Indonesia

June 2018 - March 2024
An open-ended adventure by Shahnavaz
Currently traveling
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  • Day 1

    Country Number 6 - Bali, Indonesia!

    June 7, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Its time for our next country on the list Indonesia. As it is still Ramadan and soon to be Eid we decided to make our first destination Bali to avoid all the holiday closures and try some diving and hopefully our Open Water PADI.

    It's interesting when we have talked to people about Indonesia everyone said you HAVE to go to Bali and we said nah its too touristy we won't be going, but after some real research we've realised there is a reason people come here. It has some incredible areas for snorkeling and diving and the landscape is supposed to be stunning in the north. So here we are! The flight was so easy. When we saw Viraf we offloaded a tonne of things to them so we only had 2 kg of weight to wear instead of the previous 7kg! 😂

    Just arrived at our guesthouse and ready for bed ☺️

    Best night sleep!! I fell asleep at 10pm and didn't even stir until 10:30am! We then made a quick decision to get on with our travels and go to Ubud today instead of staying one more night in Kuta. So we moseyed on down to the beach had lunch and then headed back to our guesthouse where we ordered our grab to Ubud.
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  • Day 2

    Kuta to Ubud

    June 8, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Yey!! It feels like we are travelling again, cars driving like crazy people, scooters everywhere, people honking horns, beautiful temples and rice fields along the way. Now don't get me wrong, having normality back when we were in Malaysia was nice but I do looove this madness of the real SEA ☺️ As Will just said "Ah it feels like we are home again", meaning Vietnam.

    Ah I just can't explain how beautiful and ornate the buildings are here. From shops, houses, just about every building is carved with the most beautiful designs. When we arrived at our guesthouse it had beautiful fountains and plants in the garden area. However when we got to the room it was basic. Back to the life of a backpacker in our box room, cold showers and windows that don't shut properly. Luckily I only booked one night. We had a nap and then headed out for dinner. There was food EVERYWHERE! But I wanted to go to a particular warung and wow it was soo yummy and a perfect meal for me. We ordered the Goda Goda and Nasi Campur and it was sooo tasty with lots of little bits and bats. Best meal we have had in a long time and so nice to have vegetables and fresh non deepfried food! We then wandered round the town at night and honestly the buildings are just so cute and everyone is so nice here. Even the taxi drivers ask politely if we want a lift and if not they say have a nice day. Only been in Indonesia 2 days and I'm loving it.

    Well last night we both slept terribly in our box room, it was hot and a girl next door was skyping throughout the night and then again at 7am. But that wasn't the worst part. Will found a bed bug on his trousers!!! We quickly packed our stuff and headed out. We are now praying that we don't find it anywhere in our stuff... We quickly booked another guesthouse and we were welcomed with such loving happy faces. We were given a lovely room, fresh watermelon juice and teas and coffees! OK so it wasn't a great start to the morning, but such a nice relief once we got to the new guesthouse. They even invited us to their family temple and dressed us up in their local attire. It was all just beautiful.

    In the afternoon we headed out for lunch, walked around the town and then got dressed up again in in the traditional attire ready for the procession. So when we were told about it we thought we would be watching it, nope we were in it! We walked with our homestay family from temple to temple along with all the locals from this particular village. The women looked so beautiful in their traditional outfits, it was such an honour to be part of it. Such a lovely end to the day.
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  • Day 4

    Temples and Water Rituals

    June 10, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today was a day of mini highlights. Firstly breakfast, soo yummy, we had Indonesian banana pancakes, omelette and toast and a plate of fruit. It was huge!

    We then hired a scooter and headed to Gunung Kawi temple complex. It was like a scene out of Indiana Jones it was an area of rice terraces, with huge cocunut trees at various heights with the beautiful temple ruins in the middle. I just can't explain how ornate and beautiful everything is here.

    On our way to Tirtul Empul Temple we stopped off at a local market and tried Bacso Ayam and something else that we saw everyone eating but God knows what it was. All I can say is that it was yummy.

    Then we headed to the temple and had the most calming and beautiful experience. So this temple is famous for the water ritual where you say thank you for what you have in a pool at each of the water fountains. Now don't get me wrong we were in there for about an hour, it was late afternoon so it was bloody freezing, there were huge fish in the pool as well which was a bit weird especially when they got stuck in your sarong, but overall we both stepped out of the pool so calm and collected. It was an hour where you could just think, think about what you have and be thankful for what you have. When is the last time someone has said for the next hour just be thankful. Try it, it's so uplifting!

    After the ritual we dried, dressed, drove back, had dinner, watched a couple of episodes of friends and went to bed.

