Indonesia. Mount Bromo.

We left Malang mid morning and made the drive up to Mount Bromo which is an active volcano. It was another longer bus journey than expected! We had to change busses as we neared our hotel as the roads were too steep and windy for the coach to make it. I was really glad we did as the coach was beginning to feel very scary as it slowly crawled up the steep and narrow roads! The small people carrier flew up the steep roads to our hotel. We had an amazing location which looked right out onto Bromo which we could see steaming. We saw the walk which we would be doing in the morning and it looked much less daunting than I was expecting. Just a long flat walk across the "sea of sand" then steps up to the crater. I was expecting a massive hike. 

There was hardly anything to do up there so we had lunch and did not much else. It was pretty chilly up at that altitude so was a nice change to wear a jumper. We walked around the village and found some chocolate, which was hard! I can't belive people live up here, it seems crazy that they can get supplies up here. There are so many houses and villages which I guess make there money from tourists and the huge amount of farming that happens all over the slopes. All the peoples houses are really brightly coloured as I've seen all over Asia. 

As more of our group was falling ill me and Tracy asked our sick roommates to share  so we could be in a healthy room and isolate the sick! We really didn't want to get sick and miss out on climbing the volcano! Over half the group were sick now! I am petrified of getting sick now! There was nothing else to do so we slept until dinner. 

We had to get up at 3:15am to meet for our 3:30am hike to see the sun rose from Mount Bromo. We were supposed to walk, but as half the group were sick, they got a 4x4 to take them across the sea of sand. The rest of us walked with a local guide and a very stinky horse in case us weak boulays couldn't hack the walk. It was so cloudy and pitch black you could see nothing in front of you. I'm so glad we had a guide else you would have no clue how to get there and there were so many holes and ravines in the sand. We walked about half an hour across the sand and met up with the sick group at the bottom of the crater. It was a steep walk up to the staircase and then the super steep long staircase. We made it up and had to sit down to recover! It was about 12oC up there and was a bit chilly but got so warm walking up there! 

We had to wait for ages for the sun to rise but it was worth the wait! It looked spectacular with the cloud hung in the flats below with so many mountains popping out. It was an amazing sunrise. 

My camera is not so good at capturing sunrises so need to wait for Kevin to put his on Facebook to get all the good ones he took for me :) 

We came back down into the cloud and walked back to our hotel. It was jut time for packing and breakfast before leaving! Seeing this has made having to put up with rubbish Java much better. 

Indonesia. Malang.

We set off at 8:30am for an 8 hour bus journey as told by our guide. The itinery says it should be 4 hours, so we are all confused about why it should take so long. We had all lost complete faith in him now! We drove for hours with some unnecessary photos stops thrown in. We stopped for lunch in an overpriced restaurant and headed on further. People were dropping like flies with a sickness bug and someone was even sick on the bus. This caused a chain reaction of people feeling sick too! We finally got to our hotel 9 hours later. It was so horrible. There were so many creepy men everywhere and I really did not feel safe. Those who were still standing went out for dinner at a western restaurant. I think our guide though we could not handle the local food anymore, and to be honest I had got really bored of the menus. Before we visited the restaurant we went to a Chinese temple and got shown around. We could then also get out fortunes told. We had to kneel down and hold these two pieces of wood that looked like a banana cut down the middle. You had to tell the gods your name, where you were from and what you wished for and then throw them on the floor. If they landed one up and one down, you could continue to the next step. Mine did on throw one and so I was allowed to continue. Next step was to hold a large container of sticks and shake it until one of the sticks fell out. It was so hard but eventually one came out. Next step was to thrown the bananas again. Mine fell correctly and I got to hear my fortune, translated from Indonesian. Not sure how exactly well it was translated but I think it was relevant to finding a job. Need to put it in google translate to no for sure!

When we got home me and Tracy went to the roof top bar and found a hostel up there which was pretty strange. We got talking to a rather nice Dutch guy and saw so many hot guys waking in there boxers to and from the outdoor bathrooms! Pleasant viewing!

The next day my roommate was also sick  so I was desperate to get out of our stinky room! I went on the city tour which constipated of seeing the famous flower market. It was shit. No flowers, just lots of little lanes between people's houses with pot plants outside. Next to it was the bird market which was big but not so nice. Lots of animals in cages for sale. Not just birds but also monkeys, cats, rabbits, rodents and strange looking wild cats. We were given an hour to look around and needed about 20 minutes. 

