Damai Indah Lagi - the EX Besok Lagi

DAMAI INDAH, my darling-boat, has been very busy during the last year. Although we are constantly working to maintain her whenever she is not on a charter, she needs to go to the shipyard again. The hull is, as much as the rest of the boat, made out of wood. That indicates that I need to keep a closer eye on all potential problems, wooden boats are alike to suffer from. Wet rot, Termites, worms and all that shit that can endanger a wooden boat. Best is, to take the boat out of the water every year to inspect and maintain her. I never succeeded to get DAMAI INDAH’S hull really dry. She was always leaking a bit. That is no big deal as most wooden boats do so, but I really don’t like that.

Additionally to the work on the hull I have a big project going on inside the boat. Within the last few months we have ripped out the beds and removed the diesel tanks underneath the bunks. We have built brand-new diesel tanks out of stainless steel and installed them to the sides of the hull. This gives me much more freedom to design and change the salon to my ideas. The previous owner wanted to be able to sleep as many people inside as possible. Therefore the front cabins were designed that each one could accommodate 2 people, the salon could accommodate 4 people. In total she could sleep 8 people inside. I don’t need that and I don’t want that! DAMAI INDAH, is mainly a day charter boat and I hardly have any bookings for overnight stays. It is so beautiful and relaxing to sleep on board as I do very often but of course the charm is to sleep outside on deck! Within the last few months we have built a roof over the front-deck that allows to sleep outside even if the weather is really bad. I can put down the bamboo blinds to the sides and it is cozy and dry. What I want to say is, that I plan to make the salon a complete different style. To give you a brief idea, starboard side will be a long and fully equipped galley with a bar in the middle. We will build a big 12 volt fridge underneath as well as the convection oven. You will see the photos once this is done. On port side I want to have a nice big lounge and a navigation table. The two front cabins and the little workshop will end up being ONE big bathroom including 2 toilets and one big bathtub. At the sides of the hull we will just have the storage of wine bottles and some decoration. Taking a bath will give the feeling of being in a wine-cellar. As we are in the tropics, we will have air-condition installed. I promise you, it will become the sexiest bathroom one can think of on a boat!
But here comes my problem and the solution follows: all the work described above is costly and time consuming. DAMAI INDAH, will be out of business at least for 2 – if not for 3 months. I cannot afford to just let the business sleep for that time. I need to replace her and even if I don’t earn a penny during that time, my popularity and my reputation would be on stag. In other words, when people want to go out on a charter with me, I would have to neglect all bookings; not a good idea. So I thought I should find another boat that can take DAMAI INDAH’s place. Last time when DAMAI INDAH, was out of business (I had a fu….ing big problem with my gearbox and this sh….t had cost me a fortune – my previous engineer had fucked it up completely, but this is a different story and I spare you my language and my frustration here…. At the end my friend Jerry, part-time captain on DAMAI INDAH, fixed the problem) I replaced DAMAI INDAH, with another Indonesian style vessel. I did a number of charters with her but frankly speaking, although the boat for sure has a certain charm and is a much more expensive and bigger boat than mine, I was not really happy. I could not team up with the skipper couple and the feeling and atmosphere during the charters never came any where closed to the tours done on my humble boat.

Jerry skippers the boat to Thailand together with Clement

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I decided rather to let the business sleep than not being able to handle it on the level that I want the charters to run.
I found an alternative boat with a French couple that I could trust 100 %. They have a beautiful boat and they are professionals when it comes to any kind of charter. But this would cost me a fortune. I felt stuck in a corner. Michelle and Lutz (they run the restaurant “Mangoes” in Pantai Kok) told me about Hans and his BESOK LAGI.
I had met Hans some 3 years back already when I was on the hard in Thailand with DAMAI INDAH. Already then and there he offered me his boat but of course I was not interested at all as I had just purchased DAMAI INDAH.

