From Kuta Lombok it was only an hour by car and then 4 hours on the ferry before arriving in Padang Bai, Bali. I had a little trouble finding a reasonably priced room because August is high season and the locals try to make the most of it by putting prices right up. I settled on a basic room with breakfast for $11 a night. I met a lovely Italian girl called Cinzia at my hotel and in the evening we decided to eat at a little local warung. We both ordered fish with rice and vegetables but were very surprised when we received a plate containing two halves of a very large fish head. We came to the conclusion that maybe this warung didn't like tourists eating there. The next morning we went snorkeling at ... read more

I decided to book a 3 day 3 night Mt Rinjani(Indonesia's 2nd highest volcano at 3726 metres) tour from Gili Islands because it seemed quite a reasonable price at $125 and they would drop me at Senggigi afterwards. The price included all transport, camping gear, porters, guide, food, and water, except for lunch and dinner on the first day at the guesthouse in Senaru. I was told to be at the port at Gili Air at 7am, but we didn't leave on the boat to Bangsar until after 8am. It was a very short trip to the port and I was very surprised how tiny it was. From there I received a 1km horse and cart ride to the waiting car where I joined three others headed for Senaru, the starting point for our trek. After ... read more

The minibus picked me up at 10am and after picking up a few more passengers we made our way across the north of Bali to the far east and the area collectively known as Amed. Amed is the first of about half a dozen villages and bays which have quite a few hotels and guesthouses scattered along the road. I decided to stay at Jemeluk which has good snorkelling and some of the cheaper hotels. It didn't take long before I got a nice big beachfront room including fridge and breakfast for $9 a night. After having a late lunch I walked down the road a couple of kms before returning along the beach. The beaches are either black sand or dark stones which can get a little uncomfortable to walk on, but it is a ... read more

I woke up very early again on thursday to take a few more photos of Bromo, post my blog, and have breakfast before catching my minibus back down the mountain at 9am. Once we had picked up the other tourists, including 3 girls I had met on the Merapi climb (Diana and Jackie from Germany, and Kim from America), it took only an hour or so to make our way to Probolinggo where we changed to another minibus. From there it was an interesting 5 hour drive with some great scenery including rice fields, sugarcane fields, forests, coffee plantations, and some cute villages, before arriving at our guesthouse 7km past the town of Sempol. Our hotel had a cold water pool as well as a spring-fed hot tub which was tempting but being dusk and a ... read more

My flight to Yogyakarta arrived at 8.30am and it wasn't long before I had collected my bag and cleared customs. I decided to take a taxi because it was less than $6, and it was only a 20 minute drive to the tourist area of Sosrowijayan Rd where I found a nice hotel with a very inviting swimming pool for $10 a night. The first thing that I noticed in Indonesia was that it was not nearly as hot and humid as Malaysia which was a great relief to me. That afternoon I went for a walk down Malioboro Rd which is the main road in the city. It didn't take too long before I started getting pissed off with what seemed like every fifth person in the street asking where I come from and wanting ... read more