Next up was a famous coffee shop which served apparently great coffee and homemade ice cream. I had a coffee with milk and asked specifically no sugar, as all the coffee here seems to automatically come with sugar, but it was too sweet to drink. It was so bad. Back to the hotel to pick up the ill group and we set off on another epic journey to Mount Bromo!

Indonesia. Tawanmangu.

We left Yogyakarta, again happily and made our way up into the mountains once again. We had a crazy driver who flung is around when going up the twisty roads. I had looked up Tawangmangu on trip advisor the night before and seen that there were no posts of things to do, so I decided to do the wall that was put on by our guide. We stopped lunch in a restaurant with a great view, but with horrendous karaoke at maximum volume. It was horrendous. We also got given a crappy western menu and everyone else looked like they had much better food! 

After lunch we met up with the guide who would be taking us on the walk and we set off in buses even further up into the hills. It had started to rain and our first stop was a harvest temple which was really bizarre. It was lots of erotic carvings about reproduction and fertility. Bizarre! 

Next the walk started. We were waking to a waterfall near our hotel. We had been told the walk was easy and could be done in flop flops and was quite flat. Well it became clear that our overweight tour guide had never done this walk! It was so steep up and down and went on for hours! The views were nice but the local guide kept telling us to slow down as he couldn't keep up!

As we were getting further on one of our group fell I'll and he got a bike ride to the hotel, we were so jealous! But the cherry topper was that when we finally got to the waterfalls, they were closed!!! We were not impressed!! The walk to the hotel took forever and I was so miserable!  There was a nice sunset at least over some mountains and a volcano and had fun climbing a water tower to get a better view!

In the evening we had a really terrible meal and then had some strange fruit explained to us at the fruit market. I was happy to finally taste the Bali mandarin which looks a bit like a grapefruit. It wasn't very tasty, but was refreshing. As we were absolutely in the middle of nowhere, it was a ridiculously early night to be had! Another great stop in Indonesia!

Indonesia. Yogyakarta.

We got up bright and early to leave our hotel in Bandung to catch the train to Yogyakarta. The train station was near our hotel so it was a short walk. We took our first class seats and started the 7 hour journey. I was so glad that we were in first class, it was pretty grim and would not have liked to see what the other classes were like! The journey went pretty quickly and I had non stop laughing thanks to our American called Kevin. He is filthy and it was hilarious. The views were also stunning, but the windows were filthy and cracked so no photos to be taken. 

We arrived back into the heat of the low lying city and drive to our hotel. Best things about the hotel, we have a pool and there was a great restaurant opposite with amazing wood fired pizzas! We went for lunch there and then hit the pool. In the evening we went to an amazing vegetarian restaurant which was set outside with bamboo eating hut areas where you sit on the floor at low tables. The menu was huge and so hard to choose. I had great sweet potato wedges and a tofu curry. 

Afterwards we got into rickshaws and cycled the crazy streets to the magic trees! This is in the palace and is basically a roundabout with two trees in the middle. You get blindfolded and you have to walk from 100ft through the trees. It sounds simple, but the number of us who went completely off course was crazy! But yay I did it! I was so hard to walk blindfolded and there were so many people around, but I just made it through! One other girl from our group made it though so it means we are very lucky and our wish will be granted. Good job please! Around the roundabout there were all these lit up pedal cars for hire! It was amazing!

We had three nights in Yogyakarta and day two was a tour to Borobodur temple. This was an old buddist temple just outside Yogyakarta. We arrive and went off to the foreigners entrance and got a sarong to put on over our clothes. We got outside and we were the only ones wearing it! All the locals didn't have to! We had a guide and he told us about the temple and how it was found by an Englishman and it was covered in ash and really falling apart. It has been extensively restored, and I would say it is too perfect. It looks much less sensitively restored than Ankor Wat. As we got to the temple we saw the locals getting their sarongs, so not just us looking like idiots anymore. We were guided round the temple and had our photographs taken so much. At the top layer of the temple you are supposed to walk around tree times clockwise and make you wish. It was so hard to finish the walk as everyone wanted our photo with them. It was funny, but also getting a but annoying! It was so hot that day and was really glad to get back on the bus!

We had the option of visiting a Hindu temple next, but I was so hot I couldn't face it and went home with the majority of the group. I spent the rest of the day in bed as was needing some time out. Too much group! I went out for dinner but can back without eating and went to bed. Nice bit of alone time! 

On our final day we had a tour of some of the city. We started with a tour if a batik factory which was great for me of course!  We saw the ladies using the hand batik method with such intricacy and detail it was amazing. The men used the block printing method as it required less detail. We also saw the dying process, which looked very unsafe compared to uk standards! It was amazing. We then went to the factory shop, but it was too overwhelming to find anything I wanted. Not sure I love the style either. 

