Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Sometimes traveling is like that

This morning I woke up at 6.54. I got a message from Michael, the new tennant of Volkstraat nr 45, my old apartment. Apparently he's been getting bills and warnings from the internet company on my name, and he got my electricity bill on his name. I guess both companies stuffed up.
At 7AM I was behind the computer, making use of the hostel's free internet, trying to rectify the problem of the bills.
After that I had a wonderful breakfast at a Chinese place, 2 steamed red bean buns, shrimp dim sum and fabulous Chinese tea for only 5 Ringgit (1 euro).
Then I tried to find an ATM, while doing this I saw a dead rat, a ladyboy with a very real looking boob hanging out of his/her top while he/she was joking around with an Indian prostitute and a man who asked me whether I wanted free sex through the car window.
After getting money from the ATM I organised my Thai visa. I also managed to swap that brick I've been carrying around, that Indonesia Lonely Planet for a Thai LP at the second hand bookshop.
For Lunch I had vegetable fried noodles with egg. I organised my busticket to Koh Pha-Ngan for Thursday. And while walking up and down Lebuh Chulia, people driving by honk at me, apparently thinking I somehow like being honked at. Others start talking to me, pointing out the obvious. "Wow, you are tall! Where you from? Mmmm, Belgium must be a fine country" while looking at me from head to toe. Or asking me whether I'm a model or a basketballplayer. Some days I hardly notice any of this, but on days like today I just want to shout "Fuck off!", but I never do.
Yesterday I went to visit a Tibetan buddhist temple in the street where I'm staying. A Thai guy immediately offered to guide me, eventhough there really was no need for this. At the end he offered to take me to the beach of Batu Ferringhi (which by the way is quite dirty and not interesting, at least that's what I've heard) for free. When I declined and said I had to go, I tried to shake his hand and he tried to kiss me! On the cheeks, but still, I was quite shocked, though I managed to duck away right in time. Kissing is simply not something Asians do, they should only put their hands together and bow, and maybe, if they want to greet like westerners, shake hands, but kissing? never...
Anyway after getting my busticket, I went to the mall to buy some showergel. I got a capuccino at Starbucks. It was my first time ever going into a Starbucks and I soon regretted it. I thought I would enjoy a decent capuccino, but the guy behind the counter was very unfriendly and they didn't even have coffee spoons, they only had these plastic "stirrers". That completely ruined the experience, cause I like to scoop out the foam with my spoon :-(
When I left Starbucks I ran into that guy who tried to kiss me yesterday, I looked at him angrily and walked on.
When I returned to the hostel I finished the book I'd been reading, "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss. I really liked it, especially the last part.
For dinner I ended up at Ecco, an Italian restaurant, for the third day in a row. For some strange reason many restaurants in Georgetown close right before dinnertime and Ecco is one of the few decent and not too expensive places that stay open. The pizza was great...

I guess I have been rambling a bit, don't worry, everything is still great, but sometimes traveling is simply like that...

Ik ga zelfs niet eens proberen dit te vertalen

Monday, July 30, 2007

Georgetown



I arrived in Georgetown saturday evening. It's a nice and relaxed town, not too big, easy to walk around. There is a lot of Chinese influence, with a lot of Chinese signs, temples, clan houses and restaurants. And there are also a lot of Indian shops and restaurants. I hoped to find some kind of meditation course in Penang, with all those buddhist temples around, but so far haven't really found anything. I did find 2 flyers for yoga courses however. They are both in Thailand, one of them I already did once and was great, but It's only a 7day course and it's in the north-east of Thailand, against the border with Laos. The other course is in Koh Phangan, it's a month-long intensive, though you can also stay for a shorter time. So I think I'm going to check out that second course. I'll have to organise a 2-month visa for Thailand here in Penang, and then I'm off ...

Nederlandse tekst komt nog

Friday, July 27, 2007

Still in KL



KL is proving to be a nice city. Not that there are a lot of special things to do here, except for shopping and hanging around. There are of course the Petronas towers and Chinatown and it's nice to be able to enjoy all that great food... I also haven't been able to decide where I would go next, until today. I just bought my busticket to Georgetown (Penang) for tomorrow. I will be there in the early evening...

