World Tourism Day
27 settembre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 29 °C
Today's plan is to take advantage of being a tourist by going on a free Historic City walking tour and then to the National Palace Museum which is normally around £10 but free today!
After an amazing night sleep we went for our Historic Walking tour. Molly out tour guide spoke fantastic English and really knew her stuff. We saw the Longshan Temple, bought ice cream at the oldest ice cream shop in Taiwan, learnt about the various rulers of Taiwan, saw Taiwan's equivalent of Times Square, learnt why the Chinese design curvy streets (to prevent attackers and the Chinese Zombie), saw and heard about history of the 228 Peace Park and the stories of Chiang kai-shek. During the break me and Will ran to a bakery where we had a voucher for a free tourist gift, a pineapple cake and two nougat bars. Then we saw the Presendital Parliamentary building, the concert hall, theatre Hall and finally the Chiang kai-shek memorial.
For lunch we headed to Nanmen market hall for beef noodle soup and then to the National Palace Museum. By the time we got to the museum it was about 4pm and we had been wandering round since 9:30am so we were quite tired with pretty sore feet. The museum was free so we decided to make the most of it anyway. Overall it was quite interesting and had a few pieces of interest but I was very much looking forward to a proper sit down. At the museum we saw various paintings with calligraphy, a meat shaped stone that looked like pork belly but was actually a mineral known as banded jasper, a jade bokchoy and much much more. The museum was huge, we only got round one section before having to stop due to throbbing feet.
We are now both starving for dinner so it's time to head off in hunt of food. We tried Raohe Night Market and having been to 3 night markets in Taiwan, I'm convinced they are the same with different names and size. We had beef bone soup, pan fried dumplings and a Peppered Pork Bun again and then headed home to plane for our next day.
The original plan was to stay one more day and do a day trip to Jiufen, a neighbouring town. However the hostel tried charging us double as its a Friday and the rain from the passing typhoon is supposed to be worse tomorrow and therefore worse on the north east of the island. So we are going to go to Taichung, famous for its food and on the west of the island. We've also booked in for our very first couchsurfing experience! Bit of an adventure so let's see how it goes 😊Leggi altro
Wandering the streets of a rainy Taipei
26 settembre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
I think my worst nightmare of sleeping in a dorm room is to have someone snore like a foghorn the whole night and guess what that just happened. If people are party animals and being annoying you always have the power to tell them to stop and worse case get the hostel to shut them up. However, if people are horrific snorers you are completely powerless. It's not actually their fault so I can't get angry but at the same time I wanted to die after the first 20 mins never mind the next 8 hours.
Ah well, after a 20 min nap at 9am when they left I felt refreshed enough to get on with the day. Not sure if you've seen in the news but Japan is taking quite a hit from Typhoon Trami which is creating quite a lot of rain here in Taiwan. Rain coats on and off we go. Today we visited Bo'an Temple, Confusious Temple, Elephant Mountain (why we thought this was a good idea I will never know) and then to Taipei 101 the tallest tower in Taiwan. As the weather was pretty dreary it wasn't really worth going up but we did attempt to get in the highest Starbucks in the world. Well we attempted... Unfortunately we were rather unsuccessful as you have to book a day in advance, so instead we wandered round the mall tried a lot of pineapple cake tasters and then sat down to rest our feet with a Bubble Tea.
For dinner we went to Tonghua Night Market and ate Stinky Tofu (very stinky but tasted fine) and pork dumpling noodle in a chilli sauce with a green bean/okra side dish. Happily full and a bit sick of the rain we headed back.Leggi altro
Bye bye Singapore, Hello Country No. 8!
25 settembre 2018, Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
5am...ring ring ring... Ahhhh!! I've not missed this feeling... Up we get for country number eight, Taiwan! Upon booking our trip we didn't have Taiwan on the cards but after finding very cheap flights it quickly became our top destination and after a bit more research we got more and more excited. Taiwan is an island with great food, beaches, mountains and affordable. Tick, tick, tick.
Definitely got the hang of our airport efficiency, Grab taxi setup, breakfast (leftover biryani), packed, clothes laid out, all we had to do was roll out of bed, check-in, and find a seat. So, I'm not sure if other people play the game "Let's see what we can get with the leftover currency", but it is always a highlight of our early morning airport trips (we are pretty tired so need some excitement!). Today we were able to get two coffees (£1.50 total) and two mentos tubes (£1.10 total), bargain!! You couldn't even get that in a normal shop in the UK never mind an airport. Singapore is such an affordable, yet established country, we really love it here.
Now on our flight waiting to jet off. Taipei here we come!
Of course we do the majority of our research for Taipei on the plane over. First panic... after being in Singapore for a while I forgot that actually everything here will be in Mandarin. Well downloading Google translate offline will be the first job when I get WiFi! Many people have said 2 weeks is more than enough time but from reading more about it I don't think 3 weeks is enough, let's see.
On arrival everything went pretty smoothly, immigration was straightforward, grabbed a Sim card, got out cash, jumped on the MRT, walked for a bit and checked into our hostel.
The hostel is very modern inside and seems pretty quiet so far but it is the middle of the day. Our "room" is pretty cute. We booked a double bed in a dorm room. There are 4 doubles and 4 singles each with their own compartment. Of course ours is the tiny hatch in the corner on the bottom, we literally have to crawl in 😂 Inside it is super roomy though so overall its looking good.
By the time we got in it was dinner time as we hadn't had lunch so we headed to one of the largest night markets in Taiwan, Shilin Night Market. It absolutely chucked it downWe tried Peppered Pork Bun (really yummy), Chargrilled Spring Onions Wrapped in Bacon (way too oniony), King Oyster Mushrooms in a lemon, pepper and seaweed rub(number 1 of the night), Long Xao Bao (tasty) and "Small cake wrapped in large cake" (the lady smashes up a crunchy sugary thing into a pancake and sprinkles coconut on but it was tasteless and a waste of calories). All in all a success 😊Leggi altro
Mid-Autumn Moon Festivities
24 settembre 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Today is our final day in Singapore 😔 After a lie in, we decided to get a bit more organised and start looking into our next destination as we are flying out tomorrow! After a few hours of chilling we decided to go for a swim and instead of a having a leisurely swim we've both decided we want to learn how to swim properly (Will has even been watching YouTube videos!).
Time for lunch and where better to go than to a Michelin Star Restaurant, Hawker Chan. It did not disappoint and as it was about 3pm by the time we got there we didn't have to queue! We had scrumptious Char Suey, Soy Chicken, Rice and Pak Choi and for only £6.85 and I'm not even joking! Super full and slightly sleepy from the swim, we wandered around China Town, picked up a 75p coffee and milo, Will tried his first salted double yolk moon cake, popped into Will's office for a quick hello and had a quick pint with Wing.
Before heading home we decided to wander back to China Town to see the festivities, which were actually a lot tamer than expected. Finally we went to Little India for the super tasty biryani before heading back to the flat to pack and clean the flat.Leggi altro
Parks, parks and more parks!
23 settembre 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Today our plan was to go to the southern part of Singapore and walk Mount Faber and the southern ridge. And what a fantastic day it was! First we decided to walk to Little India for Masala Dosa and Vadai for brunch and then jumped on the MRT to the Harbour front.
On arrival we were a bit unsure where the trail started so we asked someone along the way. They were unbelievably shocked that we wanted to walk from the MRT to Mount Faber. At first he wouldn't tell us the directions and repeatedly said we must be looking for the cable car. After getting his friend involved they eventually pointed us in the right direction of the Marang Trail. If I'm honest the heat was suffocating so after talking to them I was quite unsure whether we had decided to do the right thing especially as the heat was truly suffocating, but actually the walk was unbelievably easy! It took us around half an hour. At the top was a lovely bar with the view of the port and actually the most impressive part was the toilets. Now that is a toilet with a view!
We then carried on wandering over Henderson Waves, along a forest walk, through Hort Park, over the Canopy Walk in Kent Ridge Park and finally visited the slightly odd and unexpected Haw Par Villa. Haw Par Villa was opened by the owner of Tiger Balm who with his excess funds designed a theme park containing over 1000 statues and giant's dipicting Chinese mythology and history. I must admit after going through several picturesque parks it was a bit odd going through here. But it was our last stop for the walk and after 22,000 steps and a hell of a lot of sweating we made it.
For the second half of the day we went shopping for a few bits and bats and treated ourselves to a hot chocolate fudge sundae from McDs (well how can we say no to an ice cream for £1), before heading home and going for a swim.
Finally we met up with Amber's friend, Dafina, for dinner who took us out for Sting Ray. It had the texture of pulled pork and had a super yummy chilli and tomato sauce. Really great end to a very tiring day!Leggi altro
Imagine if we'd got up early?!
22 settembre 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Well we clearly had too much sleep as last night we were awake all night. Ahhh is this what jet lag feels like. So let's say the early morning 3 hour walk around Macritchie Reservoir with Wing did not happen and neither did we see much of daylight to be honest. I watched a film in the morning as Will couldn't bring himself to get out of bed, we had noodle stir fry from the night before that we grabbed for our supposed early start and then did some planning and booking for our US part of the trip (for those that don't know our full route yet I won't spoil it any further).
