Great Indonesia

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Before we entered a different indonesia, what java to us looked, first lets get the update of the last days in Sumatra!
A 15 hour bus ride took us from Lake Toba to Bukitingi, a nice mountain city....when it's not raining.
The second day we did a tour around the region to see some coffee plantations, rice fields, the biggest flower (the rafflesia) and our highlight of the day was a visit to a longhouse!! We got invited to come inside and they were very happy to be on one of our photo's. We were offered some good traditional food and they did't even accept money for it!
After dinner we packed our bags for the night since we had made a plan to climb the nearby vulcano Merapi!
After a couple hours sleep we got picked up at 00:00 and we drove to the base of this vulcano. A long climb to the summit was though but the sunrise was beautiful and worth the effort, Our way down was one with many stops since our guide was not in the best condition!!
We were glad that we had a bed when we got back from the mountain and after sleeping for another couple hours we made us ready for our busride to Pekanbaru

Well we made a mistake by trying to save some money on a flight to Jakarta. It saved us about 40 euro's but instead of a 2 hour drive to Padang we had to go to Pekanbaru! Normally about 4 hours but it took us 8 somehow, arriving at 4 o'clock in the morning, all hotels fully boocked, after walking around for half an hour we finally got a bed, of course they just had the most expensive room left....so in the end it was a bad idea of trying to save some money

In Java things got better, after a good flight we quick found a bus to Bandung. In a dodgy area near the trainstation our hostel seemed to be ok, the only problem......the train that we had wanted to take the next day was fully booked!!
Well we got up early anyway and made our way to the trainstation early morning. Tried to ask for 2 tickets and to our surprise we could get the tickets for that day.......we felt bad for all the other travelers in this hostel who bought tickets for the next day since the city seemed an uninteresting place!
To our surprise the train wasn't even half full, but we enjoyed a fantastic scenery sitting in the executive class and getting served some food and drinks...

Jogjakarta is a relaxed city, but the best were it's cultural sites Prambanan and Borobordur,
First day we visited prambanan by sunset, amazing views at the temples against the sunlight and for me the borobordur was even better the next day!! Pictures tell more than words so..........

After 3 nights in Jogja we made our way to Bromo, a vulcano in the east of Java...... at 04:00 in the morning we drove in a jeep to a viewpoint and i have to say that i was glad to get out that early since the view was again brilliant

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Photos

Borobodur with sunset
Buddhist Temple

Ann and me in Prambanan
Well, Yogjakarta is the Capital of temples in Indonesia,
a nice change from climbing vulcano's or jungle trekkings

Working hard at the rice fields
Making rice is a proces of hand work, no machines today in Indonesia for the production of rice

Vulcan Merapi Sumatra
A hard climb but great to feel the first sunshine on our faces at the summit

Traditional longhouse
Unexpected we got invited in a longhouse, people were amazing friendly and it was the best part of the day

another frarmer working
Sun protection