KL blijkt echt wel een leuke stad te zijn. Niet dat er echt heel veel te doen is buiten shoppen en relaxen. Er zijn natuurlijk wel de Petronas torens en chinatown and ik heb al genoten van al het lekkere eten... En ik wist ook niet goed wat mijn volgende bestemming zou zijn, tot vandaag. Ik heb zojuist een busticket gekocht voor Georgetown (Penang) voor morgen. Tegen de avond ben ik daar...

Monday, July 23, 2007

What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours ...

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia early in the afternoon. And my first impressions of the city are quite positive :-). It's a cultural diverse place with a lot of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian people, with of course their own restaurants, I've already had some good Indian food, mmm. And I've already met more backpackers then during the 6 weeks in Indonesia. I'm staying at a nice hostel, called The Haven. It's still very new and it isn't in the guide books yet, but it's great...
So it seems that I'm going to like Malaysia :-)

Ik ben in de vroege namiddag in Kuala Lumpur aangekomen. En mijn eerste indruk is alvast heel positief :-) 't Is een cultureel diverse plek met veel Maleisische, Chinese en Indische mensen, natuurlijk met hun eigen restaurants. Ik heb daarjuist al heel lekker Indisch gegeten, mmm. En ik heb ook al meer backpackers ontmoet dan gedurende die 6 weken in Indonesie. Ik verblijf nu in een leuke hostel, The Haven. 't is nog heel nieuw en staat nog niet in de reisgidsen, maar 't is er tof...
Dus het ziet er naar uit dat ik Maleisie wel leuk ga vinden :-)

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Sunday, July 22, 2007

the last day in ... Indonesia

Yesterday I decided that there really is no reason to hang around in Solo any longer, so I tried to change my flight to Kuala Lumpur, hoping I would be able to leave earlier, if possible today. Of course this was a bit too optimistic, but I was able to change my flight so I can leave tomorrow morning. By lunch tomorrow I will be in Malaysia. I'm happy that I was able to change the flight cause I really feel like I'm already too long in Solo. Solo is a place where you can stay for 2 nights, but not a whole week, it simply is not that interesting.
So maybe this is a good time to reflect on my stay in Indonesia. I've been here for 6 weeks now, 3 in Bali and 3 in Java. I do have some mixed feelings about it. The country is beautiful without a doubt, the pictures proove that. But I have the feeling that you would be able to enjoy the country much more if you're able to travel with a bigger budget. Taking public transport has been a big hassle, especially in Bali, where the bemo drivers try to rip you off every time again and again with prices that are 10 times as high as they should be. And you always have to take several bemos to reach your destination even if you're not going that far. In Java transport was a lot easier and cheaper and the prices were correct, except on the bus to Borobodur. But what I missed most here in Indonesia was other solo low-budget backpackers. I can count the ones I met on one hand.
People think I don't like touristy places, but that's actually wrong. I do like them, and I definitely like to have the tourist infrastructure, cause it means that there are good restaurants and places to relax. But I don't like touristy places that are only meant for big-budget or package tourism people. Because when you talk to those people they are on a different wavelength, they haven't got a clue what low-budget means (for example my budget is about 15 euro/day) and for them everything here is cheap. And it seems that most of the tourists in Indonesia are that kind of tourists... So I'm happy to go to Malaysia, cause I hope to find some more people there that are on my wavelength, and if not, Thailand is not that far away...

Nederlandse versie komt nog...

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Thank you for all the comments

Yes, I do read all those comments and I really appreciate them, thank you very much for taking the time to write something...

Jaja, ik lees ze dus wel echt, alle commentaar. En ik vind het heel tof dat jullie de tijd nemen om af en toe iets te schrijven, dus hartelijk bedankt!

