June 24 - 29, 2012 R&R in Ubud

This is now our third trip to Ubud in 3 months and we still had things we hadn't seen or done.  With a wedding coming up in September we decided to avoid the gelato shop and instead be regulars at the Ubud Fitness Center and at the Yoga Barn.  These two places are at opposite ends of town but the Yoga Barn is down near Monkey Forrest so an interesting walk with all the shops en route. 

We went daily to Yoga and had a class in Intro to Yoga, Restorative Yoga and Yin Yang Yoga. We worked hard through an hour and a half session each time.  Once the Yin Yang teacher said "so happy to see you came back" - that was after our first session with her and we had positioned our selves in the front row never dreaming the place would fill up to 30 people! After that we were in the back so no one could see what we were doing or what we could not do, to be more exact! There is a wonderful healthy cafe with free wireless at the Barn, so we would have a meal after our class.

We also spent time at the Fitness Center, which required for us to be dropped off and picked up, as it is out of the way.  The Center had a daily rate which we did this visit but next time we will do a week's pass and work with a trainer.  The Center offers a 15 minute sports stretch massage by the trainers, which we did twice after work outs and were impressed with how good we felt afterwards.  The Center also has a healthy cafe, but just drinks, so we would have a banana peanut butter protein shake and a fresh wheat grass shot.

In the evenings we would still go out the X-Lounge (shisha place) as they make a good grilled tuna steak and fresh salad. While in April the Lounge was the only nearby place with decent live music, now that the "season" has started there are many places with good live music. The Yoga Barn has a restaurant called Kafe which we also really enjoyed.

The rates have gone up at the Cendana Resort and we are even having a hard time getting a room there for our next visit.  We have continued in our usual vein of leaving stuff at various locations.  We picked up our snorkling gear from our friend Helma at the InterCon and left a suitcase at the Cendana.  We can now carry all our gear ourselves.  That heavy Batik Cap and a shark's tooth have been left behind at the Cendana.

June 20-23, 2012 Solo and into the Volcano Terrain of East Java

Copper batik caps for stamping

We left the Phoenix Hotel by 7am in the morning as we had a very long drive ahead of us (12+ hours). The distance in KM was not that far but the roads are 2 lane with many types of transportation on the road and many things being carried (insert photo of the dog on motorcycle). We had hired the same driver that we had our on day trip to Borobudur, and used the same car, which was very comfortable with AC and seat belts.  Our only stop on the trip to Mount Bromo was at Solo to see the Pasar Antique (Flea Market).  This was interesting and we picked up a copper batik cap (only one because they are so heavy unfortunately) and a petrified shark’s tooth.

Map of East Java marking our route in green

 We stopped for a very late lunch at a tourist restaurant, which had some other mini vans with tourists coming from Bali and heading to Yogyakarta.  We arrived at Bromo Cottages and had late for dinner.  On arrival we also negotiated for a Jeep to take us up the neighboring peak of Gunung Penanjak at 4:00 AM for a sunrise view over Mt. Bromo, and then down to the lava sands inside the crater and back to the hotel.  This required getting up at 3:30 am and heading up a road that really did require 4 wheel drive. 

Mt.Bromo is the crater with the steam rising out of it

On arrival at the viewing point at perhaps 2,500 meters altitude,we were wearing several layers of clothes and considered renting a couple of jackets that vendors were offering.  Instead we bought a cup of tea to keep warm while we sat with other Indonesian tourists to see the sunrise.  We estimated that there were about 200 tourists at that point.  The sunrise was colorful and it was interesting to see the sulfuric steam rising from the center of the volcano. 



Black lava sand covering steps

We then drove back down the road along the steep lip of the crater. Interesting driving on this narrow lip with drop offs on both sides.  We then dropped down into the lava sand area at the base so that we could climb the stairs to look into Mt. Bromo.  The number of tourists willing to climb up the 253 steps had greatly reduced in number.  We hired horses, (Tenggerese horses are very small) to take us across the black lava sands to a point closer to the stairs. However, we found that the stairs had been covered by a thick layer of lava ash from the surrounding area and were quite difficult, in fact, not usable as stairs.



