24th May
Awoke quite late after the football, we decided to head up to the historic part of Jakarta. We set off walking but soon realised the guy from the hotel had shown us the hotel was on a different road to where it actually was! Knackered, sweaty and coughing in the fumes we caught a taxi for about 60p. There wasn’t much to see except some old Dutch buildings and a swing bridge. We went into the second oldest builiding which is now a posh bar for a beer and a cool down. We decided to walk back and go to one of Jakarta’s huge shopping malls however it wasn’t there?! We popped back to the hotel and then walked to two other huge malls. Although it was only about 8pm everything was shutting up so we went to one of the food streets for some Chinese food. We were pretty tired by now so caught a taxi back and watched a bit of tv.
25th May
We caught a taxi down to the centre of Jakarta and went up the National Monument which is in the centre of a large park. It was a great view although you also realised how bad the smog was! We ended up in pizza hut for lunch as they had a new cheesy bites pizza that Ruth wanted to try…it was good. We went to the National Museum but it was closed and we also had a look at the palace. We caught another taxi to the old antique market and had a wander around. There was all sorts of junk there and I don’t think it was all valuable! We caught a taxi back to the hotel and then went for a look at the shopping mall opposite. There was a nice Chinese place there so we popped in for dinner. We went back to the hotel and hit the music bar (all the best nightspots in Jakarta are in 5 star hotels for some reason). There was a live band who were singing requests, it was Western prices so after a couple of drinks we retired.
26th May
After a quick taxi trip to the station we caught a train to Bandung, there was great confusion over tickets and I had to run down just before the train left to ensure we had executif tickets, which means air con and comfy seats for 1 pound 20 extra! It was a relaxing 4 hour journey through rice fields and terraces. We arrived a checked into hotel arimbi 3 for 4 quid a night. We went for a wander round town through the shopping malls and markets and then found a nice place for dinner. We stumbled upon a huge complex with loads of restaurants and a live band after dinner so we chilled there with a few cheap beers.
27th May
We negotiated with the hotel and they got us a driver and a car for 18 quid! He drove us up to the top of the volcano about an hour away and we walked around the top before taking the 1.2km track down to the next crater that you can actually walk in. There were lots of people cooking eggs in the hot springs and the scenery was spectacular. We met up with our driver again who took us up to some tea plantations and then back to the hotel to catch our minibus to Pangandaran. This was a mission jouney that was supposed to take 4 hours and ended up taking 8! The driver didn’t tell anyone what was going on so we didn’t know to buy food etc when he stopped for some….lesson learned! The guy from the previous hotel reckoned we could get an aircon room at his friends place for 6 pounds a night and it was 500m from where the bus dropped us. Turns out it was 2.5km with our backpacks and aircon rooms were 18 pounds! We were tired so said we would stay one night in a fan room for 6 pounds. I managed to buy a couple of bananas for dinner and we went to bed.
28th May
After our free breakfast we headed out to find alternative accommodation, the bloke follwed us and now we could have an air con room for 8 pounds?! He still tried to give us one by the pool for 12 quid but we said no, they had clearly been trying to rip us off the previous night but as we were only staying 1 more night it wasn’t worth the hassle. We organised a guide to take us to the Green Canyon for 6 pounds each, this consisted of Ruth and I following him for about 30km on a scooter and then a boat trip up the canyon. It was spectacular at the top where it rains continuously due to the rain from the plants roots. We followed him back and then went for a wander up the beach and to find a travel agent other than our hotel. We booked transport to Yogjakarta and then tried to use the phone…60p a minute to the UK, the internet was also out of service! We found an awesome restaurant at lunchtime so went back for dinner and a few Bintang beers.
29th May
Our driver came at 9.30 and drove us to the station to get the train, much better than having to leave at 6am and get two public buses! The train arrived about 30mins late and we were directed to the back. We had asked for executif again so I checked with another bloke, turns out we were right at the front so had to mission through the narrow train with all our bags. Had a plate of fried rice for lunch and then arrived in Yogajakarta at about 4pm, pleasantly surprised as we had been told it would take 7 hours and only took about 4 and a half! We were accosted by a bloke from a travel agent who sorted out a taxi for us and proceeded to try and sell us his tour. The first place didn’t have any aircon rooms left so the guy took us down the road to another place. Settled in, we started chatting to the guide and booked one of his tours for tomorrow! Popped on tinternet for a bit and then went to a place down the road for some food.