I had enough problems with her then as she was in poor condition then.
Now she was available again. Hans, the Dutch owner, had become a bit too unhealthy over the years and had to abandon his boat. She was on the anchorage in Telaga Harbour when I visited her 2 weeks ago. Hans had not had a foot on her since more than 6 months. A friend of his was looking for the basic needs of the boat but the boat was running downhill quickly. He needed to get rid of her. Although she is not in prime condition and for sure comes with a few problems, she is a bargain. She comes with a lot of good equipment including a fairly big generator. I negotiated a fair price for her and as I had a back-up from my friends Clement and Jerry I decided to go for it.
Hans and I signed the contract at Beach Garden and celebrated this event with a bottle of French Champagne. Both of us were much closed to tears. I know that he loved BESOK LAGI and that he had always wanted to live on the boat for the rest of his life. He knows, she is in good hands now and she deserves a new life.
BESOK LAGI, the now-sister of DAMAI INDAH, was as well built in Sulawesi, in Bonerate, to be precise as her older sister. As much as I know her history by now, she was, although constructed as a charter boat in the first place already, designed and built the traditional way. It might well be that she has been built in the very same spot than my first baby DAMAI INDAH. I will do some more research here and update the story….

Here is what I am doing now: BESOK LAGI cannot take DAMAI INDAH’S place unless she got a bit of TLC. Clement and Jerry took her to Satun (South Thailand, only 5 hours away from Langkawi) a few days ago.
I had to go to KL for a few days for my other project (www.revitacura.com) and flew to Thailand yesterday.
The boat was already on the dry-dock when I arrived. Mike, my project manager, did the first inspection and it did not take us by surprise that the front mast was fully rotten and a biotope for termites and white ans.

The rotten front mast of Damai Indah Lagi

They pulled it down this morning and we fumigated the boat right after. She has more than only this spot where insects are feasting on her. At least 2 or more spots that we know that there are bugs in.

The rotten last stumps of the main mast.

My new darling: Damai Indah Lagi!

But Mike has a great team of local workers built up over the years that he is here in Thailand working in the shipyard. Actually, Mike is one of the great gurus when it comes to work on wooden boats. He has rebuilt the famous CARIAD together with Des Kearns here in Satun. A project involving a famous sailing ship that had been built in England in the year 1896.

You can check her amazing story in www.cariad.com
Mike was the leader of the carpenter work done on that historic vessel. He is an artist of an endangered species of shipbuilders.
I know him since my first days here in Langkawi but never had a personal contact to him. But just a few months ago I heard to my very surprise that he was the one to give DAMAI INDAH, the first changes after she was converted from an inter-island trading ship into a charter vessel some 15 years ago in Darwin/Australia – unbelievable how small the world is…
Now he is in charge for BESOK LAGI and later on for DAMAI INDAH. Once BESOK LAGI is in an acceptable condition and the beauty she potentially is, we will change her name to DAMAI INDAH LAGI. As my marketing and the years of hard work is all focused around the name DAMAI INDAH, I intend to change the name of BESOK LAGI although I hate to do that. But for marketing reasons, I think this is a wise decision.
BESOK LAGI in Indonesian words means “Tomorrow Again”
DAMAI INDAH, translates to “Peace and Beauty”.
Her new name DAMAI INDAH LAGI translates to “Peace and Beauty Again”. I hope you like it.
Both boats will be in prime condition by the beginning of the peak season in about November, I hope.
Back to the shipyard:
DAMAI INDAH LAGI is now in the shipyard since 3 days and we have stripped the hull down. I am taken by a positive surprise that the hull is in fairly good condition.

Only the planks that Hans had changed when he was last time on the hard are invested by termites. No big deal for Mike and his team. While Mike is looking after the wood work, Clement is working on the electrics. He rented a little house in Satun and lives here during the renovation.
They really don’t need me! As I had been extremely busy during the last few months and hardly had a break.
On DAMAI INDAH, I have good crew right now as well as in the office. This gives me the needed time for another break. I decide to go for a week to the north of Thailand for a detox. I had been in Chiang Mai in April for 2 weeks and it was a truly relaxing and rejuvenating time there. “The Spa Resort” is specialized in fasting and detox.
30th of July 2011
I have now spent 6 days in Chiang Mai and done a fasting.
Boy, I feel great! As always during a fast, I am pretty tired during the first few days but compared to my last stay, after only 2 days my energy-level already goes sky-high. Good, to get away from all the bad habits such as coffee (I started to smoke cigars again, I love them but wanted to get rid of it as I am just not under control), alcohol and junk food. I have never been a junk food eater but cooking on DAMAI INDAH, indicates that you get too much of the good stuff and that ends up bad for you. Well, you might come only once in your life time on my charter but I was out on charter almost every day.
Back to the shipyard, read my next blog!