It was nearing 4pm and we really had to get out the flat and headed to one of the few things left on the to do list, Ben's Cookies. (I genuinely thought this was a Singaporean thing but later found it actually originated in Oxford, wups). Having not walked all day we decided to up our steps and wander there while picking up a burrito on the way. And it didn't disappoint it was a darn good cookie and definitely worth leaving the house for!
Then we walked to Fort Canning. Walking around Singapore is much more fun than taking the MRT. You get to see some real hidden gems and on this occasion we got free Magnums! And not just any magnums the deluxe kind! I got pistachio and Will got Hazelnut. This day was definitely getting better.
Fort Canning is a small hill placed in the middle of the city which had various activity throughout Singapore history. The area was really lovely, with great views of the city and absolutely stunning banyan trees.
The final part of the day was to join the other hundreds of people see the moon festival themed Gardens by the Bay. We did go to the Gardens by the Bay last time but this time it was really special. They had lanterns down the river and all around the gardens. We sat and watched a Chinese orchestra, the Super Trees light show and part of an Indian opera. The day was finished off by eating Okonomoyaki and an oyster puff (mined pork, oysters, Celery leaves, deep fried in a thick batter and sprinkled with peanuts).
So although it was a bit of a difficult start we still walked over 16,000 steps and got some fun things done.Leggi altro
Shattered Already!
20 settembre 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Well the last couple of days has completely taken it out of us. The flight was really rough. We had a couple of turbulence moments, we'd watched all the good films on our return flight 2 months ago and we didn't get a wink of sleep. So that's been us up for nearly 48 hours. We got off the plane looking like zombies and feeling like we were going to be sick. Not the best start I must admit! We then jumped on the MRT, grabbed some food from the Hawker Center near Amber's flat and instantly felt like home when we got in. We've been super lucky again to get free accomodation here and I'm so so glad! We had a quick bite to eat and although it was 10:30am we went straight to bed. Now if I'm honest I don't have anything interesting to say apart from the nap turned into a full day of sleep. We did wake up at 3:30pm, but then fell back to sleep till 6:30pm when we rose for a quick Beef Rendang dinner, watched Lost in Translation (what a slow and rubbish film) and then went straight to bed in hope that we would be able to sleep again.
Gosh we must have been tired, we slept all the way through and only woke up to our 10am alarm! Feeling 5 million times better we got ready to meet Melanie and Loz for lunch. It was sooo nice seeing them! They've been travelling for 2 months and had an incredible time. We went for the amazing chicken biryani, walked around little India, took shelter from the down pour with a sneaky beer and then headed to the one and only Raffles.
For those that don't know this is where the famous Singapore Sling was invented and it was scrummy. Unfortunately the entire hotel is closed for refurbishment but the Long Bar is still open. Now I didn't really know what to expect but it wasn't quite this... Every table gets a huge bag of peanuts and supposedly it's the thing to eat the peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. Personally I used the wooden block on the table as the bin as it was pretty horrid walking around with peanut shells all over the floor but hey each to their own! (Look at the picture of Will, the floor is covered.)
After saying bye to Melanie and Loz we attempted to go for a little wander around the town, but ended up catching the tube back home, picking up some dinner and heading home. It was a really lovely second day. Its actually really nice coming back to a place that we've already done the main attractions for as we get to just chill and not feel obligated to do stuff.
The plan for tomorrow is to meet up with Wing and do a crazy high speed walk around McRitchie Reservoir again (for those that read the blog last time!).Leggi altro
And we're off (again!)
18 settembre 2018, Inghilterra ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
And it begins again! I know what you're thinking. So where are they off to this time? How long are they going for? How on earth can they afford it? And my answer to your questions are, Watch this space, God only knows and we are cheap!
For the past 2 months in the UK we have been meeting people and everyone's been asking us so have you booked anything, where are you thinking about going etc Honestly we didn't have anything planned until 2 weeks ago when we both sat on Skype at our parents house and decided to have a gander on Skyscanner. We found cheap tickets to Singapore for the 19th Sept and thought, meh that's a start!
Technically my journey started on the 15th September after enjoying an amazing birthday lunch with our families and saying bye to my family. I then stayed in Macclesfield for a couple of days watching Will run round like a headless chicken trying to cram 2 months worth of things into 2 days. It all came together in the end and we are now both looking rather calm (inside terrified and utterly excited) on our phones enjoying the slow rocking of our Virgin Train to London where we will see a few people for farewell drinks and sleep on Monique's sofa before our early morning flight to the one and only Singapore.
Well it was a bit of a rough morning so we grabbed lots of water and a croissant for the train.
As mentioned our flight was an absolute bargain (no joke it was £163!), but it doesn't include food, drinks and luggage. Fine with us! We decided to have a slap up spoons breakfast and grab M&S sandwiches for the flight.
Fed, watered and boarded! Singapore here we come!Leggi altro
Summer Holiday (To the UK)
17 settembre 2018, Inghilterra ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
Well if you can believe it, it's been 2 months since we arrived in the UK from our incredible, "Once in a lifetime" trip. The summer has just been amazing. We've constantly been on the road visiting our lovely family and friends, celebrating birthdays, a wedding, finding out everyone is having beautiful babies, had a brief stint in our beautiful flat in London and we even made a trip to Germany! If we've not been able to see you then we do apologise but I'm sure we will see you soon! For those that we have seen thank you for making us remember why we love being home and the biggest thank you to our family for putting up with 2 unemployed, definitely shouldn't be living at home, bums.
I wasn't going to carry on my blog as let's be honest I think blogging about my everyday life in the UK might get a bit mundane, but... Guess what? Yes you probably already know we are doing it again! We are off to see the rest (well more) of the wonderful world out there. So watch this space for more endless excitement!!Leggi altro
Home Sweet Home
9 luglio 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Ring ring ring... It's 5am and up we get for our final flight of the trip. We jumped into a Grab taxi arrived with plenty of time to see the famous Singapore airport, bought 2 Tarte Nomands with our remaining SGD and then awaited our 14 hour journey back.
I can't believe we are coming home. I honestly don't know how I feel about it. I'm super excited to see family and friends and most of all can't wait to get some hugs but I am so sad to be saying bye to this incredibly beautiful, loving and tasty part of the world.
Some people get worried about coming to SEA because of the crime, dying in car crashes or getting sick from life threatening diseases or the food. OK we might have got a bit sick along the way but we get sick in England!
How can I summarise the trip of a lifetime. We've climbed incredible mountains and volcanoes, we've driven scooters and cars in SEA and lived to tell the tale, we've eaten incredible food, we've realised you really can live off absolute basics and don't need very much money to be happy and we've realised time is the most precious thing in the world and with time you can achieve and see the most incredible things. The most inspiring thing through our journey has been the incredible people we have met. Yes we have met some people that have tried to scam us over the months but they are less than 1%. 99% of the people are loving, friendly, appreciative, supportive and most of all happy. It has been the people that have truly made our trip spectacular.
Its now the end of this chapter, but I'm so honoured to have been able to achieve my dream of travelling with my best friend, my partner in crime, my SCUBA buddy and life long partner Willy P.
Let's see what our next chapter brings.Leggi altro
Last Day so we relax... NOT
8 luglio 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Well today could not have been a more busy day if we tried. We woke up at 6am and joined Wing for what we thought was just going to be a stroll round a reservoir. We couldn't have been more wrong! They turned up in full sports kit and were ready for a 12km walk! I say walk very loosely here, they were definitely running in parts. We walked the Macritchie Reservoir and Tree Top Trail. It was really pretty, but tough!
We all then headed to China Town for some well deserved brunch and to attempt to eat everything left on our must eats list. We ate Fish Soup, Curry Puff, sweet carrot cake (radish omlette) and Kaya toast with eggs. All I must admit were very tasty in particular the curry puff which was basically a Cornish pasty filled with thick chicken and egg curry, excited to come home and eat a pie. All washed down with a coffee. I'm officially done with attempting any other coffee now. I am certain that Vietnamese coffee is the only one for me and the others just screw up my stomach and taste far too bitter.
Then being the crazy ones that we are we said bye to Wing and Andre and carried on seeing the rest of the sights. We visited Sri Mariamman Temple and the Buddha Tooth Relic temple which was completely different from the other temples we have seen and was a real hidden treasure.
We then walked, yes walked for 30 mins, to Marina Bay Sands. We'd heard you can sneak a peak of the famous infinity pool and view if you go to to the toilet near the bar at the top. Well we did get into the bar at the top and snuck a couple of pictures then quickly declined the drinks and headed down. Our final thing on the to do list was to revisit the Gardens by the Bay during daylight. It was as impressive and beautiful as at night. We were ridiculously tired now and had done over 35,000 steps so we headed to Newton Hawkers Market and grabbed some dinner and breakfast for the early morning flight. We both still felt unbelievably sweaty from this mornings walk so instantly went for a shower before doing chores, eating dinner and packing the bags ready for the morning.Leggi altro
Being tourists, eating, jazz and lights!
