Bako NP and Orang-utans!

Currently relaxing at my hostel in Kuching.  I'm completely spent.  It's 4pm and I woke up at 5:30 this morning to make sure I had enough time to shower, eat, leave my bags and laundry, etc.  Louise and I were getting the 7:20am bus to Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and its supposed to take about 30 minutes to walk to the bus (it was closer to 15 minutes).

I should backtrack though because I didn't write about yesterday, which was also an early morning, and I forgot two things from the first night in Kuching.  As we walked along the river bank there were a few stalls selling some type of colored cake.  They are artistic cakes with patterns, sometimes very complex, and can take hours to make.  We got to sample about ten different kinds and I purchased a coffee flavor cake.  On the way to dinner I was carrying the cake bag in my hand and when we walked through a hotel parking lot a guy on motorbike came up behind me.  He honked and I moved to the side of the road, but he was coming up the side and almost crashed into me.  Fortunately, he only ripped the plastic with the cake but it shook me up.

Back to yesterday... Woke up at 6:30 in order to meet Louise at 7:30am to catch a bus to Bako National Park.  Bako National Park is Sarawak's oldest national park located on the Muara Tebas Peninsula jutting out into the South China Sea.  She was running a bit late, as was the French couple in her room, but we found a bus stop and a friendly local told us we were in the right place.  A bunch of other people showed up for the bus and we met a couple of woman staying at my hostel.  45 minutes after the bus picked us up, we were registering at Bako and sharing a boat with the two other women and a French couple.  On the boat we saw a local village on the water with colorful houses and boats on the shore. The mountain in the distance looked misty and the streaked sandstone cliffs created a dramatic coastline. Our boat driver Mohamed pointed out a few things along the way and told us he'd pick us up at the low tide point at 4pm; we had six hours to explore.  Christiane, Laura, Louise and I set off on the Lintang trail, 5.3 km (after stopping at another registration desk where some monkeys stole some fruit out of the office).

We hiked up and down the trail, over tree branches, on wood planks, wood steps, rocks, etc. There was thick jungle and then a small expanse of solid rock with little streams. It was a bit cloudy, but it never rained (which was lucky as the only thing people that had gone to Bako said was that it rained). We took a few breaks on the trail to rest, reapply sunscreen, snack and to try to clear the sweat. Our main objective was to find some wildlife, notably the rare proboscis monkey. Four hours into walking and 5 km into the trail, we had only spotted a few squirrels, lizards, and lots of different types of ants, no monkeys. But as we walked along, I heard some rustling in the branches above. I looked up and eventually spotted it, the proboscis monkey. There were a few swinging from the tree tops around us. We must have stayed watching them for 45 minutes, branches kept shaking and we'd turn to try and find the next monkey. The males have very long noses, so they are pretty funny looking monkeys.

When we continued walking, we found more monkeys but a different species. I'm unsure of their name, but they are the same type I saw at Batu caves. Sweaty and tired, we arrived at the cafe around 3pm and decided to relax until our boat ride back to town. Little did I know that to get in the boat during low tide you have to walk through just-below-the-knee-deep water. Shoes and socks came off and I stepped into the South China Sea. The water was a pleasant temperature. We convinced Mohamed to take us a bit further down the beach to a rock spot (don't remember what the official name is). It was basically just a few cool shaped rocks in the water; worth seeing for RM 5. Then back to town where the bus sat waiting to take us to Kuching. Perfect timing.

In Kuching, Louise, Laura and I decided to have a couple hours to ourselves before dinner. I showered and put on my skirt-dress and actually made an effort to look nice; probably the first evening I've done so, partly because I never really have time to change before dinner. Laura's friend Lizzy joined us at Green Hill Corner. Four single women travellers all coming together to keep each other company. I chose the stalls with Char Sui Bun and beef noodle soup. Even though I got back around 9:30, I managed to take a long time getting my laundry together and getting ready for bed. As I turned off the light at 11:30, I groaned that I'd only be getting six hours of sleep.

I actually woke up before my alarm went off at 5:30am. I tried not to wake the other woman in my dorm (a ten-person dorm which only had one person the first night and two the second) as I got myself together. Louise and I were meeting at 6:50 sharp and I had lots to organise. We strolled through Chinatown and past the open market before arriving at the bus stop in front of the pink mosque. Women were setting up vegetable stalls on the ground and the city was slowly coming to life. While we waited, a man approached us saying he could take us to Semenggoh in his van. It was RM 4, same as the bus, so we agreed. There were eight of us in a cramped van, which took us the 40 minutes to Semenggoh (whose aim is to reintroduce the animals to their natural habitat) before the 1 km walk to the feeding platform. Louise and I displayed school children excitement at the thought of seeing orang-utans, and we still had 45 minutes until feeding time began at 9am. I was first in line to follow the guide to the feeding area.

As we walked in, we were told that the biggest male, Ritchie, was already eating his breakfast. Score! There were two other orang-utans eating on the left side of the walkway. Ritchie is enormous (I think they said he weighs 140+ kgs). Watching the orang-utans eat, swing from the branches, and play was incredible. They are fascinating primates. And we really lucked out because there must have been at least eight who showed up for breakfast (no guarantee that you see any). I just kept going back-and-forth where they were hanging out snapping pictures and taking video and watching in awe. It was absolutely amazing, and we had almost an hour to observe them.

Getting back in the van turned into a production. There were six of us on the way who all agreed to meet the driver at 10:30, and when four of us arrived, there were already six other people in the van. The two other people hadn't shown up and our driver left without them, not that you could have squeezed two more humans into that vehicle. It was very uncomfortable, and I argued with the driver that it wasn't fair for him to leave the people he had promised to take. The others already in the van were French and didn't understand what I was on about until the driver let me know that he'd called his friend to pick up the others. The driver was only interested in pocketing extra cash, even though he claimed he "took pity" on the people who missed the bus.

Back in Kuching, it was extremely hot and Louise and I felt exhausted. In need to some energy, we picked up some food at a bakery before going to the museum area. I explored the Sarawak Museum, but I couldn't focus on the information and didn't get much out of it. I popped in the Ethnography museum to see a sample of an Iban longhouse before we walked along the main bazaar towards James Brooke where we'd eaten dinner the first night in desperate need of a refreshing drink. While walking, I got hit in the arm by one of the sun shader-things and now have a small bump which is going to bruise.  We ordered some type of lime juice and I got the Wild Borneo laksa. By the time we got up, it was 3pm and neither of us felt like continuing in the heat. So we said goodbye and I went back to the hostel to relax for a few hours before my flight. I ran into Laura, and we chatted while I tried to write this. My laundry came back before 5, luckily, and I packed everything up ready to head out at 6:15. Ended up meeting another woman, Cynthia, who was on my flight, so we shared a taxi to the airport.

Nothing too interesting about the ride, the airport or the flight, except that it was pouring rain when we left Kuching. I'm now at my airport hotel. Flight to Beijing leaves at 8:30am, so I'll be leaving here around 6am, another short night of sleep. Cannot believe that these first three weeks of travel are over. Gives me hope that my eight weeks of traveling alone will be fine as I'm constantly meeting people. Tomorrow I'm off on the next stage of my adventure, a 21-day tour on the Trans-Mongolian railway from Beijing through Mongolia to St Petersburg. Pretty sure my internet access will be limited, so I don't know how often I'll write. Good night.

Batu Caves and KL, Kuching

I'm sitting at the Kuala Lumpur airport at the LCCT waiting for my flight to Borneo.  We are delayed by 45 minutes.  Reminds me of last Wednesday when I was here.  Figured that since I had some extra time I would write about yesterday.

I was awake on the earlier side, but by the time I got ready, had breakfast, skyped and chatted with the people at my hostel it was 9:45am.  There was a French girl I spoke with for a while who'd been traveling around SE Asia and I was looking for more tips.  Based on the hostel's recommendation, I headed out to Batu Caves.  The bus journey was a chilly 45 minutes. The Temple Cave contains a Hindu shrine, after about 270 steps, which is guarded by a 43-meter high Murga statue (the highest in the world).  I spent about an hour wandering around the cave.  There were so many monkeys climbing around all over the place, up and down the steps, on the rocks, on cables, very entertaining. As one might expect, the cave also had some bats and pigeons.  When I got back to KL, the bus dropped me in a slightly different street and it took me some time to figure out which way to head.

My lunch stop was a vegetarian Indian restaurant recommended in both my books where I got thail.  When I started eating, one of the servers came over to help me because I was eating it incorrectly.  You are supposed to removed the small dishes from the tray, dump out some rice in the middle and then pour the dishes over the rice.  I'm not exactly sure what I ate, but it was tasty with a bit of a kick.  To ease the fire I ordered a banana lassi.

After lunch, I took a stroll to Merdeka Square.  (more later, our flight is boarding)  I'm back.  Now in Kuching on the island of Borneo.  Just feel asleep with my computer on my lap and getting up in less than seven hours so I'm just going to write some bullet points so that I don't forget what I've done.

