Indonesia is just HUGE! With a predominantly Muslim population of 235million people its as big if not bigger both geographically and populous wise then all the rest of South East Asia put together comprising of some 15,000 islands. I flew into Jakarta from Singapore and stayed only one night. There really didn't seem much worth visiting in the capital so i headed south through Bogor and Bandung and on to the surf coast of Pelabuhan Ratu, finally stopping at the surf beach destination of Pangandaran where i stayed one week and just surfed. surfed and surfed!
Pangandaran
I hadn't surfed since New Zealand, some 3-4 months ago so i was dying to get in th
e water. I rented a board for a week and just surfed, or tried to surf my ass off. There were some big waves but luckily breaking on to a sandy bottom as opposed to a coral or rock bottom. There was a huge expanse of beach front with many breaks so over crowding wasn't a problem and anyway the local surfers were friendly. I also met some very cool local guys at the surf shop and a group of ex-pats 
working as teachers in Jakarta for a year. We all had a good laugh together and I ended up doing a day trip on a motor bike with them and a local guide to a sea turtle sanctuary, a blue lagoon, a wooden puppet master and waterfall. A Great day out.
After my weeks fantastic surfing break I went with a friend that i met there, Ed from the UK, and made the long journey to Volcano Bromo via Jogjakarta. To be honest neither of us liked Jogjakarta much, we visited the unimpressive royal palace. However after much walking and searching along the super busy streets we did find what we were looking for, the 'government shop for Batik art'. A very good find indeed. Original Batik art, produced by local artists and sold at affordable prices. Well its art, of course I had to buy some and I did. Lets just hope it gets home OK in the Indonesian post. We only spent a few days in Jogjakarta however while we were there we definitely planned to visit the famous Borobudur temple.
Borobudur
Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. It has six square platforms topped by three circular platforms and is decorated with lots of statues and panels. There's a main dome, located at the center of the top platform, surrounded by some 72 Buddha statues seated inside stupas. The monument is both a shrine to the Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimages. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian Government and UNESCO. It is still used for pilgrimage once a year by Buddhists in Indonesia and is Indonesia's single most visited tourist site.
Thereafter we then moved on to Bromo. A long bus ride where I stared death literally in the face several times. I was sitting in the very front of the bus (not my choice, promise) and sometimes you would have three cars going one way and two the other all on a single lane road where drivers just used the verge. Madness. Anyway we arrived at our destination luckily in one piece late that night. Accommodation was OK-ish but we were at this place for the next mornings sunrise. That was the big deal. The lookout point. We ate and slept and then were up at 3.30am, left by 4am and arrived at our destination at 5am in time for the sunrise.
Bromo, The Setting.
I stood a top this large look out point (not alone of course- tourist ville). I had a view at least of 260° degrees at least. To the left side this is where the sun finally rose. Initially i could see nothing, just pitch black, but that just adds to the magic of the moment. Slowly, minute by minute literally i could begin to pick out some landscape
.
The sun took at least 30-45minutes to rise. Each moment i could piece a little more of the enormity of what i was seeing. I had no idea of the view or of what to expect. I just knew i should not miss this. Well to my left, the direction from where the sun began to rise I could just start to make out several cones, volcano cones, spreading for miles across miles and miles valleys and mountain ranges. Ahead of me I began to see that some volcanoes were spitting out smoke, little white puffs in the distance. Others were lying dormant but still majestic in their in size and beauty. To the right of my view there was an enormous open volcano crater, a bit like a huge crater lake without the lake, with clouds drifting slowly over it. I was just in ore of the view. Speechless. I just beheld the awesome beauty of the view. I have never in all my life seen anything like this. Such a vast clear and visibly landscape slowly coming into focus minute by minute. I will remember this sunrise to my dying day. It was and is the most amazing sunrise landscape I have ever been fortunate enough to behold.
I do realise my words offer absolutely no justice to the spectacular site I witnessed, however maybe my pictures and video will.
Ed and I walked up Bromo volcano later that morning, which was fine, but I've been up a few volcanoes now. The volcano was very much a live and spitting out plumes of toxic smoke and gases however after having just witnessed the most amazing sunrise landscape I realise nothing could top that.
