Yogyakarta, eastern Java, and Bali

Day: 29
Countries: 2
Stops: 9


OK, so I guess I'm a little (a lot?) behind. I'm actually in Singapore at the moment, taking shelter from the rain, but I want to save that for another post. Let's see if I can remember as far back as Day 14...



To get to Yogyakarta, we took a minivan from the hotel then a 4 hour train ride to Yogya, getting there around 5 pm, just in time for a quick dip in the pool and then dinner. The next morning, we all went for a walk around the city, checking out the local wet market, then a bemo (public bus) to a larger market, Pasar Beringharjo. After a quick walk through the market, we walked to Jl Malioboro and passed by the old Dutch colonial buildings, and then took an andong (horse carts) to get to the Sultan's Palace and do a tour. We also walked by of the old ruins, including underground tunnels out of the palace, an old underground mosque, and the old bird market (now defunct due to bird flu concerns). To get back, we took becaks (bicycle rickshaws) to the hotel. After lunch, a couple of the girls (Chantale and Whitney) and I went to do a silver making course in Kota Gede, where we all made silver rings, with the help of our teacher, Agus. The next morning was pretty lazy, and in the afternoon 5 of us headed to see Borobodur, which is essentially a giant multi-layered stupa with relief carvings lining the sides. Supposedly, you're supposed to enter from the east side and go clockwise all the way around, climbing up as you go all the way to nirvana. It would have been really interesting to spend more time there and do it properly, but we got there a bit late and they ended up kicking us out of the stupa at closing time.

The underground mosque

I made this myself!

At Borobodur

The following day was another long travel day, 7 hours by public A/C bus to get to Mojokerto, then transferred to a hired van to transport us the rest of the way to Seloliman and the environmental centre. The place is in the middle of a reserve forest (although technically the forest used to be a clearcut until they built the centre and replanted all the trees), and kind of reminds me of Ankasa rainforest in Ghana...although a bit less remote and more commercialized (you could buy beer!). We went for a quick tour around the centre, including their traditional herbal medicine garden, and then went through the forest into the rice fields and the village, where we went to a "coffee shop" (read: small hut with a table and space for her bed and cooking area) run by a 92 year old woman (the oldest woman in the village) who also roasts the beans and grinds them herself! The coffee was actually pretty good, and for an extra 5000 Rp (less than a dollar), I bought a small bag of it to make at home (wherever that turns out to be). After lunch, we had a quick demonstration of Jamu, which is what they call traditional Indonesian medicine, and our tour guide PE (not sure how to spell that) made a tea with cinnamon bark (straight from the tree), ginger root, lemon grass, cardamom seeds, and the bark of another local tree (for the red colouring) -- all straight from their garden. 


Right after the tea, we boarded our van to go to Mt Bromo, where we arrived at 6pm and had a quick dinner before heading up to bed for our 3am wake up call! The climb up to the lookout at Gunung Penanjakan wasn't as grueling as they made it out to be, although it was sweaty work (even with the cooler temperature at the higher elevation). Lots of people were there to see the sunrise too, and afterwards we all got back on our Jeeps to drive across the "sea of sand" and climb up *gasp for air here* the crater at Mt Bromo. The crater itself wasn't much to look at, just a hole with smoke rising out of it, but the views from the top were amazing, well worth the climb.

Tourists watching the sunrise at Mt Bromo

Another long travel day is ahead of us after breakfast at the hotel, taking the van to Probolinggo to take a 5 hour train to Banyuwangi, which is the end of the line. From there, we walked to the ferry terminal and 2 hours later, we were in Bali! Two minivans from the ferry terminal brought us to Lovina 2 hours later, which didn't leave much for sightseeing, unfortunately.


