South-East Asia 2016

June - December 2016
A 181-day adventure by Joel
  • 182footprints
  • 11countries
  • 181days
  • 499photos
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  • 38.0kkilometers
  • 26.3kkilometers
  • Day 11

    Day 11: North to Lovina Beach

    June 26, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    Early start today as we had a lot of driving to do! Our driver from Seminyak a couple of weeks ago had agreed to drive us around for the day, ending in his birth city of Singaraja on the northern coast. He was coming at 8 so we needed to be packed and breakfasted by then, but unfortunately our hotel breakfast missed the memo and turned up at 7:55! A quick gobble and off we went.

    I was feeling much better today after finding some cold & flu Panadol tablets in a convenience store the night before, and dosed up on Gastro-Stop as well since something was causing a few "issues". I also noted pretty quickly that Putu, the driver, was suffering a cold, so he shot to the top of my suspects list!

    It had rained heavily overnight but clear skies beckoned, so we headed westwards out of Ubud, firstly arriving at the Jatiluwih rice terraces. This is a whole valley where rice is cultivated (much like the rest of Bali), but obviously with steep valley walls they need to carve out small terraces to grow. A beautiful little spot, and it looked there were some great hiking and cycling paths around. But literally 2 minutes after we got out of the car, the heavens opened and drenched us, so back in the car we go.

    This time we drove northwards to Batugul, the first of three alpine lakes in Bali. Batugul is well-known for having a Hindu temple sitting out on the lake, which is what we'd come to see. It's so distinctive it even features on the Indonesian 50,000 rupiah note ($5 AUD). Again a very beautiful sight, and thankfully not as touristed as Tanah Lot temple, but still quite crowded with mostly non-Western tourists. And again, after fine weather during the 90 minute drive in, the heavens opened and we got drenched for the second time today.

    Stopped for lunch at a buffet restaurant on the edge of town - I suspect Putu doesn't know many places to eat and only recommended this because he knew it was where the tourists went. Definitely not something we would have chosen, it was 180,000Rp each (about $18) for a frankly unimpressive buffet of mostly fried foods. Tea & coffee included, any drinks including water were extra. Most of our lunchs have been less than $18 in total for two meals and two drinks! But alas.

    Northward we drove, across the mountain pass in the centre of Bali over the shoulder of a volcano. Stopped briefly at a small monkey forest where the monkeys were much friendlier than the ones in Ubud (which are super aggressive around food). Bought a few bananas from a conveniently-located lady and fed the monkeys for a few nice photos.

    Back in the car to the next stop of Gitgit Falls, a large three-waterfall area on the northern side of the mountains. Putu told us it was 200,000Rp each with a guide, but after sticking to our guns it was actually only 20,000 each for entry, and I'm not really sure what a guide would have offered! The path was very clear, winding around through rainforest and past cocoa and clove plantations and little jungle huts selling the usual Balinese trinkets.

    As seemed to be our luck today, 5 minutes into the walk the heavens opened again, massively this time, with an enormous tropical downpour. Thankfully we'd had the foresight to bring rain jackets on the walk, but even so it was tough work. The walk itself was only about 20 minutes thankfully, but with scarce shelter from the hammering rain and booming thunder, we contented ourselves with a few pictures and a squelch back to the car.

    And so we arrived at our destination - Lovina Beach. It's not really a town but a collection of hotels on the northern coast of Bali. We'd chosen one a bit further from town than we thought, but had an excellent private villa available with our own plunge pool. And right on the beach too. So even though we'd been drenched several times today, we plunged straight in (remember that it's basically 31 degrees and 85% humidity every day here!). After cooling off and relaxing, we wandered down the beach for a bit to discover exactly how far from town we were.

    As it turns out, quite a way, so we turned back. Black sand beaches over this side of the island as they're volcanic rather than coral sands, and due to offshore reefs the water is much calmer. The beaches are pretty dirty though, with lots of plastic rubbish around. As we'd spent most of our cash on paying Putu for driving us all this way, and didn't feel like hunting around for an ATM in the dark in an unfamiliar (and frankly, not very touristy) place, settled on dinner from the hotel restaurant which we ate in the room.

    Very early start tomorrow for dolphin watching at 6am!
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  • Day 12

    Day 12: Lovina Beach

    June 27, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Very early start for the dolphin watching this morning! Alarms at 5:45, awake and dressed at the hotel lobby by 6am with GoPro in hand. Here we met our boat skipper, a man of so few words I didn't catch his name. Thankfully his boat was just on the beach nearby so we walked the few minutes out onto the sand and down to his boat.

    The boat was basically an oversized canoe with an engine and small pontoons either side for balance - it would've seated four plus the captain but Shandos and I were the only passengers for the day. If that sounds isolated, like we were the only three folk around on a gentle sea against the sunrise, think again.

    Once we left the beach I was rather reminded of the opening scenes from Saving Private Ryan, such was the enormous flotilla of boats zigging and zagging, jockeying for position. There was a couple of early dolphin sightings but with probably 60 boats zooming in close and charging around hoping for the best view, we retreated about a kilometre down the coast and watched the sun rise - exquisite.

