Borobodur

Today we visited the very impressive Buddist temple Borobodur which is from the 9th century but was unearthed only in the 19th century, and drove up towards Mount Merapi to see where the lava flow destroyed a village only 3 years ago!

We had lunch at a restaurant along the way where every table is on an individual pavilion on a small lake, the fish there was so good we ordered a second, and when you are finished your fish you can throw the remains into the lake where the large lake fish eat it greedily! We could also take little bamboo rafts out on the the water which was good fun after eating.

It was raining heavily when we got back so Gyorgyi went off to finish the Batik painting course she started yesterday and we retired to our favourite cafe for cake and ice cream.

Fiona was over her high temperature yesterday but we took it easy, not to tire her out. She's fine today. And yesterday Briana was playing in the pool with some kids from the family that I guess own the hotel. They have enough English to communicate.

Tomorrow we will visit the Sultan's Palace in the morning and in the afternoon move to Solo and visit Prambanan along the way.

Yogyakarta

Arrived to Jogya yesterday. We got a taxi at the airport and told him we wanted a not-too-expensive, central hotel, with swimming pool. He brought us to a road with a lot of hotels, and we picked the 4th or 5th we saw. It's about 20 Euro a night for a quite simple room with a double bed and extra mattress, but the place is alright otherwise. (At the airport they wanted to sell us on a 5 star at 80 dollars.)

Unfortunately Fiona has a high temperature since yesterday morning and still today, so we haven't been able to do too much together. We didn't really do much at all yesterday and this morning went for a tour of the Sultan's palace but it was closed due to a Moslem holiday, so we cut that short too - anyway Fiona was very tired (it was only 9am) so Gyorgyi went off to do some sightseening and I went back with the girls to the hotel. Later on after she returned, I went off to the Malioboro area to browse the markets. Neither of us came back empty-handed! It's pretty easy to get nice souvenirs, whether simple t-shirts or nice artwork, and the prices are very low. Even when we know (later) that we paid well over the odds due to lack of local knowledge, it's still very little for Europeans.

The standard mode of transport here is rickshaw. They hold max 2 so we took two this morning. The girls wanted to go on a horse drawn cab so later on we switched to that for the trip back to the hotel. This is the cheapest place we visited. To put the cost-of-living here into context, you can rent a rickshaw for the day for 30000 Rupiah - that's about 2 Euro or 600 Forints. Internet costs as little as 3000 Rupiah an hour (20 Eurocents or 60 Forints) with better deals for longer times or happy hours. Laundry costs as little as 2500 a kilo which means you can have 5 kilos done for less than a Euro - that's perhaps a machine load. T-shirts are 15000 up to 25000 for the better quality - that's 1 to 2 Euros.

I'm in a pretty stylish place writing this called the Ministry of Coffee. I'd seen good reviews of their rooms on tripadvisor and as it turns out we ended up just 20 metres from them. They don't have any rooms free but a nice menu of sweet stuff, so I'm sure we'll drop in again to bulk out a little more before our return.

We've got 5 more nights in Java, and the main aim is to visit Borbodur the big Buddhist temple that was founded between 750 and 850AD, and Pramadnan the other big temple in the area which is Hindu. We might also take in the most active volcano in the world which is not far north of here... at least so long as it's not active at the moment!!! We'll fly out from Solo airport on Friday coming to Hong Kong. Our very last night in HK will be spent in the Disneyland hotel (not cheap but they give us a second days admission to the park for no extra charge - that'll wear the girls out for the night flight home to Europe!)

Leaving Bali :-(

Free internet in Denpasar airport.

Off to Java in an hour or so. To Yogyakarta for about 4 days, then Solo for a couple of nights before on to Hong Kong to end our travels.

We enjoyed Bali a lot, and Jimbaran was our last beach, so we made the most of it and ate lots of seafood on the beach-side restaurants. In fact, there's nothing else in Jimbaran except beach-side restaurants, where busloads of tourists are brought in every night! Full seafood platter for 2 with lobster, prawns, crab, fish, etc., plus a bottle of (Balinese, but not too bad) wine for less than 35 Euro.

