Blogs from Indonesia, Asia - page 607

The following day I got in touch with Red Cross to see when I could start, and what I could do to help, but unfortunately bureaucracy got the better of me. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent had an arrangement with the local Red Cross, which meant that they couldn't accept any volunteers. Arse. The guy from the Red Cross said he'd look into other possibilities for me, but basically I was back to the drawing board. It's probably at this point I should talk about Hari Raya (or Idul Fitri in Arabic). This happens at the end of Ramadan (the fasting month) and is like a 3 day long Christmas. Of course in my infinite planning, I'd managed to turn up in Banda Aceh right before Hari Raya. and now everything was ... read more

Folks, chapter two is about to begin. I'm off to Thailand tonight. I managed to get some cheap flights (Bali-KL then KL-Bangkok) with Air Asia for Aus$136. Schweet, eh. However, I think this just buying flights as I go business is gong to get expensive, so on the advice of many, many people, I'm going to look into an around the world ticket. Anyone got light to shed on this for me? So, I plan to jump straight on a train from Bangers to Chang Mai - a long, but cheap way to do it, and something I've got to experience, I'm told. Thanks for lowdown on Thailand Hayds, Jaz, Craig and Pru. With all your information, I have my own personal Lonely planet guide! Wicked, I say! So, I hit the bottle two nights ago ... read more

Looking south-east from the tropical island of Gili Trawangan the Rinjani Volcano towers disturbingly, dominating Lombok. Clouds gather around it early each afternoon, shrouding the summit from view, thunderstorms rumble and flash distantly, forbidding trespass. The summit of Rinjani is a large crater, remnants of a prehistoric eruption that took the volcano down from heights of around 8,000m to today's 3,726m. Still impressive, and still very high. Nearly 3 times the height of Britain's highest peak. (Ben Nevis 1,343 m) I'd asked everyone I'd met on Gili Trawangan about climbing the volcano. The few that wanted to climb it conveniently had other commitments. Maybe hanging out on a beach is not the best place to meet adventurers prepared to spend three days climbing a very wet and very high volcano. I went across to Lombok alone ... read more

Hi there! Been here in Jakarta since Saturday to visit friends, tie up some loose ends and update my blog. But I'll be in Singapore tomorrow to fix up some personal stuff before heading back to Manila for good later this month. Some new entries: *Two new entries on Nepal: Video Days in Beni and Breathing Lessons * Two new entries on Bali: The Art of Letting Go and How I Got My Groove Back * A short and sweet piece on my Jakarta sojourn: Postscript Peace Everyone! ... read more

The Lonely Planet describes Berastagi as a "Grotty Town". I loved it. As soon as I arrived I could feel that this was a place which was actually lived in, wandering round the market, seeing the people, I was in heaven. The next day I went for a trek up Gunung Sibayak, and active volcano 2094 meters. One of the highlights was riding on the roof of the bus to the base of the mountain. At the top there were vents spewing sulphurous air into the air, I felt like Dante as I wandered around the vents, holding my breath to get a closer look, and getting a sulphuric burning in my throat when the wind changed! That night I hang out with my guide and his friends as they played guitar and unmercifully thrashed all ... read more