Home Sweet Home...

We've been home for three weeks now, and while we've been busy catching up with family and friends and have started job hunting in earnest, the last six months, actually three years, of adventures have barely begun to sink in. My Nana suggested that I write a final blog post to finish it all off, and I've finally mustered the motivation to do it! Perhaps because it seems easier than facing the task of sorting through the nearly 100GB of photos that I took over the last six months!

After leaving Indonesia at the end of September we headed to Perth to visit some of our friends with whom we were long overdue a catch up. It was great to spend time with familiar faces and explore a bit of the city. I was hoping that stopping in Perth would have the added benefit of helping us acclimatise to a more mild climate before getting to New Zealand, but it was not to be! Perth was having the coldest spring in 25 years, and coming straight from the 30 degree weather we had in Indonesia to a brisk 17C was a slight shock to the system!

Perth city and Fremantle. A huge shout out to Latham and Talz for being such great tour guides!

Exploring the Perth Hills and Maundering Dam (opened in 1903 and pipes water 560km to Kalgoorlie). Yes, that is a bush fire.

Enjoying a night out with friends. And tequila.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to our friends who kindly hosted us and took the time to show us around Perth. We're looking forward to seeing you all, and eating Harley's bbq ribs, again soon!

While our journey was nearing an end, I began musing on a few things that we'd learned over the course of our trip. Some of them we learned the hard way, some by luck, and some by planning and talking to others. I'm sure a few are obvious, but hopefully a few will prove useful, or perhaps just give you a chuckle at our naivety and leave you wondering how on earth we made it home unscathed and still married.

Some things we've learned travelling

General tips:

• Double check the details of travel bookings BEFORE you enter your credit card details. And then do it again afterwards. Finding out you've mis-booked your flights days before a trip isn't ideal.
• Look up free walking tours. They're available in many places around the world and all you need to pay is as much of a tip as you think is deserved, or that you can afford. In Vietnam you can do a variety of free tours with local university students.
• Walking into restaurants off the street can be a bit hit and miss. If you want a bit more of a guarantee of quality or if you're after something particular, it is worth taking the time to use TripAdvisor. However, I wouldn't always vouch for their price indications.
• Don't bring anything you would be sad to lose. I pride myself on never losing things and yet somehow this trip I've lost two t-shirts, a pair of summer pants, a dress, a sun hat, and a 16GB memory card. Shaun lost his expensive sunglasses and his phone. He then stood on my sunglasses. On the same day.
• Double check your laundry when it comes back, because it won't necessarily all come back (see previous bullet point).
• Factor in rest days. You will run out of steam.
• DON'T become complacent. Make sure you know the whereabouts of all of your belongings. Find a place for everything and keep them there. Going away from your base for an overnight trip and realising your passports are still in your big luggage in another city is stupid and stressful.

South East Asia:

• You're going to sweat. A lot. Keep chafing in mind when you pick what clothes and underwear to bring. 
• Sunscreen, sweat, and DEET, are the death of white shirts.
• You might laugh at travel sandals, but Shaun quickly discovered the difficulties of finding size 13 jandals in Vietnam when his inevitably blew out. I still couldn't convince him to buy travel sandals.
• Packing light is easier said than done... At least, if you're me. No one cares what you're wearing when you're back packing through South East Asia, but you will care how heavy your backpack is, and your husband will start caring when you sneak your spare shoes into his backpack.
• Buying a SIM card has been immensely helpful, especially for navigation on the go.
• Facial moisturisers in S E Asia all seem to be 'whitening', so unless you're trying to undo your tan, bring all the moisturiser you need with you!
• If you're not great at haggling, a useful rule of thumb is to pay what you think is a fair price for the item. Try asking a local person, or your hotel staff what price you can reasonably expect to pay for something, and then stick to your guns. However this is often easier said than done and if you're like me and have trouble saying no, telling yourself you're helping to feed a family often helps to justify the expenditure!
• Don't buy stuff off street children. The money just goes back to the adults that force them out there, and encourages them not to send their kids to school.
• Look up a few places to do some ethical/charitable dining and shopping. If you don't have the time, money, or inclination for volunteer work, then this is an easy way to give back to the communities you're visiting.
• If you want an animal or wildlife experience, try to pick responsibly. I think it goes without saying that tigers belong in the wild, not in selfies.
• Ask for the taxi meter to be turned on. Especially in Bangkok. If they refuse, find another taxi. Realising you've been charged three times the usual price is rather frustrating. Especially when it leaves nothing in the daily budget for beer!
• In places where you can't drink tap water (i.e. nearly all of South East Asia), bring a SteriPen or some kind of water treatment tablets and a reusable bottle. The amount of plastic waste we created for water alone is absolutely shameful and it is damn near impossible to find alternatives while in a country. I did boil the hotel kettle and fill our bottles that way where I could, and there are also the occasional water refilling stations in bigger cities if you know where to look.