    Wow sooo much rain, it went on all night and is still going on this morning! Will see how it goes but maybe it will be a rain day.
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  • Day 6

    Lake, Mountain and Beauty

    June 12, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    What a truly lovely day. We had our yummy breakfast and then headed on a a long drive to Lake Batur. The drive went through beautiful villages, along rice fields, along rivers, across bridges and past beautifully ornate temples. It took about 2 hours to get there but it was not a waste of time. It was so beautiful. Lake Batur is surrounded by various volcanoes including Mount Batur. Wow now that is a volcano in all its finest. We drove around the lake, drove back to to the top of the hills for some stunning views, had coffee at the top and then headed to the bottom of Mount Batur into the depths of its once spilled lava! The ground and plantation was covered in a grey sand and the lave rocks were huge on the side of the road. It was pretty cool! Hard to bike around but awesome to see. We then headed to Sebatu, originally for another water ritual but when we arrived it was getting quite late so we just wandered around above the temple to see the views. After a full day on the bike my bum was pretty sore so we headed back through the countryside for dinner and then to our homestay.

    So... We were all tucked up in bed ready for a well deserved good night sleep when all of a sudden we could hear everything going on next door. And I mean everything. It was far from ideal and let's just say it took us a long time to nod off...
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  • Day 7

    More temples, Cocoa and Monkeys!

    June 13, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    As we were only supposed to stay in Ubud 2 days and it is now our 6th we decided to power on and see as many sites as we could! First stop was a temple hidden in the depths of the jungle.

    The drive was really lovely although 2 hours to get the temple was maybe somewhat unnecessary. It was pleasant but not memorable. Next stop was something I've been wanting to do since coming to SEA, visit a cacao farm. We went to the local Cau Chovate farm which was small but cute with a small tour around the farm, free hot chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream and tasters of all their different types of chocolate with milk and palm sugar. The tour although simple was really interesting as I had never seen a Cacao fruit or seen the beans inside. We tried the beans raw straight from the fruit and they had a slimy white sour outside with a bitter purple bean inside. It was a very interesting flavour! Feeling very very full we headed to monkey forest.

    I was slightly disappointed as I was hoping to see the monkeys perform something mischievous but actually they were pretty good monkeys and did not steal people's food or sunglasses ☺️

    It was about 4:30pm and after a bit of umming and ahhing whether to head back to the homestay or whether to head to watch the herons we decided to watch the herons. It was a bit of a far drive but we got to the viewing platform with plenty of time to spare. We didn't have high expectations of this but had read that at 6pm 20,000 egrets fly in to this small town to sleep after a day of eating insects in the rice fields. And honestly I wasn't disappointed! It was amazing to see all the birds swoop in large flocks and take rest on the trees around. Unfortunately my picture don't show how impressive it was but it was one of those you had to be there moments!

    For dinner we found a lovely lady on the side of the street selling chicken and rice and then headed back to the homestay for our last sleep in Ubud.
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  • Day 8

    The moment I've been waiting for! BEACH!

    June 14, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    So when you think of Bali, what do you imagine. Beaches, blue water, incredible marine life, relaxation. Well we haven't done any of that so off we go to Amed!!

    Now in Bali the taxi drivers are know as the "Mafia" and they go absolutely ballistic if they see tourists using Grab. Like they actually have fights and screaming matches in the streets over it. So Grab, especially in Ubud, is not very common. However neither is public transport and the taxis charge an absolute fortune to go very short distances. So we ummed and ahhed about the best way of getting to Amed and decided to try grab. We booked the grab and the driver instantly rang Will. He said just wait in your homestay and I'll message when I arrive. We were pretty nervous so we did as told and it was perfectly fine! The driver happily told us that is was all ridiculous and pointless as they sometimes have to fight and it's literally over just £1-3. He said he had lots of friends in Kuta who are security guards in clubs and that they have offered to support him if he ever needs. It's crazy! Anyway we had a lovely drive round the coast of Bali and within 2 hours we were in Amed. Wow its so beautiful and oh my goodness the view from our homestay!! The homestay was on the beach with a roofterace facing the sea and the ginormous volcano, Mount Agung which recently had a phreatic eruption (explosion of ash and smoke but no lava). Its much much hotter hear than in Ubud which is in the mountains,but also has a refreshing coastal breeze. So we read our books for a while on the roof terrace to start off the day. Then we found out we wouldn't về able to book any more night so we quickly headed out in search of another for tomorrow. Luckily we found something quickly, not on the beachfront with a roofterace but very affordable and owned by a lovely family. We then headed for lunch and the food was sooo scummy but soo big!

    Next stop on our to to do list was to find a diving centre. We have NEVER dived before and I am super super excited to try. Will is very nervous but I know we will be OK. So we went to a couple of diving centers got quotes and then headed back to the homestay, via the shop for a beer, and chilled out on the roof terrace reading our books, chatting, admiring the view and finishing off by watching sunset. Finally we headed out for some yummy veggie curry dinner, read our books some more and went back on the roof terraces for some star gazing (did not realise you can't see Orion's belt, mind blowing). We saw Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, the Crux (Southern Cross) and various other beautiful flickering stars.

