Goodbye to Indonesia

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Hello everybody!
Well today is my last day in Indonesia before we fly off to Malaysia tomorrow! Thought is was about time I caught up on my blog. I believe I was in Kuta the last time I wrote. Kuta was a very very busy and overwhelming place. Although its tourism was devastated by bombings that killed over 200 people a few years back it seemed to us that many tourists were coming back to Kuta for the cheap prices and good surfing. We spent our time exploring the area. We went for a walk to a temple called Tanah Lot. We walked for several km along the beach before it started raining harder than I have ever seen it rain before. We were so wet we may as well have been swimming to the temple. We decided to get a car the rest of the way and for the way home. Thanks to Stacey’s water proof camera we were still able to get some good pictures.

The next morning we booked a bus to Lovina. The bus ride to Lovina was an experience. We seem to be having a lot of those as we travel from place to place. The bus made its was way up into the span of volcanoes that separate the north and south of Bali. I want to thank my Grandpa Zorn for all the years that he took me fishing and on winding roads up into the mountains. As everyone else looked terrified as we flew around corners with no guard rails….it kinda felt like a day going fishing with Grandpa haha. Anyways it was a beautiful drive and we arrived in Lovina to lots of people ready to take us to their hotels. It is tough being the only tourists in Indonesia haha because we are targets everywhere we go. Before we had even got off the bus people were boarding to grab our bags for us and tell us about their hotel. We had some lunch while the eager hotel people lurked beside us waiting to give us the best deal. It was a bit stressful but soon we had decided on a nice place near the town, with a pool and for a good price. So we hopped onto the backs of two scooters and soon arrived at our hotel. We have learned that the first price you are told is usually not the price they will try and get you to pay. Still the escalated price was only 2$ a night more and we were able to take the smallest room and get it for the original promised price.

The area of Lovina is very quiet but has lots to see and do. Our first day there we walked to the small town of Kalibukbuk and looked around. Then we arranged a driver to take us to Gitgit waterfalls. We walked in about 20 minutes and came across very beautiful waterfalls. Stacey and I have learned that we enjoy doing things rather than looking at them all the time and have taken every opportunity to swim. Our guide laughed as we stripped down to our bikinis and dove in. He quickly saw how fun it was and joined in by showing us a rope swing. The water was so fresh and cold…could have stayed all day. We went back to our hotel and went for dinner. The food has been really good. Lots of curry and every kind of chicken you could think of. We both have had funny tummies on separate occasions but luckily it was very short lived. It is amazing that we don’t get sick when you see cats, bugs, mice etc. crawling around restaurants and kitchens where your food is being prepared. All part of the experience haha. It tastes great and we do our best to ignore the other details haha.

Anyways, the next day in Lovina we went for another one of our epic walks. The walks always start out with some idea of direction and some idea of distance, and off we go. We walked for nine hours and saw some great things. First we walked to Singsing waterfall. As we were walking up a man approached us and said come this way to the waterfalls. He led us into them and further up to a bigger one where we could swim. It is tough to believe that he would just do this out of the kindness of his heart so we weren’t surprised when he told us we needed to pay him. We tried to explain that he should have told us this before we walked in as I am not sure what we would have done if we didn’t have the money. We could have also found our own way….anyways we payed him and learned our lesson to always ask first. Everything is so cheap here that it wasn’t a big deal we just felt weird about the situation when we were told a price on the spot and expected to just hand over the money. Anyways we told them we could find our own way back out and spent the next hour or so swimming and relaxing. From there we walked up and up and up until we reached a beautiful view point over Lovina. We went into the Buddhist temple there and continued to climb to more spectacular views. We had one more thing on our list for the day and set out to find the hotsprings. The local people are so helpful and almost everyone we walked by would say hello and ask us where we were going and reassure us that we were going the right way. There are no signs to anything until you get to it so it is very helpful when everyone wants to talk to you. The kids are especially cute. They see us coming and then run and tell their siblings and friends and then they all come running out to the street to say hello. We both agreed that after a day of walking around in +30 heat hotsprings were the last thing we wanted. The water was hot but refreshing and decided to get a ride home after walking for 9 hours. The next day we spent lounging by the pool at our hotel. We met a nice man named Harry from Amsterdam who has traveled all over and had lots of good advice. Also met two Canadians from Winnipeg. They were really cute and even more overwhelmed than Stacey and I. We shared stories of our travels so far and then headed off to catch our night bus off the island of Bali and to Java.

