Two weeks of living dangerously
Couldn't help but use that title hehe, explanation for anyone who needs it, play on the title of the 80's film "The year of living dangerously" based in Indonesia.
Well back now all safe and sound, was a brilliant experience, Indonesia is an amazing and incredibly diverse country, so many different people, cultures and contradictions.
I have added a big gallery of photos of my trip here. I took quite a few more pictures than this, but they are on film at the moment waiting for me to get down to the camera shop to have them processed.
Well about the trip, now this is going to be a long one, if you are easily bored escape to the pictures now while you can!
I took off from Gatwick flying to Abu Dhabi, where I had a slow ole 4 hour wait, though its an interesting looking airport, and has a fair few duty free shops, and its interesting to see all the arabs around and too see the desert out of the window.
Getting on the plane to Jakarta I saw two other westerners getting on the plane and everyone else appeared to be indonesian, and they were all looking at us, as though we might be aliens hehe. Though they all seemed friendly and funny.
On arrival at Jakarta airport I was met by a rather stressed and happy little Julia who took me over to the blue bird taxi that whisked me all the way accross the city to Depok, which took a couple of hours, big city!
Then for these first two days I stayed at the hotel Bumi Wiyata It was a very nice place, got a nice big room, with a little lounge, big balcony and marble bathroom ! for about £30 a night, what can you say hehe. We tried some nice beef Sate and some of the indonesian tea outside in their gardens on the first night, and Julia had to help me pick food that would not blow my head off hehe.
We then went over to visit Julia's friends, at Lisa's place also in Depok which was cool, though as I was so jet lagged from the near 24 hour flight I was drifting in and out on their sofa!
The next day we met up with my friend Chika and had a chat took some pictures together, unfortunately didn't get the chance to see her for too long before she had to nip off to go to the nearby University.
The next day Julia and I went swimming at the hotel pool which was so nice to get out of the sticky heat and into a nice cool pool :-) That evening we went out in Jakarta to a music bar, and got rather drunk, and watched everyone have a go at doing covers. I also saw Julia singing for the first time there which was great as she was very good :-)
We then took a train over to Bogor, in West Java. Julia thought I should check out the economy class, which was a real eye opener, some of the poorest people I have ever seen. Felt like I really wanted to help out all the little kids that were living in the train sidings and clinging to the roof of the train. The carriage of the train was basically like a carriage for taking freight or animals, but had some benches down the sides. As with nearly all trains in Indonesia there were people walking up and down trying to sell all sorts from drinks to cigarettes or strange little wind up toys.
We then arrived at Bogor and went on the hunt for a hotel via Becak which is a pedal powered taxi, as well as using a horse drawn taxi called a andong or delman. Eventually we found an acceptable one, which was pretty much a western hotel inside but with a nice little bridge and lake in the centre. Next to it was a Kareoke bar which we visited later on ;-)
Once we were all checked in we went over to the botanical gardens, for food and had a good look around the gardens, saw lots of lovely tropical trees and plants. The restaurant was good there too and it was the only place where I saw a couple of other white people.
After the botanical gardens we went to a Sudanese restaurant, which was a bit scary for me, as there were lots of unwelcome guests including flies and cockroaches hehe! Luckily I just had rice ;-) And then found a rather nice bakery to get some chocolate filled croisants!
Later that evening we went to the Kareoke bar, watching some local bands playing live, mostly doing covers, including a cover of Steven and the Coconut Treez, which is a band Julia does backing singing for!
The next day we hired a 4x4 and driver and headed up into the mountainous countryside on the search for a new hotel, after initially being refused by one place for not being married, we eventually found a nice little place.
The room was a lot more basic than I had previously been used too, with a weaved bamboo type roof, little area out the front where you could look right over the nice misty mountainous terrain. The bathroom was rather basic, having the hole in the ground type toilet and a barrel of water and bucket for a shower, but the place was nice and friendly.
The hotel was right next to the entrance to a national park, which led all the way to the mountain, we headed into the park, and up to a little area of wooden shops, where Julia's good friends worked. We got invited in, and they were so friendly with me, had some good Nasi Goreng with them and some great Indonesian tea which I was starting to get a taste for hehe.
We then headed up further towards the mountain, through jungle where we saw waterfalls, including one large one at the end, also lots of cute lil indonesian couples coming up there for the romantic view. On the way back down through the jungle we saw some wild monkeys jumping from tree to tree, couldn't belive how lucky I am !
That evening we went down to the little village and spent the evening with Julia's friends down there having some beers at their little wooden house and Julia playing guitar and singing with them, it was great and they were all really friendly with me and wanted to talk to me, but all had to go through Julia as the translator so she was very busy hehe.