    Soon a few other boats joined us, and after heading slightly back up the coast towards the main scrum, we were rewarded with a large pod of dolphins. No jumping or tricks unfortunately, but they popped up to breath near us quite a few times. The water is fairly dark so it was hard to tell how many dolphins there were, but I'd guess about 15 in the pod. It's sort of funny how you motor to a spot where they were, turn off the engine (well, generator attached to a propeller at least), and then look anxiously around for them to surface again. Sometimes nearer, sometimes further.

    After a couple of hours of this (and when the herd had thinned out considerably), we decided it was time to call it quits and head back to the hotel - we'd been up for nearly 3 hours and still hadn't breakfasted! So we took our leave of the dolphins, and our silent captain.

    Spent the next couple of hours relaxing in our villa - we have a huge area to ourselves along with a private plunge pool and outdoor bathroom which is very nice! The most expensive place we've stayed since Seminyak, but we got a good deal and it's very comfortable.

    Decided to venture into town a bit later since we were out of cash. Walked via the main road which as promised was quite a way - took us probably 30-35 minutes all told, though we stopped obviously at the ATM and a couple of little shops too. Had lunch in a local restaurant facing the beach, though again it doesn't feel that clean since the sand is black and there's quite a bit of rubbish around.

    Had a look at the local shops, chatted to some locals who struck up conversations (usually as a 5-minute prelude to selling jewelery or art or something - it's usually good but we just don't buy that sort of stuff) and had a look at the dolphin statue which marks the centre of town. Pretty kitsch really. Walked back to the hotel along the beach, realising that the night before we had probably walked 2/3rds of the way anyway - the lights we'd seen were a resort much further along.

    Very little to report from the afternoon which we spent relaxing and swimming in our pool! Shandos sorted out accommodation for tomorrow's leg, while I spent some time on Skype with mum and Rae - the first time I've really managed to have a proper chat with them since we left. Dinner at another nearby restaurant where I had fish & chips, and as the last action for the day organised a driver to take us along the coast tomorrow.
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  • Day 13

    Day 13: Westward to Pemuteran

    June 28, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Checked out of our lovely villa amidst a torrential downpour. A few of the locals have mentioned it since it's actually supposed to be the dry season now, but the rain is continuing much later than usual. Must be related to what's happening in the Northern Territory, where the wet season was finishing much much later than usual.

    Our driver was waiting for us in the lobby; either his name was Yes or he answered every question in the affirmative - I suspect the latter was true. Bags loaded into the car and off we went westward along the coast road for a couple of hours. Traffic really thinned out once we left the Lovina Beach area, and it really drove home how much less populated the northern and western areas of Bali are, especially compared to the south.

    About halfway to our destination of Pemuteran, we'd arranged a stop at Hatten Wines - the only winery in Bali. And I know you're thinking, "isn't a tropical climate far too warm to grow grapes for wine??", and the answer is yes, sort of. It's a lot cooler on this side of the island thanks to prevailing winds (and the mountains are much closer), but most importantly the grapes grow so quickly they can actually harvest them twice a year!

    We did some wine tasting; a couple of whites, a rose and a couple of reds, and of course bought two bottles. We both really liked the red as it wasn't particularly heavy, but they'd run out! Alas. Took a few photos and back into the car, arriving at our hotel just on lunchtime. The room wasn't ready so we had an early lunch and a laze on the beach before heading to our room (nothing particularly flash here, although it's a nice resort).

    But the main reason we'd come here was for the snorkelling - inside the bay there's a large "bio rock" project, where they are growing coral on the sides of large underwater structures (think iron bedframes and so on). I'm not sure exactly how it works, there's some sort of power required as they're all hooked up to solar panels and wind generators, but there's lots of young coral growth and marine life is moving back into the area. Spotted a bunch of tropical fish including three clownfish (Nemo!).

    I caught a couple of football highlights in the bar (embarrassing England's loss to Iceland), and we just hung out by the pool and in the water for the rest of the afternoon. Late in the day we went down the beach to where there's a turtle conservation project; 4:30pm is feeding time so we watched the little baby turtles plus a couple of injured adults getting fed.

    A bit more "life on the road" admin as we sorted our plans for the next couple of days, organised a driver for tomorrow morning, and then dinner at a local restaurant for our last night in Bali!

    Right now it's 9pm and I'm sitting in bed typing, listening to a torrential downpour hammer on the roof. I'm also bursting for a pee, wishing we didn't have an outdoor bathroom.
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  • Day 14

    Day 14: Across to Java

    June 29, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Finally the day where we leave the tourist-heavy confines of Bali and forge on to lesser-chartered waters. We had a car booked to take us from Pemuteran to the ferry terminal at Gilimanuk; arriving at 9:30 for an hour-long drive. We reckoned today's journey would take about 3 hours, though we'd forgotten that crossing from Bali into Java also means a change of timezone!

    The car turned up and the drive was pretty uneventful, though we drove around the fringes of Bali's earliest national park. It was quite unusual to see somewhere on the island that wasn't developed or at least utilised for growing something!