7 luglio 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Well as expected as we had such a late night we did indeed have a lie in as we weren't feeling great!
We have 2 days left to see all the sights so today we are going to attempt to beast out most of them. First stop was Little India to eat Dosa for brunch (it was super yummy), visit the Zoroastrian House (closed...), visit Mustafa Center (oh my god this is a ridiculously sized store selling everything and I mean everything!) and then to eat the famous chicken biriyani at Tekka Centre (portion sizes are ridiculous!).
It was about 4pm by the time we were done and we decided to visit the UNESCO heritage Botanic Gardens. It was a really nice garden and to top it off they had a jazz performance at 6pm which was great. It made me feel like I was in London in the summer sat in one of the parks watching one of the many free live performances in the parks. Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long as our final stop for the day was to visit the light show at the Gardens by the Bay.
I didn't know what to expect but they have "super trees" which are towering monuments with alien looking tree tops. They're really pretty at night especially as there was an opera light show that evening which made the trees glow beautifully. Now absolutely shattered we jumped on the MRT tried the famous chicken and rice and popiya at Newton Hawkers Market and went straight to bed ready for our early start in the morning.Leggi altro
Country Number 7 - Singapore!
6 luglio 2018, Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
I think we are pretty good at having a smooth and efficient journey for flights now. Our packing is down to the tee we know exactly what items should go in the bag and what items need to be worn to ensure the bag is at 7kg. The alarm went off at 4:15am, the Grab was booked at 4:30am and we left by 4:45am. Checkin and security was smooth and easy and we sat in the lounge eating our weird chocolate bread loaf that we bought the day before. It was literally chocolate bread... We thought it would be muffin like but definitely wasn't. When we boarded the flight it was absolutely freezing. The trip was so cold the whole way, I was so glad to arrive and get into some heat! I'm sure I'll regret saying that.
Thankfully we don't need to worry about accomodation here as the lovely Amber has let us stay in her lovely apartment. And it was truly lovely. Its on the 17th floor, the bathroom isn't a wet room so I don't have to always get wet feet when I want to pee, the toilet seat isn't constantly wet from the shower, I can sit on a sofa, she has a washing machine so I can do my own washing whenever I want and she has a scale so we can finally weigh ourselves. We have both lost about 7kg! I don't remember ever being this weight, super chuffed and not even had to try!
After we put on our washing and faffed a bit we went for our afternoon nap. We should probably start putting alarms on... We woke up at 4pm! Apart from a bit of bread we hadn't really eaten but now we were running late to see Will's ex colleagues in the Singapore office! After a quick shower and putting out the washing we jumped on the MRT and headed to his office. Honestly it was a really surreal feeling, almost as if we had never gone travelling! It was so lovely to see Wing again after so many years and Pierre was there too! I probably should have dressed a bit nicer wups... They took us to a super cool rooftop bar which looked out on to Marina Bay Sands. The views were amazing and oh my god we had wine. Wine for the first time in months!! In fact we haven't had alcohol for nearly a month. We all sat and chatted and it was just perfect. The generosity of everyone at Trading Screen is just unbelievable. Here we are 2 people who have little money, one who is now an excolleague and they didn't let us buy anything at all the whole night! Wing even bought our dinner at Mc Donald's! He and Chee Seng insisted we had to try Durian Ice cream. I must admit this was the biggest mistake of the day. For the rest of the evening I smelt of durian, I burped durian, I hiccuped durian - it was god awful!
We then went to watch the match with Chee Seng and it was interesting to hear more about Singapores history and political state. Singapore is a really interesting country. From an outsiders point of view it seems so progressive, advanced in use of technology and education but actually when you get to know more about its history and the people rights of freedom of speech its a very different story. The land and shape of Singapore is very much man made and is still growing at a rate of 30% a year. Crime rate is possibly the lowest in the world but that is also because the severity of the consequences are so high. The same governmental party have been in power for its 50 years of independence existence. Protesters are seen as radicalists and illegal without the correct procedures and authorisation, which is generally difficult to get. Any party gathering of more than 3 people is supposed to have the correct legal paperwork otherwise this is illegal and people can be jailed for the crime. In the background it seems Singaporeans have a very old style cultural political system.
After many drinks we decided to call it a night, nipped to the Newton Hawker centre for some fried rice and jumped straight into bed. We've not had a 2am late night in a long time... I don't think it's going to be an early start!Leggi altro
Borobudor
5 luglio 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
At 4am we woke up for hopefully out last early morning getup. Today we are off to Indonesians version of Angkor Wat, Borobudur. It was about an hour and half ride away and Will bombed it down the whole way. We got there just in time for the ticket booth opening and before all the crowds. The temple was $25 to get in for foreigners and only $3 for locals so we were expecting big things. It was quite different from other temples we've seen but the question is was it worth it. Its a really difficult question to answer. Now to put in perspective Angkor Wat, a wonder of the world, was $37 to get in for the one day pass. During that visit we had a full 24 hours to see as many temples within the complex as we physically could. Also generally the cost of things in Cambodia was much more expensive. If completely honest although it is a beautiful site I don't think it was worth the $25 when this could pay for 5 days worth of food and lodgings for 2 people that is a lot! But anyway it was rather photogenic and I can understand why a lot of holiday goers come and why backpackers don't. I would still recommend people go but I don't agree with the price, when compared to other similar structures it is worth around the $15 mark.
Next stop the chicken church! No that isn't a typo, there is actually a church shaped like a chicken not so far from Borobudur called Gereja Ayam. It was pretty hot and I was feeling tired so I let Will head up and sneak up to the church. Presenting Guest Write Willy P again...
It was hardly sneaking... I simply walked off the main path and after a few seconds stumbled across a heavily walked trail. Following this went straight to the church. The church is quite strange, unsurprisingly for a building shaped like a chicken. I walked to to the top of the chicken's head and saw the view of Mount Merapi and Mount Merbabu. Inside there are many weird, low quality print outs of scenes from the bible. There is a room dedicated to anti drug paintings. Overall a fun 20 minute diversion!
Pretty shattered and having had no breakfast we headed back towards Yogya picking up a Mango juice and Soto Ayam on the way. Then we had a nap 😊 OK it was definitely a danger nap of over 2 hours! We woke up went for Gelato and then for our last Bakmi dinner before heading back home to pack for our early flight tomorrow. Next stop Singapore.Leggi altro
Yogya Day 3
4 luglio 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
I had a horrific night sleep as I was really feverish but we got up bright and early ready for our 9am tour around Kotagede. We were a bit slow moving when getting ready so we didn't have time to have breakfast. Luckily the first stop on the tour was a market and our tour guide Dini was always happy to help us have tasters! We tried an odd looking fruit called Salak aka Snake fruit. Will said it tasted like a not so tasty pineapple. Then we tried a herbal drink that is supposed to be good for cleansing and a second one for slimming. The first one was basically like drinking a bowl of turmeric and the second one was I don't know what but it was incredibly bitter. If that is what you have to drink to be slim, I think I'm OK!!
Dini told us about the history of Kota Gede. Kota Gede is known as the silver village and it is famous for its old buildings and Instagram photo opps! It was quite a cute village with many alley ways and it felt very much like a maze. We stopped at the Monggo Chocolate factory for a taster and then headed over to see the oldest Mosque in Yogya and the Royal graveyard, visited and went in some old traditional houses and tried Kipo and Peanut Bread which Dini had bought for us to try. Upon our return to the market we tried Cilok which is a molten ball of rice flour doused in "ketchup" and chilli. After saying adieu to Dini we shared an ayam geprek and it was pretty spicy! It was about 12pm and to be honest we done and seen most of the things we wanted to so we headed to El tempo Del Gelato. We picked a small tub of chilli chocolate and raspberry. It was super yummy! Having not had enough ice cream we then headed to have Rujak Es which is... And then for a coffee. I don't the waiter saw us when we came in, he was fully engrossed on his phone watching the football. We peered next to him and he jumped out of his skin bless him. I chose Kopi Mangaa and it was lush!!!! Pretty sure it was literally mango juice with coffee. YUM! I don't think they had ever had a tourist in there small cafe so they obviously wanted pictures of us of which is probably on their Instagram now hehe. After chilling, writing the blog and reading some more we moved on back to the park where we saw the Macaus yesterday. We sat on a wall and watched the magnificent birds take flight again and sat and chatted until sunset. Finally we finished the day eating Angkrikan for dinner, visiting Moliboro Street for some souvenirs and then heading back to the homestay.
