still alive

Yes, I'm still alive :-)) I haven't been able to get online since we left Lovina, but everything is ok.
Last saturday Katrijn and I left Lovina and went to Lake Bratan. We stayed at a little village called Candikuning, where there is a beautiful temple in the lake. The village itself is not really interesting. When we arrived around lunchtime it was very cloudy and grey. But sunday morning there was a bright blue sky and I decided to visit the temple early in the morning. There were no other tourists yet, only a few Balinese people making their offerings. The area arround the temple is very picturesque, very different from the rest of the village. After being there for a while I heard some drums, slowely coming closer. It was a wedding procession coming to the temple. There were hundreds of people in their best dress, carrying beautiful boxes with offerings. In front of the processing I assume the happy couple must have been walking, but I couldn't really see it. All I could see were some brightly coloured umbrellas. They walked through the temple grounds to the garden of a resort next to the tempel where they were going to have the ceremony. I didn't hang around to see the whole ceremony, cause it didn't seem like they were going to start any time soon. But I was already happy to have seen the procession...
The day after Katrijn and I took a bemo to Denpasar, where we both went our own way, Katrijn went to Kuta for a few days, before she flew back home and I took the bus to Java. Unfortunately I had missed the bus in the morning and had to wait all day to get the night bus to Probolingo.
When I arrived in Probolingo I took a minibus to Cemara Lawang, a little village in the mountains with beautiful views of Mount Bromo. I think I have never seen so many people in one minibus, it must have been about 30 people... Bromo was great. It feels as if your walking to Mordor and Orks and other creatures could be just around the corner... I will write a more extended report later (with pictures).
After Bromo I went to Surabaya, where I am now. It's not a very interesting city, it's very big and there's a lot of traffic and there are basicly no tourists. I'm here to find the convent where my the aunt of my grandmother used to be a nun, a very long time ago. I'm getting some help of the friendly owner of my hotel. But so far I haven't found it yet. There is still one school/church where there used to be a convent that I'm going to visit, so hopefully that will be it. I'll let you know later...
Tomorrow I will take a train to Yogyakarta. I'll probably be able to upload some more pictures there ...



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