Not much been written on this blog in the last 5 years as I
haven’t been travelling so much. On the road again now though, in Indonesia with
Woody, here’s some highlights of Java so far:
- Wonderful local people helping us out, showing us around and
advising us on the best places to go.
- Pari, thousand islands, 2hr boat from Jakarta – island full
of cats, beautiful beaches, snorkelling, one beach completely covered in
starfish! And the island is not for sale ;) Only had Woody's phone with a pretty terrible camera at this point, but Ardita, our friend from Jakarta, made a great video of it here.
- Motorbiking from Bandung through mountains of strawberries
and tea to get to Kawah Putih, a volcanic crater with a turquoise blue lake. (Disclaimer - not my photos, didn't have a camera this day :/ )
- Tamin Sari, Yogyakarta - the Sultans pleasure palace where
he bathed with his concubines.
- Great graffiti and signs around Yogyakarta
- Fresh fruit shakes for $0.50 including all the fruit you
can’t get in Cambodia (strawberries, pears, some weird fruit that looks like an
aubergine but tastes somewhere between a melon and a cucumber).
- Temples (Prambanan, Borobodur), waterfall (Sri Gethuk),
beautiful villages and mountains of different types of food on the hills around
Yogyakarta.
- Live music at ViaVia in Yogyakarta – Indonesian jazz band on the Friday and band from Hawaii on the Sunday
- The chicken church – it’s a church shaped like a chicken! And you can see Borobodur through it's beak :)
- Villa Kebun Lulu, Batu – homestay surrounded by apple farms
with nice rooms entirely made out of bamboo, beautiful garden, triangle shaped
swimming pool, drumkit, keyboard, guitar, puppy, cats, rabbit, kids playground.
- Seeing a rufous-collared kingfisher sitting in an appletree (again, not my photo, was too quick)
- Coban Talun and Coban Rondo, Batu – beautiful waterfalls in
stunning natural landscapes, zipwire and a labyrinth at Rondo J
- Taman Langit, Batu – beautiful garden full of fairy
sculptures overlooking paragliding spot (didn’t go paragliding yet as they were
preparing for the world cup paragliding championships there, still on the list)
- Gado-gado – literally translates as mix-mix - salad with tofu, tempe and peanut sauce, Malang speciality
- Cangar – hot spring that has natural warm pool with hot
waterfall you can bathe in.
- Recording me and Woody’s songs in Malang
- New coastal road to the south of Malang with loads of
beaches, beautiful scenery ...
hills made out of crystals ...
and a conservation area with a mangrove forest and 2 species that I didn’t even know existed – a blue and pink crab with one massive claw (bigger than its body) and a fish with legs, or fins that it used as legs (see video).
- Cheesebury – a restaurant that lives up to its name. Every
meal has cheese in it, even the blueberry frapachino had a cream cheese
topping, and they even had a really cheesy band playing!
- Smoking Volcanos
- Beautiful flowers and strange creatures EVERYWHERE
- And last but not least, travelling with this guy
A couple low-lights
- Accidentally booked a hotel with “syriah” in the name for our first night in Jakarta, syriah means it’s a muslim hotel and they don’t approve of unmarried couples staying together …
- Booked 3 nights at Soekarno Hatta Apartments in Malang thinking we’d treat ourselves to a nice apartment for a few nights but it was a complete scam. They like about the size (10 sqm instead of the advertised 34 sqm), use pictures of some other apartment, insisted on taking all of the money as soon as we arrived and then were uncontactable when we wanted to check out 20 minutes later. It also smells like a toilet and has bugs all over, worst booking experience ever!
But other than that Java has been wonderful, still plenty
more I’d like to do here (Bromo and the Ijen crater for a start). I’ll just
have to come back! Next stop, Lombok!