The next morning we did some Silat training on the grass at the hotel, infront of the mountain, which caught the eye of the hotel owner Mr Boynanda, who just happened to be a Silat master. He showed us some videos of his students and the grand master (guru). He then suggested we might want to come to a demonstration that evening.
We agreed and also agreed to get water and cigarettes for all the Silat guys that would be doing the demonstration. So that evening we hired a 4x4 and driver again and went deeper into the mountain, on dirt tracks that were so bumpy it was mad. We went through some tiny villages coming accross one that had a huge cinema screen erected next to the road, so the entire road was covered with people, apparently an initiative set up by the government to bring entertainment for an evening to remote areas.
We then arrived at the village where the demonstration would take place, where I was stared at by hundreds of onlookers as we made our way up onto the stage and I was introduced to the village by the Silat Grand Master as "Mr Ian from England" and I got clapped by everyone!
I then watched a big demonstration of some excellent Silat, so smooth fast and flowing. Including seeing them attempt to cut an uncuttable man, smash breeze blocks on a guy laying on a bed of nails with a big hammer, and another guy on a bed of nails being run over by a motorcycle!
I was then presented with a VCD showing different members of their club demonstrating Silat, so I could take it back to England and show it to the people at my Silat club and so I could learn some of their style.
That night we went to a new hotel, and stayed in Bogor before travelling early the next morning all the way down to Yogyakarta, 8 hours on a very unpleasent train. It was business class, but just had more comfortable chairs than the original economy train that took us to jakarta. Luckily the views out of the window were great, seeing all the fields and people as we whisked through West and Central Java. Throughout the journey we were hounded by people attempting to sell us food and toys etc, all I could hear for a few hours after arriving was "Nasi nasi nasi" nasi, meaning rice.
We then went to our new hotel in Yogyakarta, Duta Garden, it was a gorgeous hotel and very highly recommended to anyone that visits Yogyakarta. It had a large waterfall flowing into the swimming pool and lovely gardens of coconut trees and tropical plants, the room was spacious and nicely furnished and a good sized bathroom with western loo!
That evening we went on the hunt for food as it was so late when we arrived. We found the city was totally silent and managed to find a lone Becak driver (peddle taxi), who took us to a Sumatran restaurant, luckily this one was nicer than the one in Bogor :-)
Because the poor chap was starving we brought him with us and had dinner with him, before heading back to the hotel, on the way I noticed lots of shops crammed with basic wooden coffins which totally confused me at first, then I realised the big earthquake had only been 6 months ago with over 150,000 fatalities, got a bit nervous at that point.
The next day we went over to the Sultans Palace, and had a good wander all around it, lovely looking place, the Sultan still lived there so some of it was off limits, but got some great pictures on my film camera that I am really looking forward to getting processed. The guards at the place looked really cool, wearing traditional dress and javanese hats and carrying keris / kris swords!
The next day we went over to the temple of Borobodur which was gorgeous, an ancient buddhist temple, with amazing views over the jungle surrounding it and the mountains. We had a great guide who showed us all around the temple explaining the meanings of all the reliefs that decorated the temple. After taking pictures of everything there, we had a wander around on the top level (heaven / nirvana) and then headed over to the temple of Prambanan for sunset, the taxi was going so fast I wasn't sure we would make it there alive!
Luckily we got there in time to take a few nice pictures with the film camera, hoping they will come out well, as it was such low light.
We then headed back up to Jakarta on the executive train, which was great, pretty much just like being on a plane, watching english movies on the way, no "nasi nasi nasi" hehe and I managed to sleep most of the way, and it only cost us £30 for two, all the way 8 hours to jakarta.
After going to visit Lisa and Julia's other friends, Lia and Siti up in Depok on arrival and going over to eat some lunch with them, we went to our next hotel, which was great, and located in the center of the city.
The next day we headed over to the markets in the old section of Jakarta, where I managed to buy a great antique keris sword, luckily I knew what I was looking for thanks to my martial arts instructor Master Richard Hudson, who showed me how to identify authentic antique javanese weapons.
I had no idea if I would be allowed to bring it back into the UK, but I was just hoping it would all be ok, luckily it was!
The next day I flew home my keris comfortable in my bag down in the hold!
I have missed out a few bits and bobs as it would take so long to describe everything I did there, but it is an excellent and incredibly diverse place that is really worth a visit. You do have to seriously bare in mind that it is very poor though and have to be able to accept being stared at 24 7.
