Manny's World Tour 2009/2010

I best write a little more. It's been a while but I still have my little travel notes!!

Taking the ferry across from Java to Bali took quite a while, given the distance that had to be covered. It meandered its way across the strait, spouting diesel fumes all the while. At the same time, you're gonna be approached and hassled constantly by men trying to sell you knock-off sunglasses trying to pass them off as the real deal. I mean, when they're labelled like "Oakey" (rather than Oakley) or "Ray Bens" (instead of Ray Bans) etc you get the distinct impression that they're not entirely real. Still you have to admire their persistence. It makes the journey that little bit more interesting.

Anyway, arriving at Gilmanuk you're presented with the border crossing into Bali. I had to stop here and take pictures of the border crossing as it's quite unusual. It's a huge sculpture/statue that crosses over the whole main road into Bali. It's this road that lead to Lovina beach. The waters are nice and calm and there are, again, plenty of people trying to sell you odds and sods. Here's a hint: wear sunglasses when haggling. These people are experts in reading reactions in people's eyes. If they see in your eyes that you want something they're selling, your bargaining posture is completely removed. If you seem disinterested (or they can't read your eyes) you can get a huuuge reduction on things they're selling. One woman was selling these charm type things and was wanting 20,000 rupees each for them. A little haggling, and I got 2 for 10,000. Of course, there's a limit to how much haggling you want to do. I mean, we're only talking a dollar here or a dollar there, but the difference for them is huge.

Sunset is quite the scene, maybe not quite the same as Honduras, but still the colors in the sky made quite the sight. It also helped set the mood for a BBQ on the beach. Fresh fish, fresh chicken all cooked up on an open fire. One of the locals got his guitar and entertained everyone with songs, even taking requests. People just clapped along, drinking their beer (all the better for getting it from the local supermarkets) and eating the food, just letting the night pass away.

As well as being able to lounge around by the beach, there's plenty of other things to do. Nearby, there's Bali's only Buddhist monastery, but to get in you have to wear a sarong. Even the guys. It's not really my bag, and I reckon its just a con to get tourists to buy sarongs, but hey, you got to do whats right by their customs. The monastery itself is one of the better ones in Indonesia. It may not be on the same scale as something like Borobodur but there's plenty to see within the grounds. There's pools, statues, grottos and plenty of altars and things and you can amble about at your leisure.

On the other side, there's a great waterfall. I know I've seen plenty of these things over my travels but it was just something different to do here in Indonesia.

One thing i haven't mentioned in this posting is the humidity. Java was humid. Bali took it up another notch. With the heat of the sun on top of the humidity, it was important to keep fluid intake up. Of course you have to check the water supplies and only drink bottled water. Even having ice in your drinks, you want to make sure that the ice cubes are made from mineral water, not tap water. Imagine tap water ice cubes melting in your drink. Not a pleasant thought at all. The food is quite nice and here in Bali there seems to be a greater range of western dishes. To be expected I guess. There's lots of tourists round here, especially ones from Australia. Lots of bars with lots of happy hours. With the calm waters and the other attractions, there's plenty to keep you occupied for a while, as long as you can cope with the humidity, which is almost overwhelming at times.

One of the highlights of Bali was the talking frog. Yes, there was a talking frog. Well, it sounded like it was talking. A few us tourist types would sit outside, in the hotel having a few beers by the pool and every so often you'd hear a noise that sounded like a "whoop whoop whoop whoop" and then a frog would croak out "f&%k off" about 5 times. I wish I could've taped what it sounded like. It had everyone crying tears of laughter. The locals never really understood what was going on, why a bunch of tourists were literally rolling around on the floor, hold their sides, laughing. I expect you had to have been there to really appreciate, but it was one of my highlights.

OF course Bali has a lot more than funny talking frogs. After all, there's the funny monkeys at the monkey temple. They can be a little angry and aggressive but for the most part they're just cheeky.

