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Glass bottle green rice paddies
Taking pics from the moving train on the way to JogjaAfter getting on the bus from Jakarta and heading to Bandung, there was never a dull moment. There is plenty to observe from what is going on out in the street to folks jumping on the bus for a couple of minutes to sell anything from longans, rambutans, dried fruit, chicken rice, peanuts, baseball caps, plastic handled scissors, newspapers, colouring books or just busking for one song before leaping off again. Outside the towns there are bottle green rice paddys and the occasional volcano jutting out of the landscape.
There is no backpacker area as such in Bandung, so we had a "posh" hotel and settled for street food of nasi goreng for two nights on the trot which was just fine (in reality we didnt know how to order anything else without the aid of an English menu!). Our purpose for visiting Bandung (not only to break up the big journey to Jogjakarta) was to visit an active volcano (our first of many in Java). We caught a good old colt to the bottom of the mountain and then had to charter another colt to complete the journey to the top. Negotiating was difficult as the guys could not
speak a word of English and we were not yet at grips with the numbers in Indonesian so the guys ran around looking for someone who could translate. Once a deal was struck the guys paid the translator a cut.
We got to the impressive queen crater and as it was a weekend it was like the Blackpool of volcanoes with loads of people, donkey rides and tacky souvenirs to boot but nevertheless it was pretty cool with smoke and steam coming out. We descended down the outside of the crater to reach the geysers and hot pools then cooked a couple of eggs and dipped our feet in the very hot water. Despite us having chartered the bus the guys picked up about another 10 people (two had to hang on the outside) on the way back and then they charged them all about 50 times less what they had charged us, which is a little gutting but to be expected and you just cant get too upset about it and you just have to try harder next time to get a better deal without expecting people to do things for peanuts.
We boarded a train from
Dipping our feet in the volcanic heated pools
Vik baring too much flesh for a muslim country! Bandung to Jogjakarta and our tickets said Coach 1. A couple of tourists came up saying that we were in their seats, but we showed them the ticket and it appeared that we had both been given the same seat numbers. We told them that it must be free seating so they found a seat elswhere. About half an hour into the journey, enjoying lots of leg space, comfortable seats (with a pillow) and air conditioned luxury, the ticket inspector informed us that we were not supposed to be in first class, there are two Coaches no. 1 and we were escorted red-faced back to cattle class to a dark coach with hard seats, open windows and the smell of clove ciggarettes in the air but at least we got to enjoy 30 minutes out of the 8 hour journey in luxury for free! It was ok though, we didnt mind at all, there was plenty of hustle and bustle at each stop whilst all the sellers jump onboard with their vast amounts of diverse items for sale and screaming "NASI AYAM, NASI AYAM, NASI AYAM" (chicken rice) or "KOPI, KOPI, KOPI" (coffee), "POP MEE, POP MEE, POP MEE" (instant
Forests on the volcano
Neil trying to blend in to his surroundings noodles).
On arriving in Jogjakarta we were back in the land of the backpacker. There is a lovely backpacker area with cheap hostels and restaurants near the main street. We got a room for about 3GBP per night which was En-suite. En-suite can be a mixed blessing as the room ends up smelling like sewage and the sheets were damp and the walls had mould on them. We just tried not to think about it too much and just used it as a place to crash.
Jogjakarta (or Jogja as its mostly called) is famous for a few things. Borrobudur, Prambanan and Batik. We visited both temples of Borrobudur and Prambanan and they were really amazing temples, but dont reccomend paying for a guided tour unless you think you can understand your guide, we could not understand ours except when he tried to give us marital advice that a mans weakness is his eyes and that women should dress up and look nice to help with this problem. Batik is a technique used to print patterns on to cloth using wax to resist the dying of different processes and is characterised by dotting and cracking. Traditionally the cloth
is used for clothing but it has become a popular medium for paintings and lots of galleries exist in Jogja. You have to be really careful though as the art dealers are out to make a killing on selling these. We ended up buying one on our first day in Jogja as we were really impressed and got carried away and payed way too much.
