9

TANGKUBAN PRAHU
(GIRLS ATOP THE VOLCANO)
JAVA INDONESIA
was jeopardizing everyone's life. The road led upwards,
mostly, + we got off an hour later at a high pass.
A bit foggy, + quite cool. I felt like a climb (tho
a minibus would have taken us up for 12 c), so we
hoofed it up + up + up. I longed to take a path, instead
of the road, to get into the incredible jungle. We
wouldn't trust the paths, tho, for more than a few
yards. Nevertheless its closest I've been to the wild
jungle. Java's so densely populated it only exists
in the uplands. Due to the mists (we were 5000' up)
the landscape had a spooky, ominous feel, com-
pletely alien to the blinding - bright greenness below.
The last thing we expected to run into was two
pretty girls, one readhead + one blonde. Yet there
they were, clumsily trying to roll a joint of Lake
Toba grass. "Want a smoke?" they offered (some -
what prematurely). The paper, like Indonesian a[?]o -
grammes, had no gum. "Could you guys roll it?"
Thus all 4 of us were exposed as ignorantis
in the portion of the Twilight Zone called the
Drug world. We'd all accepted joints when offered,
but never rolled our own. The end result was
a sorry pastirhe (?) which fulfilled the social but
not the chemical function of marijuana. Which
was fine by me, as they were the happiest, most
enthusiastic I've met in a long time.
They'd come our route, more or less, + had been
together, working + travelling, 5 years. Lots