This time the problem was solved easily; cross fingers.

Eva, alias captain cook

Now that she was not operating we took the chance of  doing some maintanace jobs on the boat that I never had the time to do. We are varnishing, rewiring the lousy job on the switch board, working to upgrade my galley on so forth. Makes my disaster even more expensive but it would be stupid not to do so.

I was lucky enough to find a boat to replace mine. Naga Pelangi, a show-off! She is a brand-new wooden boat that has been built during the last few years in Terranganu, the east coast of Malaysian. She is designed the traditional way with the old-fashion rigging. I shifted all my tours to that boat and managed not to cancel a single tour and keep my guests happy. But yesterday I had a private charter and replaced my boat with ISIS, a modern, 57 ft catamaran. I am normally not so fond of catamarans. Gerd was always a more conservative sailor and therefore I started my sailing career with him on his boat DADDELDU. The one we almost circumnavigated the globe on.

About 3 years back I had done several charters on ISIS but the conditions of the wind had never been as perfect as yesterday.  The weather was fantastic: the sky was blue and Sjoerd set the sails as the wind was blowing from the north quite strongly. Under gib and mainsail we sailed more than 9 knots! It was an incredible feeling for me as even with half-wind the boat was absolutely stable! The cubs and glasses where still standing. I did not waste my time cooking now. After lunch I was up on deck and truly enjoyed this marvelous fast ride!

As the wind came from the north and we were fast enough, we decided to sail around Dayang Bunting. Normally I can only do that on a private full day cruise. But within about only one hour we were already in the south. We anchored in a picturesque spot between two islands and went for a swim. No jelly fish around – no sharks, no crocs. Perfect! On our way back we sailed into a terrific sunset while I was back cooking. I thought I upgraded my own career when I bought Damai Indah but I am still the galley-slave.

Tomorrow ISIS is going out for me again….. Hope for wind and sun!
Eva alias Captain Cook!

One of the things that had always annoyed me was the lousy galley. As we cook everything fresh on the boat, the galley of course is very important.  But the original layout was such that the person who did the cooking also had to clean up the dishes or pots and pans at the same time, as 2 people could not fit into that small space.

Additionally I always wanted to have a granite worktop, as that makes everything so much easier and more hygienic.

So this year I have decided to give it a go and invest some money for my and my crews comfort and pleasure. Clement, my French-Canadian helper and friend is doing the job that normally Agus would do. He took the old rubbish out, removed the fridge and put it into the front cabin. Then he built the frame for the granite and the sink.  That was all done yesterday, the 30^th of December, a Thursday. As I had a charter by 2 pm we could not finish the job and had to improvise for that day. Today is New Years Eve and I have a big tour tonight starting at 6pm. So I called Fabilla, the guy who is in charge of supplying the granite. Yesterday he guaranteed to me that he would come and finish the job today, but when I called him, he said that today is a public holiday and his boys off-day. Shit! I have no water in galley. So I called him again and offered his boys a generous tip if they would come and finish the job. Luckily they came and did it for me. 10 minutes before the guests arrived they left! For the New Years Eve party I had to cook at the highest level possible. I had 16 guests and when they were on the beach I did the cooking. Tiger-prawns, lamb, tenderloin and all together quite a big buffet, and I truly enjoyed working in the new galley.

Eva, alias Captain Cook

The best is just about good enough for you!! Keep in mind, that you get a discount in case you don’t’ touch my bar but if you want to, I will spoil you!

