the democratic people's republic of korea

north korea...a place most people don't really know much about...sure, there is a lot in the news, but it's almost always bad, and portrays the country in a negative light...

for starters, a few facts: the official name is the democratic people's republic of korea...(in north korea they simply call it korea...just as they do in the south)...the capital is the city of pyongyang, with just over 2 million residents...no one is sure what the total number of north korean citizens is, as the government hasn't been very clear on that figure...back in the 90s ('95 i think?) there was a terrible famine, and the north korean government was (and continues to be) secretive about the effects on the country...anywho, most estimates of north korean citizens range from 20-25 million...though some people say the number could be as low as 18 million...(by comparison, south korea has approximately 50 million citizens)...the language is still korean of course, but it's different from that spoken in south korea...it's a bit more formal...basically, the language hasn't changed in the north like it has in the south...the president is kim il sung, even though he's been dead for 15 years...when he died, (in 1994) the people mourned him and decided they liked him so much that they still wanted him to be president...his son, kim jong il, the current leader of the country has some other official title...
anywho, for those of you who haven't figured it out, yes, americans are allowed into north korea...at least, they are for the time being...the rules on such things vary, and are never stable...it really depends on the current mood of the north korean government...howeva, there is one additional on americans...americans can only get a visa during the time the arirang mass games are going on, which is usually from mid august to mid october each year...americans also get an extra guide for their group...

my trip started with a meeting in beijing the day before we flew to pyongyang...at the meeting, which took place at the offices of the tour company, we were given some general guidelines on behavior, cultural differences, and general expectations...we were also told what we would, and would not (mostly would not) be allowed to do while in the dprk...no photos unless we had permission...no photos of soldiers, except when we were at the DMZ...no walking by ourselves unless we were on hotel property...no doing anything by ourselves...behave respectfully...(one person in particular in the group had quite a bit of trouble with this)...we were given our group visa and told when and where to meet at the beijing airport...

my group was six people in all...i was the 2nd youngest...the other woman in the group has lived in china for nearly a decade, and speaks putonghua generally fluently...there was another esl teacher who lives in beijing, a lawyer who lives in beijing and is married to a chinese woman...a teacher from minnesota, and the youngun was a guy working his way up in the corporate world and putting himself through school at the same time in new york...
the next day i met the group at the airport, we checked in and boarded our flight...koryo air has old russian planes, they're small!!! one of the things i noticed first was the number of north koreans flying back to the dprk...the way the media portrays north korea, i always had the impression that VERY FEW people travel internationally from north korea...it's easy to tell who is a north korean, they all wear small pins of kim il sung on the left side of their chest...we landed, and deplaned down a short flight of stairs...even though we could see the terminal, a mere 200m or less away, (with a rather large picture of kim il sung visible on top of the building) we still had to board a bus to ride to the building...quite possibly the smallest airport i've ever been through...and also the only airport where it seemed to be okay for us to take pictures...not inside, but outside, before getting on the bus to the terminal, long trip that that was...they had four lines for customs/passport inspection/visa inspection...none of them were designated for foreigners, so it didn't matter what line we went through...but since we were on a group visa, we had to do that together as well...howeva, during our time in line, two of the guys in our group were pulled away into a side room...the first time, we didn't know what was happening, and were a little scared...but when he came back, he said it was just a temperature check...(the swine flu has the entire world worried!)...when they pulled the second guy away, he was in the room for longer, it turned out they checked him twice...needless to say, he was a bit nervous, especially as they had taken his passport to use as identification in case his temperature really was too high...

our guides met us at the airport, 1 woman and two men...they were friendly enough, their english good, their accents good as well...we all introduced ourselves, and hopped in the minibus we'd be riding in throughout our stay in korea...we first drove to the arch of triumph...it looks just like the arc de triomphe in paris (france) but this one is 3m taller, as we were quickly told...mostly the arch celebrates the liberation of korea, and has several dates inscribed on it, dates important in the life of kim il sung...i don't remember what they were, sorry...because there isn't a lot of traffic in pyongyang, it was easy to stand in the middle of the road to get a centered photo...