Unnerving to look into

 We had bought some flowers from a vendor to give as our “offering” to the steaming, sulphurous insides of the volcano, the "volcano god". If you don’t like heights, then you would be uncomfortable and probably just stand near one of the broken guard rail posts and not venture anywhere.  Thankfully there were not too many people, so there was no pushing to view either into the volcano or back towards the sea of sand and all around the crater rim.After the exciting road back up the rim and down to our accomodation, we had a quick breakfast back at Bromo Cottage and we were back in the car and driving back and around the volcano's  base to Kalibaru.

Kalibaru was a 5 hour drive with some back tracking before we arrived at the Margo Utomo Cottages, surrounded by plantations. Growing in the area were coconut, nutmeg, coffee, pepper and cloves. We did not have much interest in visiting the nearby plantations as we have seen these products growing in many countries. We were up early the next morning and off to the Ijen Plateau with again some back tracking and about a 4 hour drive.

 After punishing our car by driving up a road that required a 4 wheel drive, we arrived at the Ijen Resort and Villas.  This hotel was at the most beautiful location among rice fields and with panoramic views of the surrounding mountains, mostly volcanos.  We had a late lunch, settled in and then went for a walk in the rice fields.  The fixed menu dinner that was included with your room (no where else to eat) was very good.  We went to bed early as breakfast was going to be served at 4:30am for a 5 am departure by jeep with guide to go to Mount Ijen. The reason tourists come to this area is to hike up to the spectacular turquoise crater lake of Mount Ijen (2,148 m up with a crater of 2.2km x 2.5km ).

Mt. Ijen's turquoise lake and sulphur workers

Our rented 4 WD was waiting for us as was our female guide, who was a delightful surprise.  Aziza's english was quite good and it was interesting to talk to her for the hour and a half it took to drive each way. We had to cllimb through the dense jungle of Mt. Ijen Alas Purwo National Park until we arrived at the Ranger station, the starting point of our 3 km hike up to the crater rim of Mt. Ijen, a further 700 or so meters above the ranger station.
The trail you hike up is used by mine workers, carrying heavy loads of pure sulfur rocks in bamboo baskets hung on a pole over their shoulders. Some are carrying up to 80 kg (175 lbs) load but always have a smile if you are taking their pictures.  They were so sweet that we bought many packages of biscuits at the "weighing station" half way up the hill and passed them out to the workers. The LP guide book indicates a time of 1 1/2 hours to walk to the rim, but it took us 2 hours as it was quite steep, slippery and we needed to stay out of the way of the workers. We saw the turquoise lake, slightly bubbling in some areas because of volcanic activity.



Only 80kg! No problem~ just don't get in my way....

The sulphur fumes were not too strong when we were there, but many workers had masks in their bamboo baskets. Tourists have been restricted to the lip of the crater and are not allowed to go down to the lake area as the path is treacherous (nevertheless we saw some adventurous tourists going down but did not try it ourselves.)  It is interesting to watch how the workers use a shuffle jog in their rubber boots to go down the mountain. You definately want to stay out of their way so you don't disturb their rhythm!

We were back at the hotel by 11 am to pack up and head for the ferry over to Bali.  The ferry was actually very efficient and was only a 30 minute trip with a half hour or so to load and unload. However, it took another 5 hours or so to reach our hotel in Ubud, in part because of the congested inadequate roads, and partly because the driver did not know the location, which we forgave him because he was otherwise very good for four days.  We arrived at Cendana Resort on Monkey Forest Road at about 9 PM, had a quick dinner, and crashed.

