MEET RITCHIE

We went to Kuching, Borneo, because we had two days left before we went to Singapore and we wanted to see the orang-utans. There are a number of primate rescue centers here, but Seminggoh was reported to be one of the better experiences, as the animals - most of whom had been caged by private collectors, or orphaned when their mothers were killed - roam free in the preserve. We took a car (with driver, nobody in their right mind would try to drive in this neck of the woods), and in forty five minutes were walking from the parking lot down the road to the feeding center. The animals are fed twice a day, and morning is supposed to be the better time. But what we saw exceeded even our non-stop imaginations.
MEET RITCHIE: one hundred kilos of attitude, this 32-year old bad boy is the undisputed leader here in the preserve, and comes down to feed only rarely. We got lucky; he showed up a half hour before the scheduled 9AM banana-fest. The caretakers were amazed as he hadn't come in for two weeks, plus they could see Ritchie wasn't a happy camper, and they kept telling us to step back.

Apparently, the Big Guy doesn't like visitors; he kept his back to us, and made no eye contact at all. We were all within thirty feet of him when he swung down off the feeding platform and headed right toward us. The guards were freaking out, pushing people (we are such silly creatures, wanting our photos at any price, not realizing this guy would happily and very easily tear off a hand or arm). I was less than ten feet when I took this photo, but at least I had a railing between us. Ritchie continued on down the path, then swung onto the road, projecting that menacing, I-can-tear-you-limb-from-limb attitude with every ponderous step.

This, it turns out, was not the 9AM feeding, this was a bonus. We had been among the first to enter the center, and had a front-line view. What happened next...

COMING SOON!

If your idea of soon is 90 days, we're on the same page. Ninety days from now I'll be on the western edge of the Ring of Fire: Indonesia, Malaysia, perhaps Borneo, little-visited places like that. My first stop will be the spider-shaped island of Sulawesi, whose central core is five active volcanoes. Unlike previous trips (Italy in the fall of 2011, for examaple, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa), I will be keeping you up to date on food, sights, food, sounds, food, smells (especially food), and how difficult it is to get to Torajaland. Among other places.
Other places? Singapore! Home of the famous hawker food stalls and of a cuture that lives to eat (my kind of culture). Much has been written about these open-air stalls, but not by me. It's the only reason I'm going there: the food. As Singapore re-invents itself every five years or so, there's not much history there except in the food. An amalgam of Nonya, Chinese, Indian, and every other cuisine of the immigrants who bilt this economic powerhouse.
Then off to Viet Nam, where in the north the incredible karst formations jut out of the placid waters of HaLong Bay (no doubt you've seen photos, they're on the wall of every Vietnamese restaurant in the country) and, in the central coast region, the ancient Imperial city of Hue (on the Perfume River, just gives me chills to think of it) will whisk us into the distant past.
And finally north and east to Japan, where I'll spend a lot of time in ancient Kyoto, and especially at a sushi bar I've heard of there.
Get ready for a lot of up-close-and-personal: sights, historic and modern; food, from street stalls to sit-down-with-tablecloths; natural beauty (under the water as well as above); indigenous cutltures and their arts and crafts. And who knows what else?
Stay tuned! Meanwhile, there's a new story about a day on the Italian trip you might get a chuckle out of.
Thanks for reading.