Articles from this Category
12 July 2011
I woke and my heart sank I woke thinking that I wouldn’t be able to get to Railay today, where I have prepaid accommodation. In fact it was the sound of the wind and rain that woke me up. The weather cleared after breakfast but walking down to the beach where the boats depart for […]
11 July 2011
I had to wake at 0300 for a 0530 departure from Surabaya to KL in order to self-connect to Krabi 4h20 mins after landing at 0905. It was a pleasant few hours at KLIA LCCT as I spent most of the time at the nearby Food Garden catching up on emails and tasks. Upon arrival at […]
10 July 2011
Surabaya takes its name from a legend in which the shark (suro) and crocodile (baya) fight for dominance. Beautiful story, beautiful name but otherwise … The old town has crumbling remains from the colonial past … generally Indonesia doesn’t revere that era so such old buildings are left to ruins or renovated beyond recognition. It’s […]
9 July 2011
Above: Jembatan Merah, or red bridge in Surabaya where there was a fierce battle in the war for independence. How easy would it be to get from Pasuruan to Surabaya? In theory it takes about an hour … not! Pasuruan is big enough to be unmanageable on foot … but small enough not to have […]
8 July 2011
The beautiful crater of Ijen After yesterdays 0020 wakeup, this morning’s alarm for 0330 seemed like luxury. I put on yesterday’s dirty shirt, trousers and ash-laden socks … our guide said we’d be equally dirty today. Soon after 0400 we took a short drive and walked about 90 minutes to the top of Ijen Crater. […]
7 July 2011
Sunrise over the three volcanoes I set the alarm clock for 0020 in time for a 0100 departure from Malang to Mount Bromo. The journey in our white Land Rover to Cemoro Lawang took about 2h30. Once there, we waited in the chilly highland air for a beaten up local Toyota Landcruiser to take us […]
6 July 2011
Above: Malang is famous for meatball soup “Bakso Malang”. We woke up to the poshest street in town, it seemed. It was dark when we arrived last night and when we left the homestay we realised we were surrounded by mansions. The street was also dotted with private security. As it turns out in my […]
5 July 2011
Above: Restaurant serving dog meat in many ways. Long journey to Malang My three Swiss companions from yesterday were headed in the same direction, Malang, as a stopover for getting to Mt Bromo. We had organised to share the same transport from our Solo homestay. But the “travel” (pronounced trrrruffle, a shared longhaul minivan) took […]
4 July 2011
Solo by bicycle I didn’t have much planned and was going to go visit the palaces here in Solo. The sultan here still exists but unlike in Jogja, he is only a figurehead. The guidebooks suggest that the palaces here aren’t as good; one had been rebuilt due to a fire. Over breakfast, I chatted […]
3 July 2011
Wandering minstrels I had my first taste of Javanese intercity travel today. On the bus at the intercity terminal, wandering minstrels came on in turn to entertain passengers. Each had a guitar and was singing (very well I might add) and had an accomplice to collect the proceeds for their busking. I stopped contributing when […]