Wine and Bubbly:

Red: Jacobs Creek Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon,

White: Hardy’s VR Sauvignon Blanc and

Chardonnay, Morande, Chile

Sherry TioPepe

Bubbly: Australian Omni

For extra charge French Champagne,

Piper Heidsieck, VeuveClicquot, Dom Perignon

Spirits:

Marini dry, Martini Rosso and Martini Bianco,

Gin:

Gordon’s Dry, Bombay Sapphire,  Tanqueray

Rum:

Bacardi Oro 8 years old,

Captain Morgan Spiced Rum

Mountain Gay Rum

Bundaberg

Bacardi white

VaccariSambuca

Baileys and Kahlua

Jack Daniels

Cointreau

GrenadineSyrup

Bols blue Curacao and Bols Crème de Cassis

Vodka: Below 41 and Absolute

Malibu,

Pernod and Pastis

12 year old whiskey from Scotland and Ireland

Jameson, Glenmorangie and Macallan

Tequila

Pimms

Beer:

Tiger, Carlsberg and Skol

I hope you are impressed by this. I try to make sure that all listed drinks are always on stock but here and there it  might not always be possible if the supplier runs out of stock.

If there is anything that is not on this list that you would like to drink during the tour, let me know it in advance.

Eva, alias Captain Cook!

We peel and clean the prawns in my house and then marinate them with garlic, a mild red chili, good olive oil and a splash of honey.

By the way; did you know that Langkawi’s wild honey is one of the best in the world? The bees’ nests are in 30 metre high fig trees and so not easy to harvest as you can imagine. The taste is wonderful. Sometimes you can buy this honey in the wet-market. The bottles have no labels and the color is from golden to dark brown. It is comparatively expensive but worth every penny.

On the boat we serve the prawns either as lunch with local fresh noodles or fried at dinner.

Chicken

When we buy the chicken we never let them cut the meat on the market as they just chop through the bones. Scotti, my previous crewmember won a Michelin star for his restaurant when he was only 25 years old. He taught me how to gut, clean and cut chicken it the best way. Sorry, I cannot explain it to you, but you will never find split bones on my chicken. I then marinate the pieces with an excellent Indian meat curry powder, mild chili, garlic and ginger. The spices are cut in relatively large pieces and before I fry the chicken meat, I remove them from the marinating ingredients which I reserve, as they would burn to quickly. I heat up the pan until I can see it smoking. For the chicken I use sunflower oil as olive oil is too strong in taste. Did you know that it is the only oil apart from olive oil, that is not gene-manipulated (in case you can prove me wrong, please send me an email!) and is neutral in its taste.

I fry the chicken pieces on highest heat possible all around until nice and brown and then put the fire low, for about another fifteen minutes so it will slowly simmer. Then I take them out, pour off the oil and deglaze the pan with a good vinegar.

Next I add the remaining marinating ingredients plus some chopped carrots and peeled tomatoes. Salt, pepper and a small piece of butter. I hardly ever have leftovers!

By the way: you might not believe this, but for more than 15 years I have been a strict vegetarian, 10 years at least a vegan and one year I lived on raw food only. Now, due to the job and even in a restaurant too I will enjoy a piece of meat. The best steak on the island you get for sure, is at the Bon Ton.

But here is my recipe for my Tenderloin. (Sure, this I do not serve if I have Hindus on the boat!)

There is only one shop on Langkawi where I can get tenderloin from Australia. If I can’t get it there, I don’t buy it.  And I never buy it frozen. I clean it up and marinate it with the fabulous meat curry powder from India that I also use for the chicken. You can buy it in most supermarkets. It is called “Baba’s Curry”. I only add lemon zest and a splash of sunflower oil.

Again I heat up the frying pan to the maximum. Then I add only fresh butter. Before it gets burned I put the meat in. Add salt and pepper and fry it quickly, not more than one minute aside. Then I take it out, put it on a plate, a small piece of butter on top of each steak and cover with aluminum foil. Next I deglaze the frying pan with either good red wine ( NOT if I have Muslim guests!!) or with a good vinegar. I add a tiny bit of either honey or a good marmalade. This sauce goes on top and I tell you, my crew is addicted to it!