Merdeka Square.  Met two Americans.  Walked along the main road to Lake Gardens (very hot) and past the butterfly farm.  Stopped at Bird Park to relax and met a British girl, Louise.  We both chose not to go in and decided to meet at Nomad hostel in Kuching today.  Went to the Islamic Arts Museum (people let me in as a student because they didn't have the correct change).  Lots of religious art, models of about 15 different mosques and a special wall on Palestine which ended with Israel declaring independence.  Met a nice older couple from Boston.  Left the museum to find my way back to Chinatown and met an New Zealand couple going the same direction.  Got back to Pasar Seni LRT station and got on the crowded train full of locals to KLCC to see the Petronas towers.

First walked through the enormous mall (with every store you could want including CPK) before going outside to view the Towers.  At Towers met a German couple from Munich, Simon and Lena.  Hung out with them as we watched the sunset around the Towers and saw them light up in the darkness.  Grabbed a pretzel from Auntie Anne's for dinner since lunch was filling and headed back to the hostel.  Chatted with Valerie from Los Angeles area who is currently living in Oman after spending three years in Colombia.  Very interesting woman. 

Got about seven hours of sleep before waking up to re-pack my backpack and eat breakfast before leaving for the airport.  Spent the morning talking to Stephanie.  Took the LRT to central station where I picked up the skybus to the LCCT.  Arrived in plenty of time.  Checked in, walked around, went to gate.  Flight was delayed a bit.  Met a couple British girls before getting on the plane.  Charlotte and Anna are traveling around together for about five weeks and have done a ton already.  We shared a taxi to Nomad hostel.  I wasn't thrilled with my selection when we checked in- people were smoking in the living room, the dorm had ants and the showers were in the same stall as the toilets.  The place wasn't very nice, but we were all going to stay there together.  We went out to wander around at 5pm, and I decided to check out the other hostel I'd read about which was supposed to be very nice.  It is so much better and I felt I'd be more comfortable if I moved.  So, here I am, at the new hostel with a 10-bed dorm to myself (at least for tonight).  It's more expensive (about $3 more per night).  Went to get my stuff at Nomad and ran into Louise!  She had actually got a flight to Kuching and booked at Nomad like we planned.

After I moved my stuff, Louise joined me for a drink and then we walked around the waterfront.  Ended up getting a boat across to the other side, which a local woman with her two boys kindly paid for.  Came back at 8:30pm to meet with Charlotte and Anna for dinner at James Brooke which serves a mixture of Western and local dishes.  I ordered the Sarawak Laksa, and spicy broth with chicken, rice noodles and prawns.  A short stroll later I was at the hostel and in the clean, warm shower.  Time for bed.  Meeting Louise at 7:30am to go to Bako National Park.

Itchy in Kuala Lumpur

I am in bed at my hostel in Kuala Lumpur and am extremely itchy.  The B12 and bug spray didn't seem to work up in the Cameron Highlands.  I've got 6 bites on my left hand, four on my right hand, two on my face, two on my neck, two on my back, some on my legs and at least four on each foot.  ITCHY!

This morning at Father's there was no electricity so I got ready in the natural light.  Luckily the gas was working in the kitchen and I enjoyed two fried eggs on toast.  The minibus to take us to the real bus was running late.  Eventually it showed up to drive us down the hill but we didn't get on the road until 9am, scheduled departure of 8:30am.  The bus was SO much nicer than my bus from Penang.  There were only three seats per row and they were airline style in size and legroom.  The first two hours of the drive from Tanah Rata were on winding roads.  The scenery was spectacular.  I saw a huge waterfall and some smaller ones out the window; it felt like we were driving through the jungle.  We had one toilet break in the middle of nowhere and arrived in KL at 1:30pm.  Alex was on my bus, so we walked together to my hostel in Chinatown since he just needed a place to leave his bags for the day.

The hostel here is great.  I'm in a six-bed female dorm with air conditioning and small lockers.  There's only one bathroom and shower, not enough, but at least they are inside.  Alex and I grabbed some clay pot chicken for lunch before getting on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and going our separate ways.  I decided to go up to Menara Kuala Lumpur (KL Tower) for views over the city since its supposed to be much better than the Petronas Towers.  The viewing area is about 270 meters high.  Unlike the London underground, the KL LRT actually has air conditioning, a very welcome relief from the heat.  When I got to the stop, I still had to walk a bit to the tower and by the time I arrived I was dripping in sweat.  I pre-bought a ticket from a guy at the hostel which was cheaper and only gave me access to the viewing tower (worked for me since I didn't care to go on a donkey ride).  The lift brings you to the top of the tower in just under a minute and then there is an audio guide to explain the views.  After listening to the guide, I wandered around to enjoy the views before heading back down the tower and picking up a Crunch ice cream bar.

The tower is located on the edge of the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve so I walked in for a brief stroll but retraced my steps to avoid getting lost.  Then back to the LRT to Chinatown.  The heat really does take the energy out of you and I spent a couple hours just relaxing at the hostel.  Around 8pm, Alex and I went to get some fried noodles from a restaurant in Chinatown recommended in an article.  The noodles were tasty, maybe slightly bland, and my green apple juice was refreshing.  When we got back to the hostel, Alex took off for the airport and I took a nice warm shower.

Not exactly sure what is on tap for tomorrow.  Have the entire day to explore KL.  Leave for Kuching (Borneo) for two nights on Thursday then one night at the KL LCCT before heading to China.  I am enjoying each day for what it is and not trying to think ahead, but I can't believe the Trans-Mongolian is coming up so soon.

Walking and more strawberries

Going to try to keep this one short.  This morning I met Danielle at Cameronian Inn for breakfast.  We were on the same page for today's activities, casual walks that didn't take too long.  From breakfast, we walked through town towards Trail 9 to see a waterfall.  The path wasn't marked clearly, but after consulting LP and watching some other people, we found the trail.  Along the way we saw a local man eating something by the river; Danielle said hi to him when we walked back and the interaction was fairly comical.  The waterfalls were ok, pretty but there was so much trash around that the natural beauty was a bit ruined.  We didn't go very far since we wanted to do part of another trail.

Back in Tanah Rata we found the start of trail 4.  There was a much larger waterfall than the previous one, but again, tons and tons of trash.  We hiked our way through the forest and at the end of the trail ran into a couple sitting on a picnic bench eating lunch.  We asked how to get back to town and ended up talking to them for a while.  They are from Tasmania and on their way to Scotland to visit their daughter.  They've travelled all of the world visiting her.  When we left, the direction wasn't clear but we managed to find our way to the Smoketree Inn and to the main road back to Tanah Rata.  Along the way we stopped at a gift shop and enjoyed a delicious strawberry juice, enough energy to get us back.

It was lunchtime when we arrived in Tanah Rata and we ate at T cafe, where Brian had recommended the apple pie.  I ordered chicken lasagna (recommended by the waitress), passion fruit tea and a strawberry scone with whipped cream. We talked about work and life and different cultures within a country.  Danielle works at a prison for boys 14-23, tough job.  Two hours later we said goodbye and I came back to Fathers to be productive.  I washed the bottom of my pants and my shoes and then attempted to take a hot shower.  Sadly the water was cold so it was a quick scrub of the body.  I ended up talking to people in the dorm, and watching a girl cut anothers hair, so I didn't end up doing much.

A few people were going for dinner, so I joined Amy, Pat and Alex.  Along the way we ran into Linda who joined us.  We ate at some Indian restaurant.  Nothing too exciting and came back.  That was my day.  Going to bed shortly.  Off to Kuala Lumpur in the morning.

Mud, Tea and Strawberries

Me with the Rafflesia flower... its a bit far away, so its bigger than it looks

Sorry about the sudden ending last night.  There were only a few people still hanging out in the common space and when they left for bed, I didn't want to be the last one there.  So, I'll finish about yesterday before I start on today.

Before I boarded the bus, I talked to a British couple who were also on their way to the Cameron Highlands.  When the bus arrived, it was the worst one in the station.  We were all a bit skeptical about the ride, and it was nice to experience the bus ride with someone.  After a brief stop in Butterworth, we had a two hour drive to Ipoh.  The journey was extremely beautiful - tons of palm trees, hills and rock formations.  When we got to Ipoh we were supposed to have a 30 minute bathroom break.  Somehow this turned into 1.5 hours because there was a mechanic working on the bus.  While I was sitting, I noticed some bugs crawling around on the window and the seat in front of me.  It was really disgusting, so I moved a row behind to sit with someone else.  We never found out exactly what was wrong with the bus but we eventually got on the road again.

More green hills as we wound our way up the road towards the Highlands.  As we got close to Brinchang (a town in the Highlands), traffic starting building up.  There were so many tourists!  It was insane.  By the time we arrived in Tanah Rata it was almost 3pm.  A guy from the guesthouse was there waiting for me; it was such an easy arrival.  When I saw the dorm room, I reminded myself that I hadn't really done a dorm yet and would just have to settle in.  There are ten beds and the bathroom and shower are a walk outside.  The women at the front desk were so friendly and helpful, and I found out that the Rafflesia, the largest single flower of any flowering plant, was in bloom.  The flower only blooms for about five days before it dies.  I booked the Rafflesia full day tour for today.

