Blogs from Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia, Asia - page 26

We arrived...we finally arrived. After our dreadful ride we were ready to collapse and that is what we did. Our exciting Christmas Eve consisted of waking up from a nap at 11:00pm, realizing all the restaurants were closed, and going back to bed. We left Santa a nice cold Bintang (Indonesian beer) and some mie gorengs (fried noodles)...lol. We woke up refreshed and ready for a Christmas day expedition to a Hindu temple in the morning, and a Buddhist temple in the afternoon. After stocking up on water and tim-tams (Australian cookies, probably the best in the world!) we plunged head first into ancient Indonesia and Prambanan, the Hindu temples from the 9th century. Unfortunately the temple had been damaged in a May earthquake and wasn't fully opened to the public (you can see it partitioned ... read more

We arrived in Yogyakarta on a very nice bus from Semarang. For 40,000 rp (under 3 quid) you got air con, reclining seats and a snack box, we were most impressed. We were also impressed by Duta Guesthouse, which had beautiful gardens, a pool and a bathtub (although the water had black bits in it), even an open air garden in the bathroom! On our first full day we visited the Kraton, the old part of the city containing the Sultan's palace. The palace itself was interesting but it is starting to get quite tiring whenever we step outside several people will descend on you to offer you taxi rides/food and drink/any amount of souveneirs. It is virtually impossible to sit down and look at your map or guidebook without being continually harrassed. Bah! The following ... read more

Yogajakarta- We came here to see the Borobudor and the Prambanan. We did not tour the city and elected to use a guide. We felt being interior Java, which is mostly Muslim and their general dislike of the USA (Scott of course is Canadian but really by seeing and hearing us who can tell the difference) that we would keep a low profile. Our guide told us it as perfectly safe in Yogajakarta for tourists but in Solo (30km away) that it could be dangerous. Do radicals not own cars? Such a short distance to claim complete safety. Considered the greatest Buddhist temple the Borobudur has the largest Buddhist stupa created. The giant bell shaped structure sits on the top of several tiers ringed with smaller stupas. Each stupa once contained a seated Buddha statue though ... read more

Right well. i left bali there a week ago before finishing my dive caosre and driving around on my moped, and runnign into the police who decided they would have lots of my money and little i could do about that. but ah well moved onto java now Been venturing around a good bit. my first stop was a small town called probolingo and from there i went to an active volcanio called mount grunung bromo, and lucky for me it was extremly active the day i went and sulphur was popping out the top and the government was advising people not to go within 1 km of it. so i decided to go up the mountain beside it which was 2400 m high and 6 km walk up and 6 km back down. and was ... read more

Okay, the title is a bit alarming so I will start by saying that I am now safely in Gili Trawangan, a small Island off Lombok, near Bali. (Nowhere near Merapi.) Back in Java though, we woke up one morning prepared to go out and restock the van with supplies and head back out for another round of relief work. We had only one problem: our driver and van were missing. Yes, missing. At first I was not alarmed - perhaps he had just popped out to get some petrol? As the hours passed we became concerned for us and for him. We spoke to hotel security who called in the “secret police” (two plain-clothed dudes who were reluctant to show me any identification but did in the end when I thanked them for coming out ... read more