Finally, as Dorothy once said, "there is no place like home." Although I bet she left a piece of heart in Oz.

Incredible Indonesia: Island Adventures

And so begins our homeward journey! I write this as we wait to go to the airport for our flight from Labuanbajo back to Bali, where we transit for one night before flying to Perth for 5 nights to visit friends and then heading onward to New Zealand. The past few weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster ride - filled with both the feeling you get at the top of ride, the seemingly eternal pause before the big drop, closing your eyes and wishing it would just end already, as well as the sheer thrill of adventure, and then as you see the end, suddenly wishing it would go on just a little longer.

After leaving Java we made our way to the Island of Nusa Lembongan, just a short boat ride from Bali. The island is surrounded by beautiful turquoise blue water and white sandy beaches. It is far less crowded or developed compared to Bali, but with plenty of options for accommodation, eating and drinking. We stayed in Mushroom Bay, in a lovely guest house a stones throw from the small beach. It was a lovely place to hang out, although I found the constant coming and going of snorkelling boats and banana boat rides frustrating and not particularly conducive to a peaceful swimming experience. As Shaun had come down with some sort of heat stroke, we really were forced to relax for the whole four days, which was just what we needed. 

Our next stop was the island of Gili Air, another picture perfect, white sand, palm tree lined, tropical island. There are three Gili Islands, and this one is the middle of the road - not yet the party island (I say yet, as I think it is quickly heading this way), and still slightly more built up than the smallest of the Gili's. Gili Air can be walked around in about an hour, and we had a lovely time doing slow laps of the island, finding swimming spots and watching the amazing sunsets.

Our next and final island destination in Indonesia was the island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara. Flores was 'discovered' by the Portugese in the 1500's, and as a result the island is 90% catholic, unlike the rest of Indonesia which is mostly Muslim (except for Bali which has remained Hindu). 

Unlike Lembongan or Gili, Flores is a huge island with incredibly beautiful, rugged landscape, and only fairly basic tourist infrastructure once you venture outside of the main port town of Labuanbajo. It is a place where the travelers you meet are mostly backpackers looking for an adventure rather than beach going holiday makers. It has a kind of raw charm about it. While there is certainly a well established tourist route here, compared to the other places we have visited in South East Asia this definitely feels like the road less travelled.

We started our journey in Labuanbajo, a ramshackle harbour town, staying in a basic but clean and comfortable (and over priced) hotel about a 15 minute drive (slowly, avoiding numerous po-holes) from town. We called in on various boat operators until we decided upon a two day, one night trip to visit Komodo and Rinca Islands. 

Beautiful sunset and dinner at the fish market in Labuan Bajo.

There isn't much information online about the various tours available, making it hard to really base our decision on anything more than our first impression of the chap behind the desk. We asked around at least 5 different places and they all offered the same route and price.

We joined our boat at 7.30am, with two young German students as our shipmates. I was a bit dubious about the seaworthiness of the small vessel, but the water was like glass and we putted along without incident. We had a captain and a cook onboard with us, neither speaking much English, and consequently not really speaking much at all. The toilet was at the back of the boat and was literally a small square hole cut into the deck. We also slept in a communal style on thin mattresses layered onto the deck of the boat.

Our boat - lunch and the communal sleeping set up!