When I went out around 4:30pm to explore Tanah Rata, it was already pretty chilly.  The books say that the Cameron Highlands are a respite from the heat of Penang and KL, and they aren't kidding.  The town itself is pretty small and mostly filled with mini-mart type shops selling souvenirs and there's even a Starbucks.  I went to the Indian restaurant recommended in both my guidebooks for dinner at 5pm since I hadn't eaten lunch and ordered chicken curry and naan.  Sadly the chicken was very boney and I kind of picked at it.  The naan with dips was tasty, so I mostly had bread for dinner.  While I was eating, I noticed a guy sit down on his own outside and when I finished dinner, his chocolate cake gave me the perfect excuse to say hello.  We ended up talking for a couple hours.  Brian's from Seattle but currently living in Beijing and has done some traveling in the region, so I was picking his brain for ideas.

By the time we left, it was 8:30pm and cold and dark out.  There's a short cut back to the guesthouse, which I took at a quick pace.  The guest area was full of people, so I sat down inside with a couple I'd met earlier in the day.  Jenny and Bob are from England and recently quit their jobs to travel.  We had a nice conversation before I worked on my blog and enjoyed a piece of chocolate cake.  I didn't get back to the dorm until 11:30pm and everyone else was already asleep.  So I quietly got ready and climbed into bed to snuggle up and get warm.  I slept pretty well, given the circumstances.

This morning I was up a bit early since people in the dorm started stirring at 6:30am.  Father's has a nice restaurant and I actually had a real breakfast, two fried eggs on toast before my tour left at 8:45.  A French family of four from the guesthouse was on the tour, and then we were joined by the Dutch woman from my bus yesterday and a French couple.  Our first stop was the Orang Asli village, native dwellers of the rainforest, about an hour from Tanah Rata.  It was a little hokey, they showed us how to use a blow pipe and we walked around to see a few bamboo houses.  Pretty uneventful.  From there we drove a few minutes and then turned on to a dirt path for some off-roading.  I think its the first proper off-roading I've done.  The ground was super muddy and we were bumping all over the place.  We had 20-30 minutes driving like that before we hopped out of the car and walked the rest of the way to the famous Rafflesia flower.  Apparently there are about 25 flowers in the forest but they all bloom at different times.  We only had to walk 45 minutes to see one, but sometimes you have to walk a couple of hours, just to see a flower!  But as I mentioned already, it is a famous flower.  Theresa told me about her experience with the Rafflesia flower when she and John were in Borneo so I felt I had to see it with my own eyes.

The walk through the jungle was MUDDY!!!  It was pretty disgusting and very hard to find good footing where you wouldn't sink into the ground.  Parts were solid, but the mud got all over my shoes and the bottom of my freshly cleaned pants.  I was not a happy camper.  There were lots of trees and plants and dodging branches, and I didn't take too many pictures because I was so focused on where I was going.  We had to cross a bridge (if you could call it that) made of bamboo branches.  It held up, but you really had to hold on and watch your step.  After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the spot, the location of the Rafflesia flower currently in bloom.  Just a lone red flower in the middle of the trees.  I got my picture with the flower, just like everyone else.

Before walking back to the car, we stopped at a short waterfall where I tried to clean my shoes off (unsuccessfully).  Our next stop was a small Indian restaurant on the side of the road for lunch.  There really wasn't much on offer and I ended up with mostly rice and bread, with some curry to dip.  From there we headed to the BOH tea plantation.  This was the view of the Highlands I'd been waiting for - rows of tea plants on rolling hills.  Our driver, Ravi, actually grew up on the tea estate so he took us on a walk through the plants for a fabulous view of the area.  There are about 150 workers who gather the tea and are paid based on the weight, only 20 cents per kilogram.  With the current machines, they can gather up to 250 kgs per day.  The estate we were at had 234 hectares, but the entire land of BOH amounts to 1200 hectares.  After our climb in the tea plants, we went to the factory to learn the process of tea making and had time to enjoy some tea overlooking the surrounding area.  They didn't have the Afternoon Blend so I tried some type of tea which already has milk and sugar.  It was pretty sweet.

We climbed back into the van and made our way to the butterfly farm where we saw some gross looking insects before walking around the butterfly house.  Our last stop was the strawberry farm which serves various desserts involving strawberries.  I sampled the Strawberry Ice Cream Special, vanilla ice cream with strawberries, strawberry syrup and whip cream.  YUM!  It was a sweet end to a long day.  By the time I got back here it was after 5pm, we'd been gone for eight hours.  Since it wasn't too cold yet, I got in the shower, which actually was hot for a majority of the time.  They have a hairdryer in the other part of the guesthouse, so I took advantage.  It's so cold that I couldn't bear the thought of sitting around with wet hair. 

Jenny and Bob were sitting in the lounge when I got here.  We talked for a bit before I ordered dinner, a somewhat flavorful spaghetti bolognese.  I didn't feel like venturing into town.  And after eating I've been slowly writing this, with Sunshine Cleaning movie playing in the background.  I also decided to taste the scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream.  I think I'm spoiled on scones though; they weren't nearly as good as the Lanesborough's.

Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend from the bus (pretty sure her name is Daniella) to walk around the area.  There are lots of trails to take, but I think we'll take an easy one after our muddy hiking today.

Temples and fresh fruit

Greetings from the Cameron Highlands!  My bus actually made it here today, although there were times I thought it might break down.  I'm pretty tired because I didn't sleep very long last night, but its only 10pm and I feel I have no excuse not to write.

When I wrote yesterday, I was busy multi-tasking.  I got all three loads of my laundry done while loading my pictures to shutterfly (http://ejltravels.shutterfly.com/) and chatting with my family on skype.  It took me a while to get out of Adam's apartment, but my priority was laundry.  So nice to have all clean clothes.  Since I'd seen a good bit of Georgetown, I walked west along Gurney drive, a road that runs along the water.  It was a beautiful day, maybe a bit too hot, but there was a slight breeze.  (I'm actually very cold right now so next time I'm in the warm weather I'm going to remind myself that its better than being cold.)  As I was walking I noticed a restaurant with tons of fish tanks and ventured in to check it out.  Other than fresh fish/seafood, they also served dim sum.  It was lunch time and the place looked local, so I sat down to have some grub.  The dim sum was the kind where they come by your table with a cart and show you all the choices, but the options were a bit limited.  I ended up with some type of vegetarian dumpling, a prawn dumpling and other type of dumping that had fish. I'm not exactly sure what I ate since it was hard to understand their English.  Another woman came by with a fried roll that had prawn and scallop and I sprung for that too.  It was one too many dishes but I hadn't realized there were additional dumplings.

When I was leaving, I checked with the severs to find out the location of the bus station.  They didn't seem to be sure, but a Chinese man came up to assist and offered me a ride (with him and his daughter) up the road.  It wasn't very far, but its the though that counts.  I have to say, I've found the Malayians to be very helpful and kind.  They dropped me at Plaza Gurney, one of the largest malls on the island, and I strolled around inside for a few minutes.  It was HUGE.  Basically every store you could imagine.  I didn't hang around long because I wanted to get the bus back into town.  The bus came fairly quickly but I got on the one that seemed to go all over town.  It was a 30+ minute ride that could have been 10.  Not only that, it was incredibly crowded.  More people kept getting on and not moving down into the free space, so I was completely squished.  Let's just say I was very happy when we arrived at Komtar.

I stopped into the shop where I'd bought my bus ticket to the Cameron Highlands to find out what bus I needed for Snake Temple.  Unlike the previous evening, I got an express bus which took me down the east coast of the island much faster.  I made it to Snake Temple by 3:20pm and had about 40 minutes to explore before Adam was picking me up.  The Snake Temple is named so because there are live snakes.  I didn't notice them at first and then I saw them in the trees.  You could also take a picture with a snake around your neck; not really my thing.  The temple was fairly small, so I hung out in the shade, sweating.  Adam got off work early so that we could go to Kek Lok Si Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia with a 36.5 meter high bronze status of Kuan Yin, goddess of mercy.  The temple was spectacular but there were a lot of random gift shops that made it feel a bit too touristy.  We made excellent time though since the temple started closing 45 minutes before the posted time, and we had already had a good look around.

After the temple, Adam decided that I needed to get a sampling of the local fruit.  We first tried durian fruit, which Adam dislikes but is a local favorite.  I had the smallest piece I could.  It was mushy and bitter and I disposed of most of it in the trash.  Next we tried dragon fruit (which had a subtle sweet flavor and was very juicy, and left your hands and teeth pink) and mangosteens (sweet and tangy with a bit of peach flavor).  It was a perfect snack.