June 14-19, 2012 Yogyakarta Area, with Borobudur, Prambanan and Merapi Volcano

We took a cab from the train station to the Puri Artha Hotel, some distance from the train station and main tourist attractions, but with a nice pool and comfortable rooms and decent WiFi for about $50 per night including breakfast. This was a hotel that Connie remembered so we decided to check it out. Located about 300 miles southeast of Jakarta, Yogyakarta is kind of the cultural center of Java, and had served as the capital of Indonesia for a short time in the 1940’s. It is well-known for its traditional handicrafts and performing arts.

On the 15^th we first visited the bird market, Pasar Ngasem, which surprised us because it had moved further away from the center of the city since our guide book’s publication.  It was amazing to see the various birds that they capture and sell to be caged songbirds.  Many of them we had seen at a distance in the wild, like Green Leaf Birds or types of Golden Orioles, but it was fascinating to see them up close.  They also had unusual animals like flying lizards, various snakes including some beautiful green ones, and some pythons and cobras.

We then made our way to Taman Sari, which were the bathing pools for the sultan and the palace wives, concubines and children built by a Portuguese architect in 1758 -1765. While war and an earthquakes have damaged the site, the series of bathing pools have been restored.

We then visited the central market, Pasar Beringharjo, where Leslie finally managed to find the type of Batik sarongs (Pekalongan) that she wanted to purchase. We had lunch in the Matah Hari mall after cruising Malioboro Street, (named after the Duke of Marlborough) and returned to our hotel to swim.  For dinner we enjoyed the live jazz at the ViaVia Restaurant at a cost of about $20 including wine.  There are in essence two “tourist” areas to stay in with a mix of Indonesian and western restaurants, one being near the train station off Malioboro, known as Sosrowijayan area, and the other is the Prawirotaman region where ViaVia is. The city is quite a sprawl of low rise buildings so it can take some time to get from one area to another.

Batik Tulis - canting



Yogyakarta is a center for batik both the hand drawn (batik tulis) and the stamped batik (batik cap). The colors of the Yogyakarta batik are shades of browns, black, indigo and dark yellow on a white base. There is even one sarong here, Batik Tiga Negeri (Three Country Batik),  which is colorized in three cities: red in Lasem, blue in Pekalongan, and sogan in Solo. These three cities were called countries (negeri) because they had autonomous governance under the Dutch.

Puppet Master and Musicians

White symbolizes the Good Puppets

Traditional Puppet show

Next day we visited the Sultan’s Palace, Kraton, which is still owned and occupied by the royal family of Yogyakarta.  It had interesting artifacts of the royal family’s social life, but very little information about anything they did for their people – perhaps they were largely irrelevant as the Dutch ruled the area for several hundred years, then the Japanese during World War II, and with Indonesian independence, rule moved to the central government. We watched a few minutes of the traditional puppet show at the Kraton which was included in our entry fee.  It was interesting to see all the virtuous puppet characters (good guys) arranged on one side of the screen and all the evil puppets on the other side of the screen, with the master puppet maker sitting in the middle at the back with all of the musicians behind him.

We had lunch at Gadri Resto, the house of Prince Joyokusumo of the Yogyakarta sultanate, the little brother of the ruling sultan at the present time.  There are several rooms of the palace open for wandering through and viewing.  One of the old royal drinks is a ginger drink, with fermented ginger, cloves, and lemon grass, which was wonderful if you like ginger.

We decided 2 of us in one becak
would be too much!

 Yogyakarta is interesting because bicycle rickshaws called Becaks are still a major part of transportation within the cities, and we used them several times to get from one market to another, or to a palace or restaurant. The metered taxis are also very good and a 15-minute ride usually costs $3 or less.

Since we have arrived in Indonesia we have negotiated our way through the throngs of school kids and Javanese sightseers who all seemed eager to have their pictures taken with us. We have been obliging as we consider it pay back for all the pictures we have enjoyed taking of people in various countries.  We are delighted to see the school children out on class trips to museums and heritage sites.

