by James MacMannis.

I work as a computer technician, specialising mainly in network installations. Actually, I own the company, but I prefer to let others do the administrative stuff, so I just work alongside my staff of highly qualified technicians. We have extensive contracts throughout Australia and Indonesia, largely with banks and communications facilities, and most of our work is in the field, meaning a lot of travelling around. We have a workshop, warehouse and office complex located in each of Sydney and Perth, Australia, and another in Surabaya, Indonesia.

On this particular occasion I had received instructions from a large bank with hundreds of offices scattered around the islands of Indonesia. We were responsible for their computing interface network, including on-line transmissions, ATM's and general banking data transmission. My company had originally set up most of their network when the bank went computerised a few years back and we had kept the maintenance contract ever since. The particular problem this time they had was at a remote city in eastern Kalimantan where a series of severe thunderstorms had dropped the system and the local technician was unable to restore it.

I was at the Surabaya base at the time, and within a few hours I had obtained a Merpati Nusantara Airlines ticket to Balikpapan and was on my way. Landing at Balikpapan always fascinates me, because the airstrip is built on reclaimed land on the edge of the sea. As you come in to land you pass by dozens of oilrigs on platforms in the bay and, at nighttime, it is quite colourful. This day I arrived at around 1300 (1 pm for those who don't use 24 hour time), and the sky was very overcast from the storm activity, so I did not get to see much at all.

Luggage collection at the smaller Indonesian cities can be a tedious and drawn out affair, so I was not surprised that there was a delay. I found a quiet corner in the terminal and sat down to smoke a cigarette. Half an hour later there was still no luggage, so I asked at the information counter what was going on. Seemed that luggage had been put on another aircraft by mistake and would be delayed till the flight the next day. Great, I thought, stuck in transit with nothing but the clothes I was standing in and a small carry bag with a few books and toiletries in it. And Samarinda, the city I needed to reach, was still many hours to the north by bus. Oh well, best thing to do is find a taxi and get a hotel room somewhere so I can ring the bank and explain.

Outside the terminal was the usual throng of eager taxi drivers waiting to take the unsuspecting passenger for the ride of his life. I speak fluent Indonesian, have to as part of the job, so it was not difficult for me to negotiate prices and sort out things in colloquial language. I looked around the shoving drivers to see if there was anyone I recognised from previous trips to Balikpapan. None. But there was a certain young guy on the edge of the crowd who took my eye. Not for any particular reason that I could pinpoint, but it may have been the way he looked at me, or the fact that he was not as demanding as most of the other drivers. Perhaps he was a shade darker skinned than his fellow cab drivers, but that might have been because of the contrast with his white t-shirt. He wore faded blue denim jeans and was barefoot. I signalled for him and he rushed over to my side. "Can I get your bags, sir?" he asked. I explained the baggage delay and my predicament, suggesting he could find me a reasonable but not expensive hotel somewhere. "No problem. Follow me." Although I could afford to stay at the Benakutai or any of the other four or five star hotels in the city, I generally choose to stay at the middle or lower end of the scale because I like the simpler lifestyle. Besides, you usually get to meet some interesting people at these places than at the expensive hotels.

He led me to a beat up looking minibus of the type most often used for taxis in Indonesia. The old Mitsubishi motor wound it's way into life as he turned the key and off we charged along the impressive road towards town. I knew the impressive part of the road would soon end and become just another crowded jostling street. I asked my driver if he would like a smoke as I lit one myself. He accepted gratefully, which gave me the cue to begin some small talk. "Adi," he replied when I asked his name. "My full name is Sudardi, but all my family and friends call me Adi." He told me he was 23 and had come to Balikpapan from Samarinda, the same city where I had to go for the bank repair job, only a year before.

The wide airport road ended and Adi was left to concentrate on the business of getting us through the snarl of traffic clogging the arterial road into Balikpapan. His bare feet dancing between clutch, brake and accelerator as we edged along fascinated me. It did not take more than 20 minutes for us to reach the centre of Balikpapan and Adi took me towards the waterfront where he knew of a few places where I could stay. He pulled in to one place and ran inside to enquire on my behalf, but the place was booked out for a convention. The next place along, the Sunset Hotel, was located among several discos, restaurants and what I presumed to be brothels, but it did have a vacant room so I told Adi I would stay there.

Adi grabbed my little bag and led the way into the not-so-imposing hotel foyer. Reception formalities were taken care of quickly, and Adi took my room key and lead off up the stairs to my room. Following him was a delight, because I got to see his beautifully unblemished bare feet at eye level as I followed him up the staircase. A real bare foot is a delight to the eye - none of the corns and bunions and calluses that wearing shoes cause. His feet were dark brown like the rest of his elegant body, the soles stained almost black from constant contact with the ground, and the toes straight and slightly splayed. His heels displayed a perfect roundness and the fleshy pads of his feet bulged and flexed with each step he took.

My room was on the second floor and Adi keyed open the door to allow me to enter. He put the key tag into the holder and a grumbling air conditioner kicked into life as the lights came on. I kicked off my travelling sandals at the door as I entered the room. The room was fairly standard layout, with a small entryway passing the bathroom and toilet to the right before opening out to the main room. The high ceiling made the room seem quite large, even somewhat dwarfing the king size bed. A pair of comfortable chairs and a coffee table sat to one side of a sliding doorway that gave entry to the small balcony. Although the drapes were partly drawn, I could see that the balcony overlooked the muddy bay and I guess that at night I would have a glittering backdrop of the oilrigs at work. I was more than impressed with the room considering the rather ordinary entrance to the hotel.

Adi put my bag down next to the wardrobe alongside the bed and turned to look at me. This was the first opportunity I had to really get a look at my cab driver, and I was disappointed in myself for not having taken in more of this tropical beauty beforehand. My guess is that he stood at about 150cm tall (about 5 foot) and was of fairly slim build. His black hair was dead straight and sort of parted down the middle, and then swept back in a casual but neat fashion. A wiry moustache highlighted his full lips and gave a distinctive contour to his pleasantly roundish face.

Impulsively I asked him "Would you like to join me with a drink or are you in a hurry to get going?" I felt the need to somehow prolong our brief encounter. He said he would have a Coke and I grabbed two chilled cans from the little fridge set into a workbench. We went out onto the balcony, comfortably shaded from the hot afternoon sun, and took a seat. The tabs of the cans popped and hissed their invitation, so we drank a long gulp to ease away the stifling heat and dust from our short trip to the city. Adi pulled out a cigarette pack and offered me a thick kretek cigarette. These tobacco and ground clove cigarettes are smoked everywhere in Indonesia, and I had long been accustomed to the strong, slightly sweet, taste of them. I took the smoke and lit his and mine. "Can you excuse me please for just a moment? I've got to ring the bank in Samarinda to let them know I will be late arriving there." I ducked back into the room and quickly made the call to the branch manager, who was quite understanding of the situation. I told him I would keep him informed if there were any other changes, otherwise he could expect me around noon the next day.