30th May
Got picked up at 4.45am….nice! so we would arrive at Borbodur temple for sunrise. We got there about 6am and hired a guide for 3 quid between the 6 of us. It was an amazing temple built around the 8th or 9th century, it has no concrete holding it together just the blocks on top of each other! It has done pretty well to survive all the earthquakes etc and all the carvings can still be seen clearly. After a couple of hours looking round we set off for the Dieng Plateau. It is one of the richest areas in Indonesia as they produce loads of fruit and veg which is exported. The scenery is full of terraces with all kinds of different crops. There are a couple of temples up there but nothing to rival Borbodur, also a volcano and a crater lake. We arrived back at the hotel around 8pm a we got a flat tyre on the way back due to the crazy roads. We popped out for some food and then went to bed as we were knackered.
31st May
We set off to explore some of the sights of Jogya as the locals call it. First stop was the sultans palace which is in the middle of a small city in the middle of Jogya, you pay the Sultan 17000 rupiah a year ground rent……1 English pound! It wasn’t particularly impressive mainly because he actually lives there so I don’t think you get to see the best bits. After that we went to the old water palace built by the first Sultan and also his own private underground Mosque. Ruth wanted to see the ballet so we caught a couple of buses out to the Pandarran temple which you can no longer go inside due to a recent earthquake which has made it unsafe. We caught a glimpse of it then wedged up some VIP seats for 9 pounds for the ballet. The seats were awesome and we got a can of coke and a packet of biscuits included! The ballet was a bit strange and more like dancing but it was ok. We had a bit of a mission getting back as all the taxis were trying to rip us off. We eventually flagged a bus down to the bus station and then caught a taxi from there.
1st June
We had used the same travel company to sort us out with transport to Bali via the Bromo volcano. We got picked up at 9am in an awesome brand new mini van with leather seats, aircon, cd player, the works. Turns out it must have been the owner or something as we were only in it for an hour before we got transferred to a crappy old minivan with dubious aircon! We stopped after about 10 minutes and spent an hour sweltering while some dodgy guy fixed our engine trouble….not sure what was wrong as they couldn’t explain it but it involved revving the engine loads and I was sure it was going to blow up! We eventually set off again only for the driver to stop again saying he was sick and had a headache, he then told us he hadn’t slept for two days as he had been driving the whole time! Dreamy, only another 6-8 hours to go on some mental roads! We were supposed to arrive at our accommodation in Bromo at 6pm so when we stopped at 8pm we thought we must be there, turns out we had to change onto the public bus an finally arrived at 9pm. It was frezzing cold and we were the only guests as a strange little hotel but at least they gave us some dinner then we went straight to bed.
2nd June
Up at 3.30am so we could hit the volcano at sunrise! Some dud drove us in an old school Toyota Landcruiser up to te viewing point with about 4 million other people! We couldn’t understand why it was so busy a we had hardly met any tourists then realised it was Saturday and they were all locals. The sunrise wasn’t that spectacular mainly as it was cloudy but the view of Mount Bromo and the other volcanoes was amazing, you could see xxx volcano errupting in the background. After an hour or so up there thr guy drove us to Mt Bromo where it was a 20 minute walk up to the rim of the crater. You could get a horse for 3 quid but it seemed pretty cruel. We watched the local 4×4 club tharshing their cars in and around the crater landscape then headed back for breakfast. We had to get the public bus back down and it was mental, they crammed so many people in, had them hanging off the doors and on the roof. I was sure an axle would give way as it was also fully loaded with rice on the roof! After an hour our bus still hadn’t arrived, we spoke to the guy and he said it wouldn’t be there until 4pm, 6 hours later! He said we could get two other buses but the second one wouldn’t be airon. We went for that option and it turned out to be a mission, buskers get on every 5 mins, play a song then ask for money and the air con was crap! The second bus was even worse and we eventually arrived in Bali at 10pm about 4 hours later than planned! Got a taxi to a hotel in Kuta, had a couple of beers then went for a lie down to try and ease my aching back!
3rd June
Hada nice breakfast at the hotel then spent the day lazing on the beach. Played in the surf which was very strong! Went out for some nice food and then had a wander round the street stalls who are desperate to sell anything as its dead here now most of the Aussies no longer travel here.
4th June
Hired a scooter for 2 quid and filled it up with petrol for 60p and headed off to Gawung Kawi which is an old Hindu temple carved out of a cliff. We also visited the cultural town of Ubud, the roads were much less manic here and it felt much safer than Jakarta although the scooter wasn’t particularly comfortable! We got back and had some dinner then decided to hit the bars, in one place it was BOGOF cocktails for 2 quid and they came in fish bowls and contained a quarter of a bottle of vodka! Suffice to say it was quite messy especially when they got me on the rice wine later.
5th June
We spent another day relaxing in Bali, we had planned to go surfing but the currents were horrendous and the red flags were out. Even waist deep you could hardly stand up and got dragged all over the place. We booked transport to the Gili islands in the evening after deciding we didn’t want to risk flying with Indonesian airlines to Flores.
