Motorbiking around Bali, Indonesia

In the past few days we have hired a motorbike and driven around Bali. The traffic in the south of the Island in horrible. The mix or cars, motorbikes and narrow streets makes in very dangerous. Once you get further north its lots nicer.

We drove to a place call Ubud which had some lovely rivers, palm trees and rice fields. There was also a monkey forest which was relaxing and entertaining.

We also went to some places in the south which had cliffs, temples and other beaches. I also got stopped by the police for going a meter over the white line at some traffic lights. 

Policing in Asia is very different to the UK. Instead of issuing a ticket they tell you what you've done wrong and then you can haggle over how much money you give them until they let you go after listening to threats of taking your bike away if you don't pay. We started haggling at $100 (my crime was apparently twice as severe as that of not wearing a helmet which was $50 as documented on a scrap of paper I was shown) and closed around $10 (Its not my first time playing this game). You don't get a receipt. I think we have a word for this in the west. I can't remember what it is but I'm sure it begins with a 'b'.

Bali is a very nice Island. Its much bigger than it looks so we only got to see a small amount but were happy with what we did. Tomorrow we fly back to Vietnam and I go back to work on Monday.

Bali, Indonesia

We arrive in Bali a few days ago and are staying in a place called Legion in the South. We have a cracking hotel with a lovely swimming pool and 5 minutes from the beach. The breakfast is amazing too.

Since arriving we have been mainly relaxing after the adventures of the past week. The beach is nice, although in my opinion not as nice as Thailand and the food is great too. This is also the first place I've been where I see the appeal of surfing. The waves here are huge and it looks great fun. Not the flat waves you usually get in most other places. Its very touristy here but we are staying in a place which is a bit quieter. We're also helped by the fact that its not yet holiday time for the Australians. I think in a few more weeks this place will be really busy.

In the next few days we are going to explore Bali on a motorbike before heading back to HCMC.

Flight to Bali from Yogyakatra

Today we flew to Bali. As we left Yogyakarta on the plan I took this impressive photo of some volcanoes and mountains. It was a one hour flight but much better than a 16 hour bus journey.

I'm looking forward to some nice beaches and swimming.

Prambanan and Borobudur temples, Indonesia

Today we visited the two famous Indonesian temple completes, Prambanan and Borobudhu. We visited Prambanan, a Hindu temple first. Its a very similar style to those in Cambodia. It was well preserved and quite impressive for building nearly 1,000 years old.

We spent a couple of hours looking around here. It was quite nice and relaxing after climbing the Volcano the day before. 

After Prambanan we made our way to Borobudur for sunset. This was another hours drive but worth it as it was far move impressive. It was a huge temple surrounded by mountains. You could climb all over the temple to look at the carvings and best off all there wasn't too many tourist.

This is definitely the best temple I've seen next to Angkor Wat. Again its about 1,000 years old. We stayed here whilst the sun went down before heading back to Yogyakarta. Tomorrow we are flying to Bali for 6 nights for some relaxation.

Mount Merapi, Indonesia

Last night we trekked up Mount Merapi. the plan was that we leave to hotel at 11pm taking the one hour drive from Yogyakarta to the village at the bottom of the Volcano then spend four hours climbing before reaching the summit before sunrise. 

Starting the Trek

We arrived at some chaps house at the base of the volcano at around midnight and after being offered coffee we left his home to climb the volcano at around 1am planning to get to the summit at 5am for sunrise. The village was about 1500m above sea level so it was pretty cold. As I'm living in Ho Chi Minh City the only warm clothes I have is a hoodie that never gets used for obvious reasons but this was fine as climbing keeps you warm anyway. Also the only shoes I have are my old running shoes, work shoes and flip flops. I didn't think it was worth buying proper shoes for this one off trip so opted to wear the running shoes

We only had a small group of 5 people including the tour guide and began our climb. Straight way the road was very steep. After about 20 minutes this steep road turned into a steep jungle track after about an hour this turned into a steep sand track an hour after this steep rocks. At no point was there any sort of flat area to take a breather. It was so tiring and I was sweating profusely the whole time. We stopped every 40 minutes to rest when the large volumes of sweat would turn your clothes into freezing blankets which compounded the difficulty of the experience. On top of this the shoes were not helping me as they kept slipping on the sand and didn't give me any grip on the rocks.

Some of the steep rocks

After 2.5 hours the guide could tell I wasn't having much fun and when we stopped he asked if me and my girlfriend wanted to stay at this small area on the side off the volcano since we still had 1.5 hours left to climb and it was going to get harder. At this point I had really had enough and thought that no view was worth this suffering so took him up on his offer and threw in the towl. It was like climbing steep uneven steps in the dark for 2.5 hours. 

More of the steep rocks

So, at 3 am I opted to stay on the side of the Volcano. It was about 5 degree Celsius which was even colder given the soaking wet clothes and hoodie to keep me warm. Fortunately I had a change of t-shirt. We manged to sleep pretty quickly but was freezing cold.

Where we slept

A couple of hours later we woke up when it was getting light. We really were on the side of a volcano. To the side of us was a very big drop but the view was pretty special. As the sun rose it got warmer and a few hours later our guide came back (they made it to the summit which is about 3000m high and took then a further 1.5hrs) and we began our decent. The decent was just as unpleasant as the climb except more slippery and the jungle had come alive. Because of my shoes I lost count of the times I fell over after a while. It just wasn't funny anymore.

