East through Java

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We said goodbye to Medan, and flew to Bandung an enormous city to the South East of Jakarta. We stayed one night and the following evening got a sleeper train to Yogyakarta. Without trying to sound ungrateful (but no doubt doing so) the 3 days from Medan to Yogyakarta were a bit horrible, big faceless cities with little history/culture/fun/food and more pollution and unfriendly locals, if only passively, than anywhere else on our trip. Two tips for if you find yourself with no option but to spend time there

1) Bandung has a nice Cinema where we whiled away 3 hours. (Twilight - No Comment)

2) Travel First class on the train, We didn't and 11 hours has never felt so long or indeed so Uncomfortable.

Anyway we arrived in Yogyakarta with high hopes and were not disappointed. We spent 3 days wandering around the city. There is a big art culture in Yogya and we had a lesson in Batik Art from a 'local lecturer' (read conman) and managed to leave his studio without buying anything so that was a great success! We also managed to speak to our long lost families which we both enjoyed. The area of Java we were in has been inhabited for about as long as people have been around, So we had a day of exploring some more Temples that were over 1200 years old - spectacular. It would have been slightly less arduous if we weren't walking around in the blaring sun with temperatures hitting 40 degrees! With that our excursions in Asia were nearly at an end and it was time for the Beach. At least so Emma thought, much to her relief.

I had other plans and hopefully Our 'slight' detour from Yogyakarta to Bali to see Mt Bromo (around 500 miles and 24 hours - woops) didn't break Emma's heart too much! The 3am wake up may not have helped, and nor did the really quite significant climb up the side of the Volcano. But once we got up there and watched the sunrise it was brilliant and when Emma puts her pictures up I'm sure they will do it justice. One thing which made our trip to this very active Volcano so interesting was that we had just listened to Bill Bryson on Audio book describe the incredible destructive power of Volcano's, particularly those in the Pacific and Indonesia, we treaded very carefully...

We arrived in Bali at 10:30 last night which was not ideal given that we hadn't booked any accommodation but an hour of stress and bickering later we were tucked up in bed and looking forward to a few weeks of well earned (In our minds only I am sure!) relaxation.

Kuta in Bali, where we find ourselves now is extremely touristy and reminds us slightly of Ibiza/Magaluf etc in the Med but nicer. (It basically is Ibiza for Australians) It looks like loads of fun and once we are ready to get away from the music, clubs and about a million parties, we will just head off to our final destination in Asia, the Gili islands which we've heard described a few times as Paradise. It's a hard life!!!



Speak to you soon

Adam and Emma

P.s. Surf Lesson tomorrow, I'll let you know how we get on!

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Photos

Yogyakarta
The Temple of Prambanan

Bali
The first evening... The first Sunset

Comments

[Alice Rodwell]

Christmas time
Happy Christmas .Have a good christmas.I will see you in April. Bye Bye

[Lily Rodwell]

Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas and a happy new year.Hope you have a great Christmas and a great new year.See you in April.I miss you very much.