Our first stop was Rinca island, where we met a guide who took us for a walk around the island and to see the sleeping Komodo Dragons underneath the Rangers houses (attracted by the smells of food). Surprisingly, there were also a bunch of deer hanging about, seemingly nonplussed by the fact that they would likely end up as dragon fodder. Talking to our guide, apparently six local people were attacked by dragons last year, killing one. Komodo dragons kill their prey by infecting them with a venomous bite and following the injured party around waiting for their inevitable death before devouring them completely. They eat anything and everything - even the young Komodo dragons have to live in the trees to avoid becoming a meal. Apparently their poop is white due to the calcium from all the bones they eat...... When someone gets bitten they have to make their way back to Bali where they are in hospital for at least three months fighting the bacterial infection from the bite, and are then often sent to recover further back in Labuanbajo before going back to their homes on Rinca/Komodo. I'm certainly glad that I don't have those things living under my house!

Our guide said that only one tourist has ever died on the island, a Swiss guy in 1974, who wandered off on his own and was never seen again, nor any trace ever found. I'm sure his wrist watch is probably sitting in a pile of dragon poop somewhere...

Anyway, we did see some excitement when a couple of dragons started hissing at each other and then one got up and gave the other an almighty whack with his tail! The creatures look slow, but they're built to move quickly when they want to and it made me very nervous! Apparently the biggest on the island was 3.5m long and weighs about 90kg. On our walk back to the boat we saw a Komodo dragon walking along which was fun! 

On Komodo island it was a similar deal, as it was so hot most of the dragons were resting in the shade under buildings.

We stopped to snorkel at Pink Beach, so called because when you get close enough you can see that the otherwise white sand is flecked with tiny bits of pink coral, giving the beach a pinkish hue. One of the highlights of this trip was seeing a turtle while we were snorkelling here! It was the first time we'd ever seen one and we watched it for at least half an hour while it munched away on various sea plants and occasionally came up for air. I really wish I had a waterproof camera!

Another highlight was seeing a pod of dolphins in the morning, as well as catching a fleeting glimpse of a manta ray. This trip may have even inspired me to give diving a try one day, as I imagine the coral and sea life would be absolutely incredible up close.

After getting back to Labuanbajo we took an 'executive' bus (large minivan) to the small village of Bajawa. It was a slow and very windy four hours on the bus to get to the town of Ruteng in the middle of the island, and there were times I wondered if the bus would make it up some of the hills. In Ruteng we waited around for two hours for our interchange to a smaller minibus to Bajawa. The second part of the trip was equally as windy and the driver was somehow even more crazy. By this point I was just hoping to make it there alive! 

We got dropped off about 3km outside of the town, and fortuitously met another couple going to the same hotel with whom we shared a taxi (of course all the taxi drivers were waiting there when we got off the bus). At the hotel we ended up making friends with the other couple, Jacobo and Noe from Spain, and booked a driver and guide together for the next day in order to economise. The next morning our guide Alfons, took us to a local Saturday market where we saw all manner of things for sale: pigs, chickens, fish, fruit and vegetables, including papayas the size of your head and vegetables we had no clue what they were, sold by ladies with betel nut-stained smiles.

Local markets in Bajawa

We also visited the traditional villages of Bena and Gurucina. These are Nagda villages, with a monolithic culture, practicing a mixture of animism and Catholicism. The thatched-roofed houses are set on several terraces, and the middle part had stone tombs and places of offerings, as well as the symbols repressing the number of clans in the village - these are the male Ngadhu, a thatched umbrella like structure with a carved pole (where Buffaloes are sacrificed in special ceremonies), and the female bhaga which looks like a mini house. 

The village of Bena is the most visited by tourists and we had to pay a small entrance fee. Otherwise, the locals went about their regular daily lives, which now also included selling their beautifully weaved ikat fabrics. I thought that it might feel a bit like a human zoo, but it really wasn't so bad and most of the village people were out working in the surrounding plantations so it didn't feel like we were disturbing anybody, just politely observing. Our guide also told us how to say good morning and how to ask if it was ok to take a photo in the local language which was useful. If the tourist trade here picks up I can see this becoming quite intrusive for the people though.

Outside the houses the colourful ikat fabrics were on display (for sale), and an old man gave us some papaya and macadamia nuts (grown in the area) to try.

Bena Village

In the afternoon we stopped at a hot spring where a local family made us a simple but tasty lunch, and we enjoyed a blissful soak in the river where the hot water mixes with the cold water while the rain was coming down (heavily!). This especially made me excited for soaking in more hot springs when we get home!!