From there we headed to the north west coast of the island to Batu Ferringhi to watch the sunset from the beach.  Adam had been to this bar/restaurant before, but for some reason they no longer had a liquor license and could only serve wine or beer and didn't have food.  I enjoyed a nice glass of watermelon juice as the sun sank below the horizon leaving the sky illuminated with various pastel colors.  As we left the beach, it started to drizzle and we walked through the night market.  The stall where Adam buys DVDs was closed, as were the numerous stalls with fake handbags, etc.  Adam concluded that there was some crack-down going on because the street usually had a lot more vendors and the bar usually serves cocktails.  Before dinner I tried one other local fruit, jackfruit, kind of a harder banana like taste.

We ate dinner at a hawker center in Batu Ferringhi; I did the ordering and got to try more local dishes.  Roti canai with chicken curry, asam laksa, char koay teow, some type of Chinese soup and Tiger beer.  Delicious!  (Which reminds me, I forgot to say that at the hawker center the night before, some beer got on the table and slide down the table and got my pants soaked.)  The char koay teow is so popular that we waited 45 minutes for the dish; it was worth it.  By the time we headed back it was 11pm, and I still had to pack up everything.  Somehow I managed to get to sleep really late.

At 6:30am I was up to get ready for the bus to the Cameron Highlands.  Adam offered to drive me to the bus stop, which was a huge help.  Official shout out to Adam for being such an amazing host.  I really appreciate everything.  The bus was running a bit late, so we didn't leave until after 8am.  It was pretty run-down and seemed like it took a lot of effort to get moving....

I know this is an abrupt end but I think I'm going to go to sleep now.  Have to get up for a tour in the morning and don't want to be the last person in the room.

Pulau Penang

Last I wrote I was running off to board the plane in Kuala Lumpur.  I spent five hours in the airport and was ready to get moving.  Nothing special about the flight.  I fell asleep for a few minutes and next thing I knew we were preparing to land.  Flight time is less than one hour.  My baggage was one of the first off the plane and I was out of the terminal as quickly as possible still unsure whether Adam was waiting for me or if I needed to get a taxi.

I got out, looked around, and found the only tall long-haired white guy in the building standing near the taxi counter.  It was if we'd known each other for a while, big hug and we were on the road.  Now, I don't think I mentioned before how I know Adam.  My Wash U friend (pledge grandma) Allison's husband Mark works at the same company as Adam.  When I mentioned I was going to Malaysia, Mark told me Adam was in Penang and I should get in touch.  Next thing I knew I had a place to stay in Penang.  Score!

So anyway, Adam and I got on the road and headed towards Georgetown, the main town on the island of Penang and about 45 minutes from the airport.  Even though it was almost midnight we decided to go for dinner.  I really hadn't eaten much all day and felt like I needed some real food. We walked to an Indian restaurant close to Adam's apartment and enjoyed some naan and butter chicken.  By the time we got "home" it was 1am and I was anxious to get online and let my parents know I'd arrived safely.  It took a while to load the software onto my computer, so I don't think I was actually online until about 2am.  Adam went to sleep and I stayed up a little longer to do some things online.

After going to bed so late, I was convinced I would sleep in yesterday.  Not so, I woke up around 7:30am and forced myself to stay in bed with my eyes closed for another hour.  Once awake, I was back online where I finally got to speak to my sister and parents.  The views of the city from Adam's apartment are amazing.  He's only a couple blocks from the water and high enough that you can see down to the city.  I didn't actually get out to explore Penang until 11am.  However, given that its so hot and humid outside, sightseeing days have to be shorter because its impossible to explore in the heat for too long.  There was a woman in the lift when I got and she asked if I was visiting then gave me tips (told me to watch my bad) and directed me to some temples nearby.  She said it would be way too far to walk to the center of Georgetown.  So I started with the temples.

The first temple, the Burmese Buddhist temple, was comprised of a number of buildings and religious scenes in the gardens.  Its most impressive feature is a 30 foot tall standing Buddha.  The temple across the street is a Thai Buddhist temple which has a huge reclining Buddha.  I spent some time walking around both temples and took some pictures.  I don't really feel like describing them right now, so I'll leave it to the photos to do that job.

From the temples, I made a quick stop back at the apartment to put on some bug spray and grab my poncho (you never know when its going to start raining) and then started walking downtown.  I'm not exactly sure how long the walk took, but I just kept going on the uneven sidewalk and checking my map to see if any street names looked familiar.  And eventually I found the famous E&O hotel; I made it!  I wandered around Chinatown area looking for the restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet and by the time I got there it was almost 2pm.  I ordered crispy chicken in plum sauce, as suggested by LP, and tried to cool off.  Other than the family who left when I got there, I appeared to be the only tourist.  The food was pretty tasty and gave me the boost I needed to continue on my walk.

I strolled past the Kapitan Keling Mosque, through part of Little India, in a Chinese temple and finally made my way to the port.  I was looking for the Penang Heritage Trust, but I went a block too far over and had to backtrack, although I never managed to find the building and headed past the Victoria Memorial clock tower  to the tourist information office instead.  The man and woman in the office were extremely helpful and a great resource about buses and the island.  I stayed in there a bit longer than necessary because the air conditioning felt amazing.  Then it was back out into the heat and up the light house for some views of the old town.  Seeing Fort Cornwallis from above gave me no interest in wanting to explore it from the ground and instead I walked the Esplanade to City Hall and Town Hall.

When I didn't hear from Adam about our plans for the evening, I took the free bus to Komtar to figure out my bus ticket for the Cameron Highlands.  I was expecting some kind of bus ticket stand, but its really just a bunch of small offices selling the tickets and is not straightforward.  The guy told me that the minibus (only 10 RM more) was a more convenient option because it would pick up at your hotel and drop off at your hotel.  After I was convinced that the prices were the same everywhere, I told him I'd like to leave on Saturday.  He got on the phone, called the company and then proceeded to tell me that all three minibuses on Saturday were full.  I was shocked and pretty upset.  I already have a reservation at a guesthouse and I didn't want to have to leave Penang a day early, or a day late.  That left me with the bus option (which is probably like the coach I took in Indonesia and I'm sure will be nice but it only leaves from the main station somewhere south of Georgetown).  Of course, the 2pm bus was already full so my only choice was 8am.  Not ideal considering Adam and I were going to go to the market on Saturday morning.  The guy told me I should have booked earlier, but I'd just arrived in Penang.  Oh well.  He was actually very helpful and told me about the politics there.  I found out that only one bus company is licensed to run the minibuses so they have a bit of a monopoly.  As Adam said, sometimes other people dictate your plans. 

While I was in the same air conditioned bus ticket shop, Adam gave me the address of where to meet him, and the guy told me I could take a local bus there.  I was already at the bus station, so I figured why not.  Well, the bus took a bit longer than a taxi since there were so many stops and I was the only tourist on it.  The bus driver was very helpful (spoke pretty good English) and told me where I needed to get off.  But the stop was just on the side of the road and he didn't know where I needed to go from there.  I asked a woman who was also getting off the bus and she told me to follow her.  She pointed me in the right direction and I confirmed with another woman further down the road that I was headed the right way.  About 5 minutes from the bus stop, I arrived at N Park Condominiums.  Thanks to the help of all the nice Malaysians along the way, I made it to my destination.

Did I mention that I was going there to play badminton?  Yep, that's right.  Every Thursday from 6-8pm Adam plays badminton with some of the locals from work and he asked if I wanted to join.  There are about eight courts in one floor of this apartment building; no fans, no air conditioning.  It was pretty stuffy in there, but I had so much fun playing (even if my partners and I lost every game).  I hadn't played badminton since 10th grade PE.  What a hoot.  I was so sweaty when we finished; I felt disgusting.

We decided to go straight to dinner at a hawker center near Adam's apartment since it was already 8:30pm.  Hawker centers are fabulous places because you can sample tons of different foods in one place.  Adam did the ordering: Shark fin soup, Stingray (so I could compare to my Singapore experience), fried noodles, noodle soup with prawns, and fried oysters.  There was so much food, and I'm not sure of the names of a few of the dishes.  It was all very tasty.  At the end of dinner, Adam thought we should try the ice kacang, a local dessert that consists of thick, sweetened red bean, sweet corn, grass jelly and palm fruit.  The ingredients are scooped into a bowl and topped with finely shaved ice and some ice cream on top.  It was one of the most unappealing desserts I've ever seen, but we dug in to the huge bowl.  The flavor was sweet but I didn't really love all the bits inside.  Glad I got a taste, but there's no way I'll be ordering ice kacang again.

