Jun 25, 20221 min read

Turning back

"With good weather ahead, the Electra herself working perfectly, the pilot and navigator eager to go, it was especially hard to have to be "sensible."" However because of several inoperative essential instruments it was necessary to return to Bandoeng to have the work done. Upon arrival in Bandoeng Dutch technicians began working on the equipment, while work was underway Amelia and Fred went sightseeing.

"By air Batavia is twenty minutes from Bandoeng, but by car more than three hours. We drove there to see the country intimately, and flew back to gain perspective." Batavia, currently the present city of Jakarta, was once a walled off city but only the gate remained when Amelia and Fred stopped by in 1937. There was an old canal that ran through town where natives would wash their clothes and bathe. Many tempting treasures were shown to the fliers that they made a pact, to avoid weighing down the Electra neither of them would buy anything, "shopping must wait for another visit." Amelia, however, made a small exception to this rule when she purchased a sheath knife for her friend John Oliver LaGorce of the National Geographic Society. The rest of the day and all of the next were spent in Bandoeng; if luck was on their side they would be able to leave again on June 27th.