6th June
We had been promised we would be in the Gili islands at 3pm! We got picked up at 6am and driven the hour to the harbour, we could have easily made the 8am ferry but were told we were on the 9am and it was basically so we would buy breakfast in his mates cafe. Some guys grabbed our bags when the fery arrived and we knew we would have to pay but Ruth and I figured about 5000rp each would be fair. They demanded 200,000 and then dropped it to 100,000. The ferry across cost 20,000 each so it was ridiculous. They started squaring up to me and not wishing to get in a fight with a load of Indonesians I eventually gave them 30,000. It turned out some people paid the 100,000!!! The ferry was supposed to take 4 hours and ended up taking 6, most of this delay was so a million people could come on the boat and try and sell you stuff and hugely inflated prices! In Lombok we sat in the harbour about 500m from the jetty for about an hour with all the persistent sellers hasseling you! We got on the bus, carrying our own bags and were told we would stop at their office for 15 minutes to get our return tickets. We were there over an hour as they tried to flog everyone a tour to a mountain on Lombok! We arrived at the harbour in Lombok in a storm and jumped on the boast to Gili, it was a pretty nerve racking boat journey and we finally arrived at 7.30pm! We checked into a lovely place with stylish bungalows and decent bathrooms for 6 quid a night. We then took a wander past the restaurants and ordered a fresh red snapper which was taken away and grilled, then served with spuds, salad, rice etc for 4 pounds! Had a few beers relaxing on cusions on the beach and then went to bed knackered.
7th June
We had a nice day chilling by the beach which was lovely and quiet and much more peaceful than Bali. It was cheaper as well. We picked a massive Trevally for dinner and then wandered up to a really cool bar called horizontal. It looked very British and it turns out was owned by a British couple (as were most of the places on Gili) It was empty but we got chatting to the bar manager who was called pineapple and he plied us with free cocktails while we ordered beers.
8th June
Felt a little worse for wear, we spent the day on the beach again but tonight was the big party night on the island. Unfortunately Ruth was too hungover still so there was no party for us! We watched a dodgy dvd in a little hut on the beach while we ate dinner and ice cream then had a wander down to check out the party night but went to bed around midnight.
9th June
It was another hard day chilling on the beach. We met a Kiwi guy called Tom who was living in Jakarta working for UNESCO. The All Blacks were playing France in the afternoon so we went to the bar to watch it with a few beers. That it where we ended up for the rest of the day and into the small hours! We met a huge South African guy called Jerry who we agreed to go snorkelling with thw following day.
10th June
I felt so rough in the morning there was no way I was making snorkelling at 10am! Ruth headed off while I had a more lesuirely start to the day. I was going to join them later but wasn’t exactly sure where they had gone. Ruth came back feeling rough later on and we went for some more nice fish for dinner. Jerry invited us to his place so we went there afterwards, little did we know that he had bought some rice wine and we ended up drinking that until the early hours!
11th June
We caught the boat back to Lombok in very choppy seas, I got soaked and so did most of my bags! Then it was a bus back to the ferry which again took about two hours longer than it was supposed to! We eventually arrived back in Bali about 7.30pm. After checking into the same hotel we popped out for some dinner and then a bit of shopping. got a couple of fake t shirts for less than 2 pounds each.
12th June
We had a bit of time to kill in the morning so we popped out to do some more shopping although didn’t end up buying anything. We flew back to Kuala Lumpar and then changed to our flight to Kota Bharu. We had planned to stay the night there but ended up getting a cheap taxi to Kuala Besut, it meant we could catch a boat straight from there in the morning to the Perhentian Islands.
13th June
The woman at the airport had told us that boats run every hour so we decided on the 9am one. On our way we saw the smallest kittens ever, I think they must have been born shortly before as they couldn’t walk. One of them fell into the drain and the mother was too scared of the water to get it so we ended up fishing it out! We arrived at the jetty to be told that boats ran at 8, 10 and 12 so we had over an hour to kill! We went for breakfast and finally arrived on Kecil island around 11am. All the accommodation was basic to say the least so we opted for a slightly more expensive place with its own toilet. The beach and water were beautiful so we spent the afternoon mainly swimming. The sun must have been very strong as despite suncream we got mildly burnt and a lot of people looked like lobsters! We went to a place that did bbq’d fish for dinner but it couldn’t compete with the Gili island for quality or price. We went for a beer at our bar but it was 1 pound 50 for a tiny little can so gave up that idea and went to bed.
14th June
Another day of relaxing on the beach in the main followed by dinner and bed.
15th June
We booked a snorkelling trip for today which took us on a tour around the two islands. t was very good we saw turtles, sharks, stingray and hundreds of other fish.