Benvenuto in Italia!
The last few days in Saratok passed in a whirl of packing and ticking off jobs on lists, all the time my view of our little town shifting from the present to the past. On Sunday 22nd September Sue drove me to Sarikei to get the boat to Kuching. I looked out of the window at the jungle, the banana plants and the roadside shops and longhouses thinking this may well be the last time I see them. As the boat surged up to the pontoon I said my goodbyes to Sue and passed my luggage (a rucksack and my bicycle encased in a large cardboard box) up to some helping hands on the rear deck. This was the start of three days of relentless travel by boat to Kuching, then a plane the next morning to Kuala Lumpur followed by a dash across the airport to catch my flight to Heathrow. At Heathrow I got a taxi to Sue's brother Mike's house in Uxbridge where I left the bike. After a pleasant night catching up with news from Mike, Tina, Adam and Tim, I got the bus on Tuesday t...