from the arch we went to our hotel, which is on an island in the middle of the river that runs through the city...(again, i've forgotten the name of the river)...our hotel is 47 stories tall, the highest of which is a revolving restaurant...we checked into the 19th floor, and our rooms were just like what you would find in any hotel in the US...two large beds, ensuite bathroom with a tub, trial size stuff on the bathroom counter, area to hang up clothes, tv that got bbc, window with a fabulous view of the city...there didnt seem to be many other tourists...one thing we never did find out was how many floors of the hotel were actually occupied...the hotel also had a basement area with a sauna, casino, and more...

we met our guides for dinner tonight at one of the restaurants in the hotel...i believe it was restaurant #2 that night...it was the first of many HUGE meals...they just kept bringing us food!! i was happy, as i like korean food, but i noticed not everyone in the group felt the same way...anywho...after dinner, we assembled again, hopped in the minibus, and drove to may day stadium to see a performance of the arirang mass games...
WOW...WOW...WOW...WOW...there are no words to adequately describe this performance...think marching band halftime performance at a gridiron game...then make it last 1.5 hours instead of 10 minutes...then multiply the number of people involved until you get to 80,000...then, instead of the entire stadium being spectators, think the other side of the stadium as another 20,000 people holding up coloured cards and creating amazing backdrops...absolutely outstanding...i took a gazillion photos, of course...but they don't do the event justice...it's incredible...after the show, we went back to the hotel, my roommate kitty and i went to sleep fairly quickly...
driving through the city several times that first day one of my observations was that the city seemed so empty...there were six lane and four lane roads everywhere, but so few people have cars (those are only allowed for the super high and mighty elite) that there is virtually no traffic, save for buses and trolleys...it was a bit eerie...while driving back from the mass games i also realized how dark it was...really really dark...the roads are lit at night, but just barely...and i doubt they're lit all night...this is a city of 2 million, but there isn't much light...certainly no neon signs...there is no nightlife...

