Jaw dropping Joys in Java

OK first up people, can I just assure everybody that I am completely fine, I think after my last blog wasn't the most happy hyper one people were starting to think I was like a Bridgend teenager (poor taste joke, just came to me though!). I have had lots of texts and emails from friends and family alike all checking I am OK and coping fine, I didn't quite realise I had written the Titanic of the blog world! Thanks for all those who checked up on me and gave me words of support though, was very touching and meant a lot. I think it was just the same as when I first arrived in Aus, I don't mind the big changes and can adapt but it takes me a day or two to get my head around it, and in true travelling style what a difference a week makes because I have had a great time going across Java, and whilst it wasn't without incident(it never is with me!) I have seen some stunning sights, met some cool people and soaked up another culture and country.

I last blogged in Bali, which as we know I didn't love, so after just a few days I organised a bus to take me all the way from Bali to the middle of Java, a long trek that should have taken about 12 hours...It is part of the challenge I suppose when travelling-and especially when on you own-of trying to communicate and survive without speaking the countries language. For the trip started well enough, we left on time at 6 and were cruising along until midnight, but then for some reason we stopped, in the middle of nowhere and pretty much pitch black. I could see a few cars tail lights ahead so guessed there was some kind of holdup and resolved to sit tight and maybe we would be moving again soon. But 5 minutes turned to 30, to an hour, to 2 hours, and on it went. I had no idea why we had stopped, was there a car crash, was it some kind of border or checkpoint, some military kind of thing, I attempted to ask some people around me and even the driver, but on the whole bus I was the only westener and nobody spoke a word of English. Even my futile-and looking back now-laughable attempts at sign language failed. In the end we sat there for 8hours, and the trip in total took 21, and it wasn't until we passed it that I realised it was due to a lorry overturning. The trip was also not aided by their entertainment on the bus, 21 hours of Indonesian child Pop Idol and then Indonesian karaoke classics. Ah the joys of travelling across Asia. I have had several long trips like this which can be pretty annoying but I am flying through the books, at last count it was 3 in 7 days, but thats no bad thing I guess:

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx.

Next up was what I hoped would be my main highlight of Java, but it proved more than that and may well be the best thing I've seen around the world to date-yep an over the top breathless description coming up! It was a trip up a mountain to a massive crater which had 3 volcanoes inside, 2 of which were still active, nothing like a bit of danger! The Tengger Caldera is 10km across, and inside it the main action comes from Mount Bromo, which is 2392metres up, it's easily recognized as the entire top has been blown off and the crater inside constantly belches white sulphurous smoke. Its still very much active too, in 2004, two tourists were killed and five injured when the mountain spat out molten rock, bring on some of that!! Only without the death bit maybe. Mount Semeru was the biggest at a massive 3676m and just as active, every 20 minutes or so, the volcano belches out a huge cloud of steam and smoke, sometimes mixed in with some ash and stones for good measure-ah now this is what I came to see!

Getting there meant another arduous bus journey, how the knackered old van we were in managed the 2 hour steep climb to the top of the mountain I'll never know but made it we did. There is a village which resided at the very top which is charming enough in itself, a whole community of people who live, work and manage to survive, mainly by farming, 2000 metres up on the top of a mountain alongside 2 active volcanoes and they were all such nice people and always said hello when you passed them etc. Indonesia and Java itself is a very poor nation and none more so than this village, but I was struck by how happy everyone always seemed. Through countless bus and train journeys and passing through villages etc like this I have seen and taken a lot in. It was a stereotypical view often, rice paddy fields, lush countryside, mountains, villages, huts, animals running wild, pungent smells, noise and constant activity, old fashioned boats and horse and carts, women walking with pots on their head, bundles of wood on their backs, fields being ploughed with cattle, it was all so primitive and yet enthralling. It was a great experience to just get lost in another culture and maybe even learn something from it, the people may have been poor and the lifestyle primitive but everyone was always smiling and seemed to have a high quality of life even if it was basic. There seemed to be less disparity too, as the whole nation was poor then there wasn't a sense of the haves and the have nots, or some being more dominant than others, everyone was on the same level and I think that benefited the masses and resulted in them enjoying life maybe. Perhaps there is something in this socialism lark and that Marx et al had a point, good God now I'm getting in depth, you get your monies worth for these blogs eh?!