    We walked onto the ferry as foot passengers (6000 rupiah or $0.60 AUD each) and found seats upstairs. I was a bit conscious that we were the only Westerners on the boat, but nobody aside from the procession of vendors really gave us a second glance. The process of loading and unloading the boat is quite slow - the ferry was mostly loaded when we boarded but we still sat there for probably 30 minutes before undocking.

    The crossing was fairly gentle and actually quite quick - Bali and Java are very close together as you can see from the map above. We were among the first off the ferry and it was typical third-world chaos at the exit, people selling rides and car services and "bemo" rides (bemos are essentially private/public buses - anyone can ride and it's very cheap, but the car is basically an old Ford Transit sized van and it'll be crowded and smoky. We managed to find a legit taxi rank across the road and got a ride to our hotel, which we were happy about because the price was about 2/3rds of the original bemo price!!

    Checked in at the hotel with no problems, small but modern and clean, and spent the afternoon in our room relaxing. We plan to tackle Ijen Crater tonight so we'll need the rest! We booked a driver to pick us up at 1am, and ordered room service for lunch. On the drive in we'd noticed that all the local street food places and warungs were closed as Ramadan still has a few days yet to run.

    Ventured out briefly to pick up water and snacks for tonight's hike, and managed to find a pair of gloves as well which should help. It's supposed to be very cold at the top and neither of us have many warm clothes aside from a thermal shirt (and Shandos has zip-off pants she can re-attach). Dinner at the hotel restaurant and then in bed by 8pm with alarms set for 12:45!
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  • Day 15

    Day 15a: Ijen Crater

    June 30, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Well that was an epic adventure! We knew it was going to be tough, and man it was.

    Our alarms went off at the earliest possible time of the day, 12:45am! We dressed and grabbed our gear before heading downstairs to meet the driver who were both waiting for us (I'm not sure why there were two of them, company I guess?). Our vehicle was an 80s-era Land Cruiser that was soaking wet, and once we left the sheltered lobby area it was obvious why - it was raining, a lot.

    It rained pretty constantly though not especially heavily for most of the 75 minute drive out to the trailhead, though there was a reasonable amount of lightning around as well. It didn't seem that close by, but still not what you want when you're out on a mountain! Alas.

    Arrived at the trailhead a little after 2am and had a huge mug of tea while waiting for the guide. This time I'm 100% sure he never said his name! As usual he only spoke limited English so we just shrugged our shoulders, said "Yes" and headed off.

    The first leg was probably a kilometre of very slowly ascending trail through a forest; quite wide at this point and a lot of groups around. Though we did take a bush shortcut for a few hundred metres to save a little time. The gradient was steadily ramping up and up, and I was starting to struggle a bit being pretty unfit and overweight (and carrying the bag while our stuff!). Shandos took the bag and we started taking things a bit slower; our guide saying "slow slow, no problem" the whole time. Though as usual Shandos kept powering ahead - she's a fast walker at the best of times! The guide commented at one point to me "Mamma - strong!!". I pointed out that she has very long legs, which he agreed with (he was very short, only shoulder height on us).

    After an hour or so of climbing, it flattened out as we reached the crater rim. Here the wind howled across and whipped rain along too, plus fog so you couldn't see much on either side (bearing in mind it was also still very dark). I think this section was probably only 200m or so, but it was very exposed and horrible. Although the rain wasn't particularly heavy, it was still constantly misting down and by this point we were pretty saturated despite rain jackets.

    Once we'd crossed the exposed ridge line, we descended slightly to the crater rim overlook where a lot of groups stop. We had a choice - either head approx 1km around the rim to watch the sunrise, or descend into the caldera for the famous blue fire. We chose the blue fire, since it was pretty obvious the rain and cloud would prevent any kind of nice sunrise view. The guide wasn't super keen on me going down into the caldera since I'd struggled a fair bit to get this far - I wasn't exhausted by any means but going down to the blue fire obviously means climbing back out. But I hadn't come this far to stop and wait, so down we went.

    The guide pointed out very clearly the signs saying "DANGEROUS GASES, ENTRY PROHIBITED" with skulls and crossbones and that sort of thing, but we walked through the gate like everyone else and pressed on. The descent into the caldera was very difficult - we could now smell the sulphur from below, and the path was much narrower, rocky, slippery underfoot due to the rain, and of course it was dark. I was mostly OK since I was wearing my hiking boots, but Shandos needed help in a few places since she only had her lightweight shoes on.

    About 30 minutes into the descent we donned our gas masks, unfortunately they didn't cover our eyes! And still dealing with the remnants of a cold made breathing through it very difficult, but we persevered. Although there were fewer people on this track, it was still crowded in places, and made trickier by the miners ascending with their loads. Yes, down at the sulphur vents they actually mine rocks of sulphur. Miners carry these huge bright yellow rocks back up the path we were struggling with, in wicker baskets on their backs. According to our guide they get paid 7000 rupiah ($0.70 AUD) per kilogram of sulphur! Each load is between 70-90 kg, and they do the route twice a day. Very tough work, my hat goes off to them.