Going back outside, I asked Adi how much I owed him for his services. He mentioned a figure, which I though very underpriced, so I doubled it and handed him the money. "Why do you want to pay me so much, James?" his puzzled look expressed as much as his question. "Because you have been a remarkably good help to me in getting here and finding this place, as well as carrying my stuff up here." He lowered his head and muttered his gratitude. "I was afraid to pick you up at the airport because I can't speak English," he said. "Then when I found you could speak my language I was so happy that you wanted me to be your driver. Thank you James."

Adi relaxed by stretching out his legs and leaning back in the seat, offering me another good look at his lean physique and beautifully shaped feet. "So, tell me what you did in Samarinda and why you came down here to Balikpapan," I opened our conversation. "As for the last bit," Adi replied, "I had an uncle that owned my taxi, but about a year ago he died, and as he had no children, my aunty asked me to come down here to drive the taxi and make a bit of money to support her. I did that and lived at her house until she also died a few months ago. They were both elderly people, so it was not a surprise when they died. But I was surprised to find out she had left me the taxi in her will. So I stayed on here and I am trying to save up enough so I can get a newer taxi in a couple of years."

Adi took a deep drag on his smoke and I noticed the fingers holding his cigarette were stained a much darker brown than the rest of his hands. "I have nothing to go back to Samarinda for, except for my two cousins. My parents have been dead since I was a very small child. They were killed in a big flood of the Mahakam River. I don't know why I didn't get killed at the same time, but maybe they had left me with someone else for the day. Both of them were timber cutters for one of the big logging companies. Anyway, I sort of grew up with my dad's brother who had a vegetable farm out of town. He had lost his wife in another river flood and had two boys younger than me to care for. Home was a single room humpy where we ate, lived and slept together. When I was about 7 I started school in a little village near his farm, then when I got out of school at midday I would work with him on the farm."

"We were real poor people, and it was my uncle here in Balikpapan who would send up some money every now and again so we could keep going. I never knew a different life than what I had there, so I couldn't complain. We had a lot of fun, and at the end of every day I would sit down with my uncle and my two cousins, and tell stories or chat. If we had sold some vegetables and had a little money, he would buy some coffee and cigarettes, then we would drink and smoke together as a luxury. His wife died not long after my two cousins were born and he has raised them by himself. I look at them as being my younger brothers."

"When I was a teenager I had to think about going to high school. There was a high school at a town about 15 kilometres from our village, so I decided to do something extra to make enough money to pay for my education. I got a few banana trees from a friend and planted them in our little farm plot. These were a different sort of banana than the usual ones grown here, having come from the Ambon islands, and when they fruited I had no trouble selling them in the market. Soon I had enough for my fees and to buy some books and my own cigarettes, so I walked to the town to enrol at school. The first thing they told me was that I had to have shoes to go to high school. Well, I had never had shoes in my life, and I didn't have enough money to buy any then, so I thought that I would not get in to the school. The principal decided that it wouldn't matter that much, and in any case there were already a lot of other kids at school who didn't have shoes, so he let me start. I would leave our village before dawn to walk to school then walk back again at midday and work on the farm till after dark."

Adi paused to drink a bit more Coke and to light another cigarette. "It was fortunate," he continued, "that the bananas really grew well. After just two years we were making more from my bananas than we could make from the vegetables, so my uncle concentrated on making the whole farm into a banana plantation. We still grew enough vegetables to supply our own needs, but everything else was turned over to bananas. My cousins were by this stage coming to the end of their primary school years, and the banana sales gave us enough money to make sure they could go on to high school. If we had wanted to, we could even have got them some shoes, but they have never worn them and did not want to start. I guess they will be like me."

"Well, two years ago I finished my senior high school and worked full time with my uncle to make sure the farm was well set up. We bought another little block next to our to expand our bananas. Then last year I got the opportunity to come here and earn some real cash as a taxi driver. The money I send back to my uncle is paying for my two brothers to go through high school -- one is in the second year and the other one in the fourth year. So, that is my story."

"Thanks for telling me that, Adi." I said. I had been so enraptured with his story I hadn't noticed the time going by so quickly. Quite noticeably the sun was setting and an early evening dusk was upon us. Knowing the tropics as I do, I realised it would not be long before dark. Already the lights on the oil platforms were visible.

"Adi, I am so sorry to have kept you here so long this afternoon. I should have realised that you would have to work somewhere." "No, James," Adi interjected. "I could have left any time I wanted, but I enjoyed talking with you. I have never talked with a person from another country before and it has been such a great experience for me. I hope I have not bored you or taken too much of your time. To be quite honest, there is not much taxi business after the last flight into town, unless you hang around the harbour area, but I don't like picking up drunks and sleazy guys."

"Adi, you are a great guy to spend time with," I said, not trying to flatter him too much, but unable to resist adding "And I cant remember the last time I met a guy who looks as good as you do." He might have ignored the comment, except that I noticed a little smile creep into the corner of his eyes of his otherwise serious face. He lit another cigarette, indicating that he was not in any great rush to leave just yet, so I asked him if he was very busy at the moment, because I could do with a companion to take me around town and to get me to the Merpati Nusantara office to collect my baggage tomorrow. Also I had to arrange to get to Samarinda where the bank was located. Adi said he would be happy to hang around, and that if I was happy to pay him the same amount as the bus ticket, he would take me all the way to the town. It would cover his fuel cost, he explained, and give him the opportunity to visit his relatives. He would wait there for me till I needed to come back to Balikpapan, then he would bring me back here.

I agreed to his offer and suggested that I may even need to use his services to help me with the work at the bank, depending on what it might turn out to be. I strongly suspected some re-cabling would be needed, and an extra pair of hands was essential for that. That settled it was time to start thinking about food. My mind had already begun it's devious course of wondering what this guy might look like in bed, and in the dark of early evening I didn't mind if there was a bulge in my trousers that had no right to be there. Adi often seemed to be adjusting his crotch, but I couldn't be sure it was nothing more than just he interminable itch that accompanied any man living in the humid tropics.

After fetching more Cokes from the bar fridge I asked Adi where he lived. "I rent a little room over near the airport. It is real basic, but I don't need much -- just a place to sleep," he said. I pushed the point and asked him if he had a wife or girlfriend. "No way," he strongly replied. "I never had enough money to get a wife and I am not real interested in getting a girlfriend. When it is the right time I hope Allah will give me the right wife." I thought about the rather fatalistic approach most Muslims have to life and realised that he would accept such a view of his destiny without question.