Very busy and interesting fish market here early in the mornings... loads of boats disgorging their loads.

Sanur, Bali

On Sunday we arrived in Sanur, travelling via Klungkung (where we visited a big water temple and browsed around the local market) and Gianyar where we lunched on traditional Babi Guling (Roast Pig) and visited the "art market" which was mostly poor quality but interesting to look around.

Sanur is a out-and-out holiday resort, unlike places we visited earlier in Bali. There's a 5km long promenade along a sandy beach which has no waves and safe for swimming. Lots of nice hotels all along the beach (but we're staying in a cheaper place 5 mins away, which is fine and good value for the price although showing it's age a little).

Sanur is also totally flat unlike our previous locations. It's low season in Bali now so mostly it's relatively quiet. Sanur doesn't really have nitelife and there's a higher proportion of families and older people. (I think we're in one of those categories.) But there's a lot of nice cafes and restaurants and after staying in a very basic place for a week it's nice to have some European-style chocolate cake and other home comforts.

It's very humid here so we are continually sweaty. Luckily laundry services are always nearby and cheap!

Yesterday we saw a cremation, which just happened to be at a little temple right beside the beach we were on. They really burn the body right there, with lots of ceremony, and then put the ashes in a coconut and the go out in a boat to drop it in the sea. We saw leaflets advertising tourist trips to a cremation, so we saved 19 dollars by having it on our doorstep! The locals don't seem to mind tourists gawking at all.

We toyed with the idea of visiting the nearest island Nuse Lembongan for a night or two but the boat costs are a bit too high for such a short visit. So instead, from the 4 nights left for us on Bali, we will spend the first two in Sanur and the remaining two in the south tip of the island, not too far from the airport. We fly to Java on Saturday.

Fiona continues to swim better and better, now covering a couple of metres on her own underwater and learning to lift her head to breathe.

Padangbai

We are now in Padangbai, with a room in a hotel just beside the beach. We travelled here yesterday from Amed where we spent a week and did a lot of snorkelling and 7 scuba dives. The second hotel we stayed in there was very good for us, a very very quiet village, right on a good sandy beach for snorkelling (coral 2-3 metres out from the shore), some inexpensive restaurants, dive centre next door etc.


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Padangbai is not close to as nice, but it's ok for a day or two. It's mainly a port where boats go to Lombok, and I doubt anyone stays here for more than a couple of days. We had no accomodation booked and looked at 5 places when we got here and chose the most suitable. Much of the places we saw are small rooms for backpackers and we need something a bit larger and comfortable.

Since there's not much to do here, today is a "rest day" (haha!) We're now in a nice cafe at the quiet end of the beach, called the Topi Inn, and the girls are writing postcards while we do some reading.

Tomorrow morning we go to Sanur which starts to bring us into the busier south of Bali.

Marine life

Went diving again yesterday and saw amongst other things a Giant Turtle, 2 white-tipped sharks (1m or so long, not dangerous), a number of amazing lionfish, an eel garden, ... we went out on small Jukung fishing boats which just seat a few people, so we put on the wetsuits before boarding the boat, and put on the BCD (jacket) in the water. At the end of the second dive when we surfaced we could see a 'twister' in the distant sky under a storm which was coming in our direction... it disappeared after a little while.

And by now we have been out snorkelling twice in the bay with both of the girls, who are really excited by the colourful fishes and coral.

We have changed our plan and will next go a little south to Padangbai... want to see more of the quiet bays before we move to the busier areas in the south of Bali prior to flying out to Java.

Amed, Bali

We are now in the area of Amed on the west coast of Bali. It's a very quiet place, mainly a destination for scuba diving and snorkelling. We arrived here from Bali 3 nights ago. The place we stayed in - Hotel Uyah - was fine, but we cut short our planned 5 night stay there and this morning moved to a different hotel, mainly because the Uyah is not on a great beach and the place we moved to - Coral View Hotel - is on a superb beach for snorkelling. Also it is next door to the dive centre we chose to dive with because there is a Hungarian lady Viki working there.