Tawangmangu



Even though the road to Tawangmangu was very beautiful with lush green vegetable plantations and rice terraces, Tawangmangu itself was not that spectecular. It's a hill town built for Indonesian tourists. The only interesting thing to see in town is the 90m high waterfall, which I admit, was nice. I also visited the Sukuh and Ceto Temples, but I think it would have been just as good if I had visited them from Solo. Tawangmangu is only a little bit closer. The Ceto Temple was the nicest of the two temples, but I think only because there had been a special ceremony a few days ago, and everything was still decorated. The way to Ceto is also very beautiful, going through hills with tea plantations.
The Sukuh Temple is special cause it looks like a Mexican temple.
Yesterday I returned to Solo. I had a very nice Italian meal at 'O Solo Mio', which to my surprise has some real authenthic Italian food. It was nice to eat something different for a change, cause I'm starting to get enough of all the fried rice and fried noodles. Being a vegeterian (or semi-vegetarian cause I do eat fish) is not the worst thing in Indonesia, because they have tofy and tempe, but especially when you're in little towns like Tawangmangu you end up eating the same thing again and again. I did discover another nice dish yesterday evening though, called Nasi Liwet, and it's made of rice steamed in coconut sauce with a topping made of papaya and spices , mmmm. I'm happy that my trip to Malaysia is coming closer though, cause I think the food will be a little bit more varied there, because they also have a lot of Indian food.

Ondanks het feit dat de weg naar Tawangmangu heel mooi was met groene groenteplantages en rijstterrassen, was Twangmangu zelf niet zo interessant. 't Is duidelijk gemaakt voor Indonesische toeristen. Het enige interessante was de 90m hoge waterval, die zelfs ik ook mooi vond. Ik heb ook de Sukuh end Ceto Tempels bezocht, maar dat had ik net zo goed vanuit Solo kunnen doen. Tawangmangu is maar een klein beetje dichterbij. De Ceto Tempel was de mooiste van de twee, maar enkel omdat er een speciale ceremonie was geweest een paar dagen geleden en alles nog versierd was. Ook deweg naar Ceto was heel mooi, tussen de heuvels met theeplantages.
De Sukuh Tempel is dan weer speciaal omdat hij lijkt op een Mexicaanse tempel.
Gisteren ben ik dan maar weer naar Solo teruggekeerd. Ik ben er heel lekker Italiaans gaan eten in 'O Solo Mio', een restaurant dat to mijn verbazing echt authenthiek Italiaans eten had. 't Was fijn om nog eens iets anders te kunnen eten, want ik begin de Nasi en Mie Goreng toch een beetje beu te geraken. Vegetarier zijn (of semi-vegetarier want ik eet wel vis) is niet het ergste in Indonesie, want ze hebben hier wel tofu en tempe, maar vooral in kleinere steden zoals Tawangmangu eet je uiteindelijk telkens weer 'tzelfde. Maar ik heb gisterenavond toch nog een lekker nieuw gerecht ontdekt, 't heet Nasi Liwet, en 't is gemaakt van rijst gestoomd in een kokosnootsaus met papaya en kruiden , mmmm. Maar ik ben toch wel blij dat mij vertrek naar Maleisie eraan komt, want ik denk dat het eten daar toch ietsje gevarieerder gaat zijn want ze hebben er ook veel Indisch eten.


Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Solo



Yesterday I left Yogya and went to Prambanan by bus. I tried to find a nice hotel, but failed. I first went to the Prambanan Indah Hotel, which is mentioned in the Lonely Planet, but all that is left of this hotel are a few walls. It was completely destroyed by the earthquake and they never rebuild the place. There was another hotel in the same street, the Visnu Hotel, but the rooms were not very clean, so I didn't want to stay there. Since the town didn't look that nice, cause it's all centred around the buzy highway, I decided to visit only the main temples and go to Solo immediately. The temples themselves have been damaged as well during the earthquake. They are still very beautiful and definitely worth seeing, but it's a pity that you can't go inside...
So now I'm in Solo (Surakarta). I met a few people who liked Solo more than Yogya, because it's similar but more relaxed, but I don't know. There are definitely less tourists here, but there isn't a lot to do. Somehow there are a lot of French tourists here, which is strange, cause everywhere else there are always so many Dutch people around. I have 8 more days until my flight to Malaysia, but I don't think I will stay in Solo. I discovered there are some nice temples on Gunung Lawu, a mountain not too far from here, and there should also be lots of tea plantations. So I will go to Tawangmangu tomorrow, that's a hill station close to the temples and I will stay there for a few days...