"Do you want to stay here with me tonight?" I asked him. "We could then get an early start tomorrow, providing my baggage comes on the early plane. We can go out and get something to eat shortly and then pick up anything you need to get and just relax for the night." "Do you really want me to stay with you, James? I would like to do that but I don't want to be a nuisance."

"How about we have a shower and freshen up before we go out? I haven't got a change of clothes, so it doesn't matter if you don't. We will just clean up and take it from there, ok?" Adi was strangely quiet for a moment, dragging on his cigarette instead of replying. I wondered if I had suggested something untoward, and was about to comment when he said: "James, I have never had a shower, so I don't know what to do. Will you help me?" "Come and have a look," I said. We went in to the bathroom and I showed Adi the basics of adjusting water temperature the general idea of how to wash in a shower.

Indonesians usually bathe in a mandi. The essential element is usually a container of water, sometimes a cement tank, sometimes a plastic barrel, sometimes a jerry can or some other water vessel. From this water supply (most homes in Indonesia do not have reticulated or mains water supply, at least on a regular enough basis to use for washing), water is scooped into a plastic dipper and splashed onto the body. After wetting down, a soapy lather is made all over the body, which is then rinsed off with another dipper of water to finish the bathing process. . Mains water is still an unheard-of luxury to millions of Indonesian families

"I have never had a hot water bath before," Adi told me. "This is going to be a new experience for me." "Enjoy it," I said, "and when you have finished you can use one of the towels on the rack there. Soap and shampoo are here in this tray." I left the room for him to take his ablution and decided to unpack my travel bag. I immediately realised that I had some deodorant and splash on, so I called out to Adi that he could use it when he was ready. I went out on the balcony again to watch the flickering lights and flares on the water where teams of people pumped oil to quench the never-ending thirst of the industrial world.

I had not quite finished my smoke when Adi came out, cleaned up and looking fresh. He was only wearing his jeans. His slight build accentuated the dark brown of his little nipples. I guessed that his cock would be the same darker colour. Boy, was he a good looking kid! "I have a problem with the toilet, because I had to use it and I don't know how you get rid of the stuff. I am sorry." Adi meekly offered. "Come and have a look at this," I suggested, leading him back into the bathroom. "See this lever here, just flick it up and the water will flush away everything." The usual domestic toilet in Indonesia is a floor mounted affair, in cities and larger town it may be made of porcelain, but in smaller towns and rural areas it can be no more than a concrete surround or a couple of pieces of timber on the ground.

The hole flushes when you grab a dipper of water from the mandi. I could understand his predicament when coming across the "modern" or "western" conveniences provided by this hotel.

We went back out to the main room so I could prepare for my shower. Adi went out to the balcony to finish his Coke, leaving me to wondering what the night might hold, and trying to conceal the stirrings in my loins. I began removing my shirt. I thought Adi had stayed out on the balcony, because I could smell the distinctive aroma of his cigarettes, so I took off my trousers as well. My impatient cock was straining against the thin fabric of my boxer shorts until I took them off as well and it was able to spring out to about half-mast. I have always been pleased with my 22 cm (9 inch) penis, and not that often have I met anyone with a bigger one. It has given me a great deal of pleasure all my adult life. Although obviously attracted to other men, I have never been on the scene and never felt inclined to act gay. I am not into feminist guys, and the kind of sex activity I like is pretty tame for most homosexuals, so I have tended to keep to myself most of the time. Occasionally I have met guys who were just right for me, and I hoped that Adi might be another one.

By chance I glanced at the mirror mounted on the sidewall. I could see through the doorway to the balcony where Adi was watching me, although he was unaware I knew. Just thinking about him has caused me to get a raging erection. He could see me in the mirror in full frontal, even though he was standing behind on the balcony. I continued as if I was unaware of his voyeurism, making sure he could see anything he cared to, as I walked into the shower. The shower was comfortably warm. It is funny to think that in the humidity and heat of the tropics a warm shower can be so refreshing, yet it is. It did nothing to release my strong sexual urge, and I was tempted to beat off in the shower, but thought I would keep what I could for the time being.

By time I had dried off I was sufficiently flaccid to be presentable again, so I hung up the towel and walked back into the bedroom. Putting on my boxers, I went out to the balcony to enjoy the cool breeze coming in from the sea. Adi was sitting at the table, legs outstretched, a familiar cigarette in his hand. I sat down in the other chair.

"Ok," I suggested, "Lets go no and get something to eat before it is too late, then we can get your stuff and come back here and relax for the night." Adi nodded his agreement, and we both put on out shirts before heading out into the night. I remembered from previous visits to Balikpapan that there was an area of seafood stalls just along from the hotel entrance, so I didn't bother to put on my sandals. Our bare feet made little noise as we padded downstairs and out into the forecourt. Adi's taxi was parked to the side, just as we had left it, so he went over and picked up another pack of smokes and secured the door locks before we went off to get food. We walked quietly, Adi smoking again, until we passed an internet depot. "Do you mind if I check my email? Adi asked, indicating the internet place across the road. "You have email?" I asked rather incredulously. "Yes, that is how I keep in touch with my two cousins in Samarinda."

We went across to the internet depot and, as we crossed the street, Adi stomped out his cigarette with his foot on the dusty road. We walked into the little internet café and found an empty booth. Adi signed on with dexterity, so I questioned him about how he knew how to use the internet. "Our high school received some assistance, I think it was from an overseas aid group, to set up a computer centre. Even though we were quite remote, we did have phone lines into town, so they got all this computer stuff in and hooked it up. One of the science teachers came from Java and knew a fair bit about it, so he became the school computer specialist. A few of us became pretty clever and he showed us how to sign up for an email address. It didn't cost us anything to use the internet because there was enough money left in the grant to pay for line rental for several years. It is still going now, and my cousins have their own email addresses. We send emails to each other every day." His inbox showed one new mail, so he quickly opened it and read the message from Syahran, his cousin. "Can I tell him we will be coming up to Samarinda tomorrow?" Adi requested. I agreed it would be a good idea, with the proviso that it still depended on my luggage turning up. New visions came into my mind of meeting up with these two boys who were so much of Adi's life, supposing they would be as good looking as he.

It did not take us long to complete the email, and we went out and found a place selling baked fish. After selecting our respective meals, we waited at the long tables till it was served. Lighting up cigarettes while we waited, I asked Adi "Have you been smoking a long time? I remember you saying you would smoke with your uncle when you were a kid." "I really can't remember when I started smoking. A lot of us smoke from a young age. I know that I was smoking when I went to primary school, because I remember we usually had to wait to lunchtime before I could have another cigarette. All the boys would rush outside to have a smoke before we went home. We did not have made cigarettes like these ones -- we couldn't afford them -- but we could pick tobacco, dry it and slice it fine for smoking any time we wanted.

At high school it was not so difficult, because we had recess time to smoke. Even when we had little food we always seemed to have cigarettes -- I suppose because they are so cheap."