Last night after we got back I couldn't wait to get in the shower.  It felt so good to get clean.  I was exhausted from my day of walking in the heat and badminton, so I went to sleep.  It was already midnight.  Like I expected, I woke up at 7:30.  The sleeping in thing doesn't seem to be happening for me.  This morning I've been multi-tasking.  I leave tomorrow morning (can't believe I'm leaving already) so I'm getting my laundry done while I type this.  One more load to go.  Means I won't be out for another hour or so, but laundry takes priority since Adam has a washer and dryer and I'm just out of clean socks and underwear (packed a few extra).  Not sure exactly what I'm up to for the rest of the day.  Adam might try to get off work a little early so that we can go to a temple and then a restaurant to watch the sun set.  Really can't believe my bus leaves tomorrow at 8am.  Think I have internet where I'm going so I should be able to continue updating the blog, and sorry if this one wasn't very good. I'm not feeling like writing detailed descriptions right now.

I consider myself lucky

I'm currently sitting at the airport in Kuala Lumpur.  I've been here for almost five hours now.  The day didn't turn out exactly as I planned.

Breakfast was not offered at the hotel, so I ate a cereal bar and a few biscuits in my room.  I went to the lobby to use the internet and then hopped in a taxi to the airport.  When I got to the check-in desk, more than three hours before the flight, I asked if my luggage could be sent through to Penang since I had a short layover.  The assistant told me that AirAsia is a point-to-point airline and it wouldn't be possible.  Not only that, he told me I didn't have enough time for my connection.  When I booked my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Penang a few weeks ago I had two options, 4:55pm and 9:45pm.  My flight from Surabaya to KL was scheduled to land at 3:45, so I thought I might be ok.

The guy at the counter told me that by AirAsia rules you are supposed to have four hours between connecting flights.  Fortunately for me, my original flight from Surabaya was supposed to leave at 9:55am, not 12:10pm to which it had been rescheduled.  So... even though I didn't technically have my Penang flight when they changed the Surabaya-KL flight, this went unnoticed.  To be honest, I didn't want to make a big deal about it because they were going to change my flight without a fee.  I thought I might have enough time, otherwise I would have booked the later flight originally.  Anyway, even though I was upset about the idea of getting in at 10:30pm instead of 5:30pm, I consider myself lucky to have the changes with no extra charges.  Of course, lets not forget the 150,000 IDR departure tax which must be paid in cash.  Good thing the taxi cost less than I expected because I had enough to cover the tax.  I definitely spent over 2 million IDR. Crazy to think I'm a millionaire in Indonesia.

Since I'm staying with a friend of a friend, Adam, in Penang, I tried to contact him to let him know.  I had almost three hours to kill before the flight, so I spent it finishing The Last Lecture.  I have to say, this was not a good book for me to be reading in public.  I'm way too sentimental and emotional and I kept tearing up (actually more crying) through most of the book.  Some things just really hit home, especially in the beginning when he talks about winning the parent lottery.  I think I won the parent lottery and reading about his childhood made me think about all the good things from mine.  And then the fact that he talks about leaving a legacy for his family, just made me so sad.  Cancer has affected my family, and my parents friends, and its a challenging subject to read.

The AirAsia crew were making announcements in the departure lounge and I sensed our flight seemed to be slightly delayed but I couldn't hear what they were saying.  When I tried to find someone to ask, no one spoke English.  Another challenge.  I really didn't have a clue what was going on and there was not a single non-Asian person on the flight.  I was the only one not from the Asian continent; I stood out.  The plane ride was just over 2.5 hours, and I made good use of my time by reading all about the parts of Malaysia where I'll be traveling.  I also got some pizza on the plane; my stomach was growling from a lack of food.  We landed about 10 minute late (good thing I wasn't rushing for a connection) and the lines at passport control were insane.  I got in one queue that just wasn't moving, so I changed, although I would have been better off staying in the first one.  My time at the counter took all of one minute.  The guy took my landing card and stamped my passport with a 90-day tourist visa.  My bag was waiting for me, since passport control took so long, and I cleared customs.  The Low Cost Carrier Terminal was nicer than I expected.  Even though I'm trying to keep it local, the Starbuks with free wi-fi called my name.  I took out some cash, purchased a Malaysian sim card (so I've got a local number) and then enjoyed a Java Chip Frappaccino.

I spent a few hours at Starbucks, working on getting my blog updated and my shutterfly site live.  I've only posted pictures from the first couple days, which can be found at http://ejltravels.shutterfly.com/. We are now about to board the plane.  Don't have too much else to say anyway since I've just been at the airport all day.  Will be arriving in Penang around 10:30pm, so probably won't write again until tomorrow.

On to Surabaya

(Written on Tuesday, 27 July regarding that days travel)

I finally slept well last night! After I wrote, I went to the restaurant for dinner. A woman came up to me and asked if I wanted to join her and her friends since I was sitting by myself. They had already eaten and were smoking, so I politely turned her town. I tried Mei Goreng Ayam (noodles with chicken) for dinner, a new Indonesian dish for me, and my first Indonesian beer. I have been avoiding alcohol because every night I return to my hostel/hotel on my own and need to have my wits about me. Last night I only needed to walk a few steps back to my room and figured a small beer wouldn't do any harm.

As I sat eating, I noticed two girls I had talked to earlier in the day, and I went to say hello when I'd finished my meal. They decided to take a Jeep up the mountain in the morning, a very good idea, and then walk back. Originally they were going to hike up, but I told them they were crazy as it is far and hard to navigate in the dark. We exchanged emails (and got a photo) since one of the girls spent four months in Peru and Bolivia and had tons of tips. Always good to get ideas for the future.

I was almost falling asleep at the table, so I said good night, but it was only 9pm, too early to go to bed, ad I watched an episode of Glee before popping an Ambien, putting on my eye mask and passing out. My dad had suggested that I take an Ambien to help get my sleeping on schedule. There was music playing outside when I went to sleep, but some combination of sleeping meds, beer and exhaustion seemed to do the trick. I slept through the night until 6am, 8 hours of good sleep, when the music started up again outside. My bed was warm and I waited an hour to get up and get moving.

Breakfast was more involved than it has been the whole trip, partly because I paid a little extra, but it was nice to have more than toast for a change. Then I waited for the minibus to pick me up for a transfer to Probolinggo and on to Surabaya. Met more nice people in the bus (Angela and Stephanie from Germany) and the hour ride was painless. The main stop for transfers was meant for everyone expect those transferring to Surabaya; I was the only one. We drove a bit further and pulled into the same sketchy parking lot I'd been in on Sunday night. Brought back memories. The driver crossed the street with me and hailed the Surabaya bus, which was just passing by. It was a local bus, but it was a coach with air conditioning, and most ways it was much more comfortable than the minibuses.

I was the only foreigner on the bus and there were plenty of seats, so I was able to take two for myself. The non-stop bus arrived in Surabaya around 12:30pm. As soon as I stepped off, a taxi driver approached me. I had noticed there was an official stand, but this guy kept insisting that he could take me. Now, my gut was telling me to go wait in line, but this guy was so persistent that I went with him. He didn't speak much English so I couldn't tell if he actually knew where my hotel was. Not only that, but I felt as though everyone we passed was making comments and laughing. Of course I understood nothing; it was very frustrating to be unable to communicate and be laughed at. In the taxi, I hoped I had not made a mistake as it was still a licensed taxi car. He got me to the hotel just fine, but in the future, I'm going to go to the taxi stand (like I wanted) and not be pushed into something different. I wasn't really worried about my safety, but it reminded me that as a single woman traveler, I must always do what feels comfortable to me. A lesson I already knew, but I'm glad I got the reminder early.

Checking in at the hotel went smoothly, which was a relief as I was expecting them to ask for my voucher and credit card, but luckily they only needed a copy of my passport. The room here is somewhat nice. There are a few small bugs flying around (not ones that are very noticeable) but I've been trying to kill them since I think they are mosquitoes. Contrary to my belief, there is only internet in the lobby, and I spent about three hours there posting on my blog (trying to catch up even though its all written), etc , then back to the room to relax (two more Glee episodes) and to the hotel restaurant for dinner at 6:45pm. I got Nasi Goreng again; rice can't be that bad. There were mosquitoes everywhere. My goal was to avoid being bitten while I ate and to get out of there fast.

Once again I'm ready for bed early. This won't go up until tomorrow. Next stop Malaysia...

A cloudy sunrise

(Written on Monday, 26 July describing the events of that day. Continuing from the previous blog.)

Wake up was at 3:30am and I got out of bed to start layering my clothes. I could hear rain falling outside. About ten minutes later a guy knocked on my door urging me to leave. We weren't supposed to be leaving until 4, so I was a bit peeved and overwhelmed. I wasn't sure what he was getting at, but apparently I was in a Jeep with people from another hotel so I had to leave earlier. Too bad he didn't mention that the night before. I finished getting ready as quickly as possible, but not as fast as the guy would have liked. The ride to the other hotel was somewhat bumpy even though we were on paved road. When we arrived, five people took the remaining seats. Anna came to sit with me in the front. She and her boyfriend were from Holland and traveling in Indonesia for three weeks (sound familiar?).