    Another 30 minutes of descending into progressively thicker plumes of sulphur and we finally made the floor of the caldera. Here it was actually pretty tortuous - the wind would swirl around and blow the plume in all directions, so you might get a 30 second respite but then a huge cloud would come straight at you. Blue flame was erupting from vents on the other side of the plume so we didn't have a perfect view, but it was still very impressive. The sulphur gas shoots out of the ground at around 600 degrees and then reacts with the oxygen, burning at an extremely high heat.

    We watched for around 10 minutes (it comes and goes, not a constant stream) and tried to take a few photos which turned out hilariously badly. My iPhone was soaking wet at this point which means the screen doesn't really respond to touches, and we were so sodden by this point I didn't have anything dry to wipe it with. Probably better to keep it mostly out of the sulphur clouds I guess! Only later did I realise we'd carried the GoPro all the way down and didn't use it!

    There's a huge lake covering most of the floor of the caldera which we unfortunately couldn't see - it's extremely acidic and a brilliant shade of turquoise blue (if you turn on satellite view for this post you should see it), but obviously it was dark and cloudy so we couldn't see it. Once we'd been down there for about 15 minutes we couldn't stand it any longer - even with the gas masks breathing was painful, and our eyes were stinging badly from the sulphur, so we set about climbing back up the caldera rim.

    Strangely enough the climb was actually easier than the descent, since you didn't have to worry as much about slipping on a rock and tumbling a hundred metres down (oh yeah I should have mentioned that the trail was generally less than 2m wide with a "robust" drop on one side, and absolutely no handrails or fences). We climbed almost halfway out of the caldera before stopping for a break, and I remember looking back and being amazed at how far we'd climbed.

    The last half was tougher as the rocks were a bit higher and the traffic slightly thicker (still many miners around) so I went a bit slower, but by 5:45 am we were back at the crater rim overlook and pausing for a well-deserved drink. It was here that I noticed the clouds about growing slightly lighter - the sun was finally coming up. If it was a clear day we would've had a good view of the sunrise from this point, but as you're no doubt aware it wasn't, so we didn't.

    The hike was pretty easy from this point as it was mostly downhill with varying degrees of steepness. Made the faux pas of offering our guide a biscuit when we paused at one point, but obviously he refused because it's Ramadan! I don't recall him eating before sunrise, so he's got 12 hours of hunger ahead of him, poor guy. We powered across the exposed ridge line which seemed even windier and wetter than it had before, but after that it was pretty smooth.

    The light grew with every step, and our guide's mood got a lot better as well (he'd been a little short in places descending the caldera) - pointing out sights for us to photograph, cracking jokes about using the miners' carts as a quick way of getting to the bottom. Thankfully it doesn't take that long to hike 3km downhill, so by 7am we were back at the carpark, wet to the bone but very proud and elated of what we'd managed. Still lots of people climbing up at this point, probably for a look at the turquoise lake poor sods.

    Our drivers were waiting for us, and just after we hopped in the car they asked us if we could give a lift to some French tourists whose driver had broken down - of course we said yes. They hadn't slept at all, since someone had told them there was a guest house in the trailhead parking area, which there definitely wasn't! They were essentially doing the same trip as us but in reverse order; they'd started in Jakarta and were working east towards Bali over a few weeks. Had a good chat with them to pass the time on the long drive back down to Banyuwangi.

    Back at the hotel we rinsed off, had the greatest hot shower of all time (or certainly since Kilimanjaro at any rate), washed and rinsed all of our clothes and gear and then finally collapsed into bed around 10am. Time for a nap, and I'll diarise the rest of the day later.
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  • Day 15

    Day 15b: Banyuwangi

    June 30, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Nothing else to report for the rest of the day. We had a nap for a few hours to help recover from our hike this morning, then spent the rest of the day lounging around our hotel room. It's not huge or flash, but it's comfortable and efficient enough.

    Did a bit of planning for the next few days, and ventured out briefly in the evening for an ATM top-up and to find some dinner. But we were staying in an odd spot, and none of the local street food took our fancy, so back to the hotel for our third meal today!
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  • Day 16

    Day 16: The Awful Road to Bromo

    July 1, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌫 18 °C

    Ugh, what a horrible day. Easily the worst we've had since leaving Sydney. To get to our destination of Cemoro Lawang on the rim of Bromo crater, we'd booked tickets for a 4-hour train ride to a city on the north coast called Probolinggo, where we'd have to catch a local bus to the bus station and then a "bemo" public bus the rest of the way. Bemos are like African public transport, in that they're just a minivan with 15 seats and won't leave the depot without a full load (or someone coughs up fares for the missing passengers).

    So we hit the road nice and early after a hotel breakfast, with a taxi to the train station around 7:45. Our train wasn't until 9 but people online suggest arriving an hour early to print your tickets etc. On arrival at the station, a nice young Indonesian girl helpfully informed us that the train was cancelled due to flooding. Shit.

    She suggested either catching the 10am train to Jember (a city about halfway), and then taking buses from there. We opted instead to take a coach from the nearby bus station which would go directly to Probolinggo.

    So we commandeered an Akso van nearby which is just a van with bench seats around the edge and headed to the bus terminal, which ended up being 100m from our hotel! Not the best use of 40 minutes but alas. At the bus station a few people shunted us around before we found the Probolinggo coach and hopped on.

