We arrived in
Jakarta,
Javas Capital late in the evening and made our way to the backpackers street of
Jalan Jaska. Found Hostel 35 booked in then headed to the nearest bar for our 1st Bintang, WOW that is good...
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| Just what we needed |
The next day we walked to the Monas Tower, Jakarta's national monument with fantastic views over
Jakarta, this place is so so big, then got a local bus to the old town..
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| Monus Tower |
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| WOW look at the views |
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| Good pose lads!!! |
Next on the train with executive seats to the town of
Bandung. The 3rd world proper was really on show in
Bandung. The poverty is extremely evident here as we walk around, its certainly not a touristic place. The main appeal to
Bandung is that it is close to surrounding volcano's.
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| Bandung |
We had a day trip to the most active volcano in
Western Java, Papandagon Volcano, which only erupted 2 years ago AHH!!!!!! Then onto some
Hot Springs, Cipanas to end the day NICE!!!!
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| Volcano |
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| Our Guide, Bruce Lee |
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| Strike a pose..... |
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| Looking for stones..... |
Hot Springs in the rain.....
Now time for some beach time and head to
Java's beach town of
Pangandoran. OMG, when we got here we found out it is
Java's holiday weekend and everyone is here and rooms have doubled in price AHH!!!! When we finally found a room which was available we headed down to look at the beach, it was packed with locals having fun on the beach....
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| Locals at the beach.... |
We decided to try and get away from it all and walk to the National Park, but when we got there it was packed there too...We both felt like stars everyone wanted photos of us, we decided to re-name ourselves Brad and Ange he he!!!!
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| Celebrity for the day!! |
Next another train but this time 5hours in economy, oh my what a difference, felt like caged chickens in a very hot stuffy train with only fans and locals selling anything they could think. Heading to the city of
Yogyakarta which is a little more touristy here, more Westerners, so locals don't stare at you too much...While here we visited
Sultan's Royal Palace and took in a shadow puppet show he he!!!!
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| Sultan |
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| Shadow Puppet Show |
Next day we took a day trip to
Borobudor Temples, Java's equivalent to
Ankor Wat. Awesome views, in the distance you could see the recently erupted
Mount Merapi which had closed
Borobudor for 6 months due to ash deposits. Then the following day we headed up to
Mount Merapi by local bus.
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| Nice skirt Steve!!! |
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| Borobudar Temple |
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| Following Steve's fashion... |
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| Mount Merapi |
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| Nice view... |
Then onto our final stop in
Java, Mount Bromo Volcano. IT was a very long tiring day getting there, we finally made it by 9pm and found a cold damp homestay in the village of
Cemoro Lawrang. We only had a few hours sleep as we got up at 2.30am to go trekking up the mountain for sunrise views over
Mount Bromo. Unfortunately when we got there the weather was not on our side and the sky's were full of clouds, how gutted were we. But this local on a moped saved our day by offering to take us to
Mount Bromo then back to base. 3 on a moped get in!!!!
