[Gutenberg 24971] • Travels in the Far East

Excerpt: ... consisted of rice, vegetables of various sorts, four or five kinds of meat, and a wonderful mixture of condiments, the variety sometimes including twenty, all placed in one receptacle similar to a deep soup-plate and evidently enjoyed by the partakers; this was only one course of the luncheon! A Javanese dignitary and his attendants The Dutch ways of dressing in Java are truly remarkable; for instance, sarongs, thin jackets, and almost bare feet were often seen in a dining-room. To me the culmination of this unconventionality came later; the heat was so 173 oppressive that after luncheon I was glad to enjoy a rocker on my gallery, and might have envied the couple on the adjoining gallery had I been differently educated. For, strangely, the lady wore only a sarong of thin material, a diaphanous jacket, and very low sandals; she might almost have posed as a life model. As a foil, her husband appeared in pajamas. At 3 p.m. on February 22nd, we took a train for Priok port, which was nine miles distant. The steamer Orange (of the Dutch line) was waiting for us, and we were soon sailing for Singapore. Once more we passed the equator without one thrill of excitement, and, after thirty-six hours, were at Singapore, where we were at once transferred to the steamer Nuen-tung (the Chinese for "good luck"), North German Lloyd line, bound for Bangkok, Siam, the trip requiring four and a half days. The steamer was small and only fairly comfortable; the service was Chinese. A pleasant feature of the arrangement was an improvised dining-room on the upper deck; here all our meals were served, and most of our time passed, the temperature being high enough to prevent the chilling of the food, which is an indication that the heat must have been rather oppressive when in our staterooms. Hence two-thirds of the passengers slept on deck, resulting at about nine in the evening in a veritable transformation scene. In India we 174 had escaped insects and reptiles; we were...