Golfing Round the World
Chapter VII Out of Bounds
I have a good few friends dotted about the world, and periodically they return home to the land of their birth. They live so long in the sunny and spacious places of the world, they circle the earth on the average once in every four or five years so that travel and exotic experiences become more commonplace to them, and unless they happen to meet a fellow Eastern they never impart their knowledge and experience. One learns more from that enchanting ballad 'Mandolay' than from all one's circle of overseas acquaintance. This reticence certainly preserves the charm of novelty for such casual visitors as I happened to be.
I confess I found everything new and fresh and delightful. I had gathered, from books and stray revelations of travellers, hazy ideas of India, China and Japan, all of them, as it turned out, quite wrong. I had supposed Asia generally to be the home of semi savages and wholly barbarous peoples with a light sprinkling of Europeans, whereas in fact, the most permanent impression I received was that I had exchanged the semi barbarity of Britain for the super civilisation of the East.
The old idea that the Oriental lives on a ha'porth of rice per day, and trundles his money about in a wheelbarrow, or on a string round his neck, may, for all I know, be perfectly true, but in the places (doubtless carefully selected) which I visited, the so-called 'native' is as completely sophisticated as his Western prototype. His standard of living is certainly not as low as in the slum quarters of our British cities, and his outward aspect is infinitely more cheerful.
I was never so completely disillusioned in my life as in Sumatra. Let me admit at once I was rather proud of visiting that colossal island. I thought to myself this would be a good subject to brag about when I returned home - a land of mystery and savages, possibly even cannibalism - I felt almost like an explorer. I had no intention of playing golf, how should I when I was anticipating the sensation of meeting aborigines in their primeval forests, but I feel that there is no room any doubt that Sumatra abounds in golf courses, or will do so before many years are past.
This great island more than three times the size of England, over one thousand miles long, and over two and fifty miles wide, is named after the Arabic word Srimata meaning 'the happy'. It certainly is a joyous place, clothed as regards the landscape with stately mountains, five rivers, immense forests and vivid colour, and so far as the male inhabitants are concerned, in gaily painted pyjamas - 'Batik or painting on cloth is one of great arts of the Malay Islands.
The dress of the Sumatrans though a little scant and eccentric, is both comfortable and appropriate, for like Bombay they enjoy two climates 'hot' and 'hotter' though in the case of Sumatra they also have 'stewed' and 'steamed'.
Our port of call was Emmahaven on the west coast sometimes called the 'wrong' side of Sumatra - Wrong that is to say, from a strategic point of view, but certainly right in every other respect. The usual approach to the Far East is of course through the Straits of Malacca on the north east side, but happily for us an equatorial crossing had been thoughtfully included in our itinerary, so we came west and south about and enjoyed a great and glorious 'rag' on the 'line'.
Emmahaven, the Port for Padang, just south of the Equator is an entrancingly beautiful harbour, surrounded by the multicoloured foot-hills of the gigantic range of volcanoes which extend in an almost unbroken line the whole length of the island. We went ashore in barges towed by motor launches. At the quay, modern warehouses, travelling cranes and what not, concealed a large railway station.
This was my land of cannibals!! I was so disgusted that I forgot to reserve a seat in the special train. However, deciding that I might as well see what there was to be seen, I strolled into a neighbouring bungalow office and asked if I might borrow a chair. Permission was genially given, and armed with a light cane seated affair, I climbed into the train and selected a suitable 'pitch'. There is very rarely any necessity to be uncomfortable. I would always rather sit on the floor than hang on a strap.
The journey was certainly profoundly interesting. We travelled some fifty miles in this well appointed train, through perfectly civilised regions in this most orderly Dutch dominion. We saw neat trim homesteads, the houses being of the open wooden bungalow type, and mostly raised on piles. We passed through forests of tall cocoanut palms, thickets of banana, and lush green paddy fields, where each plot was neatly numbered and docketed. We glimpsed flowering shrubs, birds of bright coloured plumage, butterflies, and one monkey, probably a tame specimen. Parallel to the railway was a perfectly well made road along which Fords and Buicks conveyed the ordinary man and the rich planter respectively.
Our objective was a little village in the mountains called Padang Pandjang standing two thousand five hundred feet above sea level. The approach was through a fine gorge, up which our train was hauled for several miles by special engines on rack and pinion. We had halted at several prosperous villages in the plane below, and Sumatra turned out en fete to greet us. I am certain we afforded each other mutual entertainment. At Padang Pandjang the town band turned out to conduct us to some good size school buildings, the very spit of an English county school, where a native dance had been staged for our delectation. It was a most artistic performance symbolic of the departed savagery of the race, a realistic and catlike duel, with imaginary daggers or creases.
I felt however, I was being impression fed rather than enjoying my self elected role of independent investigator, so I made an early escape and wandered round the town on my own and I was far more intrigued by a common or garden signpost, pointing so many kilometres to Padang in one direction, and so many more to Fort de Kock on the other. It gave the final quietus to any hope of wild bushmen or tigers and elephants prowling round on their native heath. There were compensations however.
You can civilise men into the same common type, so that they are indistinguishable save for shades of colour and speech, but you cannot do much to alter natural scenery. At least it takes longer for its features to be obliterated. I enjoyed therefore, the prospect of the most luxuriantly tropical country I have ever seen, and the massive vistas of huge volcano mountains, tree clad to their very summits, at altitudes of fourteen thousand feet. Like the melodramatic poet who wrote the name of his lady love on the sands and finally carved it deep and large on the face of the granite cliff, observing as he did so "I should like to see the whelming wave that will wash that out", so, mountains are fortunately less plastic than man.
And here also, I unwittingly provided myself with a prime sensation. Keeping only half an eye on my fellow tourists I became absorbed in an attempt to make a sketch and missed the special train. Naturally, there was no other for hours, and the ship was due to sail as soon as the party should return. I was in something of a predicament for I knew no word of Dutch, Malay, Chinese, Pidgin, or other useful language. I owe it to the generous courtesy of some Dutch gentlemen, to whom I shall always be grateful, that they saw, at a glance, my perplexity, and instantly offered, in perfect English, to take me in the car to Emmahaven, or overtake the party, whichever should first happen. As a matter of fact we caught up with the train a few miles down the line.