the next day was a full day of touring around the city...i dont remember each and everything we saw, but the day included several LARGE monuments, the juche idea tower, (north korea isn't the first to come up with the idea of self reliance, but they do take it to a whole new level,) the grand people's study house, and more...lets just say that nothing in korea is normal sized...we saw at least one museum that day, maybe more...we also saw the sight where the USS sherman was fired upon (way back in the 1800s...the dprk generally considers that the beginning of it's ongoing fight against western imperialists) which is where they now display the USS pueblo...according to the dprk it was an american spy ship (in the 1960s?) they captured...after confessing (the written confessions are displayed in the ship,) the crew were repatriated to the states...the US says it was a vessel on a peaceful voyage...i'm sure the truth of the story is somewhere in the middle...throughout the day, as we visited each place, we were given a brief history of what it was, and thanks were usually given to "our president" (kim il sung) or "our leader" (kim jong il) for their assistance in creating these places...the juche tower was one of the most interesting to me, it basically is a tower with a flame (not real) on top of it...i liked it because we were able to ride the elevator to the top, then step outside and have great views of the city...unfortunately, it was rainy and windy, so we didn't stay out there for long...
the next day was another day of touring around the city...but that morning we started with two of the most important places in the city...well, important to koreans...first, the mausoleum of kim il sung...it isn't open to the general public, even koreans must apply for an invitation...for the mausoleum, visitors are asked to dress properly...that is, close toed shoes, knees and shoulders covered for women...korean women wear their traditional dress, called a chosunbok...(hanbok in south korea)...men are asked to wear shirts and ties, preferably with slacks...as soon as we got there, we all wished we were wearing more, they have the air conditioning cranked in the entire complex...and a complex it is...it makes the mausoleums of other former leaders i've visited (lenin, sun yat sen, ho chi minh) look small by comparison...in one of the first rooms we entered, we deposited our cameras...the room is large, but i don't think they ever have to hold onto much, as koreans don't have much...we road along several of those flat escalators for a while, during which we noticed no one was smiling or talking...eventually we reached a large room with a large statur of kim il sung...it was white, and the white area behind it was lit with pinks/blues/purples...supposed to create a sense of peace i think? i'm not entirely sure...i was freezing already...out of that room we walked into another large room where we faced a bank of elevators...we lined up and were ushered into the next elevator to open...(throughout this particular visit we never had to wait for the koreans who were also there visiting...they seemed to just patiently watch us walk ahead)...a quick ride to the next floor, and we lined up again after walking out...walked through a metal detector sort of thingy that blew air at us...combine that with the shoe cleaners we walked over as we entered the complex, they weren't taking chances on anyone bringing anything into the complex, howeva unintentional...and finally, we walked into the room where the body is kept...we lined up again, in rows of 4...starting at the feet...at a cue from our guides, we bowed...then walked clockwise, and bowed again on cue...walked to the head, no bowing...bowed again on the other side, before walking out of the room...so quiet, and so cold...we also visited a room where every single medal/honor given to kim il sung is displayed...they're arranged mostly by area of the world...that is, by continent...he's apparently an honorary citizen of lots of cities, and has a few degrees as well...some of the medals he was given are actual honours in those countries/cities...some of them they probably hand out to just about any visitor...there is one from the US...well, not the country itself...a uni in the US gave him an honorary masters in international relations...whateva your opinion of the guy, you have to admit he knew all about internationa relations...
from the mausoleum we drove to a cemetary dedicated to the martyrs of the anti japanese revolution...(before what we call the korean war, the koreans has finally gotten rid of the japanese colonialists)...i don't remember how many are buried there, but it's quite fancy...each person has a bust, and the busts all face down the hill, looking over the city...they're spaced so that each of them has a view of the city, they're not blocking each other..at the top of the cemetary is a row of the most important folks...one of those is kim il sung's wife (for the life of me i can't remember her name)...she's commonly referred to as the anti japanese heroine...i think she is also kim jong ils mother?
later that day we went to the hut where kim il sung is said to be born...again, history has been changed in korea, no one outside of korea really knows if he was born there...it seems awfully convenient if he was...one of the stories guides like to tell there is that his grandfather continued to work as a farmer, even after kim il sung became leader of the country...he is supposed to have said that he wasn't a leader, he was a farmer...
after that, we went to what they call the schoolchildrens palace...it's not actually a palace, but it is a huge building...the luckiest kids in the city go there for three hours each day and take extracurricular classes...ballet, calligraphy, accordion, and a whole lot more...we were able to peek into a few classrooms...after seeing some of the classes we were taken to the auditorium for a performance...part of the auditorium was filled with korean schoolkids, i'm not sure whether they also attended the schoolpalace classes?...i don't know how often this performance is done, probably once a week or so...anywho, it was another highlight of the trip...singing and dancing...i know part of it is because they practice practice practice, but these kids are good...really really good...and as the pit was raised at the end of the show so we could applaud the orchestra, i realized they had played the entire show w/out any music...really really impressive...i also noticed that the percussion section of the orchestra was more than half female...that's not the norm, at least not in the states...
the last full day in korea, we took a day trip...about a 3 hour bus ride down south, to the town of kaesong...it's an ancient town, and was a capital of one of the dynasties that existed before the current countries of north and south korea...the silla dynasty i think? we saw an old temple, one that was used by that dynasty as a university to teach about confuscionism and buddhism...(the current regime doesn't have religion in any form, but they don't mind showing that it did used to be a part of life)...we also visited the DMZ from the north side...a very different experience from visiting on the south side...believe it or not, the visit on the north side was much shorter, and far less full of propaganda...we saw the blue buildings that sit on the dividing line of the two countries, and entered the middle one through the door on the north side...as i've been in that building previously, it didn't mean as much to me, though i knew a few things that weren't mentioned by our soldier/tour guide...we walked through the buildings where the armistice meetings were held, and where it was actually signed...interestingly, the US formed one side of the meetings, but operated under the flag of the UN...not the US flag...then the drive back to pyongyang, for our last dinner in the country..
the next morning we left the country...after giving gifts to and thanking our guides because they were fantastic...