Just then our food was served and we felt the urge to deal with our imminent craving for another kind of sustenance. As we left I went to pay for the meal, but Adi said he would. I felt it necessary for him not to be burdened by my presence, so I insisted on paying. "Let's pay half each, then." Adi compromised. That done we headed straight back to the hotel.

When we got to his taxi he unlocked the doors so we could both get in. He drove a few kilometres to the areas of town where he lived. The streets got narrower and more crowded the further in to the mass of housing, stalls, markets and overwhelming humanity that typifies the poorer areas of every city in Indonesia. Eventually Adi pulled up outside a two-story unit that seemed better in contrast to it's surroundings. "I live in a room on the top floor," Adi explained. "You can wait here or come up if you like. I will only be a minute."

I decided to have a look at my new friend's home and climbed out with him. The unpaved roadway was littered with plastic bags, cigarette packs, food scraps and paper wrappers, so I was glad it was only a few steps to the front entryway. We climbed an external stairway to the top and came out on a veranda that served as entry to the three or four rooms there. Adi opened a door and I found myself in a small but spotlessly clean room. A bed on the floor, a small wardrobe and a writing desk with chair were the entire furnishings of his room. Adi grabbed a shopping bag and put some clothes and toiletries in it and, as we were about to leave, he grabbed a book from the desk. "This is for Syahran -- it is about a new Windows version that is being released and he wants to study it."

After locking up, we went back down the stairs and into his taxi to make our way to the hotel. I was pleased to be able to see a little of his private life and was honoured he had shared it with me. When we got to the hotel we went straight up to my room and washed our feet from the walking around outdoors.

I felt it was time to put down a ground rule or two. "Adi, from now I pay for meals and things while you are travelling with me. Please understand that it is the least I can do to help you and to make the arrangement business like." I explained. "I can understand that, James, but please let me do things for you too when I can."

"There is one thing you can do for me if it is not a problem," I took up his offer. "Would you sit here and let me have a look at your feet?" Adi got on the bed and lay down, hefting his legs up on the bed. His feet were truly perfect. Each of his splayed toes straight and unblemished, each nail flat and wide. I felt the skin of his soles and found the pliable toughness of them, not unlike the feel of a really good soft leather of the kind used in deck shoes. I had been bought up in Queensland, Australia, where bare feet is most common and, naturally, my own feet had been as hard and tough as Adi's were when I was younger. I still go barefoot as much as possible, although with work safety in mind, I had to often wear safety shoes these days. It was a rare treat to find someone who had the appearance of not ever wearing shoes. "Have you always been barefoot, Adi?" "Yes, except for when we had our high school graduation. We all had to have shoes for that ceremony, so I borrowed some shoes from my friend's brother for an hour or so. I was so uncomfortable that I could hardly walk up to the stage to get my diploma. The minute the ceremony was over I gave them back to him, and I have never worn any again since."

Touching Adi, not just his feet but also any part of him, gave me a deep tingling feeling that I thought I would have to manage carefully. Adi must have seen that I was struggling with my feelings, and he leaned behind him to turn off the lights then pulled me down beside him on the bed. I lay on my back, not quite knowing what he had in mind, and Adi rolled toward me, throwing his arm across my chest and hugging me closely. "James, please be comfortable with me. I feel a great feeling for you that I don't know how to explain. All I can say is that I like you very much and am so happy to be with you." He snuggled his head in close to my neck and I could feel his ragged breath on my skin. I could also feel a hardness pressing against my leg where Adi was tight against me.

I let my hand wander down to where the hardness originated and found that Adi was containing an erection in his jeans. When I touched him there, he rolled onto his back, giving me better access to him. Through the material of his jeans I could feel the solidity of his excited penis, so I gradually eased his fly zipper down so I could liberate his now throbbing tool. Reaching in, I immediately encountered the straining stem of his dick. Adi was not wearing underpants. I helped his aching dick out through the fly so it could stand free. Already a small amount of precum had wet the head and was seeping out through the folds of his foreskin. I massaged his dick using the universally simple method of full fist masturbation. Adi had found his way to my fly and had also taken my cock out to do the same thing.

We lay there in the silent darkness, giving each other a gentle and loving ministration. I knew it would not be long before I would shoot my load, and I guessed Adi was at about the same stage, so I let go of him momentarily to grab a hand towel from the top of the bedside locker. The towel was long enough to reach across both our stomachs, so I positioned it under our penises and went on with the masturbation. Adi had not let up on my dick, so it was not surprising that I could feel the surges of juice starting to flow after just a few more strokes. Suddenly I was shooting my load as Adi continued to pump my hard cock. Four big shots left me breathless, and another weak shot into Adi's gentle hand left me totally spent. I hadn't realised that I had stopped stroking Adi until he moved my hand away from his throbbing cock. Using my cum as lubricant, he wanked himself with long strokes that quickly brought him to his climax. He heaved up in the bed as his orgasm hit him, softly moaning with the pleasure, shooting out a stream of cum over the towel.

Tiredness overtook us both and we had fallen asleep before even realising it. In fact I first realised it in the early dawn hours of the morning when I stirred awake needing to piss. Adi was still asleep, although he was cuddled into the crook of my arm with his head resting on my shoulder. I had to disturb him in order to extricate my arm from under his head, and he rolled over as I went to the toilet. When I got back to the bed, I took off my clothes and crawled in under the bed cover, pulling the hand towel in with me. Adi woke up fully as I got into bed and he also decided to use the toilet. I laid out the towel in the bed just in case it would be needed. When Adi came back from the toilet, he noticed my clothing on the dresser and removed his own, then climbed under the covers with me. We hugged again, and this time Adi put his lips to mine. Soon we were in the most delicious long kiss.

Both our cocks were stiff with excitement and as we kissed we began a slow grinding into each other, his dick sometimes riding mine and, at other times, mine riding his. We immersed ourselves in the sheer pleasure of intimate contact, thrusting and kissing in a prolonged and slow expression of our newfound relationship. With each movement we were both sending deep thrilling sensations to the other. After a time, the tempo changed, indicating a new level of urgency. Simultaneously we both arrived at that point where everything disappears except the primal need to fulfil the pent up sexuality inherent in every man. The thrusting became longer and harder till there was one final thrust. Our eager tools spewed out their sweet juices, lubricating the already juicy dicks and preparing the way for every last drop of our cum to shoot out. We hugged each other tighter and closer as our love juices blended and dripped off onto the waiting towel.