Red snapper:

Although it is a fairly expensive fish, I think it is worth it. Some guests have told me that they never had a better fish before in their life. The recipe is simple as long as the fish is good and doesn’t come from a fish farm. Sure enough I never buy from a fish-farm. Sometimes I am lucky and buy from a fisherman directly, when I am out with the boat.

I clean the fish and cut into filets. With the bones I make a stock. I marinate the fish with “Baba’s Fish-curry” for a few hours or over night.

When the frying pan is super-hot I add butter or ghee. I put the fish filet in with the skin down first. With a spoonI make sure that it stays flat in the pan as it has the tendency to curl up. I add salt, a tiny bit of pepper, put the fire down. Before I turn it over, I heat up the pan again. I carefully flip it over and let it fry hot for about 30 seconds before I put the fire down again.

Once the fish is done, I take it out. Now comes the secret: I deglaze the pan with fresh orange juice, the stock and add a good piece of butter.  Ready!

Melting on you tongue, I swear.

Sometimes I have vegetarian guests – mainly from India. That is challenging for me as I love Indian style cooking.

Mary, my Indian housemaid makes a superb dhal. But I make at least three to four vegetarian dishes myself.

Eva, alias Captain Cook

Frankly speaking, I learned cooking quite late in my life. When my husband Gerd and I planned to sail around the world eventually he told me that there are no restaurants on the Atlantic.  That was in the year 1999. I bought more than one hundred cook books and started to experiment. During our almost 6 years of circumnavigation I think I did a good job. As an example, when we crossed the Atlantic, I used only 6 cans of food, that was three of tomatoes and three of tuna-fish.

The rest was all cooked fresh. And I am truly proud of the reviews you can read at tripadvisor or holidaycheck about my tours.  I am the ONLY charter boat on Langkawi where the food does not come from a caterer,but rather is cooked fresh. My Indian housemaid Mary or I go to the wet-market every morning. Here we buy everything we need. And I am honestly buying only the best available. You know, I hardly work with any hotels – almost all my booking come online.  The hotels want to take a commission and I cannot see the reason why I should pay up to 40 % of my hard earned money just for them making a phone call! No way would I then be able to serve the wine in crystal glasses or tenderloin and prawns.  No other charter boat offers a 12 year old whiskey and all together has an open bar as I have on DAMAI INDAH. Life is too short as we all know! And your hard earned and paid for holiday, your honeymoon, birthday or whatever you are celebrating,it is surely worth it to do so in style and comfort. The best is just about good enough for you. So instead of paying commission to hotels, I would rather spend the money on you!

Eva, alias Captain Cook

If you have read my blogs about me being in the ship, you remember that I had to build a new mast last year. Since then I had a lot of work on the boat and no time to care for the rigging. But eventually my sails came back from repair and Clement put up the front sail.

Over the last year I have been really lucky with my crew.

Agus, my first mate:

This young Indonesian boy works for me since the day I bought the boat. As a child he and his family lived in the jungle closed to Kuala Lumpur for about 6 years trying to hide from immigration as they where illegally in Malaysia.

He came to Langkawi almost 10 years back. Can you imagine that on his first job he received a payment of the equivalent of 2 USD per day???  Since then he has worked hard, learned a lot and is a skilled carpenter.

He looks after almost everything related to the boat but most importantly he is loyal to me and loves DAMAI INDAH. Amongst the many jobs he is doing for the vessel, he takes care of the beautiful varnishing. Frankly speaking, without him I could not afford my lovely DAMAI INDAH. Jobs like his are very expensive and time-consuming if you do it in a shipyard.

He is my helmsman when I can’t steer on tours myself. Actually, we sometimes almost fight for the job on the tiller as we both love steering DAMAI INDAH although she is quite heavy and has a strong tendency to run to port-side. Just recently I gave him the title of a first mate. Sounds as if I have a large crew list including a second mate but that of course is not. But he loves the fact that I don’t see him just as a decks-hand. Over the time our relationship became very closed – I feel for him like a mother. And whenever he has a problem, he first comes to me.