Nederlandse versie komt eraan

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Last day in Yogya

Yesterday morning I visited Kota Gede, a neighbourhood in Yogya famous for its silverwork and shops. I was a little bit disappointed because the main focus was on filigre silverwork, from broches to all kinds of animals and temples. The jewelry was not my style at all. I guess it's the style that maybe your grandmother would appreciate. The Lonely Planet says that they also sell modern stuff, but I didn't see any and I visited a lot of shops...
Tomorrow I will go to Prambanan. I hope I will find a nice little hotel there so I can stay there for 2 nights like I did in Borobodur. I would like to be able to walk around the temples at sunrise, avoiding most of the crowds and when there is good light for taking pictures. The LP is not so positive about the hotels in Prambanan, but since they seem to get it wrong more than once, I decided to go for it and if I don't find I decent hotel I will go to Solo, after a quick look at the temples...

Gisteren ben ik 's morgens naar Kota Gede geweest, een buurt in Yogya bekend voor de zilversmeden en -winkels. Ik was een beetje teleurgesteld want de focus lag er duidelijk op filigre zilverwerk, van broches tot alle mogelijke dieren tot tempels. 't Was helemaal niet mijn stijl. Ik veronderstel dat 't misschien een stijl is die je grootmoeder mooi zou vinden, maar ik zie liever iets moderner. Volgens de Lonely Planet ouden ze er ook wel moderne dingen verkopen, maar daar heb ik toch niks van gezien en ik heb veel winkels bezocht...
Morgen ga ik naar Prambanan. Ik hoop dat ik er een leuk hotelletje vind zodat ik er 2 nachten kan blijven zoals in Borobodur. Ik zou er graag tussen de tempels kunnen lopen als de zon opkomt, zodat ik de grootste drukte kan vermijden en wanneer er ook goed licht is om foto's te trekken. De Lonely Planet is wel niet zo positief over de hotels in Prambanan, maar aangezien ze 't wel vaker fout hebben, heb ik besloten er toch voor te gaan en als 't toch tegenvalt bekijk ik de tempels gewoon snel en vertrek ik meteen naar Solo...

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Borobodur



Two days ago I went to the little town of Borobodur, famous for its amazing buddhist temple. Instead of going on a tour from Yogya I decided to stay there for 2 nights at the Manohara hotel inside the park. The rooms should have nice views of the temple and you get unlimited access to the temple during opening hours. I didn't make a reservation, cause in Yogya everybody said it was not necessary, but of course the hotel full :-(, so instead I stayed at the Lotus II guesthouse, which has huge rooms with big balconies with views of the rice fields.
The becak driver who took me to the hotel knew a Belgian woman, Wendy, married to an Indonesian and living in Borobodur, so he took me there. She has been living in Indoesia for 4 years now and works for "Anders Reizen", a Belgian company organizing adventurous holidays all over the world. The next day she would actually go to Yogya to accompany a group of travelers. Since it was her last day at home they planned to visit a viewpoint of the Merapi volcano not too far from Borobodur and I joined them...
The next morning I got up early to be at the gate of the the temple in time when it opens at 6 am, hoping I would still see a bit of the sunrise. There is also a sunrise tour to visit the temple before opening hours, but it is very expensive so I decided to go at 6 am. And I was lucky, cause the sun was still rising... There were not too many people yet so that was also a bonus. An hour later there were hundreds of people, especially a lot of school groups and Indonesian families. And of course they all wanted to have a picture with me. The first 5 times it's nice to do, but in the end I had to run away cause more and more people came to have a picture with me and sometimes they were quite rude, not even asking anymore, but simply assuming I'd do it. It has happened more than once before in Asia that people ask me to be in their picture, but never like this, it was crazy... So I went back to the hotel and had some breakfast and I thought I would relax the rest of the day. But in the afternoon an Indonesian family moved into the other room and the rest of the day I heard the four children giggling on their balcony cause they wanted to come and say something but don't know any english. In the evening th father came with all the children and he talked with me for a while, but his english was also very limited. And of course in the end they only wanted to have a picture with me...

