Indonesia

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Bonjour tout le monde!

After spending a few days in a stormy Kuala Lumpur, we caught a flight to the world-famous island of Bali, the only Hindu island in the most populous Muslim country in the world, Indonesia...

Kuta, Bali - I think Chris described Kuta as 'Magaluf for Australians' so expectations weren't high, but due to its proximity to the airport it made sense to spend a night here. From the fleeting glimpse I got it was exactly how I'd imagined - fast food restaurants, Tesco's, loud music, pissed Aussies and pretty much everything that you wouldn't associate with Indonesia. We left the next morning.

Ubud, Bali - Made famous by the book and film 'Eat, Pray, Love', explaining the high proportion of middle-aged women out to 'find themselves', Ubud is another incredibly popular, albeit far more tasteful, tourist destination. It was also the location for the worst haircut I've ever experienced, performed by a masseuse with blunt scissors who had the idea that I liked a 1920s side parting. A very interesting result. The countryside around Ubud is stunning - for anyone who's seen the picture in our living room that Mum and Dad bought in Bali, then it is pretty close to that (without the breasts...). It was great fun discovering the area on both foot and motorbike and if I appear to be wearing a skirt in photos, that was due to sarongs being compulsory when visiting Balinese temples. I haven't gone all 'gap year' just yet...

Amed, Bali - Situated on the north-eastern tip of the island and in the shadow of Bali's famous volcano, Gunung Agung, Amed is a sleepy coastal town with black sand beaches and superb snorkelling. A motorbike and snorkelling gear was all we needed for the three days we spent here. The water was crystal clear and just metres off from the beach were the most amazing coral gardens. Another highlight was a Japanese fishing boat shipwreck a short distance down the coast that was close enough to snorkel. Awesome place.

Gili Trawangan, The Gili Islands - The Gili Islands are three small paradisical islands off the north-western coast of Lombok. The weather took a turn for the worst here (in Indonesian terms!) and I think that's part of the reason I didn't find Gili Trawangan that great. It's also a popular stop on the gap-year trail, meaning lots of potential Durham students - not something I was looking for about 8000 miles away from home. Having said that, we had fun partying and did an awesome snorkelling trip around the three islands, seeing turtles and feeding bread to thousands of brightly coloured fish. I really can't complain.

Kuta, Lombok - This was Chris' favourite place (I seem to remember) and I can definitely see why. We stayed in a very sociable guest house which was 3 pounds 50 each for bed and breakfast and a motorbike. The beaches in and around Kuta are up there with the best that I have ever seen and are apparently perfect for surfing. The swell at this time of year, however, is pretty high and a lot of beginners we spoke to spent most of their time half drowning or eating sand. We decided to wait until Java to try. Instead, along with our American and Croatian friends, we embarked upon an 80 km motor bike ride around south-east Lombok. The roads were in pretty poor condition so understandably few tourists travel these parts. Our passing through villages was accompanied by shouts of 'Tourist! Tourist!' and children running out to high-five us. Even a visit to a local shop seemed to be an event interesting enough for the whole community to come out and watch! We left Kuta after a week but felt like we could have stayed a lot longer.

The Bus Journey, Kuta, Lombok, to Yogyakarta, Java - Deserved of its own section as it did take two whole days. We left Kuta at 7 in the morning and arrived in Yogyakarta at 8:30 the following evening - 38 and a half hours later, including the hour's time difference. We had to take 3 mini buses, 2 ferries and 2 coaches, most of which were accompanied by a backing track of whining Indonesian karaoke, kindly put on repeat so you could hear all your favourite songs over and over (and over) again. Luckily our driver was a nutter or it would have taken even longer. Next time I'll definitely pay the 40 pounds extra to fly.

Yogyakarta, Java - I've never slept as well as I did on the night we arrived in Yogya (pronounced Jogja). The plan was to spend a few days in the city before getting a 10 hour bus down to Pangandaran on the south coast to surf. We didn't fancy another day on a bus so we sensibly, if regrettably, decided to save surfing for another time. Instead, we spent about a week in Yogyakarta, taking part in another cooking class, going to the cinema (2 pounds to see The Avengers on a ridiculously good screen), watching the Ramayana ballet at the Prambanan temples (very impressive) and visiting the largest Buddhist temple in the world at Borobodur (very eerie and atmospheric until the paparazzi/schoolchildren arrived, meaning we spent the rest of the morning doing photoshoots in front of hundreds of mobile phone cameras).

Gunung Bromo, Java - A 12 hour bus journey on Java's crazy roads and we found ourselves in Cemoro Lawang at the base of Gunung Bromo, one of Java's many volcanoes. 'Stomach issues' restricted me to the confines of the hostel for the day, but I did manage to make it up to the crater the following morning before we left for Surabaya. I hitched a lift in a jeep and then on the back of a motorbike before making the short climb up to the summit of the volcano - so surreal and definitely worth running the risk of being so far from a kamar kecil...

And so we find ourselves back in KL again after a brief introduction to the Indonesian archipelago (17000 islands, of which we visited 4). Kylie and Tristan have just joined us which is great and it's nice to have someone who's also stupid enough to stay up and watch the Euros!

Lewys

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