The sun was blaring through the window when I woke again a few hours later. Adi was still asleep and we were both still tightly in our passionate embrace. Looking at his beautiful face was enough to stir my dick again and when I moved slightly, I could feel his partial erection against my groin. I kissed Adi's soft lips lightly and he stirred in his sleep, clutching me closer to him and returning my kiss with a gentle thrust of his tongue into my receptive mouth. We both we raging hard again, but I knew we would have to be up and ready to go fairly early, so I had to break the moment now or else it would be some time before we would be on our way. "Sorry, Adi, but we have to get moving for the day. The plane from Java will be in soon and if my baggage is there we will need to get away to Samarinda."

"Thank you, James, for a most wonderful night. I wanted to be with you from the moment I saw you at the airport, and now all my dreams have come true," Adi whispered. "Adi, we have only just begun to explore what can happen between us, so I hope you are ready for more than just that once we get settled in Samarinda," I replied as I started getting out of bed. Just looking at his beautiful body made me want to change my mind and get back in with Adi, but I glanced at my wristwatch on the dresser and saw that it was much later than I had first thought. I quickly went in to have a cold shower and then dressed while Adi showered. We went down to the ground floor café to get some coffee and breakfast. Just as we were finishing our meal the unmistakable noise of a landing aircraft interrupted the empty café. "Let's give it half and hour and then see what the plane has bought. I ordered more coffee and we sat back to enjoy cigarettes.

A young waiter came up to the table with a message from reception. Merpati Nusantara had called to say my baggage had arrived and I could collect it from the city office. The office was no more than 50 meters from the hotel, so we walked down there to pick up my stuff. There were two bags: one with my clothing and personal gear, the other with tools and testing equipment. The office staff apologised profusely about the mix up with the baggage and, after I signed for my bags, we went back to the hotel -- me carrying one bag and Adi the other. They went straight into the taxi, as there was no point taking them up to the room. I used the room phone to call the bank and tell them I would be on my way, probably arriving in Samarinda in the early afternoon. It took just a few moments to pack up my little travelling bag, and then we went back downstairs so I could pay the bill and sign out.

The road to Samarinda winds up into the steep hills behind Balikpapan. It is a busy road, carrying all the road transport between the two cities and beyond. Adi drove well, negotiating badly parked trucks and busses and crowds of people along the way. Soon we were well out into the lush countryside where farmers tended small plots of various vegetables. I tried to imagine Adi and his family working their land just like this. Adi commented on a few of the places, describing the crops being cultivated and his opinion on some of the farming methods.

Farming land gave way to forest, and vast tracts of the countryside had been planted out with teak and other exotic timbers. Occasionally we would pass a sawmill or the bigger plywood factories. It was an interesting and pleasant drive, despite the high temperatures and even higher humidity. At one place, near a river, we pulled over to a roadside kiosk for coffee and a sticky cake. After a smoke, we drove on.

It is about 4 hours drive from Balikpapan until quite suddenly you can see the twin towers of a very large bridge poking above the jungle. Sweeping around a bend, you come quite unexpectedly into the outskirts of the city. Samarinda is an unusual city, in that the vast Mahakam River, one of the larger waterways of the world, divides it. The river is over a kilometre wide as it glides through the city, flowing very fast and deep in a murky brown surge. Hundreds of commuter ferries provide the means for the population to go back and forth between the two sections of the town, darting in and out of large ocean-going ships that navigate the river many kilometres inland. The city spreads itself around a central area on the northern side of the river where a collection of multi-storied buildings backdrop thee huge central mosque. Towering above this scene is the massive suspension bridge spanning the river and providing the only means of road connection between the two halves of the metropolis.

Adi drove up the steep ramp onto the bridge and way below us we could see logs and trees being carried along by the relentless tide of the mighty river. "Shall we find you a hotel room first, or do you want to go directly to the bank?" Adi asked. Suggesting that a hotel close to where the bank was located would be a good idea, I directed Adi to find a place. He knew the city well, not only from his youth, but also because he told me that he sometimes had to drive business people up from Balikpapan. He drove past the bank building and less than a block further on pulled into the pleasantly gardened entrance of a small hotel. I went up to the reception desk and secured a room, so Adi and I carried my gear from the taxi and placed it there.

"Will you stay here with me, Adi, or are you going to go out to see your family?" I asked. "I am going to go and see them now, but I would like to come back here tonight if that is ok with you." "Of course it is. Let me give you my fare now so you can get fuel and anything else you need," I said as I pulled out some money. "I know that you said we could do this trip for the cost of a bus ticket, but I also know that the normal taxi fare is a lot more than that, so I am going to pay you the standard taxi fare and I don't want you to argue about it. Please accept this as my gesture of appreciation." "Thank you James, I do appreciate it very much," Adi quietly replied.

I suggested we have a shower to get rid of the road dirt and freshen up a bit. Before doing so I rang the room service to order some lunch for us both, knowing it would take a little while before the food would arrive. We both showered and changed and were enjoying a smoke out on the little balcony overlooking the garden when the meal arrived. We ate quietly and sipped our coffee. "What are you thinking about, Adi?" I asked him. "Mainly about how remarkable our meeting has been. I it just 24 hours since we met at the airport, and yet I feel as if somehow I have known you all my life and that you are a very important part of me. I don't know how to explain it, and sometimes I get very emotional when I think of how kind and gentle you are with me. James, I hope I am not saying the wrong thing, but I feel in my heart that I love you. You are just . . ." Adi could not continue his sentence because his words were choked off by sobs. A tear fell from his eye as he tried to control his deeply emotional state.

"Come inside," I softly called. I reached over to take his almost finished butt and stub it out, took his hands in mine and led him back into the cool room. "Adi, are you afraid to take off your clothes with me?" I asked, considering the frequent custom of preserving modesty among Indonesian Muslims. Adi quickly replied "I have lived all my life in a little village where we did not wear clothes until we started school. Even then we only ever wore our uniforms for a few hours a day. Our mandi place was at a river near the village, and the only thing we had to remember was that women bathed in the morning and men in the afternoon, so we didn't go there in the morning. We always bathed naked, so I have no problem with taking my clothes off. I have lived with my uncle and my cousins almost all my life, and we have never worn clothes in the house. So maybe I am most comfortable to not have anything on"

His tee shirt came easily over his head and I reached to undo his belt buckle, then the top buttons of his jeans. He made no objection to me unzipping his fly and then easing his jeans down. Adi did not wear underpants, and immediately his manhood was revealed to me. No more than 8 cm (4 inches), his dark brown penis was hanging among a thatch of black curly hair, the sheathed head perfectly formed at the same thickness as his shaft. I worked his jeans down to his ankles and he lifted each foot as I took his jeans off altogether and laid them on the bed. As I looked up, his beautiful foreskin was at my eye level and I could see that the attention it was getting was having an effect. Adi seemed quite at ease with my undressing him and not at all reluctant to have me look at his cock.

