D O C . 3 7 9 T R A V E L D I A R Y J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 3 3 1 9 11th. 6 o’clock entry into harbor. Oppressive, dark atmosphere, frequent rain. Montor there with letter from Java, Voute. Declined by telegraph and wrote.[191] Trip into jungle preserve in light rain. Unrivaled impression of wild, lavish plant growth, swampy, impenetrable. Midday meal at Montor’s. Toward evening, trip to Fränkel’s cultivated palms.[192] Trees wonderful, people banal. At night on board quite oppressive. 12th. Visit to Mayer-Croesus with noble daughter (“Portia”).[193] Then to fat Weil with fancy wife, real Jewish gypsies. Tropical house with splendid view of city and water. Afternoon, in pouring rain, back onto ship. Departure 5 o’clock between glaringly green velveteen islets. 13th. Arrival near Malacca in the early morning, where the ship stood in the open sea until 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We visited Malacca in the morning. Por- tuguese church & other buildings. Vibrant mix of Indians, Malays, and Chinese. Two-wheeled carts with straw roofs, drawn by long-horned oxen. Beating tropical sun but less humid than in Singapore. Discovered fly in my electricity ointment in the afternoon. A pity. True tropical heat. 14th. Noon arrival in Penang. Scorching heat on the ship, which remained in the bay quite far away from the city. A lot of Indians were brought on board, handsome tall-statured men and women. We went ashore around 3 o’clock and walked, with rickshaws in pursuit, around town, which is very interesting. Boats, houses, people, they all have style. Heat downtown quite tolerable. We saw Buddhist temples with mysterious, terrifying, colorful decor, also a mosque with bath inside where the men were lounging about, elegant Arabic structure with slender towers whitish in color. Beautiful, pushy beggar woman. Together with Japanese traveled back to ship in skiff in pitching waves. Else very frightened but had enough energy left to grumble. But the haggard Indian with flaming black eyes land calmly rowed his long oar steadily on and delivered us safe and sound to the Haruna. Sweltering heat until midnight. 15th. Cruising in pleasant breeze. New ideas about the electrical problem. Eve- ning conversation with Indian school teacher about land and life in Ceylon. Splen- did star-studded night sky. Enviable way of life. 16th–18th. Disciplined toiling on the problem despite the heat. Moving forward with many setbacks. 19th. Colombo. In morning, futile attempt to assemble a car party. Interesting finding about Japanese captain’s business practice, for easily surmised reasons, not letting the passengers know about cheaper wireless telegrams offered by communication firms from Colombo. Morning excursion by tram & on foot. Left train station in the company of pushy natives. 1 h 25–3 h 5, trip to Negombo, a little town with no Europeans somewhat northward along the coast.[194] We [p. 30v] [p. 31] [p. 31v]