So the first thing I did on arrival-apart from donning jumpers etc as it was just above freezing when we arrived-was go check out the volcanoes! Mount Bromo you could actually walk to the edge of, go up some stairs, and peer inside-well Rock on Tommy!This in itself was a great thrill and it smoked throughout leaving a sense of thinking it could blow at anytime but sadly it never did! The landscape was so desolate and there was a real sense like you were on the moon or another world, the air was thin, there was not a soul around and the utter nothingness of silence was eerie. On the bus up the mountain I got chatting to an Aussie guy named Daren and it was with him I went to see Bromo. Darren was, well, special, and typical of me that the first person I meet and chat to turned out to be a slight nut job. I could sense throughout that there was something slightly different and it later transpired he had trained as a Buddhist monk for 2 years before leaving because his family pretty much broke him out. He was a lovely fella mind, real calming and innocent, but would do stuff like thank and speak to the volcano for the wonderous smoke and sights it was providing us.. or talk about how spiritual a feeling the landscape was evoking from him, as I said, great nice guy, just a bit tapped.

Anyway, the next day he and I then set out to do the real deal, most people pay a lot of money to get jeeped to the top of the lookout for sunrise, but I am a manly man (cough) and up for a challenge (when it suits me), and there was a trek you could do so we gave it a go. It meant getting up at 3am(me!!) and what then followed was one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done. In the pitch black, and with no real path to follow, we had to trek, climb, scramble, slip, curse (especially me) our way 6KM up the thing, getting lost no end of times and trying not to fall down the mountain. Along the way we bumped into 2 Swedish guys so we stuck to a group of 4 to try and make it, which we did quite literally in the nick of time. We stumbled (literally) on to the top of the lookout at 5:10 with sunrise 5 minutes later so it was a close, but bruised and battered it was suddenly worth it when you looked out. I can't think of a decent superlative to throw at it but it looked literally out of this world, the crater itself was shrouded in mists, the volcanoes themselves put on a good show and smoked throughout, and the sun coming out from behind the clouds added a serene effect, I was besotted. It was a complete panoramic view too and you could get lost staring at it for an age, even more so when the jeep tours then moved on after 30mins and we had the place to ourselves. As ever it was a contradiction in terms, the lookout was literally stuffed with a rough guess of maybe 100 people, and behind us the top of the lookout was decked out with satellite dishes and mobile phone masts, it was a real shame and saddening and I purposely avoided looking behind me the whole time as I found it a bit heartbreaking that such a natural wonder like this had been commercialized so much, but thats the price of tourism I guess. To be fair I couldn't take my eyes off the view ahead anyway so it was no drama, and I think it goes down in my book as the best sight I've ever seen. We then had to trek back down the mountain, much easier than going up, and the 4 of us had a good chat and laugh and took in more views as it was now light and we could see more. We also came to realise it was quite a fluke none of us had died as at lots of stages we were only a few inches from drops of several hundred feet, perhaps the fact it was dark helped or we may have bottled it!The whole experience was unreal though and I loved it all.

After this I then visited the second main tourist attraction in Java, the Buddhist monument known as Borobudur. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome is located at the center of the top platform, and is surrounded by seventy-two Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa. (Can you tell I stole all that from the Lonely Planet?!) The monument is both a shrine to the Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. To be honest it didn't quite live up to the hype, it was hailed as second in the world only to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and whilst it was impressive it didn't really blow me away and wasn't what I expected, perhaps I anticipated Golden arches and reclining Buddhas but it was more of a dull grey building, but very well decked out of course. I was a great sight to see though and had some glorious surrounds in the middle of the hazy countryside with mountains and volcanoes in view so it was very scenic. The trip was also note worthy for having to speak to about 20 school kids! Most days you will find a school trip excursion there, and the kids break up into groups of 3 and walk around speaking to tourists to practice and improve their English-what the hell they learnt from a Welsh guy with a slight Irish accent I'll never know! It was charming and nice at first but got a bit grating after the 5th group of same questions about where you are from and what is your favourite food etc. A great day out though in all.