Twee dagen geleden ging ik naar het dorpje Borobodur, bekend van zij prachtige boedistische tempel. In plaats van de tempel vanuit Yogya te bezoeken zoals de meeste mensen doen, besloot ik in het Manohara hotel te blijven, een hotel dat in 't park ligt. De kamers zouden een prachtig zicht hebben op de tempel en je krijgt er onbeperkte toegang tot de tempel tijdens openingsuren. Ik had niet gereserveerd want dat was niet nodig volgens de mensen in Yogya, maar natuurlijk was het hotel volzet :-(, dus verbleef ik dan maar in de Lotus II guesthouse, die ook wel reusachtige kamers hadden met een groot balkon en zicht op de rijstvelden.
De becakchauffeur die me naar het hotel bracht kende een Belgische vrouw, Wendy, die getrouwd is met een Indonesier en die in Borobodur woont, dus hij bracht me er naar toe. Ze woont ondertussen al 4 jaar in Indonesie en werkt voor "Anders Reizen". De volgende dag zou ze naar Yogya gaan om er een groep reizigers te gaan begeleiden. Aangezien 't haar laatste dag thuis was hadden ze een uitstapje gepland naar een viewpoint van de Merapi vulkaar en ik ben met hen meegegaan...
De volgende morgen ben ik vroeg opgestaan zodat ik op tijd aan de ingang van de tempel zou zijn wanneer die opent om 6 uur 's morgens, in de hoop dat ik nog een beetje van de zonsopgang zou kunnen meepikken. Er is ook wel een zonsopgang-tour waarmee je de tempel kunt bezoeken voordat 't park opent, maar dat was heel duur dus ik besloot maar om 6 uur te gaan. En ik had geluk want de zon was nog aan 't rijzen... En er waren ook nog niet zo veel mensen dus dat was zeker een bonus. Een uurtje later waren er honderden mensen, vooral schoolgroepen en Indonesische families. En natuurlijk wilden ze allemaal met mij op de foto. De eerste 5 keer is 't nog leuk, maar uiteindelijk moest ik weglopen want meer en meer mensen wilden een foto en soms waren ze behoorlijk onbeleefd, ze vroegen 't niet eens meer, ze trokken gewoon aan mijn mouw en veronderstelde dat ik 't wel zou doen. Dit was zeker niet de eerste keer dat mensen mij vragen om met hun op de foto te staan in Azie, maar nog nooit was 't zoals hier, dit was echt erover... Dus ik ben maar terug naar 't hotel gegaan zodat ik de rest van de dag een beetje kon relaxen. Maar in de namiddag trok een Indonesische familie in de andere kamer en de rest van de dag hoorde ik de 4 kinderen giechlen op hun balkon omdat ze iets tegen mij wilden zeggen, maar niet konden omdat ze geen Engels kenden. 's Avonds kwam de vader met de kinderen even langs om met mij te praten, maar zijn Engels was ook heel beperkt. En natuurlijk wilden ze uiteindelijk alleen maar een foto met mij...

