Via AirAsia (Aisa's version of EasyJet), Ally and I flew from Kuta to Kualur Lumpur, which is the capital city in Peninsular Malaysia. We had arrived at the height of the monsoon season, and it was safe to say that most passengers where apprehensive when a violent lightning storm surrounded the plane as we approuched 'KL'. The clouds surrounding the plane where amazing, eg, huge white fluffy clouds reaching up in to the atmosphere, surrounded by dark thunder clouds. It were proper nice, but proper scary too!...Anyway, we landed safely, then made our way into KL city, which conveniently was 70k [View Full Entry]

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(Appologies for the long blog, here goes........) The ferry from Ketapang (Java) to Gilimanuk (Bali) only took one hour. We had been awake since 3am climbing Mount Bromo, and had been traveling all day in a mini bus. We now had a six hour (packed and stuffy) coach ride to Denpasar, the capital of Bali. It was around 10pm when we finally arrived. According to the map, the distance from the ferry terminal to Denpasar was around 150km, which shouldn’t usually take six hours, but we are in Indonesia after all, i.e., stopping at every available bus stop, café, pull-in, town, [View Full Entry]

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From Yogyakarta we took a 10hr hair raising mini-bus through to East Java...our mission...to climb an active volcano called Gunung Bromo... Gunung Bromo is natures Borobudur, compared with Java's other major peaks, Bromo (2392m) is a proper midget mind! But it's: 'the beauty within its setting'...which makes it Java's best destination...apparently? "Shuttup! thats just another mountain volcano fing init?"...well no, Bromo is one of three volcanoes that have risen from the guts of a huge 10km crater, Tengger Caldera (in case you were wondering!) We were woken early (again..grr) at 3.3 [View Full Entry]

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Java's Two Major temples There was a unsubtle knock on the door at 5am by the bloke we hired to take us to Borobudur (the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia), and Prambanan (the largest Hindu complex in Java)... Twenty minutes later we were racing trough the streets of Yogya narrowly missing motorcyclists (sometimes four people on one moped!), stalls, animals, etc.. Towering on our right was Gunung Merapi, a MASSIVE, and very active volcano. Few of South East Asia's volcanoes are as evocative, or as destructive as Gunung Merapi - which has been erupting continually for deca [View Full Entry]

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Java Facts Major City: Jakarta Main Industries: Manufacturing, textiles, rice production & Fags...billions of them! Population: 120 MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A venture into the unknown Within Indonesia's vast collection of 17,000 Islands, Java is the main man. It's home to about 60% of Indonesians, and although it doesn't look like it, has more money, power and privilege than the rest of Indonesia combined. Despite its rapid modernization, smelly streets, massive over-population, sanity problems, disease, etc...('what have the Romans given us"?)...it is an Island [View Full Entry]

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We had three days in Singapore until our connection flight to Jakarta, Java. We were concerned that this small 'weekend' trip would burn a hole in our wallets - as Singapore is very expensive. The Republic of Singapore is a country in the continent of Asia at the southern end of the Malay peninsula. 4.4 million people live in Singapore, and many of them (76%) are Chinese. The important languages of Singapore are English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil, with most Singaporeans speaking English. Singapore is located 137km (85 miles) north of the Equator. Singapore was founded as a British tradi [View Full Entry]

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Melbourne - the 'Cultural' Capital of Ozz After a fun time in Sydney, Ally and I took a 12hr 'greyhound' coach (the cheapest option) to Melbourne. We planned to meet with our friend Grant - who we traveled with from San Francisco to Vegas. Then from Melbourne we would drive down to 'The great Ocean Road' to the 'Twelve Apostles'. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia situated in the smallest state in Australia, Victoria...which is, not surprisingly, bigger than England. Melbourne is definately the arts/music/cosmopoliton capital of Australia, and was definately a fu [View Full Entry]

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Sydney We left the Blue Mountains National Park towards Sydney, which was around 100kms East. We were really looking forward to visiting a city as we'd been camping for three months...which becomes hard work!! Ally and I spent a day driving around Sydneys' central sites, such as: the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Kings Cross and financial districts. We then drove to the only campsite in Sydney, where we'd spend our last night with 'The Cow'...aahhh! The next day we dropped off the few camping bits that we had purchased along the way.... ie, table, gas stove, ropes, Bo [View Full Entry]

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From Nimbin we said goodbye to Matt and Carly, then drove to the Blue Mountains. About 300km south of Nimbin, the Blue Mountains are one of Australia's natural wonders. Stretching for over one million hectares were an mix of rainforest, canyons, tall forests and heathlands, combining eight individual conservation reserves - Yengo, Wollemi, Gardens of Stone, Blue Mountains, Nattai, Kanangra Boyd, Thirlmere Lakes and Jenolan Caves Karst Reserve. It is a nature lover's paradise with plenty of colourful bird and animal life, the greatest concentration of eucalypt diversity on the continent, [View Full Entry]

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After three action packed days on Fraser Island we drove down the East coast. The first stop was an incredibly expensive tourist town called Noosa. The campsites were expensive, as were the pubs, cafes, restaurants, parking, shops, etc.. So we left, after all we are scabby backpackers on a budget, why ruin our reputation? The next few places on our ludicrously unpredictable itinerary were: Surfers Paradise, Byron Bay and the strange hippy town/colony/looney bin of Nimbin. We drove through the immensely busy city of Brisbane (the capital of Queensland) down to Surfers Paradise. Upon arr [View Full Entry]

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