We left Yogyakarta and traveled to Mount Merapi to see the volcanic lava flows from the 2010 eruption, which killed hundreds, and then continued on to Kaliurang where we visited the Ullen Sentalu Museum. All visits are with a guide as the materials displayed are not well documented.  Our guide spoke good English so was able to answer our questions about the female Princess and Queens who were the subject of the museum.  There was a very nice textile display.  We had lunch at the restaurant there at the Museum and it served good European food and was playing Dutch music in the background.

Sarongs and sash are required for visiting Temples

We then drove on to Borobudur and arrived before sunset at Manohara Hotel Borobudur which is the only hotel located nearby the 8th-century Buddhist sanctuary of Borobudur, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  From the dining area you can see the temple and it is an easy walk.  We climbed up the levels to the top to see the sunset while studying some of the stone carving on the walls (both sides) of each level as we went. Borobudur was built between the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century A.D.   In 1814, Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles discover the Temple buried under volcanic ash. The ash helped in the preservation of the carvings.  The Temple has been restored a couple of times, in 1905 to 1910, and the last restoration was done in 1973 to 1983.  While we were there volcanic ash was still being power- washed off the temple  from the 2010 eruption of Mt. Merapi. Borobudur Temple was built about 500 years before Ankor Wat and about the same time as the Hindu temple Pambanan in just the next valley over from Borobudur. On the Borobudur Temple on the very outside bottom carved area there are even carvings of Hindu gods and goddesses. Unlike most temples, Borobudur was not built as a dwelling for the gods, but rather as a representation of the Buddhist cosmic mountain, Meru.  Accordingly, the base is the real, earthly world, a world of desires and passions, and at the summit is nirvana. Thus, as you make your way around the temple passages, studying all the carved lessons and slowly spiral to the summit, you are symbolically following the path to enlightenment.  We climbed up the Temple three times: once at sunset, again at sunrise the next morning (5am – not worth it as sunrise had no color) and then went with a guide after having our breakfast. Are we now enlightened?

Staying at the Manohara is good value because you are right at the site and your entrance fees to the site are covered by your room costs.  The Hotel also shows a video on Borobudur on an in-house TV channel which we found very informative.

Traditional herbal drinks

After Borobudur we spent our last 2 nights in Yogya at the Phoenix Hotel a lovely restored 1918 Dutch colonial hotel that was just charming.  We believe it was initially built as a residence and was used by the Japanese during WWII as their headquarters and only after WWII did it become a hotel. The breakfast buffet was outstanding and excellent value.  We would recommend other tourists just come for the breakfast buffet – even vegetarians would be very happy with the selection. The tradition herbal drinks of the Jamu-Gendhong-(Indonesian-traditional-herbal-drink-seller) were available at the buffet as well, with labels as to the name and what was the intended purpose.  A great cultural experience!  Our previous hotel also had a Jamu-Gendhong in the breakfast area but you were not sure what you were drinking or the purported benefits. (Time Magazine did a short article on Indonesia’s Jamu drinks in its March issue).

The Prambanan Temple we visited in a late afternoon to avoid the heat, have excellent lighting for pictures and to catch the 200 cast Ramayana Performance with the Temple in the background. You can hire a guide directly at most tourist sites to give you the information on the site and answer any of your questions at a very reasonable rate.  Interesting facts here was the idea that while both Prambanan and Borobudur were built with large volcanic stones from Mt. Merapi, because of the lava flows and rivers moving volcanic stone downstream, the workers did not really have to go all that far to get the volcanic rocks. Our guide used one of the temples in the compound to tell us the Ramayana story so that we would be all up to speed on what was happening when we saw the show.  Sunset closes the Temple grounds, so then we had some time to kill before our buffet dinner in conjunction with the show.  Buffet was basic and we would advise others to skip.  We had bought the VIP seats for the performance so we were right in front with excellent viewing and even bathrooms just for our section of seats. Though we left at intermission (2 hours into the 4 hour performance) because we would be getting up early to start our road trip to Bali through East Java, we did enjoy the performance and would recommend it for those who like cultural dance performances.

