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Published: January 4th 2015
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Yogyakarta
Our hotel in Yogyakarta Early in the morning we left Yogyakarta by train for Bandung the trip took about 9 hours passing the most beautiful country side, spectacular scenery of rice paddies and jungle and slowly merging into more civilised areas. I think civilised areas is a wrong description more western should I say. However upon arrival in Bandung we found the place quite conservative as there was a strong Muslim culture and the more we moved around the town, we didn't feel comfortable. When we walk around the towns usually we find the locals having coffee, beers, etc but none of that. In fact we could find nowhere that sold beer or any alcohol what so ever, after checking into a very tiny accommodation we tried to eat, also very unfriendly, maybe it's because we were tired we thought, so we retired for the evening into our sterile box.
The next day having rested we embarked on a walk of the town. We walked and looked but nothing about this town appealed to us, however Glen had read about a place that performed music and dance, a theatre for young people that wanted to learn about music and the arts of theatre .
So Glen found out local bus routes which he always finds and studies (such a wonderful tour guide) God knows how anybody would find The place but we did.From the moment we stepped into this area we were greeted with such friendliness and hospitality. We sat around a open air arena with people from everywhere in Asia but not a single westerner. As in the city of Bandung not a single westerner. The theatre company was called Udjo and they played the tradition musical instrument the Angklung a bamboo instrument I bit like a piano only bamboo. We were invited to dance play the Angklung, total audience participation. They made a wonderful effort to include us and speaking in English and involving us in everything. We had the most wonderful afternoon with these children and young adults its a memory that will stay long with us......
The next day we left on the train to Jakarta only a short journey about 3 hours on the train. Once again we stayed in a new hotel, and once again we were the only westerners in the hotel. However we felt very much welcomed. We were told that the hotel
was celebrating with a New Years Party and we should attend. Wandering around Jakarta we found lots of westerners and quite the modern westernised city that was gearing up for a New Years Party. We also noticed a really large presence of police and military . We had read on trip adviser that we should be very careful and we had known that Jakarta had experienced some religious riots so we weren't that keen on celebrating with the masses, we decided to do the hotel party instead. We'd had a lovely few days in Jakarta and had a New Years dinner in the most eclectic Chinese restaurant. It was like walking back into history pages wonderful ambience and the most delicious menu. In Jakarta we also visited a place called Cafe Batavia it's the place to go ( like Raffles is to Singapore and the Peninsula is to Hong Kong ) any way cafe Batavia was made famous by the old screen movie legend stars Bacall, Sinatra, Bogart and the likes. Autographed photos line the walls, were high teas are served by day and cocktails by evening. Visiting the old port to view old timber ships that took spices to
Udjo in Bandung
Dance and music theatre European cities we visited various museums Jakarta had to offer us, we seeped up the history of this city.
On New Year's Eve we spent the time at the hotel were we were entertained with a local Bongo Angklung band quite reggae, well I thought so.There was a draw of prizes and guess who won the main prize yes the Cherries a weekend for two in Bali in the hotels newest hotel, Yehhh we gave it to a staff member as we were not going back to Bali, maybe if it had been for a week. On New Years Day we flew into Kuala Lumpur, we have been before and know the city quite well, we always had wanted to return to Batu Caves to climb the steps of the Hindu shrine but on the last visit we hadn't. We had a couple of hours at Batu caves and returned to the city to have a hair doooo and look see at the shops. We hit the movies to see the Hobbit part three, bought some new swimmers. After a few days of being pampered and living it up we decided to hit the road, we had
a planned to island hop in Malaysia and then head to the Cameron Highlands but Malaysia has been flooded in most places so we thought why would we visit some places that we had visited 2 years ago,so we have flown today to Borneo Sarawak, Kuching and the journey continues............
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