    A guy sold us tickets as we climbed on, only for us to realise once the bus departed that he had scammed us! We'd both read about this earlier, but apparently it's a very common scam where someone will sell you a completely legit ticket, but at a grossly inflated price and pocket the difference. Since we were feeling a little lost and under pressure as the bus was leaving, we didn't realise it was happening until afterwards. He claimed the ticket was normally 80k each ($8 AUD), but today's price was 120k because it was the end of Ramadan and everything was busy. I don't know what the actual proper fare would be, but I'd guess around 60k rupiah, so we weren't out a huge amount of money, but still not a nice feeling! I should point out as well that the guy did this in front of the driver, the actual conductor and several passengers and nobody lifts a finger, they all just watch it happen and don't care. Apparently Indonesian bus trips are notorious for scams like this.

    The bus was only 1/3rd full but as we crawled along back roads for an hour people hopped on at various points. We then stopped randomly in some city for about 40 minutes with no obvious explanation! Another 20 minutes of crawling and then another random 20 minute break. At this point we'd barely even left Banyuwangi and I was wondering if we'd make Probolinggo by nightfall! The one thing guidebooks stress is that to get a bemo up to Mt Bromo, you need to arrive at Probolinggo before 4pm as after that you would struggle to find enough passengers to fill the bus.

    The bus crawled along further and got more and more crowded. Since it was sparse when we got one, Shandos was sitting about 2 rows behind me - we'd each taken a row of 3 seats; though why there were 3-seaters in the first place I'm not sure!

    I should mention at this point that the bus was clearly designed for Indonesians - my seat was far too narrow for me, and sitting in a normal upright position meant jamming my knees into the seat in front of me. Eventually I combined my bags onto the middle seat for a lady to sit down, then pulled down my hat low and pretended to sleep to avoid the inevitable. But finally a big group of young guys got on and it was standing room only - the conductor tapped me on the arm and physically dumped both my bags onto my lap. At this point I discovered the recliner on my seat was broken and stuck in the "full recline" position - I hadn't noticed earlier because I was sitting sideways to generate some legroom.

    Imagine a flight where you had to have all your luggage on your lap. Now reduce your seat width, bring the seat in front closer, shine a tropical sun through the window, and lock your seat on full recline for good measure. It was absolute torture, as i was almost completely stuck. Also it's a closed air conditioned bus and the driver alternates between smoking and talking on the phone. And every second time the bus stops, "musicians" jump on and start busking loudly in Indonesian.

    This was about 11am, and given the distance we'd travelled in 2.5 hours, the estimate of 6-7 hours to Probolinggo we'd been given seemed hilariously optimistic. But there I sat, hungry and thirsty by now, sweating like a Melbourne Cup winner and unable to move. I didn't even have Shandos for comfort as she was 3 rows behind me, so I had no idea if she was in a better or worse situation than me. This lasted about horrible 2 hours until Jember when most people got off the bus. We relaxed a little while the bus stopped at the terminal until there was a whole bunch of yelling and activity - turned out we needed to switch buses as well!

    Although this next bus was much older and lacked air con, it had open windows so air actually circulated, making it far more comfortable. No extra leg room though unfortunately! This bus was much less full thankfully, but we didn't make the same rookie mistake and this time sat at either end of a 3-seater and piled our bags in the middle.

    The new driver was a maniac, even by Indonesian standards, but it seemed much fewer people wanted to go between Jember and Probolinggo so we made pretty good time. Some of the scenery around here was quite nice too, with volcanoes shrouded in mist and fields of rice and other crops around. Also went through a torrential rainstorm which lasted an hour or so - if this is Java's dry season I'd hate to see the wet!

    Finally around 4:15pm we arrived in Probolinggo. We managed to find the bemo area pretty easily, but as expected there weren't any other people going to Bromo. We waited about half an hour before conceding defeat and hiring the whole van - $50 instead of $3.50 per head!!!!!

    This drive was quite exciting, as once we left town the road immediately began climbing sharply, and we drove straight back into the torrential rain we'd just left! Water was cascading down the road in a serious torrent, and at one point we got trapped behind a small car who'd gotten bogged in the flood waters. Our driver helped him out by driving his car out of the floodwaters, and got soaked for his trouble!

    Soon after this it got dark - here we're right on the eastern edge of the time zone which means it gets dark very early - and with the van's heavily tinted windows we couldn't really see anything, although we were aware of constant climbing and poorly maintained roads.

    Finally at 6:30pm in complete darkness and torrential rain we arrived at our hotel. Poorer, wiser, and very tired. Since this is just a tiny outpost of civilization on the edge of an active volcano, our room was very basic though the dining and common areas were nice - very rustic.

    As we hadn't eaten lunch we went straight for dinner in the hotel. Food was okay, though we were amused by people selling hats and trinkets knocking on the windows and waving! After dinner we realised it had stopped raining, so we had a brief look over the crater rim (our hotel is literally on the precipice!). Couldn't make out much on the darkness but the outlines of mountains were clearly visible.