BALI
After another long bus ride to the far most north eastern point of Java I took the ferr
y boat to the island of Bali. Having heard so many things about Bali (e.g. the book eat,prey,love) i was excited about this next part of my travel. The first couple of nights i stayed in a small town called Lovina on the north of Bali which was nice enough. One god thing, i managed to find what they call a 'rice hut' within the grounds of a swanky five star hotel so i chilled there by the pool and just enjoyed. Lovina is famed for the large groups of dolphins that fish for food each morning at sunrise. I said to myself 'when in Rome, why not. Initially all was fine. Me and couple of people ventured out on a small boat into the ocean with the sun rising behind us. Beautiful. However after 30mins of sailing i started to see a few other boats, then more boats. All for the same reason. To see these dolphins. I counted 30 other boats in total out there with us and one boat spotted a family of dolphins, they all started chasing after the dolphins. I couldn't believe it. I guess i just didn't know what to expect. But after while the boats with their tourists just chased after any dolphins that raised their heads form the water. I didn't feel good, i didn't like it and just wanted to go back. It gets harder and harder to find sacred things or moments with us all on this small planet. Anyway. Not to be repeated.
Tumbalen dive site.
I had read about the most famous dive site in Bali, Tumbalen, so i headed further round the coast and stayed at a nice place call ed Ahmed on the east coast just next to Tumbalen. During the second world war the Japanese bombed a the US Cargo ship Liberty, a ship some 150meters in length. The US tried to bring it to shore and were successful but some years later a huge earthquake shunted the ship back into the sea. The ship has resided at the same spot in the water, between 12 and 30 metres of depth, for the past 40+ years. Enough time for the creatures of the deep to make it there home! I managed to find a local outfit to take me diving. I just tried to have no expectations. Not an easy task :-). As luck would have it we got there a little late, 8am and the first lot of divers had finished so when we got into the water were almost alone, just one or two other divers. Each time i submerge i have to go slowly due to my ears and not being able to equalise that easily. The down side being i use a lot of air. So i finally got to 12m depth and was swimming happily along, i slowly started to make out the faint outline of the shipwreck. Getting closer and closer i felt there was a moment coming. That moment was this. I was swimming (with my dive master of course next to me) nearer and nearer to the front nose of the ship and then i had a thought. I just felt that round the other side of this nose, around this corner a whole myriad of life forms would be seen. WOW! Was i right. I looked over the bow of the shipwreck and saw everything, huge red coloured fan coral a metre in diameter, small fish, seahorses, schools of jack fish swarming high above my head. I followed my dive master deeper and deeper along the side of the ship. It had been broken into two parts but still somewhat attached. There was coral all over the boat, every single bit of steel was covered. As we came round the stern of the boat and up the other side i turned to my left, inwards facing the boat and saw the giant resident Barracuda that lives there. Just minding his own business. At least 1..5m in length, its body so big, bigger that a full set of golf clubs (sorry for the poor visionary)! We then swam up the side and through archways and doors. All such new experiences. While we were swimming up i had a look at my air gauge. To my surprise it read 0. Meaning no air left. Out of air. Shit! Well i grabbed my dive master showed him my gauge, he pulled my air piece out and gave me his secondary air piece. All this at 30m depth. Well then we swam together in tandem slowly back to the surface which took 15mins. Another experience. It was a valuable lesson. I realise now that i use a lot of air to get down, due to my ears and the compression, so i need to be more aware of my air gauge in future! Aside the shipwreck dive was simply amazing. I spent just under an hour swimming all round the wreck, with just the two of us more or less in the water enjoying the experience. How fortunate. I would definitely do it again and if anyone goes to Bali, they must dive the US Cargo shipwreck on the east coast in Tumbalen. Sorry no pics of this! Just my memories ;-).
I headed further south after that and rented a motorbike for a few days and just travlled around the island of Bali. Visiting gue rice padi terraces, temples built out in the ocean and other things Balinese. I have added a few random photos of Bali to give you a feel for it.
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