china 3

o stayed in tai'an that night, and the next morning took a bus to qufu...a name i had never heard until i read it in the guidebook...as the book told me, it was the home of confuscious, and his family...and apparently it still is the home of his descendents...there are three main sights in the town...the temple, his family mansion, and the forest...you can buy one ticket for all three of them, which is handy, though expensive...
qufu itself is actually the smallest place i visited while i was in china...and it has to be one of the smallest "cities" they have..."only" 85,000 people...i liked the atmosphere...a lot...the temple was, well, a temple...nothing terribly exciting...i had my picture taken in front of the study hall place thingy where confuscious supposedly taught...anyone think his spirit is still there and possibly taught me a thing or two? hee hee...the mansions are the family house(s)...not only did confuscious live there, but older and newer generations of his family as well...they were actually quite well off, and pretty much ran the area as their own little business empire...there are a number of buildings, used for different purposes, some of them business, some of them personal...the best part was the garden area out back...i walked up a path to the top of a set of rocks and had fun setting up my camera...it turned out the path i walked up was the only one that wasn't blocked off to go up those rocks, i guess i wasn't supposed to be up there, but i didn't figure that out until i saw the other paths after coming back down!! oh well...
the next day i walked out to the forest, it's a couple kilometers north of the other two sights...the forest is actually the cemetary/graveyard for confuscious and all of his descendents...according to the guidebook, over 2000 people are buried there, and his descendents are still buried there now!! it's quite possibly the quietest place in all of china...i loved it...most people who go take a tour on an electric bus, which createst the only sound...since they're electric, they're quiet...except for the honking they do to let the few people on the paths (me) know they're coming...there are a couple main paths/small roads around the forest, but otherwise everything is small, and dirt...i enjoyed wandering through the overgrowth, checking out the stelae...obviously, i couldn't read anything that had been inscribed, but some looked pretty artistic...some of the people buried there were obviously more important than others...if i knew more chinese history, perhaps i would know who they were...i just enjoyed the quiet, and peacefulness of the area...i ended up with lots of scratches from walking through everything, but it was worth it...
my hostel in qufu was brilliant...the bunks were nice and sturdy, i didn't feel like there was an earthquake each time the person in the bunk under me moved...there was a water filter in the lobby from which we were all encouraged to fill our water bottles, in order to avoid buying new plastic water bottles...and free internet too!! yay!!
from qufu i took a bus back to tai'an, then a night train to beijing...actually, the same train layna had taken a couple days earlier...only i had a seat:)
i arrived in beijing at the lovely hour of 0520...still dark...so i sat in the train station for a while, watching the gbillions of people coming out, after arriving at the same ridiculous hour...apparently there are LOTS of trains going in and out of there! i found my hostel w/out much difficulty, checked in, and promptly fell asleep for a few hours...i can't remember the last time i took a nap in the morning!! i have visited beijing previously, so i didn't feel the need to get out and explore quite so fast...
beijing has definitely changed since i last visited...that was before the olympics...their subways have grown, and continue to grow now...buses are still confusing though...lots and lots of signs are now bilingual, which makes it a bunch easier for visitors to get around and figure out where they are...i walked...and walked...and walked...straight down one street, for over 2 hours!! i stopped in a big market to look around for tea, realized i didn't feel like browsing at all, and walked back out...oops...i walked a bunch more, hopped on the metro and met layna at dairy queen for "dinner"...hey, it had dairy, right? carbs in the brownies too...lol...
the next day i went to the one sight i saw this time in beijing...the lama temple, known in chinese as yonghegong...a tibetan buddhist temple where lamas go to study...i don't remember how one becomes a lama, or all of that is decided...like every other temple in asia, it was actually a complex, with several temple buildings, and halls used for various purposes...overall it was quite different from other buddhist temples i've seen while traveling, so i enjoyed it...while standing around in one courtyard i heard a few folks talking, in an accent any american could identify...that of the south...the slow southern drawl...i asked them where exactly they were from, and ended up chatting for over an hour!! they were two couples, one of whom lived in beijing, the other visiting and being shown around...the couple living in beijing was retired army, including time in germany, so we chatted about that as well...anywho, they were all really sweet and friendly...the kind of americans that actually give us a good name!!
later that afternoon i went to a meeting at the offices of a company called koryo tours...i'll tell you about them in the next blog

