Indonesia

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With every muscle in our body aching from the wake boarding in Singapore, we lifted our bags onto our backs and headed off to our last Asian country. We arrived into Jakarta late in the evening and found a rustic little hostel to spend the night in. Our first impression of the city wasn’t the best; it all seemed a little too rough and dangerous, but the people that we met were so friendly and helpful that we couldn’t but enjoy our experience there.
With little time to spend in Indonesia, we borded an early train to Bogor the following morning. We bought the cheapest train ticket (fourteen cent for an hour and a half’s journey) and we sure got what we paid for. It was as if we had just stepped onto the set of Slum dog Millionaire! The train was packed way past capacity, with very few seats, no doors, animals in boxes, people sitting on the ground smoking and staring at us, the only two foreigners on board, as if they had never seen the likes of us before. We really enjoyed the journey, with random strangers starting conversations with us, asking where we were from, what we were doing here and giving us advice on where to go in the country.
Bogor is a tiny little town with little to offer tourists but a rather unspectacular botanic garden. However, when we found a guesthouse to stay in, we were greeted by a kind Indonesian gentleman, Andum He was a tour guide who was offering a trip through the island of Java. The public transport system in Indonesia is very basic and without the tour we would miss out on a lot of the island so we signed up to leave the following day.
That night, we had the first of many sleepless nights in Indonesia, caused by the countless mosques around town blasting out prayers all night long from big speakers on the top of the roof.
For the days that followed, Andum and his friend Alex took us to explore the island and what an amazing tour that was.
On our first day we visited a gong factory where we learned how the gongs are made. It was fascinating to see the men work without machines, sparks flying everywhere and not a safety helmet or goggles in sight. We had a delicious traditional lunch in a small village with some of the local woman, where we were introduced to the Mayor of the district and visited his office.
Our guides were both knowledgeable and proud of their country, telling us all about the history and culture. That's when we found out that it was the Muslim holidays of "eid". They told us that people all over the country were going to sacrifice a goat or a cow by cutting its throat and leaving the animal to bleed to death. Before they did this, they would comb the hair, sprinkle it with perfume and decorate it with flowers so that the animal would be sacrificed with honour. This explained why we saw so many goats randomly tied up outside every house we passed.
The following day we travelled to the volcano of Papandayan, staying in a hotel in a geothermal area that had a room with its own hot spring inside filling up the bath. We set off at three in the morning to climb the volcano in order to get there in time for sunrise. It was the first volcano we had seen and we were quite blown away by it. When we started to climb, the smell of sulphur became so overwhelming, stinging our eyes and throat. There was yellow sulphur all over the rocks and grey lava bubbling in the crater; it really was beautiful.
In the afternoon we stopped in primitive village, where the people still live like their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. They have no TV´s, no electricity and no flushing toilets! Our trip finished in Pangandaran, a black sand beach town, where the Indonesians spend their holidays. The black sand is due to the volcanic activity and it made nice spot to relax after three days on the road.
Java isn't very tourist orientated, so in order to see it all, it's better to do it with a tour guide; so we booked onto another one in order to see the rest of the island with a lovely Indonesian lady, Natalie, who invited us into her home. We stayed chatting with her for hours and she told us her stories about the 2006 tsunami that hit Pangandaran destroyed her house and business.
We did the tour with her son who took us to visit the temples of Borobudur, the sultan's palace, tea plantations and other interesting sights along the way.
The last day of the tour was Meadhbh's birthday. It was another early start, 3:30am when we hopped into a jeep that took us up to Mount Bromo, an amazing inactive volcano, set in an incredible landscape. After watching the sunrise, we climbed the volcano for stunning views. Not a bad way to start a birthday, one that we'll never forget. Unfortunately it was a ten-hour drive to Bali from here. We had planned on going out that night to celebrate but after all those hours in the van, we were only fit for bed.
Bali is a beautiful place; the perfect location to learn to surf. We took some one-on-one surf lessons from local surfers and had a great laugh. It’s crazy to think that after banging heads with the surf boards, drinking a lot of seawater and doing a few unplanned somersaults in the ocean, we still emerged (exhausted and frustrated) with big smiles on our faces.
We befriended a really cool Indonesian guy, Joko, who kept an eye on our bags for us while we went for a surf, gave us tips on our surfing and always had a nice cold beer waiting for us when we came out of the water defeated by the waves. After a few days surfing we decided to visit the island of Flores to do some diving and to see the legendary Komodo Dragons in the wild.
The diving was amazing. We got to swim alongside the beautiful manta rays, a first time experience for both of us. In order for us to see the dragons, we chartered a boat with Captain Jai. He took us out to the Komodo National park, cooked us lunch on the boat and told us all about the Indonesian customs and lifestyle.
The dragons are amazing reptiles and, in the company of our guide, we were able to come up very close to them. We learned a lot about them, their incredible feeding rituals and of some unfortunate accidents that have happened over the past few years.
Our last few days in Asia were spent back in Bali in Sanur, for two days of luxury in the Tamukami hotel. Meadhbh's family had booked us into the hotel has a birthday surprise and we sure did enjoy every minute of it. We spent two days by the pool, reminiscing on our time in Asia.
It was time to leave and we had mixed feelings about this. On one hand we were sad to say goodbye to this amazing continent, where we have spent five unforgettable months but on the other hand we are going to Australia, one of the places that we have been looking forward to more than any other. So here we go to the land down under.

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Comments

[Noeleen]

How will you ever settle back to "Normal" life and the Irish weather. Enjoy while you can.

[Mebs and Paulo]

Normal life
I have no idea! And we'll be coming home in no time. Let's not think about that yet though. Hope all is well with you x