Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 4
May 13th 2012
Bali was everything you could want from a tropical paridise; culture, food, scenery, white beaches, dolphins, car bomb detectors..The scuba diving there was also excellent! Still don't have those diving pics yet.. That's enough words..I'll just let the pictures do the talking on this one...... read more
May 12th 2012
2nd Stop Gili Trawangan (Gili T) May 8th-12th Quick intro to Gili T thanks to Wikipedia " Measuring 3 km long and 2 km wide, it has a population of around 700. Of the Gilis, Trawangan has the most tourist facilities; the pub Tîr na Nôg claims that Trawangan is the smallest island in the world with an Irish pub. On Gili Trawangan (as well as the other two Gilis), there are no motorized vehicles not even real roads,only soft sandy paths. The main means of transportation are bicycles (rented by locals to tourists) and cidomo (a small horsedrawn carriage). For traveling to and from each of the Gilis, locals usually use motorized boats and speedboats. The economy of Gili Trawangan centres on tourism, as the island is too small to support any broad scale agriculture, ... read more
May 12th 2012
JAVA: Surabaya...Graffitti & Submarines. Long final breakfast...breathing in the majestic beauty at the Ijen Resort...one last time...aahh...now have to return to Surabaya...and infernal traffic. I think Fandi our Guide was happy to go...pretty boring for him to hang around for several days...sometimes only seeing us for meals...Hady our driver happy to see us again...and then there was the music. When we travel I bring along compilation CDs of my favourite Blues & Rock tracks...Fandi singing along...Hady happy to rock along...we happy as our previous guide Joe preferred Javanese temple music..!!! Down to the coast...waving to the poor souls on that island close enough to wave to...known as Bali...suckers...you can't swim over to this side...the current is against you...sailing craft and happy swimmers on this side...suckers..!!! Stop at one of the beaches for another ... read more
May 11th 2012
Op 8/5/2012 kwamen we met een beetje vertraging aan in Bali/Denpasar. Onze eerste indruk was : amai , het vliegveld ligt aan het strand. Dat was ook de eerste keer dat we zoiets moois zagen. Als je net uit het vliegtuig komt moet je onmiddelijk een visum aanvragen. Er zijn verschillende visa offices (visum kantoren). Een visum kost US$25 per persoon, maar je kan ook met Mastercard of Visa betalen. Het hoeft niet per sé US $ te zijn. Daarna schuif je in een lange rij aan om je paspoort te tonen en je rugzak te laten scannen. Net buiten het luchthaven gebouw is het enorm chaotisch. Te vergelijken met Marroko. Overal portiers, bagagedragers en mensen die achter je lopen om te vragen of je een taxi nodig hebt. Het beste is ze gewoon negeren. Een ... read more
May 11th 2012
Deze morgen namen we de bemo bus vanuit Kuta richting Denpasar. De bemo kostte ons 20.000 Rp voor 2 personen (€2) voor een halfuur. Helaas spreken de chauffeurs weinig tot geen engels en heb je geen idee waar men je afzet. Onze chauffeur zette ons af bij één van zijn maten en we kwamen overeen dat voor 110.000 RP (€11) de andere chauffeur ons zou voeren naar Ubud. Een uurtje later, in de boemelbus , zonder airco – 30°C warm, kwamen er 2 afgepeigerde Belgjes uit de bus. Een seconde later werden we aangesproken door een vriendelijke Balinees die vroeg of we een cottage wilden zien. We hadden beter es goed gekeken op onze kaart want de cottage waarin we nu verblijven ligt nét buiten alle attracties. Hij verzekerde ons dat de cottage rustig was. Jan ... read more
Monkeyforrest, wandeling door de rijstvelden én een avondje Balinese dansen
Published: May 11th 2012Asia » Indonesia » Bali » Ubud
May 11th 2012
De 3e dag Bali (2e dag in het stadje Ubud) was zeer geslaagd! We gingen te voet naar het apenbos. Toegang was zeer goedkoop: 20.000 RP per persoon. Nog maar 1 voet binnengezet of er zat al een aapje in Jan zijn broekzak te prutsen op zoek naar eten. Het is een zeer mooi bos met grote , oude bomen, lianen, watervalletjes , riviertjes en natuurlijk apen én baby apen. De makaken hebben mijn dag ervoor goed gemaakt. In de namiddag deden we een dutje. Slapen over de middag doet bijna iedere toerist hier. Het is hier snikheet en veel te warm om rond te lopen. Rond 16u stonden we terug op en deden we een ongelofelijk mooie wandeling tussen de rijstvelden. De rijstvelden geven je een gans ander beeld van het zo toeristische Ubud. Er ... read more
#13: The School Trip (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Published: May 11th 2012Asia » Indonesia » Java » Yogyakarta
May 11th 2012
The school trip…. For years and years I’ve been travelling – either alone or with a friend. I like both. I like touring with a good travel companion, but I also relish being on the road independently. But, once or twice a year, I hit the road with a large number of middle school students. This is a whole different style of travel all together! The opportunity to take extended school trips to interesting places was one of the things I most looked forward to when I decided to teach overseas. First of all, I love all travel and especially free travel. Second, I would not have to worry about accommodation, transportation or meals – it would all be arranged for me. Third, I would get to take young people to see some wonderful sites and ... read more
May 11th 2012
I am very pleased with my research team. They are super organized and are getting through all necessary interviews quicker than expected (which means I get to go back to my oasis in Jakarta a day early). I also don’t feel like I have to hover over them to make sure everything goes according to protocol. The research capacity here in Indonesia is quite high. But as in other countries, data collection is often an uncomfortable process. My research manager called yesterday evening to say he was going straight home rather than meeting me for a debrief meeting because he just spent the last couple of hours doing an interview while sitting next to a chicken coop and was not smelling so nice. Yesterday morning I sat in on a focus group with women from a ... read more
May 10th 2012
Ubud is a town designed for hippies. Everyone is floating around wearing linen and button necklaces. Having massages and reflexology. There's 'organic' and 'vegan' signs everywhere. Random herbs in drinks: maca, spirulina, wheatgrass... Everyone is meditating and doing yoga. Spiritual is definately the word. Quite different to Kuta! I'm staying in a Homestay with a lovely family. There's also another family: Kadek is the cleaner. She stays in one room with her husband and 7year old son. They live right below me. I went to a traditional Balinese dance show at a temple one evening. The dance is very perculiar, based on small movements of fingers and eyes. But very lovely setting. I've found a man that rents a bike for the day for a pound sio have cycled to a place called tegallalang. It's a ... read more
May 10th 2012
We took the public ferry from Gili Trawangan (Gili T) to Lombok Island for 10,000 rupiahs each ($1.10) around 9am, the trip across the strait was about 35-40 minutes. The ferry doesn't leave until it is full thankfully we were about the last ones on the ferry. We were the only 2 Westerners on the whole ferry and enjoyed the company of a few very cute Indonesian toddlers, who loved us. Once we arrived in Lombok, we knew to pay only 70,000 rupiahs ($7.50) for a scooter for the day per our hotel on Gili T. The first guy off the boat said 250,000 rupiahs and we laughed then kept walking. We have noticed if you don't say anything the price of things have dropped instantly and quickly down in Bali, Gili T and now Lombok. ... read more