Our bus left Lovina at 630 and arrived in Bromoluingo the next morning at 3am. This seemed like a great idea when we booked it because we had met some people from Britain who were doing the same thing and then planned to hike and see the sunrise that morning over the volcanoes. The only problem was we booked through different companies and didn’t end up on the same bus. Hmmm….so were arrive at 3 am to a travel agent. We didn’t really have any options but to pay the inflated price he wanted to charge us to drive up to the look out to watch the sunrise. Our only other option was to wait for the sun to come up in the town and shop around for a better price. Not ideal choices so we paid the money and headed up into the mountains. The system is very weird down here in that you pay one guy….he disappears….you wait and hope he didn’t just steal your money….then another guy shows up and says “ready”….then off you go. Not a situation that makes you very comfortable. We drove and drove and drove and found comfort each time we saw a sign pointing us in the right direction. We went from sea level to over 3000m in a matter of an hour and a half. We got to as far as the vehicle could go and the guy told us to walk for about 20 more minutes up the road in the dark and we would come to a clearing and see the sunrise. Hmmm….its pitch black and we have no idea where we are going and our driver is going back to sleep while we go watch the sun come up. Thank God I brought my head lamp. As we step out of the car we are greeted by a man, in the middle of no where, who makes Stacey look tall. He speaks no English and our driver explains to us that he lives up here and wants us to pay him to carry our bags up to the look out and show us the way. First question…..He lives where? Second question…..In what world did we think this would be a good idea? Third question…..didn’t we pay extra for a guide originally so that in the dark we would be shown where to go? Anyways we waited until it was light enough to see where we were going and then walked up to the look out to watch clouds. It was so socked in we saw mist and clouds. Haha. Oh well we were both very optimistic that hiking to the caldera of Bromo would make this mess of a situation better and it did.

We drove down from the lookout and our driver parked us near the edge of the caldera of the Tengger Massif. It is like a volcano around three little volcanoes that are in the middle. The book says this….”The smoking cone of Bromo is just one of three peaks to emerge from a vast caldera, the Tengger Massif (which stretches 10km across), its steep walls plunging down to a vast, flat, sea of lava and sand. This desolate landscape has a distinctly end-of-the-world feeling, particularly at sunrise.” It was exactly that. We walked down into the bottom and across and hiked up Bromo. We looked down into the steaming volcano and were back to our driver by 8am. What a productive morning haha. It was completely worth the weird and a bit scary morning to see inside a volcano.

The area surrounding Bromo is all farm land. What makes it unique is that the crops are planted on very very steep mountain sides. The people here work so hard and start when the sun comes up (we know because we saw them) and work till sundown. They uses literally ever inch of the land no matter how steep it is. So cool to see. So we had some water and got in our van to go back down into the city. This is when we met Graham. He was hitching a ride back down into the city and we quickly all became friends. Because Indonesia has very few tourist I think Graham was pretty excited to meet some English speaking tourists to travel with. After our morning of doubt and uncertainty we were very excited to have a third person along. We caught a bus from Bromoluingo to Yogaykarta which ended up being a very small air conditioned van with only the three of us and one other lady. This was a nice treat as at this point Stacey and I had been up for over 30 hours and needed a rest. We arrived in Yogaykarta late that night and found a simple place with a pool for some sleep. Graham is from just outside Manchester but works and lives in Perth Australia right now. He has been so much fun to travel with and we will be sad to say our goodbyes.

The next morning we went to explore the city. We went and saw the Kraton which is a village within the city housing 25,000 people within its walls. We took a tour of the Sultan’s palace which was partially closed for a circumcision ceremony. Our guide was explaining to us that for the first time they are facing a dilemma as the last sultan had 5 daughters and has no son to pass the title on to. One of the daughters just had a son so there is speculation that he will be the next sultan. We explored some markets and went back to our hotel. The next morning the three of us hired a car to take us to Borobudur and on to Dien Plateau. We went at 5 am to attempt to avoid some of the crowds of people. The temple was amazing. I am not usually one to be struck by the beauty of something man made but this floored me. Borobudur is a stunning Buddhist temple that consists of 6 square bases topped by three circular ones. From above it is designed to look like a lotus flower. It was constructed in the early part of 9th century AD. When Buddhism declined in the area it was abandoned and covered with ash by an eruption in 1006. It was rediscovered in 1814. We took a guided tour in which it was explain how the entire thing was built by piling volcanic stones over a hill and then was carved from the top down. Due to earthquakes and flooding it has had to be stabilized and a drainage system has been put in place to help resist erosion of the stones. It was very cool to see.