    Retreated to our room since it's pretty cold at this altitude (2200m or so), and packed a few things for our hike tomorrow starting at 3am to watch the sunrise! Realised that to top off a really shitty day, I'd left my beloved Man United hat in the bemo. No chance of ever getting it back, as there's hundreds of bemos just like it. Decided to just give up on the whole day by going to bed at 8:30.
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  • Day 17

    Day 17: Mount Bromo & Malang

    July 2, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    After yesterday's various disasters, we were really hoping for a better day today!! Alarms went off at 2:45, and we were dressed and out the door just after 3. The winds of fortune had shifted in our favour - the sky above was almost completely clear and glittering with stars! We were on for a good sunrise. So with a renewed spring in our step, we forged along the darkened roads, passing through fields of crops and little homesteads dotted around.

    The first 40 minutes or so was pretty easy going as it was mostly level along the crater rim, just out of sight to our left. Still lots of mud on the road from last night's downpour so we had to be very careful and judicious with our torch usage! Eventually the road began to climb more steeply upwards, and the going was pretty tough. Lots of guys with horses offering a lift, but we were more interested in the hike.

    After about 70 minutes had passed we reached our initial destination - Viewpoint 1 with uninterrupted views of the sunrise and the crater itself. There was probably 20 people already here, along with a couple of little old ladies (locals) who had stalls selling tea, coffee, Milo and pot noodles. We'd read that you could hike for another hour steeply upwards to reach Viewpoint 2, but we decided to stick with where we were.

    At this point it was about 4:30 and sunrise was about an hour away, so we grabbed a hot Milo and some instant noodles and waited. It was definitely well worth it. The eastern sky was lighting up by 5, with long shafts of light projecting way up into the atmosphere. As the light grew we could make out more details of the crater in front of us - the smoking cauldron of Mount Bromo, distant Mount Semeru (the tallest in Java) that would belch smoke and ash every 20 minutes or so, and closer in the cinder cone of Mount Batok.

    By 6:30 we'd done enough cooing and started the long walk back down. The plan was to walk back to our hotel then descend into the caldera and hike across the huge ash field to climb up the rim of Mount Bromo's smoking cauldron. But we'd only gotten maybe 15 minutes down the mountain before some locals on mopeds stopped and offered us a lift on our planned route for 75k each. Shandos was keen on hiking but I insisted as I was tired from Ijen and had a sore knee from the bus ride.

    So it was within 10 minutes that we found ourselves at the base of another uphill climb, this one up the remainders of Bromo's cone which still constantly belches sulphuric gas (though unlike Ijen, the gas doesn't come straight for you). Up we went, again past all the guys with horses offering rides. Saw one tourist fall off his horse when it put a foot into a large mud crevasse and fell over. Thankfully he was OK. The last part of the hike was a large set of about 250 stairs which was tough but (just) manageable.

    At the top you've got a great view back around the caldera, and of course straight down into the cauldron where all the sulphuric gases are coming from. Very impressive, and again well worth the hike up! Yelled some abuse at a Japanese man who washed some mud off his shoes with a bottle of water, and then threw the empty bottle down into the crater!! Me and a German tourist nearby just couldn't believe it and both shouted at him to stop, though of course he didn't understand English and just looked at us dumbfounded. Jerk.

    We enjoyed the view for a bit longer but then headed back down as the rim was only quite narrow and crowded with tourists. Our motorbike dudes were still there at the bottom, so we jumped on their backs and headed for the hotel, arriving back by 8am, just in time for breakfast!

    Next step was checking out and finding a ride back to Probolinggo where we could catch an onward coach to Malang, our next stop for the night. Nearby we found a bus with 6 other passengers waiting, so with us there were 8 and we only needed another 6. But there weren't many people around and it looked like a long wait. I'm sure in cities and large towns this system works fairly well, but out here on a well-travelled but sporadic route it just feels dodgy. We all argued with the driver about just going but he wouldn't budge on the total, and the others were all backpackers unwilling to pay extra.

    Almost unbelievably, a group of 6 Spanish backpackers turned up after about 30 minutes, so by 10:30am we were on the road and only paying 35k each for the ride. Back in Probolinggo we found the coach to Melang easily enough, after dodging all the "tourist information" and "travel agent" touts/scammers. Shoved onto the bus past the fake conductor scam and waited for it to leave. This one was nicely air conditioned, and in 2x2 seat configuration so we had more space than the previous day. While we were waiting to leave, a man got on the bus and spoke only to me (not to the several other locals on the bus), saying that I needed a ticket and had to go over to the office over there, and it was government rules and blah blah. I said I was going to buy from the conductor on the bus, which he said "wasn't possible", and I said I was going to do it anyway, and at that point he got off the bus rather downcast. It amazes me how blatant the scam is!!

    We left soon afterwards and the bus wasn't very full, thankfully. Contrary to that man's dire warnings, the conductor was more than happy to sell me a ticket just like everyone else on the bus, and it was only 33k each (I'm guessing his tickets would've been 100k+). The 2 hour journey to Malang was uneventful; I spent the time chronicling the awful previous day while Shandos just dozed and edited photos. Not much scenery to report other than the usual distant rain-shrouded mountains, rice fields, ugly concrete buildings and lots of traffic.