Because we like it so much here we might extend our planned stay in the area by a couple of nights and do a bit more diving. Already we have done 3 dives - on Saturday twice at a wreck of a US ship from around WWII time, plus one on Sunday at a Japanese wreck. Another two planned for tomorrow. Both of these wreck dives were great - the boats are just metres off the beach, having originally been pulled-in for salvage I believe and in the case of the US ship, the 1963 volcanic eruption here broke it up and pushed it back into the water. The US wreck is covered with coral, and while the Japanese boat itself is not much it is just beside a reef. None of the dives were pricy as no boat was needed.

For both of tomorrow's dives we will go out in a Jukung fishing boat. The kids will stay at the dive center and someone will watch them. Briana and Fiona were really great when we went out for the dives over the last few days, someone watched them but they didn't complain about us disappearing into the sea!

Fiona has developed a lot of confidence now in the water. Within the last few weeks she has got comfortable putting her head underwater first, then swimming a little with her head down so long as she was held, then swimming on her own, and yesterday she went out with me to snorkel over a coral reef. Actually she didn't use the snorkel as such but held her breath and looked under the water using the mask. We were in waters about 3-4m deep and she had no fear, holding onto my neck with one arm. On the other hand Briana (who swims very well and happily snorkels in the pool), is finding it very hard to conquer her nervousness about going out into the sea. I am determined to get her out to snorkel with me before we leave here as the conditions are ideal - great coral and lots of colourful fishes just metres off the beach.

We travelled to Amed from Ubud with a fellow traveller Richard who works in the French embassy in Seoul. He hadn't dived in 20 years, so we were in good company as Gy hadn't dived in 7 and I was the same except a couple of dives last month in Thailand. Richard was great company for the trip, and joined us in the hotel we had booked so we had meals together for a couple of days too, and lots of good conversation. Otherwise the place is quiet, it's the low season. There are a very large number of French people on Bali for some reason.

We are really warming to Bali. The people are very very friendly, it's very cheap (typically we have a meal for 4 for around 15 Euro or so incl drinks, govt tax, service - and we are definitely not skimping), and the range of things you can do is large - top-class surfing on the East coast, cultural life in the town of Ubud, excellent diving on the West coast, ...

There is little wealth here. Apart from tourism the only occupations around Amed are fishing and sea-salt harvesting one month a year. The obviously very poor kids living around the beach (6-10 yrs old) had made little decorative weaved baskets containing salt, and were selling them to benefit their school. They spoke a little English, learnt at school, enough to introduce themselves and tell us a little about themselves. We bought a bunch of them to bring home as gifts, unfortunately that left a bunch of disappointed kids too whose baskets we couldn't buy. Briana gave them a Disney magazine she was finished with to bring to school, I hope they get value from it.

So, that's all for now...

We've only seen one or two instances of

Photos

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/patstephens99/PhuketKualaLumpurBali1#

Tooth Fairy and Auspicious Days

I forgot to write that the Tooth Fairy finally arrived, after a delay of a few days since one of Briana's teeth fell out last week. Let's just say the Tooth Fairy was not well-prepared for a visit to Bali and needed some time to get her act in gear. Luckily Briana expressed her wish for a little model of a cat with wings that she saw in a gift shop. And whaddya-know the tooth fairy delivered the goods. Now that's magic, Paul Daniels.

The Balinese have their own calendar in which a year consists of two cycles of 30 weeks, making a 420-day year. So much for Balinese Astronomy. Mostly this is used for religious purposes and to denote auspicious days for various activities like proposing to a girl or planting rice. Last Wednesday was strongly recommended for castrating an animal. Fortunately or unfortunately none were to hand at the time.

Misc news from Ubud, Bali

Yesterday and Today Gyorgyi is doing a course in "Tantsu". Meanwhile, yesterday the girls and I went to the local Ubud Monkey Forest which is a temple around which large numbers of Macaque monkeys run wild (and steal your food, hats etc). The girls were a little bit scared by the monkeys especially when one started to pull at Briana's skirt, but we spent a while there.