This was the first time I had really inspected his masculinity, and the initial impressions I got of his member should be recorded. It was as though time had stopped and I had as long as I wished at my disposal to undertake a full inspection of this superb piece of workmanship. The colour of burnished walnut, his handsome tool seemed to have proportions designed by a craftsman. The slender shaft was almost perfectly cylindrical, with no excess of veins or any other kind. The head was totally enclosed in his generous foreskin that gathered itself together in an enclosed whorl at the extreme end. I remember once seeing the Michelangelo statue "David" and wondering if I could ever find in a human the same beautifully proportioned accessory. Now, here it was before my eyes, yet in a deeper hue.

I stood and Adi came to release my belt and trouser buttons. My trousers dropped to the floor and Adi began working on taking my boxer shorts down. They quickly joined my trousers and I lifted my feet so he could get them tidied away. Adi spent a moment examining my male offering before standing fully up. He offered me his hand and we went across to the lounge chairs. Adi moved his chair so he was sitting close to my side, his hand loosely gripped at his knees and the tough pads of his feet touching my feet.

I put my hand on his thigh, just below his already erecting penis. He unclasped his hands and took my hand to place it on his beautiful hardening maleness. At the contact, he twitched strongly, and came fully erect. I took his hand and placed it on my already hard dick, and there we sat in the quiet, content to say nothing, do nothing, except enjoy the intimate closeness of our company.

Adi put his head on my shoulder and looked up at me. "James, I have always wondered what it would be like to be with a white man. My experience about sex has been with my cousins and I have never though about having sex contact with anybody else until I came away to the city. Now I have found you and I want to share myself with you as much as I can. But please understand, I do not have a lot of knowledge about his thing and my only experience has been with my family."

"Adi, I only want to make one rule about our being together: that you are open with me about everything. If we do something you are not comfortable with, please tell me. If you want to do something different, please ask me.

The important thing for us is to relax and to enjoy each other, because we have something special, invaluable and respectful to share."

I knew that if Adi kept ministering to my cock as he was doing, rubbing gently along the ridge and smoothly massaging my head through the foreskin, that I would climax soon. He was also hard as a rock and I guessed not far from coming, so, to slow things down a little, I suggested we have a drink. I grabbed cans of Coke from the mini bar and we sat together drinking and holding each other. Adi lit a cigarette and tried to relax as much as he could by smoking, but the heavy draws he took belied the outward composure he was trying to portray.

Putting my drink aside, I knelt down in front of his chair and spread his legs gently apart. His cock was now 15 cm long, standing straight up towards his navel. With my tongue I traced the line from his tight balls along the outside ridge and up to the slit. His cock jerked crazily, and I thought he had started his orgasm, but it was just an intense reaction. He drew heavily on his cigarette and his cock jerked again. His foreskin fully covered the head of his cock, and his precum was oozing out through the dark folds at the top. I took the head in my mouth and sucked gently at his precum, savouring the taste of it. His cock throbbed strongly and grew in girth as I let it slide down into my mouth.

He was very close, and he put his hand on my forehead to push me away, but I showed him that I wanted him to come in me. Sucking deeply on his cigarette he thrust forward a little, pushing his needy tool deeper into my mouth. The length of it was easy for me to accommodate, and I was enjoying he thickening as he came closer and closer to the edge. He became harder and harder with each thrust. Eventually his foreskin peeled back just a little, but enough for his sex nerve to contact my tongue, and he shot a strong load deep into the back of my mouth. I reached out for his clenched buttocks and pulled him further into me. Another shot of his manly juice erupted and my taste buds finally kicked in to allow me to savour his youth. His cream was velvety in texture, with the soft salt taste that one hankers for. Another eruption, this time before he could thrust back in to the depths of my oral cavity, giving me a better opportunity to taste what Adi was pumping into me. Still strong and steel hard, Adi delivered seven powerful shots of his exquisite juice before he relaxed. As he leant back in the chair, he gave me another two less voluminous shots. He rod was a hard as it had ever been, even after this amount of work, and I nursed him gently.

His last shot was really not much more than a dribble, but just as sweet as any before. This time, when he tried to ease my head away, I released his pride to him. "Oh James, I have enjoyed that so much. It has been a very long time since I had my cousins with me and I have not had anyone to do that to me before. Thank you." He leant back and butted out his cigarette while he slumped in the chair.

Adi was drifting in bliss, so I grabbed my own throbbing dick and pumped it just twice or three times till it spilled out ropes of cum all over his legs and feet. I sagged down and put my head on his lap. Adi gently stroked my hair as I knelt there. A few moments later I took his hand and led him into the shower where we cleaned up. This was a special joy to shower with him and we both enjoyed the mutual touching of cleaning each other.

I really had to get down to the bank, so I dressed and prepared to leave. Adi said he would go up the river to his village and visit his family then come back again about dark so we could eat together. The bank was close, so it took only a few moments to walk to the building and find the manager. He led me to the computer room and explained briefly what had happened. I could see by the blackened cables that a severe electric jolt had entered the room, despite a spike precaution device that we had installed there when the system was first put in. Going behind the racks I found the uninterruptible power supply unit and next to it the spike protector -- unplugged! It appeared someone had found a better use for the electrical connection, because a flexible lead plug occupied the socket space. I showed the bank manager what I had found and said I would get on with checking out the rest of the problem. He left me then, asking that I let him know what was going on as soon as I knew.

Firstly, after disconnecting all main power to the hub, switch racks and other equipment, I got out my meters and began the tedious task of testing circuits. There really was not a lot of damage, because it seemed the first two cards had taken the brunt of the shock and shorted out through the main rack. The cards were burnt to a crisp, but a fusible link in them had protected the rest of the equipment. Next I had a good look at the cabling and found that a few runs of twisted pair lying next to the mains and entry port cables had been burned. Jotting all this down, I made my list of parts up, dialled my office on my mobile phone and placed the request. Surabaya said they would get everything together and have it up to Balikpapan on tomorrow's plane. Then, just as I was about to leave the computer room, I thought I would try and find out who the culprit was that had unplugged the main protection unit. The flex cable disappeared through a hole in the wall, so I went around the outside of the room to pick up my trace again. The room I ended up in had, at some stage, been storeroom but since my last visit there was now converted to a tearoom. Because it was a store room there had been no electrical outlets designed for it, and when the hot water urn was installed for the tea room, the nearest available socket was tapped -- and that had cost the bank a significant computer failure.

Downstairs I found the bank manager in conversation with one of his staff, so I sat and smoked while I waited for him to be free. I told him about my findings and that I would begin re-cabling in the morning while waiting for the parts to come from Surabaya. There was a roll of spare cable in the computer room left over from my last visit, and I guessed that would be enough for the job. I estimated that we would have the system partially operational by the next afternoon and fully functional in a day or two. Having done that, I thought I would wander back to the hotel to wait for Adi.