    Bus station in Malang was typically chaotic, but managed to find an actual proper taxi rank with metered taxis! We had to ignore at least 20 touts to find it, but once there we got a driver, politely insisted on the meter rather than bargaining, and off we went. Hotel is rather like the one in Banguwanyi - business-oriented, semi-new, clean and modern but uninspired. Though we're up on the 8th floor with a nice view across the city.

    Malang is supposed one of the last places on Java where you can see remains of the Dutch influence, though after a 4-5 hour walk around the city we didn't see a whole lot of evidence of it! We took a pedal-cab to a large park in front of the main mosque and soaked in the atmosphere. Encountered our first McDonalds since the night we arrived in Bali, and since we didn't have a proper lunch I decided to indulge in a "Moroccan" meal which had an ultra-spicy lentil sauce. Surprised me that the most popular item on the menu seemed to be fried chicken meals!

    Sat in the park in front of the mosque for a bit and got asked to be in a few photos - I guess they don't get a lot of Westerners coming through here! Though we managed to find one and struck up a conversation, he was an American named Colin who'd just moved here for a year with his Indonesian girlfriend. Seemed like a nice guy, though he was pretty clearly desperate for another English speaker to chat with! We kept wandering around the city, across to a large boulevard that was quite pretty - wide and lined with trees which is very unusual for Indonesia. It was clearly the richer part of the city, as the neighbourhoods down the side-streets all had huge houses with barbed wire fencing, security cameras and so on. Some nice little parks and stuff though!

    We ventured into a huge shopping mall the size of Westfield Bondi Junction, and it was absolute chaos since Ramadan ends in a few days (the final day of Ramadan is Eid-al Fitr and is essentially Islam's version of Christmas, with gift-giving, feasting etc). Lots of people out shopping. While on a visit to the men's room I had my first close encounter - I sat down before realising there was no paper holder; yep a bum-gun-only toilet. I asked the cleaner and he had a spare roll which he loaned me - a process that's kind of gross I guess! A worthwhile 10 cent investment.

    By the time we emerged from the mall it was dark and time for dinner. Decided to hunt for a street market about 20 minutes walk away which we eventually found. We were a bit early as a lot of stall-holders were just setting up, but still plenty of street food to pick and choose from. We had a meatball soup, some satay sticks (along with a hilarious miscommunication, the woman serving thought I wanted two plates of 14 sticks each when I actually only wanted 4 sticks total), and a couple of other things I can't remember or name - but all delicious!

    Eventually tired and exhausted we wandered back to the main square by the mosque, which even at 9pm was heaving! It's hard to explain how different the atmosphere is in places where alcohol isn't at the centre of social life. But it's always felt very safe and very welcoming. People are always interested in where we're from and where we're going next, though limited English and zero Bahasa means conversations are generally very short! Hopped in another pedalcab and got a lift back to our hotel. I really felt sorry for this bloke, he looked about 80 years old and used to pedalling around women and children, so my hundred kilo frame jumping in the front gives them a good workout!! I gave him an extra tip because I was a little worried he was going to have a heart attack on the ride!

    Apologies for the long entry, but it's been a very long day! Just travelling planned for tomorrow, a 7 hour train trip from here to Yogyakarta where I think we'll spend a few days.
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  • Day 18

    Day 18: Westward to Jogja

    July 3, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Much less eventful day today. All we really had was an 8-hour train trip westwards from Malang to the city of Yogyakarta (or Jogja, as it's actually called). Our train wasn't scheduled to leave Malang until 1pm so we just sort of mooched around near our hotel. There was a small cultural park nearby that we checked out, as Sunday mornings supposedly had dance performances, but when we got there we were informed that no dances happen during Ramadan. Oh well!

    Managed to find a small Western-style coffee shop that was actually open (it's surprisingly uncommon, particularly here in Malang), so we dropped in and had a frappe/iced tea. Back to the hotel and check out, then head for the station just before midday.

    Since the train ride was going to be 7.5 hours we'd splurged for "eksecutif" class, meaning we had large comfortable recliner seats, luggage racks, (paid) meal services, power points next to our seats etc. It was still only $35 each which is pretty cheap all things considered though obviously a fortune by Indonesian standards. We noticed that our fellow passengers were obviously much wealthier than those on the coaches - better dressed, iPhones rather than Samsungs or Chinese yum cha brand smartphones. Some of them even had tablets - they've been a surprisingly rare sight here other than in the hands of Japanese tourists.

    The train left very promptly at 1:30pm, just as we finished munching our lunch of supermarket cheese & chocolate roti and Tim Tams. I passed the time mainly by listening to podcasts and staring out the window, though after a while the scenery got fairly tiresome. Lots of green rice paddies, crumbling concrete towns and ramshackle dwellings clustered along the train lines. A few viaducts over rivers and things like that, but otherwise not much changed after the first hour.

    This was how I'd imagined travelling across Java, and I couldn't help but draw comparisons between the awful coach trips earlier in the week and the relative luxury in which we were now ensconced. My only complaint was that the air conditioning was way too intense - it was almost a relief to visit the squat toilet because it meant going into the hot and humid air outside the sealed carriage area!