The evenings sleep was truly horrific. The whole area had a power cut and it was unbelievably hot without a fan. Nothing we could do though apart from not move and use energy!Leggi altro
Yogya Day 2
3 luglio 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
The next day we booked in a double walking tour. 9am walking tour around the Kauman area and then a 3:30pm tour around the Moliboro area. The Kauman District is entwined with the history of Yogya and the sultanate. Here the Sultan has his Palace and there are many historic buildings which were formerly owned by people in service of the Crown. Javas history encompasses various different cultures from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and European and all of these cultures have left their architectural footprints throughout the district. Traditions are shared and accepted between the religions. For example we went to see the largest mosque in Yogyakarta and its design was influenced by the Javanese architecture during the Hindu and Bhuddist era. The tour guide Ranga was really informative and his English was fantastic!
After the walking tour myself and Will carried on our own walking/ foodie tour. Firstly we visited the Water Castle which was famed for the Sultan watching his Queen and concubines from the tallest tower in the pols beneath. Then we visited the underground mosque which was really different.
For lunch we had the famous Brongkos which is a stew made of potato, beans, red beans, coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger, galangal, bay leaf, cooking oil, salt and the seasoning is made from young jackfruit, garlic, onion, tamarind, sugar. It wasn't the tastiest dish but it was OK. We then wandered round and got speaking to our second scammer of Yogya. To be honest for a long time we thought he was just being genuinely nice but we later found out everything he told us was a lie including a celebratory parade, free performance the Wayang Kulit a local puppet show, free Batik art exhibition only today, gamelan dancing at the Kraton and if we wanted he could get us a BLAH to take us to the art museum now for only 5 Rp. If I'm honest I don't really understand what he achieves from making these lies but hey this is what they do! We did not accept the lift, instead we wandered towards the art gallery. Gosh we've walked a lot already today. We began heading up Malioboro Street where our next tour was. We got there a bit early and to be honest hadn't really sat down properly all day so we grabbed a coffee to rest our feet. It was soon time to meet Ranga again for the tour and he was just as good for the second tour. He really knew his history and answered any questions we had. We tried Backpia which is the local sweet speciality of green bean paste wrapped in a flaky pastry casing. After the tour we were dead. We sat where he left us and saw some people dressed as soldiers but giving out treats. Obviously I went for a nosey and we ended up being filmed while trying their sweet cake delights. I'm sure we are now on the adverts for Mamahke.
Even though we felt like death we still had lots to do, well mostly eat. So we headed towards alun alun where we met a really sweet man who wasn't a scammer and in fact told us about all the different tourist scams and how he hates them. We chatted to him for a while and he told us how he in the 70s the BBC world service used to broadcast english lessons 3 times a day on the radio and that is how he learnt English. The plot of the lessons was about an alien called Sam who visited England and met a human called Miller and Miller taught Sam English. We then told him about all the food we had eaten and what we planned to do in the evening and he told us we'd got it all wrong and the places we were hoping to eat/drink were tourist places and instead we should try the little old ladies stalls. We greatfully took their locations and headed off to finish our eats list. First we went for wendang bajigur which is a hot drink of coconut milk, young coconut, palm sugar, ginger, sweetened bread and a pinch of coffee. It got very busy around the area and there was a live band so we stayed for a while and I've been so far behind on my blog that I took some time out to update it. Although we were full we then went to try wedang ronde which is a hot ginger syrup with sticky rice flour balls and peanuts. Then we wandered to Alun Alun South Park to try the blindfold ritual. Indonesians congregate to the park after 6pm, blindfold themselves and walk through the two Banyan trees to receive good luck. Being blindfolded in the dark and walking in a straight-line is actually way more difficult than it looks, but we both successfully did it (with one slight adjustment!). Alun Alun was absolutely chaotic, it was like being at the Blackpool illuminations. All the tourists were driving illuminated pedal cars around the park and it was total grid lock. I felt sorry for the poor drivers who were stuck in the chaos and clearly just wanted to get home. We were now very broken and had eaten/ drank far to much sweet food and although pretty full we had to eat something savoury and the lovely man had recommended Warung Angkrikan which has buffet trays of various dishes and you pick and pay for what you want. I was dying for Nasi Pecil and temple and Will had Nasi Pecel and Ayam. It was so cheap and yummy, but by god we were dead. We got a grab home and went straight to bed. It was an unexpected late night.Leggi altro
Last stop in Indonesia - Yogyakarta
2 luglio 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
4:30am...Ring Ring Ring... The alarm goes off again for yet another early morning start. We jumped out of bed rolled into clothes and jumped in a grab to to the train station for our 6am train to our final destination in Indonesia, known by the locals as Yogya. On the train we created a quick plan of things we wanted to do and see and within an hour we arrived in Yogya. Having had no breakfast our first priority was to grab a bite to eat. Yogya is famous for many many dishes, of which you will read about, but probably the most famous is Gudgeg. All you vegans will love it. Its stewed jackfruit which gives quite a sweetened flavour served with rice and a spicy tempe. It was pretty yummy. We then ordered a Kopi Joss. Now this was a sight to be hold. Kopi Joss is an espresso coffee with a burning piece of charcoal in. Its crazy, it is literally just that! You drink the coffee with the coal still in which to be honest tastes like a regular coffee with dusty charcoal bits. Ah well gotta try everything!
While sitting around two students came and sat with us to practise their English. We lost track of time and realised it was 11am! Now starving we began to head down the main street. As we are pretty well educated when travelling nowadays we always read about the local scammers and as soon as we started walking a guy insisted on taking us to see a "Today only Batik Art Display". Basically the scammers will persuade you to buy "their artwork at a cheap price". Firstly the artwork isn't Batik and secondly they charge over 300, 000 Rp plus when originals start at 30,000 Rp! Although we knew it was a scam we decided to go see his paintings and then after 1 minute we quickly exited.
Starving and now very hot we grabbed a quick noodle soup and then started walking to our homestay. It was getting hotter and hotter by the second and the homestay was about 30 mins away still. We decided to jump in a grab as the heat was now becoming a bit much! When we arrived at the homestay the locals spoke no English and looked very confused why we were there. A gentleman rang his boss who told us we cannot stay there as they are not licensed for tourists. She said we could stay in her other homestay which was on the other side of town and much further away. Obviously we were not happy. We sat and searched for other places to go but they were all completely out of our budget. After quite a while we begrudgingly took up her offer and were able to knock the price down. The homestay was very very basic with just a mattress on the floor, a fan and cold shower but to be honest for the price we were able to do more! We stayed in the room for a while trying to relax and properly plan our last 3 days in Yogya. We booked ourselves in for 3 different walking tours to see all the sights, planned our trip to Borobudur and then finally headed out for some dinner of Bakmie Goreng and STMJ. Bakmie Goreng is fried noodles with chicken, egg, cabbage, spring onion, galangal and Soy. STMJ is a hot milk drink with ginger and honey mixed into a raw egg. I am going to miss the food here it's super tasty. We then headed back to the main street where they had Gamelan music playing and we tried Klepon which is traditional green-coloured balls of rice cake filled with liquid palm sugar and coated in grated coconut.Leggi altro
Gunung Lawu
1 luglio 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
It's 3am and I felt the buzz of Will's alarm, ahhhh it's time to get up! We both maybe got max an hour sleep. Firstly other campers decided to blare music while dancing round a fire till about 1am, then the owner came in and watched football and what seemed like Indonesians got talent till about 2am 😭 But we sucked it up and went straight out. It was pitch black, but nice and cool for walking. I'm oddly liking walking in the dark now as the feeling of satisfaction and mystery when the sun comes up. It is super freaky and scary but when the black curtain reveals what is around you it's just incredible. We got halfway up and got out of the forest just in time for sunrise to reveal the surrounding volcanoes. We had been worried that the weather/ fog would ruin our views but actually it was completely clear with a mystical low lying mist displaying the shadow of Gunung Lawu.
We heard horror stories that the walk will take anything from 6-7 hours up and then 5 hours down. Most people do it in two days and camp at the top. Being the crazy people that we are we obviously wanted to do it in one. And I'm so glad we did as we were at the top, even after a bit of an extra loop round because we took the wrong path, before 8am. It only took us 4.5 hours! I didn't think we were walking particularly fast but we have noticed that the locals generally walk for 5 mins then take a 20 mins rest whereas we take no rest, we only stopped once to eat a banana 😂
When at the top it was beautiful. You could see pretty far into the distant as far as Solo, Yogyakarta, Gunung Merapi, Gunung Merbabu and on the opposite side Gunung Ngliman. As soon as we peeped our heads at the top we were swarmed with Indonesians. I thought it was crazy at the temples yesterday but this was mental! Everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted pictures of us at the top. We asked one person to take a picture of us infront of the Peaks monument and we were there for about 20 mins having individual pictures with everyone. Our moment of fame 😂
Then the struggle, well for me, began. I'm sure I've mentioned it but for some reason I'm struggling going downhill and get pains in my knees. We decided to do the circular route and therefore the downhill was vertically downhill on uneven rocks. It was my worst nightmare. Everystep I took was like a dagger in my knee. It took my 1.5 hours to walk a 3rd of the way. I was shattered, unmotivated, feeling guilty for taking so long and in huge amounts of pain. We had a rest after a third of the way, had some snacks and pressed on after a mini upset. Actually the rest of the way I was surprisingly much quicker and we were down and back at base camp by 1:45pm. Perfect! I was so happy to get to the bottom! So the ascent was 11km in 4.5 hours and the descent was 7km in 4.5 hours haha wups!
