Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: 1981

Lingga is a Batak village in the Barisan highlands southwest of Medan in North Sumatra. In 1981 families still lived in traditional longhouses but on a second visit in 1993 many seemed to be derelict and others open just for visitors.

Bright lights. Big City.

Safdarjung Tomb is a sandstone and marble mausoleum built in 1754 in the late Mughal Empire style for Nawab Safdarjung.

One of the marble minarets of the Taj Mahal.

Mount Sibayak is a fairly dormant volcano near Berastagi south of Medan. It is more than 100 years since it last erupted - very recently in geological time - but the Barisan Mountains are definitely still active. Mt Sinabung a few kilometres from here did erupt in 2010.

We were staying in the Mobil guesthouse in Puncak in the mountains south of Jakarta. This was the view looking west towards Mount Pangrango (3,019 m/ 9,905 ft) a dormant volcanic peak, one of many on the Sunda Arc.

In the tropics it can be very hot and humid but when you dress for the weather it's not so bad especially in the rain... :-) Happy Wet Wall Wednesday to everyone!

We had been in Jakarta for a meeting with Pertamina and were now at the airport waiting for our Garuda flight back to Medan. We got a beer while we waited and as the doors to the departure lounge opened straight out onto the airstrip Ken took a stroll in the heat outside. I'm not sure where the barefoot little Indonesian girl came from but I thought the two of them made a nice composition.

Located 39km west of Agra the city of Fatipur Sikri was founded as the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571 by Emperor Akbar but only served in this role from 1571 to 1585, when Akbar abandoned it due to a campaign in Punjab. Given its condition today it seems incredible that it was completely abandoned in 1610. We rented a car and driver in Agra and drove out here for the day. Presumably it can get busy but on this day we were the only tourists in the whole complex! A very atmospheric place. It was overcast but it was very hot! Happy Stone Fence Friday! Enjoy the weekend.

Borobudur is a Buddhist stupa and temple complex in Central Java, Indonesia dating from the 8th century, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is one of world's great ancient monuments, the single largest Buddhist structure anywhere on earth. This is the upper level of three. Inside every bell-shaped stupa is a statue of Buddha; the top has been taken off this one to reveal the content. I thought it was crowded in 1981 but since it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991 it has become the most popular tourist attraction in modern day Indonesia and a major international attraction.

Indian Railways broad gauge Pacific WP 7656, built 1965 at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works West Bengal, & train stopped at Ajhai en route from Delhi to Agra Cantt with the Taj Express. We waited 9-10 minutes here for the Toofan (?) Express to pass pulled by a diesel. Departing at 09.08 we arrived at the main intermediate stop at Mathura at 09.34. Our return journey two days later was on the same train pulled by the same WP.

A morning visit to Old Delhi, or Delhi Junction, station and broad gauge 4-6-2 WP 7569 departs eastwards with a passenger train. Note the last minute passenger jumping aboard the second coach! Based on a 1947 design by Baldwin Locomotive Works in the U.S.A more than half of the 755 5ft 6in gauge WPs were imported from North America but the last 289 were built at Chittaranjan works in India. This particular engine was built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in 1955.

The second time I visited was as a tourist with my wife & this time we flew from Jakarta to the Pulau Seribu (the aptly-named Thousand Islands) in the Java Sea by light aircraft. The Pulau Seribu are actually a string of 105 coral reef-fringed islands stretching 45 kilometres north into the Java Sea.

In 1981 I was working in Medan, North Sumatra but as I was about to transfer to The Hague we decided to take vacation and travel around some other parts of Indonesia before leaving. We had just spent a few days in Yogyakarta and were now flying east to Bali over East Java and the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. The islands of Sumatra and Java lie on a long volcanic arc above a subduction zone where the Indo-Australia plate is moving beneath the Eurasia plate making it very volcanically active.

We climbed Mount Sibayak a fairly dormant volcano near Berastagi south of Medan. It is more than 100 years since it last erupted - very recently in geological time - but the Barisan Mountains are definitely still active. Mt Sinabung a few kilometres from here did erupt in 2010. Steam from the fumeroles can be seen on the mountain. The walk starts in these rice padi fields but climbs quite steeply through forest and then onto open rock. The crest is at 2,212 m (7,257 ft) and in the clouds it gets chilly when you're wearing shorts!.