We then carried on to an area call Dien Plateau. This area is very remote. It had two hotels to chose from, both of which had the familiar smell of the farm house basement in Manitoba. I think we are the first tourists to visit here, ever. No not really, but people sure were excited to see us. The area has many lakes, steaming craters and bubbling mud holes. We went for a long walk once we got to our hotel and while viewing one of the steaming crators we were approached by a group of 20 year old girls who asked if they could have their pictures taken with us. After we made some small talk we began to walk away and they asked if we wanted to join them to go see more of the area. We crammed 10 people into a van built for 7 and off we went. They were very cute and tried hard to ask us questions in english. We drove around and saw more of the area and then they dropped us back at our hotel. It was a really cool experience and we definitely gave them a story to tell their friends haha.

The next morning we walked to an area called Telaga Warna and Kawah Sikidang. This area has a series of lakes that, depending on season and components of certain elements, are different colors. The three lakes were light green, turquoise and dark brown. We saw some bubbling pools where gases are being released from in the ground. From there we boarded the first of 4 buses that would take us to Panganduran. It was another one of those “experiences” that you laugh about later. Each bus had unique characteristics that all you could do was laugh. The first had to be the little old man sitting next to me. We were on a bench that was really high so it was hard to reach the floor with your feet to stabilize yourself. He was a good foot shorter than me so every corner or bump he would fall off the bench or crash into me. We rigged my back pack so that we could put our feet on it. No English was spoken just the universal language of laughter. Lots of winding roads and people asking to take our pictures and we eventually made it to Panganduran.

Due to Chinese New Year it was a long weekend for people in Indonesia and Panganduran is the place that many people go for their holidays. It was very busy! It cost more for accommodations over the weekend and then prices dropped after Monday. The first day there we walked to a park with a white sand beach. Due to the Muslim population here the majority of women on the beach are swimming in there full dress and head garments. We also read that in many parts of Indonesia they are trying to pass laws against bikini wearing. We decided to keep our skin covered as well. Since people already stare at us every where we go and we didn’t want to offend anyone, we spent the day in the shade. That night we met some nice people who are teaching English in Jakarta and spent the night hanging out with them. We went to a local night club which resembled a garage with a stage and some couches. Got a taste of Indonesian music and dancing and headed back to our hotel.

The next day we booked a tour with a guy named Danny who has spent time living in the US and spoke great English. We left our hotel on scooters. There were 6 of us. We headed to a brown sugar making place. Danny explained to us how the men climb the coconut trees to collect the syrup from the coconut plants. All the way to the top of every tree. We were shown the process and were able to taste each step to see the transformation. After that we continued on to see a man who made traditional Java wood puppets. We were shown the steps in carving them out of blocks of wood and then how they are assembled and decorated. He then put on a small show for us to see how the puppets can come alive when given movement and voice. It was so interesting. The puppet maker then let us try making the puppets move and it was really hard. We had more appreciation for what he was doing after our attempts.

From there we drove to an area called the Green Canyon. We got into a boat and started up a river. The boats could only go up so far so we all got into the green water and swam the rest of the way up. Some places the current was strong and we had to climb out of the water and scale the side rocks. Other places it was easy to swim upstream. Danny pointed out an area we could all climb up and jump off the cliff into the water. It was about 20 feet….in we went. Straight up on either side of us were cliffs going straight up to the sky. We saw some Iguanas on the rocks and spent a couple of hours swimming around.

From here we went for lunch and then to another area that had some waterfalls. There was a giant cave that you could swim back into. We went downstream a little ways and Danny showed us where we could dive off the waterfall and then turn around and swim through it and end up underneath the rocks in a small cave. Between the rocks over head and the water there was only a couple of feet and just enough room for the six of us. So cool!!!!! Before driving home Danny took us to see some of the remaining damage from a tsunami that struck in 2006 claiming over 600 lives. Danny explained how they have a new warning system since then and how he wishes the tsunami that hit on boxing day in 2004 would have been enough for them to have a warning system in place. We cruised along the beach back to our hotel named Mini Tiga. It was a great day and we celebrated with some drinks as it was also Danny, our guide’s, 29th birthday. We attempted a fire on the beach that night but due to wet leaves and sticks it was kind of unsuccessful. It was, by far, my favorite day so far on the trip.