    Eventually it grew dark and the train rumbled onwards, stopping occasionally at large-ish stations. It's about this time you realise that Java is the world's most populous island - 160 million people give or take, in an area the size of Tasmania! There's metro areas with several million people that nobody outside of Indonesia has ever heard of.

    At 8:20 on the dot we rolled into Yogyakarta station and off we hopped. Found our way to the taxi rank no problems, though we had to fight off the usual horde of touts and pedal-cab operators who want to haggle and offer fares etc. Managed to find a meter taxi and rode to our hotel (with slight difficulty, the guy didn't know where it was and had trouble reading my phone in the dark!). After all the pedal cab operators being unwilling to negotiate down from 50k rupiah, the fare on the meter was under 20k (and we actually had to pay up to the minimum fare of 25k).

    Our hotel is quite new and modern, bright and colourful though the room is a little compact. But no real complaints. We unpacked and went to bed, a little perturbed that we were literally across the street from a mosque blaring sermons at 9pm. But thankfully it went quiet fairly quickly. Off to sleep in preparation for a few days exploring Jogja, the cultural capital of Java.
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  • Day 19

    Day 19: Exploring Jogja

    July 4, 2016 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    First of our five days here in Jogja. Had a hotel breakfast then tried to get some washing done as both of us were basically out of clothes. Looked up some laundries on google maps (there are probably hundreds more unlisted), but after walking around for an hour or so we couldn't find a single one that was open! Lots of shops are closed today because tomorrow is the last day of Ramadan and then the following day is Idul Fitur (basically Islam's Christmas in terms of importance). Defeated, we went back to the hotel and did a quick bit of hand washing instead.

    So it wasn't until after 11 that we finally headed out into the city. First stop was Kraton palace where the sultans have lived for the last several hundred years. The current sultan is 78 and still going, though I don't think he has any actual power - he might still be the governor of the Jogja province but I'm not sure. His father was definitely powerful though - a resistance leader during the independence struggles of the 1940s, and was Prime Minister, Vice President to Soeharto and also Defence Minister at one point.

    We looked around their residence although obviously the part that they live in is off-limits. It was surprisingly understated for a royal residence; the large courtyard was mostly gravel and not a lot of trees or ornate finishings on the buildings. Just a lot of historic ornaments and so on. There were also supposed to be traditional dances every day at midday but of course these were cancelled as well due to Ramadan. I guess public dancing is forbidden while you're fasting? We looked around the Main Gates too which are where more formal events took place such as weddings, guest receptions and the like. This was a bit more like you'd expect, but still less impressive than other royal palaces we've been in.

    It's noticeably hotter here than in Malang due to being at much lower altitude. In Malang it was high 20s, which here it was probably 32 in the shade and 85% humidity (like every day!). For lunch we retreated to a small cafe we found close to our next destination, the Water Castle.

    The Water Castle (Taman Sari) was a large royal garden built by one of the sultans in the 17th century. It had a large artificial lake, bathing areas, a sauna, mosque, living quarters and so on. Much of it has been destroyed and really only the bathing areas remain, but they're in pretty good nick so we wandered around. The nearby area was quite fascinating as well, the houses are built in really close together and on top of each other (and of course they're over the remains of the filled-in lake too). The highlight for me was a secret underground passage leading to the mosque for the sultan's private use; and then in the mosque there's a weird set of Escher-style forced perspective stairs. I couldn't quite get the right photo but it was very odd!

    Still very hot and we'd walked an awful lot by this point so we were chugging water like desert dwellers, but we pressed on. Walked through a couple of small alleyways in a very devout Muslim area where there was a large street market set up - lots of vendors selling food and drink at 4pm in preparation for the breaking of today's fast. It's very rude to buy and then eat anywhere other than at home (or well out of sight), so we decided to leave it be despite how tempting things looked!

    Last stop was Malioboro Street, pretty much the beating heart of the city and its main thoroughfare. It's surrounded on both sides by endless batik shops, pedalcabs and tourist trap shops. We had a bit of a look around in some shops but although Shandos is interested in some of the batik, it doesn't particularly grab me so I got bored pretty quickly.

    We walked the entire length of the street (probably 2km worth!), and by now I was very hot, very sweaty and grimy, very footsore and in dire need of food and drink. The atmosphere was quite nice though as the sun went down, suddenly people everywhere were eating and drinking communally, sitting on the floor at long bench tables, or grabbing takeaway from a passing vendor. There really isn't an equivalent experience anywhere in Australia I don't think.

    To get out of the heat briefly we went into a tourist information building and got some brochures about Borobodur, the world's largest Buddhist temple and our intended destination for tomorrow. Ended up booking a sunrise and cycling combination package tour which should be interesting!

    For dinner Shandos wanted street food but I was insistent on sitting down in a proper restaurant or something. Managed to find a nearby bar on Foursquare with really good reviews so we headed there. Happy to report that the lychee beer was excellent and the food was very good too! Back to the hotel by 9pm ahead of a very early start tomorrow - Borobodur isn't that close to the city so it's going to be another 4am pickup in the hotel lobby!
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