Malange hot springs

The next day we shared a six hour ride with our Spanish friends to the small village of Moni at the base of Mt Kelimutu. Our previously booked accomodation had cancelled on us due to a family party, and when we arrived we discovered that the whole village was partying, with loud music blaring from at least five different houses along the road! We thankfully found a couple of nice but basic rooms at a small guest house. The owner then explained that many families in the town were celebrating first communion, and that everything in the town was closed! Kindly, she invited us to join her family's party that afternoon. We (a group of seven of us) headed across the road and shook hands with the smartly dressed young man whose first communion it was, gave a small donation to the party and were invited to have some food. There was a band playing and we were encouraged to get up to dance with a few of the drunk uncles - I think to provide some of the afternoon entertainment! We went up the road and managed to source a few beers, and later that evening went back to the party which was now in full swing. Everyone was singing and dancing and we joined in, having a blast! Turns out they also like reggae music and Shaun even got behind the mic for a couple of Bob Marley songs!

At Kenn's first communion party in the town of Moni.

After a few hours of sleep and with foggy heads we got up and caught a ride up the mountain at 4.30am to see the sunrise over the beautifully coloured crater lakes on Mt Kelimutu. I think the colours would have been more impressive in the daylight, but nevertheless the sunrise was nice and the gentle light and loud birdsong was lovely. We even saw a bunch of monkeys waiting for an easy breakfast.

We walked for 2 hours back down the mountain, but missed the shortcut back to Moni and ended up catching a ride back on a local bemo (small van that doubles as a taxi). 

Kelimutu craters 

Our next challenge was finding a driver in the village sober enough to take us to the town of Ende!

Horrible bathroom at our hotel in Ende... Not even a basin!

That evening we went out for dinner with the new friends we had made in Moni, as well as a local guy named Horace who another couple had met while in Ende a few days earlier. I don't want to bore you with play by play, but the Warung (small restaurant) we went to is worth a mention. The menu is very small, but the owner delighted in greeting us and talking through his menu which included the most melt in the mouth coconut fried chicken with yellow rice and sambal, as well as delicious homemade mie goreng.

Dinner at Sari Rasa (the lovely owner front left).

Our route to Perth from Ende isn't exactly the most straight forward, including a night back in Labuanbajo and a night in Bali. We are both excited to be seeing our friends and family again soon! I can't believe we only have a week of our trip left!! 

Introducing Indonesia: Java

We arrived in the city of Yogyakarta, also known as Jogja. Some call it the cultural capital of Java, and I'd have to agree.

We stayed in a lovely guesthouse/hotel in Sosrowijayan, which is a small neighbourhood of small traffic-less lanes lined with houses and restaurants and guesthouses. It was also close to the famous Malioboro Street with the many cheap batik and souvenir stores.

The main things we did here in Jogja was visit the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan. We got picked up at 5am and were at Borobudur by the time it opened at 6am. It was quite misty, but it just added to the ambience, and after a while the fog burned off to reveal beautiful blue skies. Borobudur is a 9th century Buddhist temple. It has nine levels, covered in thousands of intricate relief panels and over 500 statues of Buddha. The temple is topped by a central dome, which is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues sealed inside stupas that look a bit like bells. While it doesn't quite have the same mysterious jungle atmosphere as the temples of Angkor, the sheer size and grandeur of Borobudur is certainly an impressive site to behold.

Our next stop was the temple of Prambanan. It is a 9th Century Hindu temple (the largest in Indonesia) and it is  dedicated to the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). The complex has a large central temple surrounded by small temple structures. Apparently if each of the smaller surrounding temple structures had been rebuilt, there would be 252 of them! Each takes 6 years to reconstruct, but after significant damage was caused by an earthquake in 2006, the focus has been more on preservation and strengthening the existing structures. 

The next day we walked through the city, visiting the Taman Sari Water Castle, which was once a formal garden of the Sultanate, where the Sultan and his 150 children and 35 wives would come to bathe in a series of pools (one for the kids, one for the wives, and one all for himself).

We also visited the Independence museum that told the story of Indonesia's struggle for independence in a series of 52 detailed dioramas. This coincided with the parade that we stumbled across a couple of days earlier celebrating Indonesia's Independence Day.