They next morning the city was empty. ALL the local tourists had left, leaving behind the locals who live there and about 20 other tourists. Graham described it like a plague had come in over night and we missed it. We had the entire beach to ourselves. We played Frisbee (which I am glad I brought), swam, played in the waves, buried me in the sand and read our books.

The next morning we woke at 530 to head for the capital city Jakarta!! Jakarta has over 9 million people YIKES. As we arrived off the bus we were approached by about 20 guys trying to offer us rides. Because there are very few tourists they are quite aggressive and we asked several times for them to give us space so we could read in our book where we were going. We figured out the bus system while they all watched on and then quickly walked through them all to the city bus system. Thankfully it is a great design that is much like a metro system above ground in which the bus in on roads closed to all other vehicles. We arrived and found a hotel and went to book flights out of here. I am not a fan of big cities. 5 hours of frustration later of flights not working out, credit cards not working and travel agents sending us to other travel agents Stacey and I were about ready to give up when we found a flight into Penang, an island we wanted to go to in northern Malaysia. This way we can see a few parts of Malaysia without going into the big cities we don’t have time for and make our way safely off shore into Thailand. Nothing else worked out and it lead us to finding a very cheap flight, on the day we want to go, into somewhere we really wanted to see. Finally success.

We left the internet place feeling the stress of the last 5 hours and as we were walking back to our hotel we came across a group of people sitting on the side of the road with guitars and bongo drums playing some reggae music. They asked us to join and more and more people joined and it turned into a sing along in the streets. The happiest music and the perfect thing we needed to remind us of what we are doing here. Unfortunately traveling around this area is very frustrating but we have to remember to take those moments and enjoy where we are. Singing an Indonesia version of “Don’t worry Be happy” was exactly what we needed. So tomorrow we are off to Malaysia. Indonesia is a country that I would recommend in a heart beat. I thought coming here I would enjoy the scenery the most but it has been the people that have surprised me the most.
Thanks for all the comments from back home. My Mom and Dad will be down here in less than a week. I am looking forward to seeing them and sharing this with them. I can’t believe it has been over three weeks since we left home and I can’t believe what we have seen and done in three weeks.
On to the next country.
All my love,
Alicia

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Photos

Borobudur
Me and Stacey

Borobudur
Early morning haze over the mountains.

Famous Graham
one of the many pictures taken with groups of giggling girls

On the bus
Me and my friend who kept crashing of the seat.

Turquoise Lakes
Dien Plateau area

Locals in Dien Plateau
This Dad stopped us and asked us to take a picture of him and his son.

Soccer in Dien Plateau
These kids were so excited to play with Graham....although they were a lot better than him.

How many can fit on the bike?
Love the little guy standing on the bar.

Night out in Panganduran
Graham, Viki (from Scotland) and me!!!

Boat to Green Canyon
We were lucky with the color of the water as when it rains it is often brown.

Under the waterfall
It was pretty scary to swim under the falls not knowing where you would end up.

Starting our swim
up the green canyon

Swimming down the river
nice freckles

on the bridge
why walk across when you can jump in and go swimming.

Look out point
Panganduran in the background

Look out point
Panganduran

Comments

[Mitch]

AWESOME! Glad to hear its going so well and you're meeting people! Nice tan! Love you M

[Mom]

Wonderful!!
Heh Babe, So glad you are taking it all in on this adventure. Can't wait to hear more stories in person...luv you and see you soon!

[Dad]

see you
Hi Munch thanks so much for the GREAT blogs. I know everyone is enjoying them. Mom and I are getting excited about getting over there and also about getting to meet up with you. safe travels,see you soon luv Dad

[Aunty]

Good Morning
We are all enjoying your blogs so much. I can hardly fathom how far away you are. I love the stories about the cute people you meet. You're joining in on the impromptu jam session made me smile...such amazing experiences are everywhere you are it seems! So wonderful to hear your voice last night...be safe and we all love and miss you...AB, UG, Fletcher and Chevy