We packed up our gear, went for lunch and a hot chocolate at the warung from the previous night and then began the journey back to Solo. The journey back was really scenic again and as Will is now much more confident on the scooter we got back in no time. For dinner we joined our local lady for Nasi Lewit and then booked our train to Yogya for 6am the next morning. Yes, I agree we are absolutely bonkers but hey its our last week!!Leggi altro
Temples and Lovely Locals
30 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
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 😊Leggi altro
Cemoro Lawang to Solo
27 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
OK so I thought buses and minivans were bad but actually being in a people carrier car is actually way worse. We jumped in and the car was full and we got to Probolinggo in 2 hours. From there it took us 9 hours with one small break and it was super super uncomfortable. It really didn't have any legroom and although it was supposed to have AC it was actually more like someone breathing softly on you with hot air. When we stopped and got back in you could really smell all the sweaty bodies that are baking in the car. Luckily we were only going to Solo, whereas everyone else was going to Yogyakarta which was going to be another 2 hours!
We got to our hotel and it was lovely and modern with a TV! So guess what we did with the rest of the evening... We watched the South Korea vs Germany match haha wow what a shocking result!
The next day we wandered straight out the hotel, picked up Nasi Campur and a few nibbles (we had no idea what they are) from a little old lady and then headed to Kraton Kasunan which is the Royal Palace and then just wandered round the town and to a market where I was finally able to buy fresh fruit. I think in Vietnam I must have had a least 2 portions of fruit a day but I've found it so difficult to buy it here. God knows why! Then all of a sudden we realised the time. We had arranged a call with someone at 8am UK time and we got our time difference wrong so we were already 30 mins late. We attempted the call but couldn't get signal and it was too noisy so we jumped into a grab and went back to the hotel. Phew. All was fine in the end. Then it was time to finally accept that we are going home in a week and needed to sort out life. So we rang the doctors to book appointments for an MOT, rang the hospital for my final nonepileptic attack disorder appointment (fingers crossed to be fully signed off!!) and then finally the garage to book in my cars service and MOT, wow having a normal life is going to be fun 😭
Eventually after all the calls we headed out in the dark, and found Srabi (pancake with a jellyfied coconut milk filling). They only sold them in packs of 10 of which definitely didn't need but the lovely owner gave us one for free to try. They were yummy. Then we found a lovely little coffee shop. The first guy who took our order didn't speak any English and I always like trying things I haven't heard of... normally it turns out OK... I ordered Ice Smile Coffee haha well it definitely put a smile on my face when I realised what it was! It turns out that I ordered a cold mix of coke and coffee. It was super weird but oddly tasty after a couple of sips. As we hadn't eaten properly since breakfast we were pretty peckish so I grabbed a pack of biscuit things called... They were a soft biscuit on the outside filled with a not so sweet hard coloured paste in the middle. They were so moreish and dangerous we must have nearly eaten half the packet haha Then the owner came out and served us Paya which is a traditional warm sweet biscuit from Yogya another tasty treat. After sitting, contemplating our future and enjoying our odd mix of treats we went for a wander before enjoying tasty Nasi Lemit on a street corner served by a lovely lady. It's been a very mindful day. Myself and Will have talked a lot about our future (well the short term next year) and about how incredible the last couple of months have been. If you told me I would be sat on the floor on a street corner of a busy mainroad eating dinner while barely noticing/ not being slightly distracted by the street noise I would have laughed at you. But honestly I love it. I love eating my dinner on street corners, watching the little old ladies cook the most incredible dishes on a tiny stove and watching the world go by. Oh and the smell of the freshly cooking food and the background hum of the scooters whizzing by is almost soothing! And what makes it perfect is when you get the most delicious simplistic dishes served in their simplistic form. We must have just sat and enjoyed the moment for at least an hour. I'm going to miss this. We hadn't done as much as we'd hoped but enjoying the moment to me is much more important than seeing sights.
The next day we wandered down the main street. As I mentioned earlier I have been longing for fruit and in particular fresh juice. First thing I picked up for our foodie and sightseeing day was a mango juice and Srabi. Yum, what a great start. Then we went to Soto Triwindu to pick up a "proper" breakfast which is a super yummy beef and rice soup. The cafe was like sitting in an old classroom with glass cabinets displaying a range of tempe, crackers and other snacks to accompany your soup.
All fed and full we headed to Mangkunegaran Palace had a pleasant tour round, visited Pasar Triwindu which is an antique market full of all sorts of trinkets, then finally to the House of Danir Hadi a Batik museum. Batik is an Indonesian design which was originally used for Royal sarongs. It was very interesting to hear and see the various influences on the Batik design from the Dutch colonialists.
Unfortunately as it was a Friday, after trying to go to a couple more museums, we realised that everything shuts early so instead we found a stall selling mango juice and sat reading our book on the street for a short time. Our plan for the evening was to head to watch a Indonesian Opera, but it didn't start till 8pm so we had about 4 hours to kill. After feeling a bit silly for sitting on the street we headed to a posh coffee shop where we would be able to sit and read our books for much longer. During our chill out we decided to try and plan what was becoming our last week in Indonesia! Initially we thought we would just spend the time sightseeing the cities and eating our bucket list of food, but as usual this is not exciting enough for us so we decided let's hike up another ridiculously sized volcano! We did some very last minute planning and ended up hiring a scooter, planned the day to visit local templesand hoping we can find some accomodation when we arrive in the evening before hiking up Gunung Lawu.
After planning we headed for a quick dinner and then back to watch the Gamelan Opera. Now, we had no information about the opera in terms of plot or length of showing. We realised how important this is... Maybe too late. We sat down, quite excited to watch something new. Then the music started... Let's just say it was different. I remember studying Gamelan when at high school. I remember it being different and really interesting to study, but when played live, maybe this particular genre, it just sounded like noise. Harsh, non rhythmic, atonal, noise. (Apologies for any offence). The opera then started and in under 1 minute we were completely lost. So we sat and we waited and tried our very hardest to understand the characters and what might be happening. In the end we made up our own plot line. Obviously there was a man who fell in love with a girl and an evil... Monkey man. For the first half an hour it's OK to have little understanding and playfully make up the plot of the story. However, after still being there 1 hour... 1 and a half hours... 2 hours... 2 and a half hours it becomes crazy ridiculous! Even some members of the audience left! But we stuck it out to the dear end and out of nowhere the audience applauded and stood up to leave. It was a difficult 3 hours, but we got through it without sleeping 😉 Absolutely exhausted we jumped into a Grab and went back to the flat to pack our bags ready for our journey to the temples and Gunung Lawu.Leggi altro
It's definitely active - Mount Bromo
26 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
I actually slept pretty well, once I put on all layers of clothing as it was soooo sooo cold, and felt OK for the 3am wakeup. We rolled out of bed and headed out to begin our hike to sunrise over Bromo at the top of Pananjakan. We were expecting crowds of people but actually it was baron... At first we thought maybe we are going the wrong way or don't know something, but actually it seems everyone does it through a tour and gets a jeep everywhere. Very pointless in my opinion. Unlike Ijen this volcano is easily done without a tour if you like to hike. It only took us 1 hr 30 mins to get to the sunrise point, through pretty narrow and overgrown forest tracks. It was a bit busy at the top but not too bad and we saw a beautiful ruby red sunrise this time. It got super super cold on the top, for the first time in months we are both wearing all our thermals and down jacket. This is now our 2nd volcano sunrise and its is just epic. Watching the darkness reveal these monstrous beasts is just other worldly. So so beautiful. On the way down we met a lovely older couple who had been travelling for 9 months so far and thinking they will go for another 9 months or so. They were so inspiring and have done India, Nepal and Myanmar which are on our bucket list too, so they gave us plenty of tips. They even gave us a lift from the car park to to the town which was super sweet and saved us about an hour walking.
Next stop to actually go up Mount Bromo and see the crater. There was a very very high price to get into the volcano area but as usual maps.me and various blogs can always help you get around it. So we took the "villagers track" down to the "sea of sand" and were able to save 600,000 Rp. As we had visited Mount Ijen just a couple of days ago we didn't really know what to expect but wow. This volcano us truly active and you can really see it, even more than Ijen. Within the crater there is just constant clouds of sulphur and although its impressive to see, its actually the noise of the gas bubbling away that is truly spectacular and quite scary. We met some local kids who wanted to take us around Sumatra, unfortunately we don't have time, but they insisted on us taking their WhatsApp number for if we come back which was so lovely. Then we walked around the edge of the volcano and met a guy from Belarus. Walking along the steep and narrow crater with it bubbling away below is actually quite scary! I walked just under halfway and got quite scared so I headed back while the guys walked round. So here I am just updating the blog while I sit at the top of an incredibly, loud, active and monstrous volcano. I can't believe how lucky we are to be able to experience such incredible things and have the true time to enjoy them. 😊🌋
As I didn't walk the whole way round I've decided to mix it up for the blog and have a guest writer. So here he is... Presented by Willy P...