Diorama in the Independence Museum 

Views around Jogja, including a parade we came across.

After Jogja we took a train to the central Javanese city of Madiun. This is not really a place that tourists have any reason to go, and we got a lot of funny looks.

Madiun, or more specifically, the small village of Pagotan to the south of Madiun, is where my grandfather grew up in Indonesia prior to the war. His father worked as an engineer at the sugarcane factory in Pagotan, right across the street from where they grew up. When we visited my great uncle Rob back in April, we heard many funny stories of the adventures my Opa and his brothers and sister had growing up in Indonesia. 

As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, the family were put into internment camps when the Japanese invaded, and my great grandfather was sent to work on the Burma railway. I asked my uncle Rob about it and he said that he doesn't remember the bad things, only the lucky things. After the war the family were reunited and eventually moved back to Holland.

The house where my Opa grew up, across from the Sugarcane factory, which still operates.

We stumbled across a night market with preparations for some kind of acrobatic performance underway. Unfortunately I almost passed out and we couldn't stay to watch.

After a night in Madiun we took a long train ride to the town of Probolinggo where we were to make our way to visit the famous Tengger National Park and Mt Bromo. Thankfully we weren't the only tourists to arrive on the train at Probolinggo, and having read up on the scams, we successfully made our way to the bus depot and negotiated a reasonable price for all 15 of us to be squashed into a minivan, with our luggage tied on top, to take us for an hours drive up into the mountains to the town of Cemoro Lawang, perched on the edge of the Tengger Caldera.

As it was dark by the time we arrived, I was glad that we had decided to book ahead our accommodation. The next morning we got up before 3am and met up with an Austrian couple who we'd met on the bus ride the day before. We hiked for an hour and a half in the dark up a mountain to one of the main viewing areas. To avoid the crowds of others watching the sunrise, we climbed up a small hill at the back of the viewing area. Here we shared beautiful views of the sunrise with only four other people. It was  magic, if a bit cold!

With our hiking companions

Feeling the cold!

Lots of spring onions growing here!

After the sun came up we hiked back down to Cemoro Lawang for breakfast at our hostel and for a rest. It was just as well we had two nights here, as I had been hampered by an upset stomach all morning and needed a break before hiking into the caldera and up Mount Bromo itself. 

One thing I should mention about Bromo is that the place is effectively run by the tourism mafia, and everything is very overpriced (by Indonesian standards), however there isn't a lot you can do about it! So, taking matters into our own hands, we found a shortcut into the caldera, bypassing the $25 per person entrance fee. No one noticed, nor seemed to care. I felt like quite the rebel, and was sure Tamson would be proud!

Once down in the caldera, we had to hike across the 'sea of sand'. It was more accurately the 'sea of volcanic ash'. It was so fine that it billowed up into swirls around our legs with each footfall, and we had to pull our headbands over our faces to avoid inhaling the occasional dust storm picked up by the wind.

The hike up the volcano itself didn't take too long, but was up a lot of ash covered stairs to reach the narrow crater rim. The volcano was rumbling loudly and steaming vigorously, and I wondered whether we should have bought an offering from the guy at the bottom of the stairs to repent to the mountain for sneaking into the park.... In awe of the raw power of nature and also a bit spooked, we made a hasty retreat down the mountain and scurried back across the sea of sand (all the while grateful that my stomach allowed me some respite so that the walk was not across a 'sea of embarrassment').

Taking the shortcut into the caldera...

The dusty sea of sand

Looking back down Bromo

The vast caldera

At the top of Mt Bromo

Coming into the town of Cemoro Lawang

Unfortunately, I ordered the Gado Gado for dinner again, thinking it surely couldn't have been the source of my troubles and innocently shared it with Shaun. Low and behold, the next morning he was crook too! However, we made it to Surabaya for our flight to Bali, and then on the ferry to the Island of Lembongan. We are staying at a lovely homestay a stones throw from Mushroom beach where we have been relaxing, and where Shaun has been recovering from heat stroke. 

As Murphy's law would have it, he is feeling a lot better this morning it is now pissing down with rain outside! Never mind, it is a good opportunity for me to catch up on my blog!