After the factory we went to a batik art gallery and I caved and bought a batik picture. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but it's of a buddah and the stupas at Borobudur and it was 175000 rupiah (£9). I hope it's hand made and not a print! 

We walked next to the place and had a really rather boring tour inside. There were so many old men working there as they get free accommodation in the palace grounds for as long as they work there. We watched a bit of a shadow puppet show too, but had no idea what was going on with that! The music was nice though. 

After this went to a workshop that made shadow puppets. They are made from Vietnamese water buffalo leather, but it looked like skin and not leather so I'm not sure how they get that off the buffalo. Each puppet is hand made and a pattern is cut into each puppet representing loads of stuff like the elements and three layers of something. They were then painted, but for no apparent reason as you cannot see the colours when it's a shadow puppet!

We stopped for lunch and then went off my ourselves. I went with Tracy to find the markets. We ran into a nice man who helped is find the way who worked as a musician in the palace for the show we had just seen. He had been able to travel all over the world performing for Indonesian consulates in so many countries. He gave us some good advise and told us a better market to go to. We managed to find it and it was a very local market! It was all batik on the ground floor and the women were going crazy for it! Made me even more sure that I'm not a fan of it for clothing. It was huge and very overwhelming. We were definitely the only white people in there. There was no good clothing shopping to be had as everything was long sleeved and unstylish. We decided to leave and got a rickshaw home. Our driver was so old and I'm glad we had the good up as we could use it as blinkers for the scary driving!! 

The evening was our last night and we were going to have a night out but it didn't really happen. Me and Tracy got some local moonshine from our local guide but it was so weak! The guide was so drunk but it barely touched the sides of us hardened ladies! He asked us if we had a handover the next day, but no we were fine!

Indonesia. Bandung

We left our non home homestay for the next city of Bandung. This is a small city, but apparently the third largest in Indonesia. As we arrived quite early into Bandung, we could not check into our hotel so we went on a short tour. Out first stop was amazing. It was a coffee shop which roasts it's own coffee. It smelt amazing! We went into the back of the shop and got shown around. We saw the massive piles of beans and the huge store room in which they store them for either five or eight years to improve their flavour by reducing the acidity. Next was the roaster which was from the 1930's and could roast 100kg at a time. It was wood fired and the beans were constantly being turned in a huge rotating ball. We saw how they went from yellow beans to green and then brown after roasting. 

The shop at the front was so busy too. The locals were queuing out of the door. I wished I could have bought some but it wouldn't have lasted until I could drink it at home. It was so cheap too, just 20000 rupiah (£1). I had serious FOMO! 

Typically of this tour, our next stop was a western shopping centre. We were told to fill 2 hours which was a pain. I had my first Javanese coffee which was great, not made from the beans we saw roasting though unfortunately. We ventured out of the shopping centre but found nothing to do there so went back and got some lunch. People were taking sneaky photos of us too and other were asking again to pose with us. So funny! 

We checked in and found out there was nothing to do in this place other than a geology museum and a music show at the local music school. A few of us went to the show and I'm so glad I went as everyone was so bored staying in the hotel. The show was great. It was a bit of a drive but when we got there it was nothing like what I was expecting. We were in an outdoor amphitheatre with musicians at the stage. The show started with a very creepy puppet show, a bit like the water puppets we saw in Hanoi. Very Punch and Judy as they comically fought with each other. Thankfully this didn't last for long and the rest was lots of dancing and music. It was great. My favourite part was a dance performed by three girls as a circumcision dance. They started off very normal and then half way that put a hankercheif to their faces and when they took it away they had really creepy masks on! No idea how it related to circumcision! The school had invented a musical instrument which the kids played and then let us play which was cool. It was made from bamboo and it rattled when you tapped it. We all played tunes together, aparently famous Indonesian pop songs! At the end we did the standard dancing with kids which was cool  I am a great kid dancer!

In the evening we went to a food market which was supposed to be based on Hoi An but just looked like an outdoor food court with lanterns. Our guide talked us through in so much detail how to order food and what is what that I thought we were never going to get to eat! I ordered Japanese food which was a nice change! Had a very strange cake brick for dessert which was fried in front of us. I've noticed that all the butter in this country tastes so cheesy and this made the cake taste like cheese from the frying. Not a good pudding! We went back to the hotel as we had a 6am departure the following day to catch a train to Yogyakarta. Bandung is another place in glad to be leaving!