Took a while but I finally figured out who was responsible, thanks to young Gex’z Anei of Ubud. And all in a torrential tropical Indonesian downpour.

It wasn’t Warren Buffett, or Milton Friedman, whose names and portraits are emblazoned across the Boeing 737 deep in the Balinese mountain village of Penestenan. I know Boeing has its issues but I wouldn’t have thought it’s been crash-landing these suckers in the Ubud jungle.

Tell the truth, it’s not a wreck, it’s a hotel room, and yours for about $100 a night at the Villa Biyu Siyu, which means the hundred bananas villa.

It has most things you’ll want: wifi, aircon, hot tub, tv, workspace, swimming pool, free parking, a river and a waterfall. You can even jump into the cockpit to play Flying High if you’re silly enough. I missed the plantains but you can pick the fattest passionfruits you’ve ever seen straight off the trees.

I’d been trying to figure the plane’s provenance since discovering it on Google Earth and visiting briefly a couple of years back. All I’d figured was some bloke named Hugo someone assembled it on his estate.

Young Anei explained he was the late Hugo J. Van Reijen, a Dutch-born economist and champion of free-market ideas, smaller government and free immigration, and head of an import/export business handling large quantities of bank notes and stamps between more than 80 different countries.

Hugo was an entrepreneur, globetrotter, artist, photographer and author, and clearly a fan of Buffett and Friedmane also published  a book H. But why the plane?

Turns out he was a regular critic of airlines which might have something to do with things. He published the 1997 book, Why Not Fly Cheaper? How to Save in Air Travel Costs, which has become a collector’s item with Amazon asking a not-so-cheap $780. That’s a good few bananas.

Hugo was a well-known and well-regarded economic commentator, who ran conferences and discussions at his Ubud estate. He published a photo book, Love them or hate them, more than 1000 articles, addressed international conferences and also ran up annual calendars, made by villagers in Nepal, to help along his Libertarian cause.

Funny thing, for all his celebrity, for the fact he pulled a thumping great 737 together in his back yard, locals know bugger-all about the place. I spent a couple of hours with a GPS and a surveyor trying to locate the place a couple of years back.

It’s easy now I know where to go but, man, in the middle of an Ubud monsoon? I know who’s bananas …

See also: https://noelmurphy.com.au/blog/bushwhacked-by-the-jungle-again/