It was already dusk when I walked out of the bank. I had not realised just how late in the day it was. Instead of going directly to the hotel, I walked a longer route that took me past the noisy mosque that was emptying from the devout who came to the sunset prayers. Opposite the mosque is the mighty river that had claimed the life of Adi's parents many years before. I wondered how many others had lost their lives to the quirks of this awesome watery beast. Shuddering, I turned my back on the river and walked up the short street to my hotel. Adi's unmistakable taxi was parked in the forecourt and, as I walked in, I was surprised to see him come out of his car. I had thought he would wait for me in our room.

"Hi, Adi, how has your day been?" I inquired. "Really great. I found my uncle and one cousin at home and we went to the other town to pick up my other cousin when he finished school. They are all well. How about you?" I told Adi about my day, and then asked why he was waiting in the car and not up in the room. "James, that is your room and I did not feel right about going there till you came home. Besides, I don't think the hotel would let me have the key even if I did want to go there myself." "Oh, Adi," I began, "That is our room. We are travelling together and you can come and go as much as you want without my being here." I walked up to the reception to collect my key, and while I had the attention of the duty manager I introduced Adi and told him that he could use my room as necessary with my full permission. Adi looked down at his feet in embarrassment and shuffled along behind me as we went up together.

When we were in the room, Adi grabbed me from behind and turned me to face him. "James, you are treating me like I am just like you, but I am not. I am a poor taxi driver. My monthly pay would not even pay for one night in this room, yet you expect me to accept this? You really are too good to me.

I cannot remember anybody rich like you even noticing me before, but you have given me your rank and status. Thank you, James." Adi seemed to have trouble with his emotions again, and I saw tears running down his brown cheeks as he expressed his gratitude. I wiped them away and gave him a gentle kiss.

"By the way, I hope you don't mind, but I have brought my cousin back with me from the village. He has finished school for this semester and has nothing else to do except help uncle on the land, but at this time of the year there is not a lot to be done there also, so he asked if he could come and meet you. I think he wants to see a bit of Samarinda also." "That's fine, Adi, but where is he?" I asked. "He was asleep in the back of the taxi when I came up, so he is probably still there. Shall we go and look?"

As we walked out to the car I was a little disappointed that I would not have Adi to myself that night, but also relieved that it looked like a problem might have been resolved for me. I would need to ask Adi to go down to Balikpapan in the morning to get the components I had ordered, so that would have left me by myself to try and run cables. However, if Adi's cousin was happy to do some work, that problem was now overcome. It would mean I could get a lot more work done before the spare parts arrived.

Adi quietly said as we crossed the foyer, "Don't worry about my cousin, he can sleep in the car tonight." I suggested we deal with that later. Adi went to the back sliding door of his cab and drew the door open. All I could see was a pair of feet; the rest of the person lying there was in the shadows towards the rear of the vehicle. Adi tugged at his cousin's feet and the boy groggily woke up. "James, please meet Syahputera who is my cousin and the older brother of Syahran. We call him Put at home, so you can call him that too." Put, pronounced with the long vowel so that it sounded like Poot, struggled out of the car and stood at the door to receive the introduction, then formally offered me his handshake. He stood somewhat taller than Adi and, because of his similarly slim physique, looked a lot taller than I had expected. Dark skinned like Adi, the resemblance almost stopped there. He had a longish face topped with a very short haircut. A boyish wisp of moustache darkened his upper lip.

"Let's go inside where we can talk rather than stand around out here," I advised. Adi led the way back into the hotel with Put in tow and me following up. When we got into the room I asked Put if he would like a drink or if he wanted to shower first. He opted for the drink, so we took Cokes from the mini bar and sat out on the balcony. Adi offered cigarettes and the three of us lit up. Put was very shy and I had no idea how to put him at ease. I didn't want to leave him out of the conversation, but he seemed happy enough to sit quietly and smoke while we discussed the day's happenings. I told Adi about my plan for him to go back to Balikpapan, with me paying him a full taxi fare both ways, and he jumped at the idea. Turning to Put, I asked him if he wanted to do some work with me the next morning. "Thank you Mister James, that will be a good experience for me and I would enjoy doing some service for you," he replied in textbook English. I was so astonished that I couldn't hold back a small laugh. "Where did you learn to speak English so well?" I asked him. He went on to explain that he had majored in English in his final year at senior high, practicing with foreign workers who came through their area for the timber companies. Also he had learnt a lot from using the internet.

It was time to eat, so I sent the boys off to shower and change, thinking Adi could show Put how to use the conveniences. After I had done the same we walked up town and found a nice little restaurant that served freshly caught baked fish. All of us were tired, so the conversation did not really get going. As soon as we had finished eating I called for the bill and we left. Put was the one to offer cigarettes this time as we walked along the riverfront back to the hotel. Once in the room, Adi spoke to Put about sleeping in the car, but I suggested instead that if he didn't mind sleeping with us, he would be most welcome to bed down in our bed or we could make up a separate bed on the couch. Put said he would be happy to sleep with us.

Adi took the lead and began stripping off his shirt and jeans. Naked, he climbed into the bed. "James, you sleep in the middle and Put on the other side." Put and I began to remove our clothing, Put showing no inhibition or embarrassment, and I caught a quick glimpse of his slim body before we got into bed as Adi had organised. The light switch was conveniently on the side table where Adi had chosen to sleep and he flicked the room into darkness. Rolling towards me, Adi grabbed me with a loving hug and planted a soft lingering kiss on my lips. His impatient dick ground into my thigh in the process, making mine spring to life instantly. Enjoying the quiet expression of love between us, I was unsure about Put's reaction. Adi whispered, "James, I told Put about some of the things we have been doing, and he is ok with that. Don't worry about him at all, and if you want to hold him or touch him, it is ok."

Although it was said in a whisper, Put could hardly help but hear what was said because he was so close. He leaned towards me and put his arm across my chest in a part embrace. There I was, sandwiched between two different yet strikingly beautiful guys. Put rolled closer and I felt his stiff rod push lightly against my leg. We were all tired, and before anything more could happen, we all fell into a deep sleep

"Allahu akbar!" The proximity of the central mosque ensured that we heard the early morning call for the faithful to prayer. It was 0430 and still pitch dark outside and this was the second of five ritual prayers that devout Moslems attend each day. For many of the less devoted, this is the one prayer that they like to perform. For the not devoted, well, they just roll over and go back to sleep. My two bedfellows must have been in the middle category, because they both crawled out of bed after rolling over to give me a good morning kiss. Naked they went in to the shower, preceded by their morning stiffs, to perform the necessary ablutions for their prayer. A few minutes later they came back into the room and found some clothing suitable to wear for their ritual. Aligning themselves to Mecca, as all the Islamic family do when they pray, they began the series of bowings and kneelings that accompany the chanted prayers.