So, just to keep track, at this point we're now on Day 20! After breakfast the next morning, Andy (our tour guide) walked with me to the local dive shop, Spice Dive, where I promptly signed up for my first ocean dive...ever! It was to be the Liberty wreck at Tulamben, which I was skeptical about at first since I've never done wreck dives before, but I was assured it was going to be easy and was a popular and nice dive. With that taken care of, Ashleigh and I booked a massage at Agung's spa, and were picked up by motorbikes(!) in the late afternoon. My first ever motorbike ride! The spa was actually this traditional hut 10 minutes away, but had a really nice garden to relax in afterwards. Dinner was a Balinese feast made for us by a local woman, which was really good and way too much food for any of us to finish. 

The dolphin statue at Lovina Beach

So, the dive! They picked me up from the hotel at 8am and took me to the shop, where I met my divemaster and got my gear together (I brought my fins, boots, mask and snorkel, so all I needed was the BCD, regulators and of course, the tanks). We drove 2 hours to Tulamben, and had our gear taken to the beach about 10 minutes away by porters! They carried scuba tanks on their heads! Crazy! Anyway, the dive was easier than I thought..it helped that I wasn't wearing a super thick neoprene suit and hood, plus the visibility was way way better than at Lake Sundance where I did my course (hahaha!). There were lots of divers around, and apparently it was low season too...during high season, there can be 5x as many divers around, which I found crazy since as it was, every where I turned there were divers around. Anyway, I saw lots of cool stuff, including ghost pipefishes, clown anemonefish, a school of jackfishes, and even a couple of small rays. The divemaster was pretty good at pointing cool stuff out, and was slightly amusing in the water, performing "magic" tricks and cracking jokes while underwater (yes, that is possible, apparently). 


I finished my 2 dives around 1:30pm, but I wasn't due to be picked up by the rest of the group until 3:30pm, on the way to Tirtagangga, so I just bought a drink from the shop and sat there reading my book for 2 hours. When they finally arrived, I got on the vans and it was a short 30 minute drive to Tirtangganga. The view from our hotel was really pretty (more rice fields!), and after a quick change, I was back out again to go for a walk with Chantale, Julian, and Andy. We climbed up the hill behind the hotel for a better view, then over to the village, stopping to look at coffee, cacao, and cardamom trees along the way. Apparently, that day was special holy day, for the god of money, or so we were told, so there were lots of processions down the street, with each family group holding their own ceremonies in traditional clothing. After the walk, we met up with the group again at the Water Palace, then a nice dinner at the nearby restaurant. 

Performing a ritual

Water Palace at Tirtagganga

The following day, we left for Ubud, stopping by a white sand beach along the way, which was really nice as we were one of the first ones there and it wasn't very crowded. After a few hours, we were finally on our way to Ubud, arriving at 2pm (including our 30 min stop, when our driver didn't seem to know how to deal with an overheating vehicle...he had to get his boss (who was in the other van) to come back and look at it, when all it needed was more water....). Immediately (well, after a quick lunch), we all went out for a "walk", which around here really meant "shopping"! The next day was also pretty much a shopping day, but I managed to fit in a visit to Museum Puri Lukisan, showcasing Balinese art, which was very interesting and full of symbolism and based mostly on local village life, as well as Balinese legends and Hindu epics. This was also the last night of our tour (and also Whitney's birthday), so we all got dressed up for dinner at the Dirty Duck (I forget what the actual name is in Indonesian) and then for some drinks afterwards.

Puri Taman Saraswati shrine in Ubud

The following morning was full of goodbyes, and Chantale and I set off for Sanur, which was a beach town about an hour away. The hotel I booked, Prima Cottages, wasn't by the beach, but it was pretty nice, and the service is quite excellent. In the afternoon we just walked by the beach, then had and early night. The next morning we spent organizing Chantale's trip to see the Komodo dragons, and by the time she got that sorted, it was time for her to actually leave for that trip! The rest of the days in Sanur I spent by myself, which was actually kind of enjoyable since I had no schedule and could do whatever I felt like. Unfortunately, there wasn't too much time spent on the beach, or even the pool, since the rainy season had truly started by this time, and each afternoon brought rain and even thundershowers.


So, that takes us up to Day 29, which is when I left Bali for Singapore! I'll cover Singapore on the next post, which hopefully I'll have time for tomorrow!