One of the things to experience here in Java, is going to a traditional village feast and festival. Here you get to try some of the local delicacies, like potato fritters, corn fritters and deep fried soy curd. As well as this there's noodles, rice, chicken, beef and plenty of tea to drink too. One of the houses in the village cooks all the food and its all presented buffet style so you can go and help yourselves to as much as you like. But you have to remember that this is also food for everyone else (I mean the locals) so its best not to pig out too much on the good stuff and just use plenty of noodles and rice as the filler food and just take little bits of everything else.

The really great thing about these festival things is the performance that the local villagers put on after the food. Here, the youngsters perform dances and routines to music that the adults are playing. Listening to the music by itself, you do wonder if the Indonesians are tone deaf because it just doesn't seem to flow at all. However, once all the dancing starts, you can see how it forms the pulse of the performance and it seems to make sense and flow into the dancing that the kids are doing. There is some semblence of a story but I couldn't really figure it out. It was fantastic though.

The kids enjoyed themselves as did the locals, who don't get to see this kind of thing very often themselves. They dressed up with dragon costumes and danced around. There was even a crazy man who ate red hot coals and bit into glass and ate that too. He looked well out of it. He was either crazy or on drugs or, all the more likely, both.

There's plenty to see in the countryside - tea plantations and rice fields, and its all over the place here. I mentioned that Indonesia is an incredibly self sufficient country. If there's space to grow crops, they'll be growing them - no matter how steep the slopes or how difficult the terrain. If the lands fertile enough (and there's not that many places where it isn't), there will be crops grown on it.

Surakarta (commonly known as Solo) is the second royal city in Java and it has its own palace too. It's not as large as the Kraton in Yogya and its not as impressive either. Again they make you pay to take pictures with your camera but once you get into the musuem inside the palace, you can't take any pictures at all. It only amounted to about 10c to pay to use your camera so its not really that much of a bother but there's a principle here. They really should tell you that you're limited to taking photos of the outside of the palace only. They must get loads of money from tourists with the additional 1000 rupee charge for cameras. Round here there are more temples, with more reliefs to see. Along the country roads there's plenty to see with more grasslands, farmlands and the odd statue here and there. The market places in some of the towns are quite fascinating. They sell all kinds of things: Birds, cats, mice, chickens etc. You can't help but wonder if they're selling them as pets or as food....

After passing through a few more towns, with the odd thunderous downpour of torrential rain, it was onto Mount Bromo, Java’s still-smoking and very ancient volcano. Its Considered the jewel in the crown of East Java, and one of the most spectacular volcanoes in Indonesia. It is actually one of four craters, which have arisen out of the ancient and vast expanse of the Tengger crater.

Legend tells that the Tengger people are descendants of an ancient union between the daughter of the last king of Majapahit and an heir of the god Brahamana, making them culturally and ethnically different from the other Java peoples, and each year the Kasada Festival sees them presenting prayers and offerings to the gods from the top of the crater’s rim, casting flowers, vegetables and money into the mouth of the caldera. This entire region now encompasses the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru N.P., a remarkable setting of rainforest, grasslands and casuarinas forests, sheltering a range of flora and fauna that includes some 157 species of orchid, as well as panthers, monkeys, leopards and deer. It's quite the sight and its quite the climb to the top of it. Thankfully there are stairs that have been carved to help you get to the top and you're often acosted by locals trying to sell you casting flowers that you can throw into the caldera and say a prayer (make a wish type thing). For the amount of a dollar or two, you're not exactly breaking the bank. It's worth taking a pullover or something cos it can get very breezy at the top, and it can start raining at any minute.

The last stop in Java before getting the ferry to Bali, would be in Kalibaru. Here it was just time to relax, take in the scenary, the fauna, flowers etc and even see possibly the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. The hotel also had another visitor in a horn-billed bird that stopped by for breakfast. It would just bounce along the path and stop by the al-fresco dining area and wait for the hotel guests to throw it over some food which it accepted gratefully.
After this whirlwind tour of java, it was onto the next indonesian island of Bali via the ferry.