And so thats Java done, next stop Thailand. My plans are changing a little because the original plan was then to be Burma but have just found out about the cyclone so looks like I will have to miss that now which I realise is selfish but is gutting. I seem to be somewhat of a jinx as the last time me and Dave travelled we were a few weeks away from Thailand when the tsunami struck and now I am about 3 weeks away from Burma and there is the cyclone, weird. In other news, I managed to lose my battery charger for my camera, and no shop in Asia would sell me one separate so I had to buy another fricking camera! Only 90quid for an identical one but still! I have also had my first bout of Delhi belly, only in Indonesia. I can tell you now, that the last thing you ever want is to have a dodgy stomach whilst on an overnight train, at 3am, on a bumpy track, where the toilet is merely a hole in the floor and the toilet paper is in the form of a water hose attached to the wall, and it wasn't geraniums I was watering! It was horrible.

I also nearly missed another flight, yep and this one is a cracker!! I was in a hotel in Jakarta, and had to be up at 5am for my flights, first to Kuala Lumpar and then on to Phuket. I got up especially early to get ready, went to leave the room..and couldn't! I had noticed the dodgy handle earlier when first going in the room but dismissed it as I had come and gone a few times in the day and it seemed fine. Well imagine the sheer unadulterated terror of being locked INSIDE your room, in the middle of the night, with no chance of even kicking the door outwards, no way of anyone getting in, and you have a flight to catch in 2 hours. I kind of half laughed and half cried and half got massively vexed (I realise thats 3 halves and therefore more than a whole but I am a multi faceted beast!) I paced the room, tried the key 4392 times, kicked it a lot, swore even more, shouted for help, sank to my knees, stamped my feet, said a prayer, you name it. Honestly I thought it was like that movie Saw and I was being watched on monitors, I even had images of some of you basta*ds out there being the ones who set me up and watching me Jeremy Beadle style (god bless the weird handed one) and my eyes even flicked to the corners of the wall to check. Then my salvation came, through the tiny window next to the door I saw an Indonesian guy walking past, I literally sprinted to the door and banged on it and somehow managed to communicate the problem to him even though he spoke no English. He tried the key himself once I passed it through the window..my hopes rekindled..... but nope no luck..off he went to get someone else and came back with the security guard..he tried for ages...and nothing doing..off they both went now and the clock was ticking, I resumed my lion in a cage routine and then the landlord was there, plus the other 2, and a random watching, I had a bleedin crowd enjoying the show now, only I could get locked inside my room! Finally the door was open and I made my flight with about 45minutes to spare, I swear if I had missed that one it would have been back to Sydney or Cardiff for me!

Its hasn't even been 2 weeks travelling yet but its seemed like a lifetime at some points. This week has been much better than the first though, and its been quite a rich and enjoyable experience, doing Bali and Java on my own straight off the bat has been both a blessing and a curse, I have thrown myself in at the deep end but after the initial struggles think it has been better this way. Its all a learning curve I guess. I have seen some stunning sights I shall never forget and a country that is the eternal contradiction. At one the people are genuine and kind and helpful, but then the agencies will rip off a tourist in a heartbeat, at one stage I was quoted a price TEN times that which my guidebook said! I suppose thats the same anywhere though. I have also met some really great people, Darren and the Sweedes up Bromo, and then at Borobudur I met some cool people, Minty (yep Holmes like you and Lous dog lol) Trish and the guys name I forget ha!We hung out with them all day and night where much beer was consumed and good times. Overall though I think I am glad to be leaving Indonesia, whilst I want to go places that are off the beaten track a little Indonesia was hard solo, when I do Thailand it should be much easier with more people to meet and generally the Thais speak good English which helps a lot. But it has helped me survive and be strong and learn about myself so I'll always be grateful for that. Speak to you soon people.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and

Borobudur temple-Jogyakarta

that has made all the difference-Robert Frost(A road less travelled)

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