We had a very bumpy hour ride up to Pananjakan to see the sunrise over Bromo. At a few points, I wasn't sure the Jeep was going to make it; it sounded like it was going to die any minute. The rain had slowed but it was extremely cloudy, and cold. They told us the temperature would be about 4 degree Celsius on the top. I wore my rain jacket and threw my poncho on over it to add greater coverage of myself and my bags. We walked in the dark (good thing I brought a flashlight) through various small stalls of Indonesians selling coats, hats, gloves, etc. There were tons of tourist already waiting at the top, and even though it was pitch black, the abundance of clouds was apparent.

Sunrise should have occurred 30 minutes after we arrived, but time passed and there was no sunrise in sight. The sky become lighter, but all you could see were clouds. Eventually, the wind blew some clouds away and everyone cheered as a piece of the landscape came into view. It got clearer over time but the sky remained gray. It was pretty disappointing because the views are supposed to be incredible. Not only do you see Bromo and the Tengger crater but Gunung Semeru towers in the distance. After taking some pictures, we walked back to the Jeep. The three other people with us were two girls (Czech and Slovak) and a guy (Czech). The guy didn't know the girls well but said that they were picture crazy. 15 minutes later they finally showed up at the Jeep and we could move on. Now I take a lot of pictures; these girls were out of control.

Next stop was Bromo. We drove into the crater and then proceeded to walk to the top of a platform to see the still active volcano. The walk was a bit more than I had bargained for followed by 250 steps; I was worn out by the time I reached the top. There is a small fence which blocks you from falling in the volcano but the viewing space is only 3 feet wide; not much room to walk around people. The States certainly wouldn't deal with a liability like that. Seeing Bromo from above was neat, but the sulfur-y smell of the smoke didn't make me want to linger long. The surrounding views were spectacular and on a clear day I could imagine its quite a sight to behold.

The whole morning I'd been trying to decide what to do about tonight. Should I stay in Bromo or go to Surabaya and try to check into my hotel a night early? Even though I was uncertain of my plans, I didn't have the same worry in my stomach that had plagued me when I flew to Yogyakarta. I just knew it would work out, one way or another, even if it meant spending another night in the disgusting Hotel Sion. On the volcano, I saw some people wearing Yoschi jackets (Yoschi is the budget option where I wanted to stay) and asked them if there were any rooms available. They said their might be and told me where to find their driver, Eddie. I found Eddie back in the crater, but he didn't speak great English, neither did his friend, and I felt like they were all laughing at me as I tried to inquire about availability. I got out my few Indonesian phrases and pointed. They said yes, but I couldn't tell if they were being truthful.

The drive back to Sion took 20 minutes or so and the views were amazing. I definitely wanted to walk around a bit if there were rooms at Yoschi, and since its just 100 meters from Sion, I had the driver drop me there. When I finally found the correct person to speak with, I was in luck, there was one economy room available. Economy means toilet in the hallway and hot shower outside (the shower itself isn't outside, but you have to walk outside to get there). Relief. I wouldn't have to spend another night at Sion. Plus, the restaurant at Yoschi looked welcoming and seemed very relaxed. I went back to Sion for "breakfast" two pieces of bread with jam in the middle which came in a plastic baggie and a couple of pieces of unattractive fruit. I had some of the bread and called it quits.

None of the people from my Yogya bus where back yet, so I ate with more Dutch people. There was also an American guy, the first American I'd seen since the few at Borobudur. He'd done a ton of traveling and had lived in India for two years, so his stomach could handle the food. He ate everyone's small bananas; we called him a monkey.

Eventually I found my bus friends, said goodbye and walked down to Yoschi. I got here at 9:30am and wasn't able to check in, so I sat in the restaurant reading (The Last Lecture, a tear jerker) for a bit. Once I got my room, I took a nap and woke up around 1pm. The best place for me to eat around here is at the hotel restaurant, so I had Mie Kuah (noodle soup) and some tea. The clouds had returned, so I chatted with some people at the hotel (and mom and daughter and two girls from Holland) before walking around the area for an hour. I walked up the main road then ventured down a couple local streets. Chickens were sitting quietly in the open street; people were doing household chores; a man and his two kids walked past me on their way home, smiling the entire time. There was music blasting from huge speakers at one part of the village and guys along the side of the road with huge piles of lettuce. A street seller set up shop next to them to serve some food.

When I got back to Yoschi I decided to venture to the shower. Let's just say it was not a hot shower. I got a blast of boiling water early on which quickly turned to cold, so I wet my hair and body and with the water off, shampooed and soaped hoping the water would warm up. After a couple seconds of warm it was back to cold. I wouldn't have minded a cold shower if it was hot out, but I'm at a higher elevation right now and its pretty cool outside. My hair is still wet two hours later. The rest of the afternoon I've spent writing and its now 6:45pm. I think I'll go have dinner soon and then come back to my room and go to sleep. Maybe watch a movie on my netbook since I haven't done that yet and I don't need to be up until 8am at the earliest.

(I wrote about the rest of the evening and next day on Tuesday, 27 July. Unfortunately, I have to retype everything I've written, so getting this blog updated is taking longer than I hoped.)

To Bromo we go

(Written on Monday, 26 July. The blog below describes the events of Sunday, 25 July.)

Now I will continue with the my question from the previous post "where do I even begin?" I guess the fun started on Saturday morning. I was awake early, yet again so I went on Skype and for the first time in a few days my video was working. Got to see my mom's beautiful face, but it crashed out when I tried to see my sister. In any case, it was nice to hear their voices. After the hotel's simple breakfast, I got my stuff, checked our and waited for the air conditioned mini-bus which would take me, and others, to Bromo. Bromo is actually the name of the volcano, not a town. The towns near Bromo are Cemoro Lawang and Ngadisari (where I'd be staying).

The car didn't arrive until 8:15am and when I got in, I was a bit disappointed with what I saw. The couple transports I'd had previously had been quite nice, this one seemed a bit run down. There were two seats in the front and three rows in the back and only two people in the van. I wanted to sit in the front of the three rows, but there was a step in the floor and it was uncomfortable for my legs. Thinking I wanted to be as comfortable as possible for the 11 hour ride, I moved to the second row at the right window. The couple in the car were Dutch (surprise, surprise) and were traveling for six months. We proceeded to pick up the eight other passengers.

Everyone was chatting about their travel plans, where they are from, etc. Eventually I said we needed to introduce ourselves properly since we had a long day together and we played a silly name game. There was the Dutch couple (Charlotte and Harry), French couple (Stephanie and Paul), Swiss couple (Leah and Andreas) and two Dutch girls (Marica and Liz). The two in the front were Russian and appeared to be father and son, but they never really joined our conversation. It was fun, but we were only 30 minutes into the journey and were joking about how we'd be feeling when we arrived.

An hour into the ride, the car felt hot and we asked the driver to turn up the air conditioning. He turned it to max. Unfortunately, our air con wasn't real air con. The vents were blowing air which was slightly cool but nothing like we expected. I couldn't believe it was going to be like that for the next ten hours. Oh gosh.

Our first stop, at a gas station, was two hours into the journey. The road on this part of the ride had been more populated than I thought - basically the entire road was built up. I wasn't expecting much of the facilities and I was correct; it was my first squat toilet. After rolling up my pant legs, I ventured in. They aren't so bad as long as you bring your own toilet paper (which I had) but to flush you take a bucket from a basin of water and throw the water down the hole. Not sure how that works if you don't just pee, but apparently you just keep putting in water. Then its antibacterial hand gel to wash away the germs. Fun times.

By the way, I might as well be typing this by candlelight right now as the light in the room is so weak.

Back in the warm minibus, I looked out the window when I wasn't dozing off. As I said, the area right around the road was surprisingly built up and there were limited green fields. Around 1pm we pulled off the road for lunch. A couple of other minibuses pulled up behind us, but this place was not very ice. I wasn't sure what I could order that would be ok for my stomach, so I went with Nasi Goreng (fried rice with a fried egg on top). Didn't seem to have any problems from it, so yay for that.

Sometime during our drive, we all saw our first accident. A motor bike had gone down and one guy's leg was stuck in the bike while the other was lying on the ground. It was really sad, but not exactly shocking since the drivers are somewhat crazy; almost hard to believe I haven't seen more accidents.

Another squat toilet around 4pm and we were on the road again. We stopped one more time for gas before arriving in Probolinggo at 7pm. A guy stuck his head into the bus and said "you need to get out and we'll explain what happens tomorrow and then you change drivers and its another hour to Bromo". It was pitch black out and we were all tired and cranky that we still had an hour left. The place was really sketchy. There were lots of guys hanging around; a couple took our tickets and copied them to new ones. We got new drivers and some people switched buses. Then other buses showed up and we got delayed. The stop ended up taking 45 minutes and a couple minutes after being on the road, we stopped at a mini-mart to pick up some food. I grabbed a bottle of water, pack of biscuits and pack of Oreos (good thing too as the Oreos ended up being dinner).