Leaving Shahna to head back to the stairs leading to the crater rim, I, along with my new friend and exploring companion Jeynya, pressed on to attempt the circuit of the crater. Maps.me indicated a trail the whole way around and thus far the walk had been very straightforward. As we walked the sulphur cloud rose up the sides of the crater only to to be blown away by the wind as it reached the crater rim, giving a mesmerising and enchanting display. The path continued straightforwardly along, with only a short steeper section punctuating our walk. By now we were almost half way round and Shahna and the other tourists were obscured by the sulphur cloud. We saw what looked like a path descending into the crater and decided to follow it. I use the term path loosely here, as it was really nothing more than enticing trail of dried mud, whichever flaked away disconcertingly under foot. Having got a little close to the crater, we ascended back to the main path and climbed a very steep slope up to the highest point on the crater rim. From here we enjoyed the majestic views - to our left a second, flat crater (perhaps a caldera), ahead to gunung semuru and the barren, Mars-like ridges of previous eruptions and to the right the smoking, screaming Bromo crater. Photos duly taken we set off around the other half of the crater. At this point things started to get a little hairy. What had been a fairly straight forward ridge walk turned into a narrow track no wider than a single shoe width. To our right a near vertical drop into the boiling, sulphurous pit of Sarlak, to our left a near vertical drop into volcanic rocks and Ash. One slip could be fatal. Jeynya and I exchanged a glance which clearly communicated "what the hell are we doing here", and yet we pressed on all the same. Inching forward, barely containing the shakes in our legs, we made it across the narrowest part. "This will have been fun, once we're safe" he said. I couldn't agree more. Now the ridge was too thin to walk along, so the path dropped to the side of the ridge, switching from one side to another, forcing us to climb over the rim and switch sides periodically. At one point I was leaning on the ridge for support when a great handful of dirt gave way, scattering the mountainside with the dust and leaving me with heart in mouth. All the while, burning drops of sulphuric acid flew from the crater and splattered us. We made our way forward, stopping periodically to catch our breath and take awesome photos. Finally we reach the stairs and waiting there for us is Shahna. What a relief! Jeynya and I exchange a high five and celebrate still being alive.
Ah well hope you enjoyed an extract from our guest writer!
It took them about an hour to get around the vreaters edge and to be honest I was pretty glad i didn't go after watching them struggle on the way round and being suffocated by the sulphur cloud. When they finally made it back I was so happy and we headed back down the stairs, through the sea of sand and then up the torturous never-ending winding steep mud track to the town. On the way back to our homestay we found a man selling Bakso Ayam out of his scooter. Having had only a couple of biscuits all day we happily scoffed down some Bakso before heading back for a shower, rest and accidental 2 hour nap! Wups it was pitch black by the time we got up and out again so headed for dinner at a little warung called Sedia Masakan Khas Tenger and it was super super tasty! We both ordered Soto Ayam and a hot chocolate and were not disappointed!! We sat and chatted with some other fellow travellers. I love how easy it is to meet people. Everyone is in the same boat and always willing to share tips and experiences. I'm going to miss constantly meeting new people! Then we headed home for our last night sleep in Cemoro Lawang.
Having had about 9 hours sleep we woke up pretty early to beautiful clear blue skies. We headed back to the same warung for Nasi Pecel and wow I think it's one of my favourite things we've tried! As it was such a beautiful morning we headed to a viewpoint in in the town overlooking the monstorous Bromo and read our books before heading back to the homestay to catch our 7hr journey bus ride to Surakarta aka Solo.Leggi altro
Banyuwangi to Cemoro Lawang
25 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
As we had our tickets booked we felt a lot more relaxed. We woke up showered with more than enough time to grab breakfast and our lovely homestay host made us banana fritters. To be honest we were even more thankful as it was absolutely pouring down with rain so saved us getting soaked. We then tried to grab a grabcar to no avail and ended up jumping on grab bikes and hoping we both arrive at the station! We did and with plenty of time to spare for the train from Banyuwangi to Probolinggo. The train was pretty smooth and I was able to get a bit of kip which was great. Next adventure somehow getting from Probolinggo Station to Cemoro Law ang where we will stay before climbing Mount Bromo. We stepped out the station instantly saw the angkot (cheap public transport in Indonesia like VW campers) so headed straight for it and away from the taxi scammers. Initially they were trying their luck but then realised it wouldn't work and ended up being super helpful.
Now a bit about angkots also known as bemos. Angkots as mentioned is the public transport that can be found everywhere in Indonesia but without being a local it's really difficult to know when and how to catch them. They usually have a specific coloured van for the area that you are in and the driver will take you to any destination once he has received the full cost he says. So for example if we want to go to Cemoro Lawang by angkot it costs 550,000 Rp for the whole van so if 2 people want to go on their own and are wiling to cover the cost then fine otherwise the angkot with wait until it is full and/ or receives the full amount. Sometimes you could be waiting 10 minutes for others to come, sometimes it could take hours! The drivers happily wait the whole day if they need to get the full amount.
This angkot driver was super honest and said we needed to get an angkot from the main bus terminal but he would take us. He actually did one better and took us straight to a random guy who said he could take us in their bus all the way to Cemoro Lawang for 40,000 Rp. Well as the min cost of the angkot was only 5,000 less we happily got off and got a ride with him instead. While waiting he also advised us on where we should go next and he said he would take us on the 27th to Surakarta for cheap too so we happily agreed. Ah it's nice when a local just gives you tips and sorts stuff as now we don't need to plan for a while! We got a quick Nasi Ayam takeaway and then jumped on the bus. Ah I miss these rickety, pretty sure they aren't road safe, definitely don't have a big enough power to get up hill buses, stops every 20 minutes to pick up or drop off deliveries and this one even had a lovely 1970s paisley designed carpet covered seats haha oh the luxury 😂 It wasn't the most comfortable journey but it was definitely worth the price 😊
When we arrived it was super foggy and we still needed a place to stay. Fortunately we did a bit of a Google before looking and had a couple in mind, went to the first one and was able to book for our 2 nights and save 100,000Rp off the booking.com price.
We then headed straight out for dinner and met a lovely couple from Canberra, Australia and ended up chatting with them all evening and then had an early night before our 3am wakeup again.Leggi altro
The Beast - Mount Ijen
24 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
I'm currently sat in the back of the jeep bouncing through the roof (literally and mentally) in excitement to write this footprint. Honestly I'm too excited to write this footprint but here goes!
11:55pm - Ring ring ring ring Ahhh! The alarm goes off 😭 We roll out of bed and into our clothes. Then sat around waiting for our driver who came an hour later than expected. We jump in a Jeep, me basically in the boot and off we go. He randomly stopped to chat with his mate on the way and then we headed all the way to the basecamp of Mount Ijen. Oh my god our driver was a complete lunatic. He nearly killed umpteen scooters along the way, going a million miles an hour arou d every corner with not a care in the world what might be there. I did 4200 steps before even getting to Ijen because the journey was sooo bumpy. During the journey we were handed gas masks and torches which I instantly checked so I didn't have problems at the top, and I'm so glad I did (I'll explain later).
When we arrived we were introduced to our guide Tom. Tom had worked as a sulphur miner for 12 years and chose to be a local guide 3 years ago when he began to learn English. Now a bit about the miners. The miners go up and down Mount Ijen 2 or 3 times a day to collect and carry 70-90kg of sulphur which they then sell to Chinese companies. Guess what they get paid... 1,000Rp per kilo which is approximately 6p. Our guide said when he was a miner he got paid 200Rp!! I carried 70kg on my shoulders and it was heavy! Not only are these miners being paid pittance for their jobs can you imagine their working environment?! We had special gas masks, none of the miners that we saw seemed to have masks and oh my god I can't explain how horrible it can get in moments it's suffocating (again I'll explain later).
Back to the hike there were a total of 4 of us in our little group plus Tom the guide. Hiking in pitch black is a crazy experience, it went up, up, up and did I mention it went up. We didn't really stop as we were super keen to see the blue flame while dark and then get to the rim of the crater before sunrise. So we marched to to the top arriving about 3pm and then headed down into the crater gas masks on. What a surreal experience. Its so dark around that you just can't even comprehend what is around you at the time and it's only when it's daylight and your at the top that we realised we were at the edge of the largest acidic crater lake in the world! When we got to the bottom you could see the beautiful flames in all its glory and it was wicked!! The sulphur gas clouds weren't very powerful at the beginning and so you could see really far into it. Tom was an absolute star and took all our cameras so he could get pictures closer to the fire as only miners are allowed to go really close to the fire.
