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Just before I start writing this blog I thought I'd tell you what we are doing RIGHT THIS MOMENT!!!...
Well I'm (Lee) sat on the bed listening to Three little birds by Bob Marley, obviously writing the blog... Michelle is washing underwear and hanging it out in the sun to dry as we have just found out there are no laundry's here and ... basically we have no pants.
Anyway.. our trip from Cisarua to Bandung took three hours and we chartered our first inter city bus which was very entertaining! At one point there was more 'non passengers' than passengers. Let me explain... when the bus passes through small villages people hop on (after passing the driver a cigarette/packet of nuts/small bribe) and continue to walk up and down the aisle stopping at each seat and dropping something on your lap before coming back and starting a pitch. This continues until the vendor has made enough money before departing the bus.
The list of goods on offer are endless and each vendor specialises in a particular area....which includes nuts, Indian sweets, cold drinks, tea and coffee, satsumas, tissues, watches, Harley Davidson wallets, Islamic prayer CD's, fake silver
lighters....the list goes on. Purchasing goods is not the only way you can part with your cash.. buskers with bongos ask for spare change after a performance and blind beggars also board the bus.
We arrived in Bandung exhausted from saying 'NO THANKS'! and waving our heads, but we continued on another shuttle bus.. and another smaller bus before we arrived a few hundred meters from our intended hotel. The place was on the net for 150,000 rupiah (about 10 quid) however when a porter greeted us dressed in a pristine outfit and bowler hat..we both knew we had not done our homework properly and after being told the cheapest room was over 100.. pound!! we donned our 'ok cool, maybe we will have a think about it' looks and swiftly left.
We did however find a little gem down the road with 'international' standards (including tv with 75 channels!!) which was in our budget. After checking in we grabbed ANOTHER McDonalds and did nothing much for the rest of the day (we also had a Pizza hut for tea!! - no more Western food for at least a 2 weeks!).
Bandung's not really a tourist
town and again we found ourselves not doing a great deal. In Java we have visited four places so far and there has not been much to do....compared to the busy schedule we had in the likes of Malaysia/Cambodia/ and Thailand. We only saw a handful of other westerners in Bandung and there were certainly no backpacker hang outs to attend. Still that gave us a chance to mingle with the locals and the following day we found a cool little street stall sat right on the side of the road where we had a superb meal of Cap chay and Nasi (vegetables and rice).
Our next stop is Yogjarkarta which is in Central Java (can you believe that we are nearly halfway across the country already?!) but the journey is around 10 hours so we decided to break it up with a stop over in Cirebon...
CIREBON
Perched right on the north coast with nothing of note to see or do we simply arrived went for a walk around the whole town (which took about 2 hours), had some dinner, checked our email, and did a spot of shopping.
Dinner was amusing. Shopping centres usually
offer clean food with English menus and many a time have saved us from rumbling stomachs! Upon entering the food court we were suddenly surrounded by EVERY vendor passing us a menu and telling us their special for the day! Eventually we fought off the 10 or so sellers and decided which one to order. Hallway through eating a baby cockroach scuttled across the table.. and then seconds later another one across Lee's flip flop... I am sure these lovely creatures are following us about!!
Downstairs and on the way back to our guesthouse we decided to take a stroll around the shopping centre. IN SE Asia travellers often get the celebrity treatment and in many of our previous blogs we have explained how we have been stared upon, had celebrity photos, befriended by dozens of strangers.. but this place took it to another level!!! (Cirebon does not have allot of visitors) We were actually followed about from shop to shop, just so they could be near us!! Eyes popped out of peoples heads and jaws dropped as we passed.... seriously .. we felt like posh and becks!!!
Our guesthouse in Cirebon was a really cool place. All
done up with a Balinese feel to it complete with traditional fixtures... terracotta tiles, lots of dark wood, and pebbles on the fllor in the bathroom. Michelle got eaten alive by mozzies once again! We had read that coastal Cirebon was bad for mozzie's but being covered in mozzie spray and wrapping up 3 layers of clothes for bed didn't prevent the little blighters from eating her face alive!!
We were up early the next day to catch our Yogyja bound train.. only 5 hours and we will be there!
Lee and Michelle
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Sharon
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Omigod ..... you must be like little white Gods to all these people! How amazing it must be for them to see people like you guys just wondering through their town ........ fab!! Love all your photos ... can't believe how many beautiful buildings and mosques there are out there. Bit worried about your situation with the Mafia when you were going to the volcano ....... you must be taking it in your stride. We've had some beautiful weather in the UK, not heatwave type just yet ha ha. Hope you're still loving it all, take care x x x