I tried to apply for an employment pass for him but never succeeded. He had a seaman-book to proof that he was working on a boat. That at least gave him a semi-legal status.  But still he was on a tourist visa.

Malaysia – understandably enough, is not keen on Indonesian workers. Agus had to leave Malaysia to Thailand every month for 3 days. That of course is expensive and a loss of time.

Eventually Agus said that he could arrange the employment pass with a friend of his. This paper would only cost 2.000 Ringgit for one year. I do remember asking him if this is trustworthy and finally I left it in his hands. What a stupid mistake and I could punish myself badly for this as you will understand reading further.

Here comes the tragedy:

Agus was about to get married. His girlfriend is an Indonesian as well and they know each other since many years but hardly had the chance to see each other. She worked for many years in Singapore as a nanny. But now that Agus is earning good money he wants to settle a family. The last few months they planned everything. His bride moved back to Indonesia to get everything arranged.

In his hometown they where all excited about the upcoming wedding. Of course Agus’ family would have to cook for the whole village and they expected some 4.000 people to come for food. Therefore Agus sent money several times for his family to buy sheeps, chicken and whatever. He was supposed to fly home to Solo on the 14^th of October.

I did not want him to travel over land so I bought him a ticket from Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur and the next early morning from KL to Solo. My personal intention was to fly to Indonesia a few days later to attend his wedding as a surprise for him.

So he flew to KL and everything seemed to be alright.

The next morning when he was at the airport he called me and told me there was a problem with immigration; he was at the LCCT Air Asia. Sure I did not expect it to be a big thing. “Go to the Air Asia counter and postpone your ticket. There is an Indonesian Embassy in KL, they can surely help you.” That was my last conversation with him at this stage. As he did not call me again I thought everything was fine. On the contrary! Three days later he called me again. He was in a lock-up at the airport! One of the other inmates succeeded to smuggle in a phone. I did not really believe this but he told me that immigration did not accept his employment pass and looked at him as an overstay for 2 months and that of course is a criminal act.

The only thing I could do now was to call a lawyer for him and that I did. Gabi and James, my friends in KL, recommended Rahel and Derek. They informed immigration and court that Agus had a lawyer. So I thought things can be settled. Derek told me that court wanted to make a hearing in Agus’ matter the next Monday. He informed court that he could not attend this date as he had another court case. He asked court to postpone the meeting. Unbelievably enough they just ignored this and did the case with Agus alone – without even informing Derek. Of course the boy could not defense himself and so they sentenced him for 3 month! Later we found out that they tried to give the impression that they had spoken to Derek on the phone early in the morning that day by 8:30. Derek could prove to them that this was not correct as his office opens only at 9 am.

And again much later I found out that court offered him a fine of 5.000 Ringgit but he said that he did not have the money. Stupid boy! He had 3.000 Ringgit in cash from me and I would have of course paid the money to avoid what was waiting for him.

Rahel, Derek and I tried for the next few weeks whatever we could but ran against walls.

Sudarthi, Agus bride, called me innumerable times – even late at night – crying. I could not even talk to her as she doesn’t speak English. It was truly heartbreaking.

On the 21rst I flew to KL and at least succeeded to visit Agus in jail. Never in my life before I had visited anybody in prison. Rahel had done the needed paperwork for me and I took a taxi to get there.

Kajang Prison is a huge complex with several thousand inmates. From the outside you are actually quite impressed. Flowers around the building, everything, even the toilet, is very clean and the stuff is really nice and polite.

I went to the visitors desk and had to wait for about 30 min.  

I was only allowed to see him through a glass and talk to him through a phone. Just like you see it in the movies. But I was not prepared to see him bold! They had shaved his head down to the skin. Agus had always been proud of his locks (frankly speaking, I never liked his hairstyle but never said a word to him about it) but without his hair he looked so young and vulnerable. He was in tears when he saw me and was obviously suffering a bad depression. There was not much I could say to him. So I asked him about his life in prison and why the inmates wear different colored uniforms. Well, as he is sentenced for only 3 month he wears the white uniform, those that got one year, wear red, and so forth. Blue is very bad: 25 years or sentence to death.