I can manage to do some decent running around here as it is a relatively rural area. I got out at 6 this morning for a long run on a quiet country road through the paddy fields. The highlight was coming round a bend and suddenly seeing a 100+ group of men around the road preparing for some feast (I guess) today (Sunday) - they were cutting coconuts and other foods - including butchering a cow right there on the road surface! So much for hygiene standards...

There is a shop near the hotel setting DVDs for 15000 Rupiah each, that's just over 1 Euro. They have a library including latest movies, US tv series, etc. All region-unlocked, so they say anyway. Of course one doesn't ask where they come from... :-) Unfortunately when in Kuala Lumpur I bought some for twice the price... a whopping 2 Euro!!! Will get some more here though. Of course I know they can be downloaded but at these prices...

We booked our flight to the larger Indonesian island Java for 23 May, which will mean 6 nights there before flying to Hong Kong. The Balians warn us not to expect too much in Java, that it's not nice like Bali. I can anticipate there is a big contrast - Bali has 3.1 million people, Java is a few times larger in terms of land-mass but it has 88 million. Perhaps a very rough analogy would be between Ireland and Britain - imagine meeting a tourist in Galway or Dingle (especially if the sun shined 365 days a year) who says they want to next visit Birmingham or Manchester, you'd probably try to change their minds! Anyway we were planning 9 days on Java in Jogyakarta and Solo but partly because of flight availability and partly because of advise, we will cut that shorter and it will allow us to stay one extra location in Bali which is just fine; Bali is very nice... and inexpensive too.

The girls finished filling up the drawing books we bought so today we bought some new ones, and as I write this they are busy beside me drawing and colouring-in their pictures of balinese dancers, flying ponies, and monkeys.

ATMs

The maximum amount most ATMs in Bali allow to withdraw is half a million Rupiah. That might sound a lot, but it ain't. Half a million works out at just 36 Euro. That gives some idea of the cost of living for the locals here, although it can create a bit of a headache if you want to withdraw enough money to pay hotel bills, otherwise they slap on an extra 3% credit card charge.

The biggest challenge is making mental calculations with an exchange rate of around 14500 Rupiah to a Euro. In the first day or two it's hard to know what you are paying for anything.

Ubud

Yesterday we arrived to an inland town called Ubud. It's a busy little town, with a lot of nice cafes restaurants and boutiques. Not a place with lots of nightlife but still a funky atmosphere.

Although we are staying right in the center our room (bottom half of a bungalow) is very quiet. The only disconcerting thing is that the doors don't really lock securely, because (according to management) they are traditional Balian wooden doors (and indeed they are very exquisitely carved). It's a little unnerving from a security point of view so I put all our valuables in the hotel's safe, not just the passports and tickets which we would routinely put in a safe.

The bungalows have a decent sized pool so the kids are happy. This morning Gyorgyi and the girls went off to see a Botanic gardens -- the highlight are the flesh-eating plants. I passed on that and strolled around.

We plan to be here for 8 nights. Maybe we will leave a day or two earlier and spend time somewhere in the mountains before our next destination on the east coast.

Flights to the island of Java need to be booked for later in May, which is not too easy as the airlines don't do online bookings and mostly need payment in cash. However Ubud has no shortage of travel agents so we should be able to sort it out here I hope. We don't have any accomodation booked there yet either so we might just wing it and find something there on the day.

One of the unusual things on Bali is the local's habit of putting the offerings for the gods lying on the street. These are usually a small decorative arrangement consisting of some kind of foodstuff like rice or ritz crackers. One has to be careful not to step on the things and it isn't always possible. The Lonely Planet guide book says not to worry about stepping on them, just don't aim to do it!

Tomorrow and Sunday Gyorgyi has a course planned, and with the girls I will probably visit the Monkey Sanctuary just down the road, where the monkeys run wild around a temple area. Caution is advised as the monkeys will happily pilfer your food, sunhats, etc.

No swine fever reported here yet, we're geographically about as far from it as we can get so hopefully it blows over before we return.