    (Apologies if this is boring for you but ah well) Now I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but the one thing that I love about travelling is the time you have, you have time to think, to reflect, time for yourself. So more recently we have been taking it easy, lying in if we need to, going to bed early if we want to, reading our books more and in the recent months have decided to dedicate time each day to core strength exercises and stretching for personal wellbeing. We both have slight problems when we walk lots (him in his foot and me in my knees), as we LOVE hiking we wanted to try and increase our muscles in the required areas and stretch everyday. At first we started quite light but now my exercises are getting pretty tough. Sit ups, crunches, cobras, planks, squats and stretches everyday but now in the triple digits eek! It's really tough but we are both definitely feeling stronger and more flexible from it which is amazing!! (Please don't expect me to come back super skinny as that's not my goal haha). Anyway enough of that back to normal blogging 😋
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  • Day 10

    Reading, snorkeling and studying!

    June 16, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    So today we enjoyed time on the roof terrace reading our books before having to check out. It was sooo nice and such a shame that we had to move away from our perfect view but ah well. We checked in and then headed straight for lunch. Ayam Bakso time. Its an Indonesian soup with chicken meet balls, egg, noodles doused in an amazing mango mollasces and a hint of chilli it's super tasty and super simple!

    Then we headed to the beach for a swim and relaxation. Ah this is the life ☺️ We sat and chatted with a guy called Matt who was quite an experienced diver and calmed all our worries and recommended some more dive centres. We went to visit them, went for another swim, watched sunset, went for dinner and then just as everyone else in the world was probably doing we headed to the pub to watch the match. It was a bit of a boring game but it was nice to meet up with Matt again and chat about his diving adventures! Unfortunately we weren't able to book ours for the day after but hey just gives us another day to chill and swim.

    The next morning we had breakfast, read our books (I'm reading the Enders Game at the moment, I really like it!), FINALLY booked our diving course, headed for lunch and then to a Japanese Ship Wreck for a snorkel. Now... I'm not the most confident swimmer, I can swim but I still get scared in the deep water. We got to the snorkeling site and the waves were pretty strong and to be honest I was pretty scared, which never helps. We hired snorkels and they gave me flippers. I've never used flippers and bloody hell they aren't supposed to be used for walking. I nearly fell flat on my face umpteen times! Eventually I got to the water (I literally had 1 meter to walk...) and I got terrified all of a sudden. I couldn't stand up and th waves were too strong and just kept crashing me down 😔 I got out and one of the locals came to check on me. He reassured me that once I got past this first bit it was really calm and I would be OK. He offered my a life jacket but I was determined! Snorkel on, flippers on and I just went for it and I'm so glad I did! He was 100% correct, I was barely a meter in and the sea was so much calmer and you could just float along. We swam to the ship wreck and it was super cool, there were fish everywhere, really lovely coral and it was just amazing to be floating around. We must have been out there for about an hour! It was really fun, so glad I went in again. When we got out Will very calmly said "Umm, so do you know where the scooter key is?", to which I obviously said no as I don't drive it. He then said very slowly as if to say don't panic but... "I think I left it in my swimming shorts. But now I've been swimming... And they aren't there." For goodness sake. I quickly empty the bag, run back to the scooter to check and honestly... it probably was in his shorts. We tried ringing the homestay but they didn't pick up and then panicked. Luckily a lot of locals were with us and they said owners always have a spare so we don't need to worry and even more so lucky a guy came out the sea who was also driving back to Amed (about 30 mins away and actually drove Will back to the snorkeling area to pick me up). So he very kindly drove Will to the homestay while I stayed put. I got chatting to the locals which was fun but then I was left with a bit of a crazy local called Julie who about 20 mins prior was talking to me but she acted like she had never met me so we repeated the same conversation and then she showed me endless pictures of herself in selfie style with a love heart frame. didn't . It was super weird lol. Luckily Will came to the rescue and our homestay provided us with the spare key. We headed for a quick dinner before attempting to begin our studies for tomorrow. We were hoping to get home for around 4pm to give us plenty of reading time but got home at 8pm 😭 it was a long 3 hours of reading. What are we studying I hear you say?! Well as we are doing our PADI we have a test to take as well as the 5 dives and there was quite a lot to read. I definitely fell asleep flat faced on my phone wups...
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  • Day 11

    Eek!! Scuba Diving! SSI Open Water!

    June 17, 2018 in 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.
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  • Day 14

    Ill = Reading and Relaxation

    June 20, 2018 in 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.
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  • Day 17

    Java!

    June 23, 2018 in 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 😂
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