Ali came over to me when the prayers were completed and in deepest respect offered me a handshake of blessing and fellowship. Put followed his cousin then they both sat on the bed with me when Adi passed around cigarettes. Adi said he would leave soon for Balikpapan so he was there before the package arrived and he would then be able to get it back here at the earliest time. Put would stay with me and help with the initial work at the bank.

I rang room service and ordered coffee and some toast, which arrived promptly after I had managed to get into some clothes. We sat together on the carpeted floor of the room; legs crossed, and enjoyed the pre-dawn meal.

Adi left soon after 0500. We still had several hours before the bank would be open; although I had told the manager I would like to start as early as possible.

Put was smoking another cigarette as I decided to lay back and rest a bit more. I didn't bother to get in to the bed; I just lay on the top. A few minutes later I felt the pressure of Put also lying down, but he climbed in under the spread. He reached out his arm across my chest, like he had done the previous night, and cuddled close to me. I rolled towards him and his soft lips met mine as our eyes made contact. "Come in to bed with me, Mister James," Put whispered. I got under the sheets and went to embrace him. My hand found his naked torso and began exploring further down, finding no trousers either. I continued my exploration and found his erect penis waiting to attack me. Put had unbuttoned my shirt and was undoing my shorts. He tried to ease them off my, but it was too difficult in the reclining position, so I sat up and removed my clothes. We quickly embraced again, this time with nothing between us except our foreskins, and they, too, were rubbing together like boats tied up at a choppy harbour.

"You are so big, Mister James," he whispered softly in my ear. "I love the feel of your tool. It is so strong and large, not like my little thing." I let my hand find it's way down his stomach to his pubic zone. A familiar outcrop of hair greeted me just before I found his rigid member again. Put was probably similar in size to Adi, and I relished the contact with his manhood. I matched his rhythm by stroking his dick in time with his strokes on mine. He was becoming more insistent in his handwork, bringing me to a climax much quicker than I had expected. I could feel his own need rising, no doubt brought on by the excitement of his playing with my dick. We both increased tempo, short breaths catching as we neared our climaxes. Put brought me out first, pumping firmly till I could not shoot any more. Then he let go of his juices, strongly and continuously until I felt him slacken in intensity. I leant my head towards him and kissed him before we fell asleep again, both of us still holding the others slippery tools.

Around 0700 we woke again. Put was still hard as a rock and he thrust against me as we stirred from our sleep. "Time to go to work," I reluctantly reminded him. "How about you shower while I order some more coffee?" Put kissed me deeply, his hardness so present in my groin, and then slowly got out of the bed. Instead of shyly retiring to the bathroom, he gave me a full exhibition of his manliness and beautifully lithe body. I shushed him away before I gave in to my own desire to pull him back in to bed with me.

The coffee arrived after I has showered and dressed and we sat together smoking and enjoying the refreshment. By 0730 we were at the bank front door and just a few minutes later the manager arrived to let us in. Put carried my equipment bag up to the computer room while I rummaged around a storeroom to find all the leftover bits and pieces from the installation.

Running cables is not a difficult job in itself, but there are almost always snags and obstacles that make it difficult. Once I showed Put what we had to do, he understood the process and became a valuable asset. His smaller body meant he could get into nooks and crannies that I would have had trouble accessing, so it was not long before we had determined how many new cables needed to be run. Laying out the new cables in the passageways was the best way to get lengths right and to prevent twists and knots. We secured the new cables to the ends of the old ones and gently eased them into the ducts, using the old cables as drawstrings. The first set was a fairly short run on the same floor, and we had them laid in no time. The second set went downstairs and around a few corners, so I made a couple of simple codes we would use to communicate to each other when we ran them through. The code would be tapped onto a water pipe in the duct, the sound transmitting easier than we could yell to each other. Besides, there were now customers coming into the bank, which had opened for business at 0900.

The draw started off ok, but soon things came to a halt. I signalled Put to stop feeding the cable and I came back upstairs to see what the problem was.

It felt like the cables had snagged something down in the duct, probably 8 or 10 metres from the access hole. Put said he could crawl in there and have a look, so I hoisted him up into the access hole. Eventually all I could see was his bare feet as he disappeared down the duct. He called back to me to say that he could see the problem. As we had drawn the cables they had caught under a piece of moulding in the duct, so all he needed to do was to ease them out and they were free again. The problem was that if he didn't stay there, they would probably jam again. I asked him to wait there a moment.

Downstairs was the security office for the bank, and I asked if one of the guards would be free to help us for a few minutes. A smart young guy was sent with me and I showed him how to feed the cables into the access hole towards Put, who would then feed them on to me. The process worked fine and it was not long before I was helping a rather dusty Put back down to the floor. The guard introduced himself to us, but I did not catch his name. I asked him if perhaps he would like to join us for a drink after work as an expression of thanks. He went off, assuring me that he would be happy to see us around 1800 that evening.

Put and I tidied up the new cables, made the respective connections and had everything just about done by 1200. We had a light lunch and just completed the cables when Adi returned from Balikpapan. I unpacked the boxes and sorted the components ready for installation. Adi and Put helped me by taking away ruined parts and finding the replacements from the gear we had freighted in, leaving me free to use my testing gear to ensure nothing was overlooked. By 1500 all the macro spans were operational and I considered we were ready for a trial run. When we fired the system, the parts that had been fixed all came up fine and the section I expected would be still down was, indeed, not working.

The bank manager was very happy to have some of his systems back, particularly the on-line link to their headquarters. He rushed around organising his staff to work back so that backup data could be transmitted and all systems updated before start of business the next morning.

The three of us kept working away on the rest of the system till about 1730 when I felt we had all had enough for the day. We dragged ourselves out to Adi's taxi and drove the short distance back to our hotel where we prepared to shower. I asked the boys if they had changes of clothes, because it occurred to me there was no baggage, and when they said they only had a few things, I put them in the car again and got Adi to take us to the shopping centre on Jalan Iman Bonjol. The boys were reluctant to select things, but I made them find shirts and trousers so they had something clean to wear. We went back to the hotel, showered and I was amazed when the boys came out with their new gear.

The telephone interrupted us; it was reception advising that a Mister Abdul was waiting to see me. I remembered that I had asked the bank guard around, and guessed it was he, so I raced downstairs to meet him. It was the bank guard, but he, too, was in comfortable clothing rather than his uniform, and I had trouble recognising him as the same person. We shook hands and he told me his name was Abdul Wahabin. Showing him the way, I led him up to our room. Introductions were made to the boys who were sitting out on the shady balcony smoking. I asked Abdul what he would like to drink and got beer for him and myself and cokes for the two boys. He offered me a smoke as we sat down with the boys on the balcony.

To be continued.

Please let me know what you think about the story. I will reply to all constructive emails.

James MacMannis

james_macmannis@hotmail.com