We got into Batik so much that we really wanted to try making our own painting so we asked in one of the galleries and the guy there said we could learn with him. He said he was an artist called "Edy". He showed us some of "his" work, which was not our cup of tea but was definately very skilled. We agreed to learn batik with this guy who was a hard selling business man. "Edy" gave us a motorbike for us to ride through Jogja following him to his "studio". The traffic in Jogja had to be the most challenging riding for Neil to date despite some hairy encounters throughout Asia, this was in another league and also more tricky as we didnt realise we would be dicing with death when
we signed up for a Batik course. We arrived at the "studio" to meet yet another "Edy" and surprised that they are both called "Edy" we questioned the "business man" then he said his name was something else that sounded like Edy. As confusing as this sounds, it is simple, the "business man" that runs the gallery usually pretends to be one of the artists (probably one that pays the highest commision) so that you think you are buying direct from the artist, but in reality the real artist beavers away painting at his house and probably doesnt receive that much money. As the "business man" doesnt normally run courses so this is how we discovered his pretence and as it turned out the business man didnt have a clue how to do Batik. Anyway, we were taken to the real artists home, and the real Edy was a lovely quiet gentle and friendly man who welcomed us in. We could tell immediately that this was being done ad hoc, but we were paying on a daily basis so if it didnt work out we didnt need to come back. Edy checked our drawings that we put on to the
cloth then told us we had to start dotting with hot wax around the outlines of our drawings and showed us how to use what sounds like "a chanting", looks like a pipe that holds a bit of hot wax with a spout to dot the wax on with. This is more tricky than it sounds and instead of dotting small amounts of wax, you can end up pouring it all over yourself, Edys living room floor and burning yourself in the process (Vik!). Luckily for us, Edy was the most laid back guy ever. Whilst we were chilling out dotting away, he put his music on (Bob Marley and The Scorpions 'Wind of Change' on casette) and started sketching the most amazing drawings on to cloth. We were given lots of Indonesian cakes and lunch of tofu, chilli sauce and veg, really tasty! We found that our day had been really relaxing and looked forward to continuing the process over the next couple of days. On day 2 we started to dye and block our paintings and we got to know Edy a little better, despite us not being able to communicate too well, we really enjoyed his company
and respected his skill as an artist. On the last day, it was great to see the final article after boiling the wax off. They are certainly not masterpeices but it had been a great experience. We wanted Edys address so that we could send him some photos for his album but Edy was so laid back and relaxed that he didnt actually know his address, but luckily his wife did! Edy also gave us a couple of sketches, one already dotted to keep so that we could finish them off if we get into Batik at home. They are really precious to us and we daren't send them home for fear of losing them, so they are being carted round the rest of the trip.
After almost a week in Jogja it was finally time to start moving East again and we headed to Mount Bromo national park. This is a volcanic park famed for its pre-historic, jurassic look. Its a weird landscape up there but beautiful. It is also bloody cold as we are about 2000m above sea level. It was cool to see the smoke bellowing out of the crater, and then a group of Security
men from Bali on a some kind or works weekend away all wanted their photo taken with us, yes all thirty of them or so, taking it in turns of two's and three's, group shots etc.....They were a good crowd and pretty funny. We are still trying to guess why throughout Asia it is so popular to get photos of Europeans, we guessed that it might be an urban competition to see how many they can collect and who looks the funniest. We dont mind at all as they are always really polite. Maybe we will start collecting also!
Bromo was pretty good then we had to head off on another mega journey to get to our next national park stop of Ijen. The drive their was really beautiful, and lots of nice villages through winding roads. Next morning, up early again we headed to the base of Ijen. The surrounding scenery was some of the most spectacular we have seen in Asia so far. It is otherworldy as so many lucious green volcanoes, forest and mist create a unique atmosphere. Compared to Bromo, Ijen is barely visited, a real shame as Ijen is the real star. Ijen is
also a working sulphur mine. The sulphur is mined by hand and carried in baskets by men down the mountainside. The guys get paid by the kilo so there is an incentive to carry as much as humanly possible. One young guy managed a staggering 90kg - unbeleivable but most guys were carrying 60-70kg which is also pretty impressive. They generally make two back breaking trips per day, the worst part being the climb up the crater where we seen some of the men in agony with red raw marks on their backs, we gave some of them biscuits and water, we wished we had taken more - these guys have one of the hardest jobs we have ever seen. The guys are also putting themselves at high risks of cancer as they are inhaling sulphur fumes all day in huge concentrations. Many men have become sick and there is no safety equipment whatsoever. It really makes you feel bloody lucky. Vik bought a bit of sulpher from one of the guys to put on her desk when she gets back to work to remind her of these guys when she thinks she is having a bad day at the
Batik painting
At Edy's house where we made our masterpeices office!
So Java had been amazing and one of the best stops in the trip then we were off on a trusty Indonesian ferry to Bali........
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