But then... Will had said he wasn't sure if his mask was working but at the time the cloud wasn't so bad. His eyes began to water and he was getting a bit upset with his mask. As I had a working mask I swapped with him as I'd been fine so far and probably taken in a lot less than him so we both happily swapped. The cloud was beginning to get worse, but Tom insisted that we were safe and he wanted to take pictures of us all in the sulphur clouds so we obliged. We then insisted on beginning our ascent and that's when it happened. I have never felt so bad in my life, we turned a corner and all of a sudden I was suffocating. I couldn't breathe, my eyes were burning and honestly I was a mess. I can confirm that the mask was 100% not working. Will yelled for help and Tom ran straight back swapping my mask for his and pulling me through. I couldn't breathe or see, all I could hear was Will being terrified, Benedicte getting really scared too and Tom shouting just around the corner, we need to get around the corner! All this happened in a couple of seconds, but it was so terrifying. Luckily Tom was right and just around the corner it was completely clear. It saddens me to think how many miners will have lost their lives while mining or even how many years must be shaved off their lives because of the poison. Tom took us to a safe spot and then got excited again, took all our cameras and took amazing pictures of the molten sulphur! This gave us all time to cough our lungs out, it didn't help myself and Will already have some sort of chest infection so we were a bit of a mess to be honest. Tom came back super smiley as usual, checked we were all happy and okand then we began the ascent to the crater rim to watch sunrise. It was now getting super busy and a lot of people were still heading down. I felt pretty sorry for these people as by the time they get down they might miss the flame, but by the time they get back up they will probably also miss the sunrise! So glad we had Tom who let me and Will march on. When exiting the crater you could see the sky beginning to light up and we still had quite far to walk round so we walked super speedy, you could see the volcano around you slowly emerge and the mist around slowly glide along. Honestly I can't really explain it in words. We finally got to the edge and wow it was so beautiful, the sunrise and the magnificently immense volcano sitting amongst the towering mountains which slowly emrrged in the distance. Perfect. And that wasn't the end. Next was the revealing of the volcanoes lake. After sunset all you could see in the crater was mist so we sat patiently. As the sun rose higher we saw a brocken spectre of our enormous shadow and after a bit of patience it happened. The mist began to clear revealing the most turquoise blue lake trapped within the formidable walls of the caldera and the dragon breathing sulphur clouds glowing illuminous yellow in the corner. It was a thing of absolute beauty. We waited a little while longer to see if the whole lake cleared but it didn't so we walked further back and were lucky enough to see the tops of Mount Raung. To top it all we saw a double rainbow. Tom insisted on being our photographer the whole time and knew all the perfect shots which was such a nice thing to have. After having 7 months of taking selfies or just having one of us in a picture it was really nice to have some shots of the two of us.
Finally we headed down and wow it was unbelievable to see/ feel how steep the journey up was! I think because it was dark and you couldn't see its gradient it really helped your mindset of climbing up especially as we climbed up within an hour! We ran down most of the way and were down in about 40 mins it was soo the opposite weather as we began to descend. Foggy everywhere, its unbelievable how it changed so quickly! We were super super buzzing when we got to the bottom. I love the feeling of true self achievement. We just couldn't have asked for a better group, guide and weather.
We jumped back in the jeep and the feeling of accomplishment was beaming from my face. Myself and Benedicte turned to each other and realised we all smell like rotten eggs from the sulphur. Bleh. The tour did not stop there. Next stop was a coffee plantation and then a waterfall. As we turned on the engine the heavens opened. The drive down was super tough, but luckily the driver had to drive a bit slower which is helpful while I'm writing this. I won't bore you with telling you about the plantation or the waterfall. They were OK nothing special. We got dropped off at the homestay and our host made us a really yummy cheese and chocolate deep fried bread thing and a hot chocolate. Perfect 😋
In the afternoon me and Will just chatted about everything that happened in the day and just generally about our travels. We are both so excited to see our family and friends, but so unbelievably sad to see this incredible journey come to an end. Let's see... We then rested and finally had a refreshing shower to get rid of that horrid smell.
So I know all you really care about are the pictures and honestly I just don't know which to choose. I might make two footprints, I might post on fb or you might just have to ask me to show you pictures when I see you all in 2 weeks 😁Leggi altro
Java!
23 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Well we've not had any crazy journeys for a while and we thought we hadn't felt the stuffy, ram packed, god knows how much we are supposed to pay and being dropped off in the middle of nowhere feeling for a while so thought we'd go for it. We decided to book through an agency and pay probably more than necessary but at least it should get us to our destination... We got picked up in a car by a guy at 6am who then dropped us off in the small market town we went to yesterday. He then said we wait here until the bus comes. It might be 30 or so minutes... We quickly grabbed Nasi Campur for breakfast and sat and waited... And waited... And waited... The bus finally came at 8am and it was the local bus. To be fair we did get a seat each which was nice but the bus was rammed and had no aircon so was unbelievably sweaty. It was supposed to be a 4 hour journey with an arrival at the ferry port at 9am. The journey was looooong, with many stops to pick up more locals and a lot of deliveries. We finally arrived at 12:30pm,grabbed a quick Bakso Ayam and then jumped on the ferry. Actually quite a smooth ride in the end!
Did I mention that Will hasn't had mobile data for 2 weeks?!! Wow! And he hasn't even complained too much about it, until now hehe We arrived at the ferry in Java and had no idea where to go, where to stay, how to plan our journey up Ijen or even how to leave the ferry port. So I went and found a guy to take us to town on his motorbike and told him we need to just go somewhere with WiFi. He did exactly that! We sat for an hour in the reception of a hostel planning our next steps and Will had a fight with Three mobile over their live chat and then was finally able to resolve the issue by ringing them up once their office open so he could use roaming. So in 24 hours Will will be able to roam again 😂 So after sorting accomodation and a possible tour to Ijen we headed to the guesthouse. On the way we found a coffee place full of students with their menu price listed in Mb (it was a geeks cafe), but super cheap so we headed in for a cheeky coffee before heading to the guesthouse. After having a coffee we walked through a park and heard live music, so obviously went for a nosey. God knows what was going on but we ended up being filmed on a big screen in front of the whole park! The hosts only really spoke Indonesian but it suddenly escalated with Will announcing we were a married couple (don't get your hopes up folks we don't have any big news lol!!) and then everyone in the park insisted on having selfies with us. After being in such a western part of Asia it truly feels like we are back amongst the true craziness of SEA again haha We have only been in Java a couple of hours and although we are just in a small town is great fun! The plan for the eve is to eat and get to bed really early as our tour to Ijen starts at 12am!! Mount Ijen is famous for its blue flame and having the largest acidic crater lake in the world. Super excited though 😁
For dinner we went for Soto which is a chicken, peanut and rice soup with prawn crackers on top, yum!! Then we went next door to the bakery for our 12am breakfast prep. Well we couldn't not grab some pudding too so we tried Ketu one with hazelnut and one which we though was vanilla. Ketu is deep fried banana. One came with smothered in chocolate and hazelnut and the other smothered with chocolate and cheese!! The cheese one was unexpectedly the best haha Its now time to go home and SLEEP!!! Watch this space for incredibly, let's be honest with our luck, rainy washed out volcano pictures 😂Leggi altro
Ill = Reading and Relaxation
20 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
After a lovely lie in and getting back to our daily exercises we had a very late breakfast and if I'm completely honest we read our books all day long. It was actually really nice. Before travelling I would never have been able to just read for a day but I did and it was great! We had a super long lunch, had a feast for afternoon tea (did you know they don't have the chocolate in the middle anymore 😯), read and eventually moved ourselves out for dinner, read some more and then went to bed. Nothing exciting I'm afraid!
Day 2 of full relaxation. Still our chest and ears were bunged up so we had a lie in, did our exercises, went for breakfast, read our books at the homestay (I finished the Enders Game), had lunch and then read some more on the beachfront. For dinner we went to our usual place as the owner is an absolute lovely lady who always offers to bring us more food, let's us just stay and read our books and brings us banana fritters for desert for free 😊 To be honest I know we are supposed to rest fully but I'm beginning to get the itch to be active and do something again.
Day 3, to relax or not to relax... The next day we both were still not feeling 100% but decided to try and plan our leave for the next day anyway. We were super undecided what to do... Should we stay until better and hope we can dive again, should we visit the central mainland a bit more even though its forecasted to rain for the next week or should we begin our move to Java to climb Mount Ijen and Mount Bromo. It got quite late in the day but having been indoors or in the same place for 3 days we had to escape. So we jumped on the scooter for potentially our last ride in the travels!! We drove to Temple Of Lempuyang Luhur which was a temple complex famed for its beautiful views. When we set off the sky was clear and blue, however when we got there the fog was beginning to settle in. To be honest I was quite thankful of the slight coolness from the fog as it was a pretty hot hike to the top! After the visit to to the temple we were hoping to drive to a nearby town that was having a local festival. We jumped on the bike, headed down the super steep hill when all of a sudden the bike keeps cutting out and the brakes start to fail. Crap... Luckily we made it to the bottom OK but then stopped and Will did a couple of test drives and it seemed OK, but we didn't want to risk driving further out to to the town and then having to drive back in the dark, so unfortunately we headed back to the homestay via a cute little market where we picked up some dinner.