As you can see from the photos below, it was an amazing volcano. You can see the dried lava that flowed down a few years ago and the top. Also the rice fields and another dormant volcano in the distance. The cloud at the top is actually steam from the volcano.

View from my bed on the side of the Volcano

The summit I didn't get to

Dried lava

Dried lava

Dried lava

View of the rice fields

After we got to the bottom we had breakfast and then left to go back to the hotel. Having had some time to reflect on this now I actually got no pleasure whatsoever from climbing the volcano or descending from it. I've also never been so relieved to finish anything in my life, this includes training for and running a marathon. The shower and sleep I had after getting back to the hotel were the best I've ever had. However, saying this it was an amazing experience. It was just so different and I felt lucky to see a volcano like this. The people that did make it to the top said they got to look into the crater and smell sulfur but didn't see any lava so I have no regrets about stopping when I did.

Our guide does this three times per week. I've no ideas how. Once was enough for me. Anyway in light of this experience were skipping on our other planned Volcano trip, Mount Bromo, even though by all accounts is much much easier. Flights are booked and were off to Bali!!!!

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

We arrived in Yogyakarta last night and my impressions so far it that its a nice little place. It is a stop on the tourist trail because firstly its a nice town but secondly it is a close to the Borobudur temple. Borobudur is Indonesia's Angkor Wat which we'll be visiting in a few days. 

Today we took in the sites of the city and relaxed. Our hotel is awesome for the price and if anyone comes here I recommend it. It was called the hotel Dafam Fortuna and right in the heart of the town centre and walking distance from the train station.

We went to various buildings around the centre. There is some lovely architecture here and some great restaurants. The food here is excellent with a big choice of Indonesian and western restaurants. We also sampled the local beers Bali Hai, Bin Tang and Anker.

There are hundreds of tourist shops here and a nice locals market. There are also some historic buildings, they were ok but nothing special. It is just a really nice place to relax. Tomorrow I'm excited as we have arranged a trip up a volcano called Mount Merapi. We climb it at night to see the sunrise.

The inspection of the train guards.

Whilst waiting for the train to leave the station I was witness to an event that requires its own blog post. Before the train from Jakarta left the station a large number of train staff were congregating and furiously chain smoking outside my window. Suddenly they all jumped up and stood in a line. Another guard who I'm sure was wearing medals came along and started inspecting the staff. It was the sort of thing I imagine happens in the army but seemed a bit strange to be happening for train staff. 

Inspecting of the guards

I managed to snap the above picture of the event but unfortunately one of the staff is stood in front of the man inspecting them. I'm not sure why or how he got those medals. They must be for services to Indonesian rail. I wanted to get another photo but second after getting this photo the man dismissed them and they want back to chain smoking. It looked like the chief was giving them a motivational talk during the inspection which I'm sure they appreciated. I'm confident they all passed the inspection.

Train from Jakarta to Yogyakarta

So, caught the train today from Jakarta to Yogyakarta. It left at 9am but we were told to be there at 8am, I'm not sure why as it wouldn't have made any difference if we'd got there 10 minutes before it departed. The train was very nice, Id opted for some more expensive tickets (they were about $25 each) and got a nice big eat in an air conditioned cabin.

My ticket

Our train carriage

It journey was good. There was some lovely view out the windows or rice fields and cloud topped mountains. Indonesia is one of the biggest producers of rice in the world and its easy to see why. The whole journey was pretty much an endless string of rice fields.

Although it was interesting it was pretty samey after a while and having lived in Asia for three years now it was not really anything new. I think I've become so used to seeing things that three years ago were completely different to what you see in the west that it doesn't have the same wow factor anymore

There was a TV to watch which showed some movies and a lady came past with a refreshments trolley every hour or so. I tried some Indonesian munchies which were quite nice.

We arrived about an hour late which is always one of life's mysteries with trains. We left on time and only stopped to pick people up a couple of times. Also there are only about 4 or 5 trains running per day no idea how we could have gotten so late.

 So, we will be staying in Yogyakarta for four nights and taking in some volcano and temple tours before moving onto Bali

Jakarta, Indonesia

We arrived in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, yesterday. We arrived late in the evening after flying from Ho Chi Minh City via Singapore. 

Indonesian Flag

I was told before I came here that its not really a tourist city and there is not much to do but I really wanted to visit the capital before moving onto our next destination. We stayed in a hotel very close to the train station and the national monument.

National monument

 It's been a pretty nice day. In the morning we bought train tickets for the next day before visiting the national monument situated in a really big park. It was Sunday and the ques were huge so we didn't go to the top of it.

National monument

After visiting the monument we walked around the park which was very nice and relaxing. The monument is very close to the national museum this was our next stop. The museum was pretty good and showed you about how Indonesia was populated and how the different tribes developed. It also has some great fossils of cavemen.

Park of the National monument

After this we visited one of the many shopping malls. We managed to work out how to use the public transport which I was quite pleased with myself about. It was huge and very western but quite nice to relax and walk around. 

Big shopping mall

 We are off to a place called Yogyakarta tomorrow on the train. The journey will take about 8 hours and take us across western Java. Jakarta is an ok city. Its right in that there isn't that much for tourists to do but I imagine that if you lived here there would be lots of nice places to go.