Babar

Luckily we didn't have to get up super early but by 9am we got our scooter, went for soto Triwindu treated ourselves to some Gorenga (lots of savoury snacks that are put out on the table and you pay per snack you take, all calculated honestly by the customer). We are beginning to learn the Indonesian way!

Now the journey begins, off we head to Candi Cetho and Candi Kethek. We didn't think we would be driving a scooter again for the remaining time so it was pretty fun to to be back to our norm. The drive was really really lovely, weaving through the rice fields with perfectly growing rice showing all the various stages as we went from farm to farm. I've decided that some of the scenery is actually more beautiful than Vietnam purely because of the variety of plantation in one photo shot whereas in Vietnam you would generally get one plant type and it was actually quite bare. Especially around the rice fields, which had its own magical effect. We arrived at Candi Cetho and as always Will was super annoyed that foreigners have to pay 4x the local, but hey we paid and it was really lovely and different to other temples we've been to. It probably would only have taken us about half an hour to see the two connecting temples however we got absolutely swarmed by locals who wanted selfies one after another. It became a bit crazy and there was literally a queue as if we were the sight to see! Maybe we should have charged to make the money back 😂 We then headed for some Nasi Pecel Ayam, which is chicken, vegetables and rice with a really yummy peanut and sambal sauce. It was pretty spicy and Will instantly got hiccups and couldn't really enjoy the food. The little old lady came out and brought a top up of food for us. Will took the veg and the lady insisted that he took more sauce but he pleasantly declined and we told her he can't cope with the spice and she laughed a lot 😊

Next we visited Candi Sukuh which was down the road and we decided to follow the locals route which was a sneaky little path in. The locals happily led us through away from the ticket booth.

The final stop for the day was to head to Gunung Lawu and attempt to find somewhere to stay. It didn't take long to get there and wow was it foggy and cold! We stopped at what we thought was a homestay but wasn't. However, we met a lovely local who we were able to somehow decipher that we are able to stay in hut at base camp at the bottom of the mountain and we can hire sleeping bags. Phew!! We got there and he was 50% correct so we hired 2 sleeping bags each as it was chuffing freezing and then must have got our wires crossed with regards to where we were able to sleep and realised we couldn't as we didn't have a tent! In the end the owner of the entrance hut took pity on us and he allowed us to sleep in his room behind his desk haha We had a quick dinner of Nasi Goreng and hot chocolate and then headed back to the hut, put on all our layers including our sleeping liner and two sleeping bags and we were just about warm! The owner left his TV on so we ended up attempting to watch an Indonesian Soap Opera (not sure why but everyone was constantly crying) while he was outside drinking with his mates. He then took even more pity on us and gave us a super sweet jasmine tea and then later his friend gave us some homebred alcohol. Not sure what it was but it tasted like port. What a great end to the day 😊Read more