We arrived at Hotel Sion at 9pm; another interesting scene with people taking tickets and randomly getting room keys. I wish I could describe the chaos. Most of us were sleeping in the front part of the hotel. The rooms were really run down and gross. The light in my room wasn't working, so instead of replacing it, they moved me to another room. It had its own toilet and shower attached, but I took one look at the shower and decided to pass. Of course, the light wasn't working in the bathroom and trying to communicate this fact was a struggle. Oh, and did I mention that I was planning on staying a second night? Some girl told me to laugh about the situation but when I told her I had two nights she changed her tune. Finally the guy came to my room, saw the problem and got me a new bulb. Good thing I have a sleeping bag liner, because there was no way I would have slept on those sheets with those blankets touching me.

At 9:30pm I was at a loss of what to do because I didn't want to shower, there was no sink, no electrical outlet and I hadn't eaten anything but a couple of cookies since lunch. There was nothing else to eat, so it was two Oreos for dinner. Very healthy. I didn't feel like changing into pjs because it was cold outside, so I took out my sleeping sheet and climbed in. I tried to call my parents to see if they could book me another night at the hotel I'm staying at in Surabaya on Tuesday night, but apparently I can't place calls and that idea was out. I went to sleep unsure what I was going to do about tonight. I slept pretty well because I was so exhausted.

(On my next blog post I will continue this story. Remember that I wrote this on Monday, even though I'm posting it on Tuesday. The events above took place on Sunday.)

Just some thoughts

Wow, where do I even begin? Life has been pretty interesting since I last wrote. I feel like I have so much to talk about so I'll break it into a few posts to make it less overwhelming.

I'm not sure I wrote enough about how I was feeling on Saturday since I just wanted to get the basics of my day on paper. For some reason, I was feeling very apprehensive about venturing into Yogya on my own. Everything I read said it was safe for travellers and I've done plenty of places on my own, but I just felt unsure of myself. I knew I was being silly. It was only a few hours until my tour; I'd be fine. And as I already wrote, I ended up having a pretty good morning. I chose a friendly becak driver and had a sweet woman show me around the kraton. As I was sitting on the becak, I thought to myself, see you can do this just fine. I think I just needed to get out there and remind myself that I can do it. Sometimes it may be challenging or slightly scary, but if I keep my chin up and my whits about me, no worries.

I am also working on my travel mentality. On Saturday, I couldn't believe I'd been gone less than a week and still have five more before being in London. Plus, only three weeks earlier I was celebrating Shabbat with Bus 31 in Jerusalem. And today (Monday) it has been two months since I left London. Time is a funny thing. In some ways, I felt like I was trying to speed up my time in Indonesia since so much of it was unplanned and I have a friend of a friend to stay with my first three nights in Penang, Malaysia. In other ways, I can't believe how much I've done in just a week. And everything has seemed to work out, maybe not exactly as planned, but in Java I've done exactly what I intended to do. Therefore, I am trying to enjoy each day for what it is. That becomes challenging when I'm also planning what is coming up, but once I book places in Kuala Lumpur and Kuching, I'm set on accommodation until I fly to Beijing where everything will be planned by Intrepid. Today is a day to relax. As my parents said to me, the beginning of a trip always feels slow and then next thing you know its almost over and you can't believe its gone so fast. And I know that is true.


A few observations I made over the past week which I didn't write about:


Singapore - People there love to eat, and shop. There are so many food centres and malls. The subway and buses are very clean and easy to use.


Indonesia - Everyone wants to know where you are from, seriously, everyone asks and then they usually ask if I'm alone. Depending on where I am I change that second answer. If you say terima kasih (thank you) they ask if you can speak Bahasa Indonesian. People here are always smiling even if you turn them down. It gets dark here really early; by 6pm its pitch black out. There are tons, and tons, of motorbikes. Drivers are crazy. There are lanes, but you just make your own or drive on the other side of the street and honk when you need to pass people. Its a good idea not to sit in the front seat.


Another thing I forgot to mention:
- The kitchen at our restaurant the second night in Yogya. Everyone was preparing the food on one table and then there was the stove. S&W and I had a good laugh about it.

Notes from Saturday

I have been trying to load this page for a while and now its very late. So, I'm just going to write some notes so that I remember what I did today. Plus, I'm not sure I'll have internet for the next couple of days.

Woke up again at 4am, but luckily fell back asleep until 8. Spent an hour+ planning my hotel stuff in Surabaya for Tuesday night. Ate breakfast and talked to a German girl who's been living here for almost a year. She gave me some suggestions for today. Booked a Prambanan sunset tour (which is really just a driver). Finally got out of the hotel at 11am and needed to exchange some USD since my debit card wasn't working in the machines (I just now found out that it had actually been turned off for potential fraud). On the way, a few becak drivers asked me if I wanted a ride and I turned them down, but one sounded friendly and I told him I might come back. Once I had my cash, I went back to find him. Giyonon has bee a becak driver for 40 years. He spoke excellent English and was extremely friendly. We set off to the Kraton (area where the sultan lives). Had Giynon wait for me and went into the Kraton with a female guide. She was knowledgeable and told me about the sultans, etc. Came out and Giynon was waiting for me. He took me to the south end of the main street Malioboro and I spent 15 minutes in the Beingharjo market before going back to my hotel.

By the time I got back it was 1:30pm and I only had until 1:50 to get some food and be ready for Prambanan. Stopped into Via Via for a fruit drink and had the second pack of Oreos I'd purchased on the plane. Car was running slightly late so my timing was fine. Polish couple on their honeymoon were taking the same car. We didn't get a guide at Prambanan so we had 3 hours to walk around on our own and see the sunset. The Prambanan plain was the center of powerful 10th century Mataram Kingdom. The principal temple is the greatest Hindu monument on Java and over 45 meters tall. Had too much time to kill at Prambanan before watching the sunset.

Was back at the hotel by 6:40pm, and jumped in the shower so that I could use the hotels one hair dryer. S&W were picking me up at 7:30, but when I got to the lobby I didn't see them. Only Suzanne had come and she was on a motor bike. We were only going back to their hotel which was a couple minutes drive so I wasn't too scared, even though it was my first time. There weren't too many vehicles on the road and it was a fun ride. Chicken dinner at a restaurant near their hotel with a cat that wouldn't leave us alone. Said goodbye to my Dutch friends and thanked them for hanging out.

Off to Bromo tomorrow. 11 hour drive. Yuck.

A few things I forgot to write about:
1. Fruit from the side of the road that Gidi got for us. Interesting taste.
2. Suzanne taking a bit taste of dip and dying from the heat of the sauce.
3. Alwyn taking me the back way into the Newton Hawker which caused me to cough for almost all of dinner.
That's all I can think of for now. Next blog when I'm back online (latest Tuesday).

Early morning for Borobudur

What a long day it has been! I was up at 3:30am so that I could see the sunrise over Borobudur. Let me start at last night though.

At 5pm I met my new Dutch friends (Suzanne and Wouter) at their hotel to discuss our plans for today. After some consideration, we decided to take our airport taxi driver up on his offer to take us to Borobudor, etc in a private taxi. We liked the idea better than a tour because we'd be able to stop when we wanted and to stay as long as we wanted. He said he'd pick us up at 4am since we wanted to see the sunrise over Borobudur.

For dinner, we chose Via Via as it was recommended by Lonely Planet (top pick) and by Footprints. Plus it is three doors down from my hotel. When we got there most of the tables were full so we had to share with a couple (who also happened to be Dutch. There are tons of Dutch tourists here!). Every single person in the restaurant was a tourist, all with their LP books in hand. It was quite the scene. I ordered pineapple juice and a vegetarian Indonesia dish. It was tasty but definitely didn't live up to the stingray.

During our dinner the Dutch couple left and a French couple on their honeymoon sat down next to us. They are staying at the same place as me (in a nicer room). The entire night, tourists with LP books kept coming in looking for tables, but the place was so full that half of them got turned away. By 8pm we were done, and I was basically falling asleep at the table. So we said good night and see you at 4am.

I went to sleep pretty early after showering and saying hi to the folks. I didn't sleep great as I was worried about waking up in time, and at 3am I just relaxed with my eyes closed waiting for 3:30 since I'd already prepared my clothes for the day. Suzanne, W and Gidi (our driver) were here just after 4am to pick me up. It was pitch dark outside but as we drove along we saw lots of people walking around. One town we drove through had tons of people lining the streets as there was some kind of local market that started very early in the day.

Some info on Borobudur since I realize its not the most popular tourist destination (although it is the most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia). Borobudur is a 9th century Buddhist monument consisting of 6 square platforms topped by 3 circular platforms and the main dome. There are 500 Buddha statues some of which sit inside perforated stupas and was constructed with 1,600,000 andesite stones. Borobudur became known worldwide through Sir Thomas Raffles (the famous one in Singapore) in 1814. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO and it is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

We got to Borobudur in excellent time. The only way to see the temple before it officially opens at 6am is to pay a hefty fee to the Manohara hotel in the park. Quite a deal they have going, but they give you a flashlight (to keep as a souvenir) and a breakfast snack when you are done visiting the temple. After we bought our tickets I turned around and saw the woman who was sitting next to me on the plane! Teng Li and her friend (Eng Eng) were there for the sunrise too. I guess I should have known they'd be there since they spent the night in the area, but it was pretty funny running into her.

