Day 4

WOW we have had a great time. Too busy to post the Blog!

We caught local motor bikes to the Memorial near the light house. Very moving.

We met a man who speaks English and is very intersted in the story. He arranged for us to visit all the key sites;

The jetty (where Auntie Jean landed), the Customs house (where she spent the first night), the cinema hall (where she spent the second night with 1000 others), the Coolie Barracks, the men's prison, the second women's camp (only ruins and a well remaining. However, a woman who lives there remembered the visit Jean and Vivian and others made in 1993) and finally, by boat, to Radji beach ( where the massacre occurred).

We met a man who lived here and was 8 years old in 1942 when it happened. He was very wise and charming. He remembered lots and had valuable experience.

We met a local fisherman on Raji Beach. His grandfather helped bury the nurses and others.

We have enjoyed Mentok. It is very friendly place as tourists are rare.

We have had a fantastic time. Love to everyone.

Rose, Maxie and Brian Ashton and Sue Akeroyd

 

Day one

Great fligh hotel, etc. Now in Jakarta airport waiting for the flight to Banka Island. It's great to be back in Asia - smells, vegetation, chooks, people,trafic and the adventure. Love to every one Brian Max Rose and Sue

Nearly ready

I'm nearly ready for our trip to Bangka Island at last. It will be very poignant to be at a place we have heard about all our lives. To think of our Aunty Jean there, coping as best she could, nursing the sick even when she was sick and hungry too.  It is really a wonder that any of them survived the POW camps.

We fly to Jakarta via Singapore on Saturday. Then on Sunday we fly to Pangkal Pinang, the main city on Bangka Island. We will then try to catch a bus or taxi to Muntok (or Mentok), on the west of the island, facing Bangka Strait. That will take 3 - 4 hours we think.  It's the wet season now, so it will be sauna-hot. I hope the delicious tropical fruits are in season!

A week to go

I am pretty well packed. My pack weighs 6 kg. That's OK.

If you want to read more about the history of the nurses who were on the Vyner Brooke, go to this web site (copy and paste in into Google);

www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww2/anecdotes/bangka.html

I have been reading books and searching web sites. A lot of them focus on the massacre on Radji beach and Vivian Bullwinkel's survival. But this is only a fraction of the story. The nurses who survived the next 3 1/2 years as prisoners and those who died of starvation, some only weeks before the end of the war, also suffered greatly.

However, for me the real story is the sense of duty, and pride, these nurses had. They always "did their best" in extreme adversity. They even held concerts and sang at times of difficulty.
I am in awe of them and I wish I'd told my Auntie. They are true legends in our Australian history.

Our Auntie, Jean Ashton, was one of the group but she survived. She actually lived to 97! She did a trip back to the island in 1993 with Vivian and others.

We hope to find the places where it happened. However, we don't know what we will find or how it will affect us.

Cheers...........Brian

Our trip is happening

Yes we are going.

My three sisters, Rose, Max and Sue and I are travelling to Banka Island Indonesia.
It is 70 years since 65 nurses boarded the Vyner Brooke at the fall of Singapore. The ship was bombed by the Japanese. Some drowned but most ended up on Banka Island.

Our Auntie was one who survived the next 3 1/2 years. It is an incredible, but tragic, story.

We plan to go to the place where the nurses landed, where some were massacred, and where the rest were held as prisoners of war.

We are not sure how we will go. It may be emotional and upsetting for us. It is the rainy season and so will also be hard travelling.

We are not sure what we are taking on but we will see.