As our ears were still pretty blocked from the diving unfortunately we realised we wouldn't be able to do more diving on this trip. Super sad times!!!!!!!! So we decided to make our way to Java tomorrow.Leggi altro
Eek!! Scuba Diving! SSI Open Water!
17 giugno 2018, Indonesia ⋅ 🌙 24 °C
Now I am prewarning. We don't have pretty pictures for this section of the blog as we signed up the Open Water Course and you can't take your camera during dives. I added a Google pic of a titan trigger fish as it was my fave find!
So we woke up at 6am ready for our first day. We were both pretty nervous especially because we've bothhad a horrid cough for the past 2-3 weeks... But we went for it anyway. First we just had technical sessions with our instructor Loise and then kitted up and hit the pool. First thoughts... It's super hot, I'm melting in this gear and jeeze it's heavy! Once we got to the pool it was soooo nice to be in the cool water. If honest I've been so excited but then again so nervous. For the technical skills I was a bit all over the place as I just couldn't sort out my buoyancy. Nightmare. I came out of the session just deflated and slightly upset as I'd been so excited I thought I might not make it...
We went for lunch and then in the afternoon we headed to the sea. The tides were pretty big and my worst nightmare after yesterday's fiasco of getting in, but our instructor was just incredible and got us both in together in less than 10 seconds. Next task, getting our flippers on in the water! This is unbelievably hard for me never mind Will who can barely touch his feet. But that's why every scuba diver has a buddy. We got it sorted eventually and we're ready to begin the dive. Next hurdle attempting to equalise! It was tough but I got there in the end and oh my god the fish, the coral!! SOOOO COOL!!!!!!!!!! I'm sure it was nothing compared to what others have probably seen but I've never really done this kind of thing and it was just mind blowing (literally at times when I couldn't equalise...). I saw starfish for the first time and trumpet fish and fish of every colour. Amazing. But... Will was finding it really tough and found it really difficult to get the right posture for diving downwards and then using his fins to kick through the water and ended up riding to to the top everytime he tried. At one point I felt his pain and I went to get him and we held hands while diving and it was honestly such a lovely feeling. Holding hands while swimming through this beautiful setting was just amazing. Next hurdle was to get out! We swam a couple of meters from the shore, took our fins off (this is sooo difficult with waves crashing all over the place) and then quickly headed out. We drank our well deserved cups of tea on the ocean shore.
Dive number 2 was at the US Liberty Ship Wreck to do our first 11 meter dive. Getting in was really hard again and this time putting on the flippers was near impossible but we got there in the end and we're ready to dive down. This time it was much harder to equalise so it took me a while, but I got there in the end. Visibility was virtually 0 for quite a lot of the way, once we dived far enough and saw the magnificent ship we all held hands together so as not to lose each other. It was sooo much fun!! We saw a flounder, more star fish, amazing coral and underwater plants and wow just wow that shipwreck was impressive! After a while we let go of each other and unfortunately Will lost his posture again really struggled to get back down. I was so sad and it was so scary because visibility was really poor so we couldn't really see each other properly. Luckily our instructor could, once I got my eye on him I wanted to help him again but wasn't allowed. Unfortunately this wasn't a beginner course it was the real certification and so we had to be able to do it on our own. He powered through and we all surfaced together once out of the shipwreck. I was super chuffed with my achievement but Will was just defeated but we just kept chatting and I was sure I he would get it and it would click. That was our last dive for the day so we headed up shattered and in need of dinner. So we headed home, had a treat of Mackerel for dinner and then realised we really need to get money to pay for the course! We went to 2 ATMs, the only ones in Amed and still none were working so after an hour of wandering round we headed home and got back to the books for our final chapters ready for the test tomorrow. Nightmare... It was 9pm and I was already slightly behind from falling asleep the night before... 😭 Obviously I fell asleep on it again, but then got a second wind after a 20 second nap 😂
Well we both definitely slept like babies. I was super psyched for my second day but super scared about the test. I did test questions throughout breakfast and the journey to the dive school. Will had been watching videos to help him with his posture and we chatted about how I do it. When we got there our instructor told us the waves were even bigger so we need to just see how it goes. Luckily by the time we were kitted up it had calmed down a bit and was just the same as the day before, visibility a bit poorer but doable. We kitted up (I swear got heavier!). If we thought getting our fins on was hard the first day with these big waves it was much harder but eventually we got them on. Time for the dive, equalising was super tough today but the swim went so well for both of us! Will got the knack of it towards the end and we saw a scorpion fish, cornet fish, parrot fish, star fish etc. I was so so proud of Will and we both came out pretty happy! Don't get me wrong we are nowhere near perfect but we can do it!!
After a swift exit out of the water we had a quick cup of tea before heading for our final dive for the day. Now technically this should have been our final day for the certification but Will and I both agreed the night before that we would feel more comfortable having extra and the instructor felt the same. So we went back in the coral garden for our final dive of the day and I just couldn't control anything. My equalisation was all over the shot at the beginning, then I just couldn't get my buoyancy right, then we were getting deeper and deeper (we reached 18 meters on this dive) and my mask just wouldn't stop filling up! Now although you are trained to empty it, which I can do, but when you have to do it constantly, the current is really strong, you forget how to swim it just goes wrong. I found it unbelievably tough. I kept falling behind, visibility was quite bad so I had to just keep putting my whole body into it and it was just shattering. I came out this dive absolutely silent and wrecked. Luckily it was the last dive for the day but it really knocked my positivity out for six! On the flip side Will did amazingly well!! He kept up with the instructor the whole time he was over the moon but we were both happy to be coming back for our final dive tomorrow!!
We then had lunch before the dredged test. Gosh me and Will are so different when it comes to prep. I like to prep and then do nothing just before to relax. Will likes to work up until the moment he gets the paper and was asking the instructor more questions just before we got the paper, which made me so nervous. But the results were positive and we both got over 90%!
We then went on an ATM hunt and were eventually able to get out the required cash. For any Brits that go to Amed, get out cash beforehand as its a nightmare!! We had to ring the banks...
After paying up we were both proud with our personal achievements and we left super happy but utterly destroyed. We got dropped off at Indomart for some snacks and Ice cream. Guess what?! We got a free one again!!! Sooo amazing so we celebrated with our ice-cream in bed reading our books. I chatted to Lizzie and just lost track of time, it was dinner time already! I'm now in the local restaurant waiting for our dinner that we ordered 45 mins ago. I think I might eat my arm soon... So much for a super early night! Eventually we got our food and were tucked up in bed by 9pm. Perfect!
We both woke up excited with adrenaline and also with the knowledge that we just have one more dive then we can relax and sleep again! We were praying for good weather conditions so we could dive at the liberty Wreck for the last dive. We got to the centre, geared up and walked to the Liberty Wreck to check. We had about an hour to gear up, get in and do the dive before the waves got bigger. Everything went perfectly. We both equalised much quicker than normal, we finished off our final skills assessment, my buoyancy was much better and then for the dive to the ship. Visibility was sooo much better and Will swam sooo well! We were both so relaxed and just got to fully enjoy the shipwreck. Swimming through the ship Wreck and seeing a Titan Trigger fish was my absolute highlight. We also saw angel fish, surgeon fish, cleaner fish, goby fish and much much more. Unfortunately we don't have any underwater shots as we couldn't during assessment dives but wow what an incredible experience!! We started heading out and I realised I had used a lot more oxygen than normal and the currents were getting quite strong. I really struggled and unfortunately kicked slightly too much on an angle and started ascending too soon. I was gutted, ascending higher and higher not really understanding why I couldn't descend. I began to wonder whether this would result in a fail. I had to switch off these thoughts and just swim as hard as I could as the currents were getting pretty strong and Will and Lois felt really far away. After a while I saw the others begin their ascend and I felt so much better. It wasn't till we all got together that I found out I was ascending because my tank was really empty and so much lighter! Phew, I didn't fail and we both passed! Then it was the hurdle of getting out. The current was pretty strong so it was quite a struggle but we did it and it's now time to celebrate. We are both now SSI Open Water Certified. I am so so proud of us both and to see our development in just 2 days ☺️ I couldn't ask for a better Dive Buddy and a better instructor!
We took a couple of pictures (finally) then chatted with Lois about possible dives we could do around Bali. Finally we ended by ordering a super fat and celebratory lunch. A chicken burger with, bacon, egg and chips and a pizza. We are definitely not the same eaters we were, we were in a huge coma and headed straight to the homestay for a well deserved nap! We then changed into our winners tshirts and read our books for a while. Both myself and Will have felt pretty run down in the last couple of days so we asked our host if there is a local doctor. She took us straight to her sister in law who is a local nurse who was able to give us exactly what we needed for our ear and chesty cough. We got back, read our books for a while, had yummy gado-gado for dinner and then went straight to bed.Leggi altro
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Gratis