After this meeting I asked if I could buy something for him. I was allowed to buy him biscuits, instant soups and other junk. The inmates do not get any veggies or fruits; only sentenced-to-death-inmates are allowed to get some fruits, comics and other little privileges.

I could not help him other than buying some additional food and some books for him.

I managed to visit him one more time but that was about it. James and Gabi visited him a few weeks later just to cheer him up and he was grateful for this.

For good behavior Agus was released on the 14^th of December. So he had been imprisoned for 8 weeks. Rahel had told me that I could come to KL and buy him a ticket to fly home. If not, they would deport him over land and via boat. I now know that this can be a journey of more than 2 weeks and it must be an indescribable nightmare for the inmates. Luckily I had no charter that day and took the next flight to KL. As Rahel had recommended that I do not go there alone I asked James to join me. I took a taxi and he took his car. Agus had been taken to another, much smaller prison. The officers here again where nice and polite. The prison looks almost charming to the visitors. Again a lot of flowers around and the buildings are painted quite nicely and colorful. For reasons I could not understand I was only allowed to buy a ticket for the 18^th of December. I had no idea why they kept him 4 more days. I dared to ask if we could see Agus and I was quite astonished that the officer agreed without any paper work.

James and I went to have a coffee and when we came back Agus was sitting on the floor, cross-legged with handcuffs. I had not seen him for 2 months and his hair was growing back. By now he was in his personal clothes again. A jeans and a black t-shirt that I had bought for him months back with a funny text in front: “Playboy Trainee”

I explained him the procedure how we fly him out. Than we chatted a bit and James and I left again.

Gerd, my husband, arranged for the flights. I had not told Agus that I would fly together with him.

This time I wanted to make sure that he would be safe as I expected problems on the other side in Indonesia.

I stayed in KL for the next few days as it didn’t make sense to fly to Langkawi for a few days. Jerry, a dutch friend of mine, took over the job as a captain for the time.

On the 18^th I took a taxi to the airport and boarded the plane. Normally I am the very last passenger on each flight I take. I hate to stand in a queue.

This time I made sure I was the very first as I hoped he would be in the plane already. The flight was pretty much booked out and I had no chance to get seats next to each other.

When everybody was in the plane and the doors almost shut, Agus was taken in as the very last passenger.

When he saw me he was delighted and we both were closed to tears.

I had bought the best food I could get at the airport; a nice sandwich from Starbugs.

For the next 2 hours he told me a lot about what he had seen within the last 2month and that he was so excited to see his family.

This is what he told me what had happened in the first place at the LCCT airport: He showed his passport plus the separate document of the employment pass. He was put a side right away and taken to a separate room. There was an office (without a name or number on his uniform – just a black t-shirt. He took his employment pass and seaman book aside and told Agus that he would be charged of a 2 months overstay in Malaysia. But if he would give him 1000 Ringgit, he could settle the case. Agus bargained him down to 500 RM. The moment the money changed hands the guy took out the handcuffs and Agus to the depot. (This is a prison of immigration right next to LCCT)

Later on he told me some more horrible stories about what happened to some of his  companions of the drama.

Once we arrived in Jakarta, Agus took a bus home and I the next plane back to KL.

He called me once he was home.

Sure, there was a lot of crying when he saw his family and Sudarthi. He wanted to get the wedding done as soon as possible but a few days later he realized that Sudarthi  was not the same anymore.

The girl somehow had changed and both families where not keen on the wedding anymore. There was a rumor around that she had a boyfriend. I had a long phone call with Agus and told him that if she was not willing to wait for him, she was not worth to get his wife.

Now I am trying to get his papers in order again to get him back! This will not be an easy task but the future for him in Indonesia is a pady-field.

As an alternative if this process will take a few months, I will try to get him a visa to go to Australia. I have friends down there. He could learn some more English and study the books finally to go to school. On the long run I hope I can help him to become a captains license as I had planed for him long ago already. This sounds stupid but it is easier in SEA than we Europeans think it is.

I will keep you updated on Agus future!
Eva