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Monday, July 9, 2007

Surabaya and Yogya



After Bromo I went to Surabaya. Surabaya is a huge city with lots of traffic and it's very hot. I went to Surabaya to find the convent where the aunt of my grandmother used to be a nun. At home we have a little book with old pictures of the building and with the old address of the complex of the convent, church and schools. Sadly enough I forgot to take a copy of the book with me, so I only had the address to work with. I decided to stay at hotel Paviljoen, because the Lonely Planet says that the elderly owners still speak Dutch. When I asked the owner if he knew the old address he got out is old map of Surabaya and tried to help me. But the street was not on the map, unfortunately. He also had a list of schools, churches and other official buildings from that time, so I decide to check out 2 of the 3 catholic girl schools. The other one was to far from the hotel. When I arrived at the first school, I could clearly see that this was not the right school, cause it looked very different from what I remembered from the pictures. But a becakdriver told me that that street that I was looking for was not far from my hotel, so I walked back to the hotel and later went to that street the becakdriver told me. But there was not even a school or church there so Im not sure whether he understood me correctly. Afterwards I walked to that other school but that school was again looking very different. So the trip to Surabaya turned out to be invain. Maybe if I wanted to spend more time there and if I had the pictures with me, it would have been easier. But I was happy to leave Surabaya the next day.

I have been in Yogyakarta for 2 day now. And it's a nice city. There are a lot of tourists here, even though I haven't really noticed it on the streets, but many of the hotels are full. I've been walking around a lot. Yesterday I visited the Kraton (Sultan's Palace) where they have free dance performances on Sunday mornings. Today I walked to the Via Via Cafe on the other side of town. The Via Via Cafe is managed by Belgian people and I remembered when the earthquake hit last year the Belgian Radio phoned the manager of the cafe to talk about how bad it all was. When you walk through Yogya today, there's nothing to see anymore of the earthquake, and it's easy to forget that many people were killed and many houses were destroyed. In the Via Via Cafe they have their own little paper in which they write about how they had to rebuild the cafe, but also about how they helped many families of their staff to rebuild their lives...


Nederlandse tekst komt nog

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Bromo




As I already said before, Bromo was great. I decided to stay there for 2 nights even though it was quite cold in Cemara Lawang and the hotels were a bit above my budget (I managed to get a room with hot water at the Lava Cafe for 100 000Rp but it was not easy). Cemara Lawang is a little village on the outer crater rim with great views of the Sandsea and Bromo, but you can't see Seneru from here. I wanted to see the sunrise from viewpoint 2. You can get there by jeep, but of course I couldn't find any other people to share the jeep with for the first morning. So I decided to see the sunrise at the terrace of the Cemara Indah Hotel probably the best viewpoint in Cemara Lawang, but not as good as viewpoint 2. After sunrise I walked all the way to Bromo, which isn't that far and climbed the volcano, which was a breeze compared to climbing Batur. The firt part you can get a horse, but that is really not necessary and then there is a staircase of about 250 steps. There were a lot of people there, cause all the jeeps returning from the viewpoint stop at Bromo to see the crater. After returning to the hotel to have breakfast, I decided to walk to viewpoint 1. You can only reach it by walking and even though it's not as high as viewpoint 2, the views are nice. It's about an hour walking from Cemara Lawang. The last bit is a bit hard, but it's worth it, amd you'll be completely alone to enjoy the views...
The next morning I was able to share a jeep with 2 Dutch couples. We left at 4 am. When we arrived at viewpoint 2 we could see immdiately that there were about 50 othe jeeps there, and that there were a lot of people. It was actually not that easy to find a got spot to see the sunrise and it was definately impossible to use a tripod to take pictures cause there were to many people and they were all pushing... Unfortunately it was so cloudy we couldn't see Bromo or the sandsea. We could only see Semeru far away. The sunrise was nice though. I guess that's just as life, sometimes it's cloudy and all you can do is wait until the clouds go. Of course I didn't have time to wait for that, I had a bus to Surabaya to catch...



Nederlandse versie komt nog...

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Sunday, July 8, 2007

New Pictures!



I just uploaded a whole bunch of new pictures and I will upload some more tomorrow. To see them follow the link in the sidebar to see the South-East Asia Slideshow...

Ik heb zojuist een hoop nieuwe foto's online gezet. Volg de link naar de South-East Asia Slideshow in de zijkant als je ze wil zien...

Friday, July 6, 2007

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 ...



Nederlandse tekst komt nog