June 9, 2012 Start 2-month trip to Bangkok, Java, Bali, Sulawesi, and??

We consolidated our stuff in Chiang Mai, got our gear into a rolling hand luggage, a larger duffle/backpack that we attach to the old fashion wheeling cart and two small daypacks, and flew to Bangkok for a day or two of exploration before our flight to Jakarta on the 11^th.  Our passports, with Indonesian visas, had been returned to us just hours before our flight. We stayed in an area new to us in Bangkok, Khao San Road, but which is popular with backpackers and caters to light travelers. We stayed on the river in the New Siam Riverside, which was OK, but found that we could stay across the street in its sister hotel New Siam 2, in a similar room for about 40% less, so that will likely be our next hotel in Bangkok. Besides looking around Khao San Road, we went out for Sunday evening live jazz at the Saxophone Club, which was quite good.

We flew Singapore Air on June 11, via Singapore, arriving in Jakarta at about 4PM and exercised our two-month visa for Indonesia.  It took us a while by public bus to reach the train station, where we purchased our onward tickets to Yogyakarta  for the 14^th, giving us a few days to see a bit of Jakarta, a sprawling city of 9 million or more. We had been misguided by LP into thinking there were special bus routes which would make the journey faster than traveling by taxi. Our taxi from the train station drove around for an hour looking for our little-know apartment hotel, M Residence, which we found was in a decent neighborhood (Menteng) but had the disadvantage of no nearby easily walked-to restaurants or grocery stores.  It did have a pool and exercise room, which we took advantage of.  We had found this on Agoda and it was in the area that we wanted to be in and had the facilities we were looking for.  We will not stay there on our return trip to Jakarta to fly back to Chiang Mai.

The bottom right square upper left corner is like what we would find!

The next morning we took a tour of the very extensive National Museum, using a free docent service that our friend Connie Ikert had told us about, and enjoyed this a lot.  This museum is one of the best of its kind in Indonesia and one of the finest in South East Asia.  The museum houses collections of cultural objects of the various ethnic groups from around the country as well as artifacts from the Hindu-Javanese times.  There is a large display of Chinese ceramics together with ceramics from other time periods and trading areas including the Middle East. The exhibit of old gold jewelry from several hundred years earlier was fantastic. The first visit would not have been nearly as interesting had we not done the docent tour by the Indonesian Heritage Society.  Leslie went back a second time and spent several more hours focusing on the textile and ceramic areas.  Only part of the museum is air conditioned so best to go when the museum first opens.  The museum was established in the Dutch colonial times and we saw references to a Johannes van den Bosch who was a governor of the area for awhile.  Not a family relative however.

We also cased out a couple of malls to get an idea of fixes prices for Indonesian handicrafts etc, and had dinner at a lovely restaurant called Lara Djonggrang which was in an old colonial building serving Javanese court food which we enjoyed and the presentation of the food was exceptional.  

Textile Dissemination map at the museum

In the afternoon of the second day we used a guide, car and driver to see several areas of Jakarta, including the old Dutch town of Batavia and it’s central square, the port, and a model village called Taman Mini Jakarta showing the life-styles on the different islands.  Our guide was a delightful Indonesian lady that was in her 70s and spoke Dutch and English.  Her name and contact information had been provided to us through Connie. Then we caught our 8:30 AM Executive Class train for an 8-hour ride to the central Java city of Yogyakarta on the morning of the 14^th. We were in the first class but not on the most up-scaled train but our car had AC and that is what we had focused on.  While we had brought snacks to eat the train staff did have a hot menu that they came around with so many passengers were ordering hot meals. The scenery was primarily through rice fields and only made 3 or 4 stops along the way.  When we cut across Java from the north to head south was the only time that the train climbed up minor hills and was on an elevated track.

Java Map