The flashlights were necessary as we walked towards the temple and up the steps to the top. As we reached the highest point and looked out, you could see a faint pink color at the horizon and the two volcanoes (Merapi and Merbabu) looming in the distance. The surrounding trees were partially covered by a white mist. The sky was almost cloudless. It was a glorious morning. So I started taking pictures. We had over 30 minutes until the sun rose above the volcano and each passing minute was more beautiful. I walked around on the top three circular levels with the stupas and one open stupa with its Buddha exposed and snapped away. There were relatively few tourists, which allowed me to get shots without tons of people in the frame.

At one point, I stopped to think about where I was. Borobudur at sunrise was my main reason for traveling to Java and Yogya and it was hard to believe that after all the planning I was actually there experiencing it. And it was incredible. As the sun rose higher in the sky, light was cast upon the temple and I got a much better view of its detail. We were walking around enjoying ourselves but also wishing that we had some guidance as Gidi was just a driver, not a guide. Teng Li offered to share their guide, Bang Bang, with us. So for the rest of the morning at Borobudur, Bang Bang explained some of its history and meaning. Some of the stone depictions have not been fully understood because they are missing a "link" but the bottom level has four tales which wrap around the entire base and are mostly "translated".

When we had seen most of the the monument, we walked back to the hotel for our breakfast. At breakfast Bang Bang told us that he met President Obama a long time ago. Not sure if its true, but makes for a good story. We thanked Bang Bang for sharing his knowledge and I said goodbye to my Singaporean plane friends.

Our next stop was Mendut Temple which was built in AD 800 and has a 3 meter high status of Buddha seated with two disciples. We ran into Bang Bang and Teng Li again, so we heard a bit about Mendut as well. From there we headed an hour east to Mount Merapi, the active volcano which we had seen from Borobudur. We didn't go all the way to the volcano, but there is an area where you can see the top of it. Our weather luck continued and it was perfectly clear. My camera battery died there, but fortunately Suzanne and Wouter (S&W) shared their photos. By the time we left it was coming on 11am and we were eager to have our next stop be lunch.

The drive back to Yogya (and to Mount Merapi) was through beautiful rice paddies, green "jungles" and little towns. I enjoyed seeing the men working in the fields sporting their triangle hats. As I expected, lunch was at one of those typical tourist stops (even though we had a private driver) where loads of mini-buses come for a meal. I ordered a rice dish with vegetables, prawns and chicken but was careful in my eating cause I'm not sure what my stomach can handle.

After lunch we asked Gidi to drive us to the Tombs of the Mataram sultans since we still had about an hour with him and were saving Prambanan. Little did we know what we were in for. When we got there Gidi mentioned that there were 500 steps to the tomb site. The books say there are 345 steps and somehow I'd glanced over this fact. We struggled to the top of the stairs but a nice breeze and shade kept us somewhat cooler (we were still sweating). We tried to walk in and found out that there were a list of rules, including that we needed to be wearing the right clothes, take off our shoes, etc, all of which none of us were interested in doing. My favorite rule was "Women may not be in period". So after spending a few minutes in front of a fan, we trudged back down the stairs. At least it was good exercise. Back to Yogya we went.

Gidi dropped us off at S&W's hotel at 3pm. We were all exhausted and decided to meet up for dinner at 7pm. I spent the afternoon doing various bits and things: sticking my feet in the pool, arranging my plans for Bromo (the other place I want to visit on Java which is very popular at this time of year and left me with only one option for a place to stay and on an organized "tour" including transfer from Yogya to Bromo [11 hours], hotel accommodation and sunrise at the volcano), starting my blog, uploading my photos, etc. A nap ended up not being in the cards so I'm now even more tired.

S&W and I went to a restaurant which the French couple from last night recommended. I had the tasty chicken satay and a watermelon juice. We sat around after eating to talk about our various plans for the next few days, and I started falling asleep at the table. It was a busy day, what can I say. Tonight I'm getting a good night sleep as I only have to wake up for breakfast. Will probably see some of Yogya tomorrow since I haven't really done that yet and go on a sunset tour of Prambanan before meeting S&W for a last meal together. Signing off.

Yo from Yogyakarta

I am relaxing in my air conditioned room in Yogya. I made it safely and found a place to stay, but there's more to the story than that.

Last night I slept poorly. At 4:30am I woke up and started getting anxious about Yogya since I didn't have a place to stay. I tried to fall back asleep but there was noise on the floor from people coming back at 5am to shower and then it started pouring rain around 6am so I basically laid there with my eyes closed trying to get back to sleep. At 7am I called it quits and got up to get ready, finish packing, email the guy that Patrick gave me the name of, skype with my mom and sister, eat breakfast and head to the airport. I don't want to admit it, but I had a bit of a breakdown on the phone with my mom because I was worried about what lay ahead. I've travelled a lot, and a lot on my own, but in all cases I've had a place to stay. Now I know that part of what I'm doing is to not plan everything, that way if I love a place or meet great people I can adapt my plan, but four days in I'm not quite in that mind set. I did believe it would work out, but I was worried.

Anyway, the rain was really coming down so I got in a taxi to the airport. Arrived with plenty of time, checked in, went to through security... nothing too exciting. Got online again and chatted with my dad. I also received an email from the American in Yogya (Mark) saying that he was sure everything would be fine and to contact him if I needed anything. That made me feel a bit better. When we were finally able to go to the gate, I started looking at the line of people hoping to find some obvious tourists... there were only a few. So I made sure to sit near a couple in the boarding area, and I asked them if it was their first time in Indonesia. Conversation started. Turns out they will be traveling around the country for four weeks and don't have any specific plans. They told me that this morning they had called to get a place to stay in Yogya, so I asked if I could join them to see if there was availability for me.

As we boarded the plane, I found out they were from Utrecht (Netherlands) and next thing I know, the guy behind us in line starts speaking Dutch. It was so random, he lived in Maastricht and Utrecht before moving to Singapore (he's originally from Mexico). He was on his way to Yogya to visit some friends because he lived here for 7 months. So the three of them were speaking some Dutch, and I told the couple I'd see them after the flight.

I fell asleep for the first part of the flight, but I was awake at the end and saw the volcanoes as we flew over Java. It was pretty amazing (picture above).

I waited the entire flight to talk to the young woman sitting next to me, but she's from Singapore and was going with her friend to Yogya for 4 days. They had basically everything planned out with a tour operator so she couldn't tell me where she was staying. Getting through immigration was fairly painless. I went to the window to purchase my Visa On Arrival for $25 and was third in line with the official. They take finger prints and photos, but he asked very few questions. I know some people said I might have problems with an Israel stamp, but he actually put the visa on the page opposite, so no issues there.

My Dutch friends were pretty far back, so I took the time to talk to the "information desk" (not sure I would call it that but it was a woman with a sign and some info) about rooms. One area of Yogya is totally booked and she suggested a place in the JL Prawirotaman area, which is where I was planning to go anyway. I decided to just go with the Dutch friends and see what happened. The Mexican guy (I'm referring to them this way because I didn't know their names yet) offered to share a taxi with the three of us since he needed to go to the same place and he negotiated the price.

The drive in took a bit longer than I expected and while I tried to look out the window, I was still thinking about the hotel situation. When we got to their hotel, I found out there was only one room for one night, no good. So I told them I'd meet them later (which I'm off to do in 30 minutes). Luckily, Miguel (got the name) waited for me and said he would help me find a place. Really came in handy to have someone who speaks Indonesian walking around with me. He was so nice to wait as I checked out a few places. As he said, he's been lost while traveling and people have helped him out so its the least he could do. I greatly appreciated it.

The options were ok, but not the best. I walked into a place that I'd read about in Lonely Planet assuming they were full, and they were, but their sister location wasn't. I'd heard about this (Duta Guest House) too, and they had space, so I said I'd check it out. Stopped into the hotel that the airport woman recommended. It wasn't too bad and was a pretty good price, but since I knew Duta I wanted to check it out. Of course it was the best. A bit more pricey (and by pricey I mean $36 a night, which is significant when you are traveling for 10 months but not bad in the grand scheme of things) but the I'm on the second level overlooking the pool and feeling pretty good. So I thanked Miguel for helping me out and said goodbye (picture above).

Soon I'll meet up with my Dutch friends to figure out if we're going to do something together tomorrow. The hotel gave me some options for tours and I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the Borobudur Sunrise (departing at 5am). So, as my parents and sister said, everything worked out. I'm here for three nights and looking at my options for the other three on Java since I'm flying to Malaysia on Wednesday. Think this will be good. More tonight (unless I'm waking up at 4:30).