china 2

our first major city in china was nanjing...it was the capital for a while, way back...these days, the city is probably most known for two things, the rape of nanking, and as being the site of the mausoleum of sun yat sen, the widely acknowledged founder of modern china...
the rape of nanking happened in the 1500s, i think...(can't remember for sure)...basically, the japanese were advancing and a confrontation seemed inevitable...instead of standing up, the leaders of nanking left the city...but before they left, they told the citizens to stand up and fight...then they left, and locked the city gates!! they only left one open, and loads of people were trampled or burned alive in the tunnel to the gate...anywho, the japanese advanced, and got into the city...and what they did to the citizens is awful...they massacred, tortured, etc...300,000 to 400,000 people died...that is, they were executed, (often after being tortured) sometimes in groups sometimes individually...in the first few days, nearly 20,000 women, ages 11-76 were raped...AWFUL...the japanese aren't known through history as being kind conquerors (or conqueror wannabes)...it's one of the reasons china and korea still harbour ill will toward japan...(that and that japan hasn't really apologized for so much of what it's done through history, and is now whitewashing what it did on many occasions)...anywho...
some of the city walls of nanjing are still standing, i wanted to see them...so i did...not that exciting, to tell the truth...i also wanted to see the mausoleum of sun yat sen...looking at the map in lonely planet, it looked like a longer walk to get there, but i reckoned it would be easy enough...i was wrong...the map in lonely planet left off a few things, and even the maps around the area made things look as if i should be able to go places i couldn't!!! the mausoleum is on a mountain (hill, really) just outside the city walls...there are also several ming dynasty mausoleums on the hill, but i wasn't so interested in those...a little, but not much...anywho, after walking all around and not really knowing how i got to various places, i finally found the mausoleum, and the entrance price had doubled!!! the guidebook was published in may, so who knows if they actually researched this particular site when they put out the new edition...argh...anywho, i still went in...the guy was actually pretty modest, and he probably wouldn't have appreciated what ended up being built...you walk up a bunch of steps to get to the mausoleum...he's in a marble casket, sealed shut...exciting, i know...there were lots of people there, even though the weather was awful...it must be absolutely PACKED when the weather is decent!!
speaking of weather, it was not good while we were in nanjing...there was a typhoon hitting taiwan and the south eastern coast, and the wind and rain definitely reached up to nanjing...ugh...because we weren't going to be in nanjing for very long, i didn't want to stay inside and do nothing...anywho...i ended up walking around the whole day in the wind and rain...the kind of rain that spins around so you never get to keep the umbrella in the same spot...and got splashed by water from cars who were going way too fast from the other side!! i ended up with blisters all over my feet...the only time chacos aren't bad is when my feet get wet, and stay wet...argh...by the end of the day, after being slightly lost, doing a lot of walking in bleeding pain, i was so ready to be back inside...oh well...
from nanjing we took another night train to tai'an...not a particularly exciting city, it's at the foot of tai shan, one of gazillions of sacred mountains in china...there is a temple in the middle of the city, which i enjoyed wandering around for a few hours, layna skipped that...the main reason we came to tai'an was to climb tai shan (mt tai in english)...after resting my feet for a day (remember the blisters i mentioned above?) we got up early one morning, walked to the foot of the mountain, paid the RIDICULOUS entry fee (nothing in china is free, not even mountains!) and started walking...steps upon steps upon steps...at least they were fairly regular, and not too big or steep...the whole way up/down there are lots of temples to stop in, they're mostly taoist...there are also lots of calligraphic inscriptions in many of the rocks...according to those who know, these are considered art...i thought some of them were pretty but since i couldn't read any of them, who knows...lol...half way up we rested, and watched people...chinese folks seem to be a bit more with it when it comes to footwear for hiking...they didn't all have hiking boots, but at least i didn't see any stilettos, which i did often see while hiking in korea...but i digress...since the trail was made of stone and such, hiking boots weren't really even needed at all...i could've done it in my chacos...(if the blisters hadn't still been there)...at several points during the hike i looked up and wondered if i had made any progress toward reaching the top, and it didn't look like it...LOTS OF STEPS...when we did finally get to the top, we weren't rewarded by amazing views...instead, we were able to see the brown layer of smog that hangs over the city...that layer hangs over sooooo many chinese cities, it's awful...there were a couple more temples at the top, and more calligraphic inscriptions...nothing exciting, but we were both glad we had done it...not surprisingly, by the time we got to the bottom, our legs were finished...as they say in french, mes jambes sont fracassee (sp?)...(and i know my tense is wrong, but that's beside the point)...
layna was wonderwoman, and that night took a train to beijing...she had a standing ticket, no seat!!

hong kong and china 1

after a ridiculously long day of traveling, i arrived in hong kong around 2200...the airport is quick and efficient, and it's easy to get into the city...everything is just as crowded as i remember it...getting out of the taxi in front of the building where i had booked us, at least three people tried to get me to look at their rooms...apparently, saying "i already have a room booked" doesn't work...anywho, i figured out where i needed to go, and the first thing the guy at reception demanded was money...he wanted me to pay the rest of the amount we "owed" which i refused to do...i hadn't seen the room, met up with layna, anything!!! he became rather angry and belligerent, and i don't react well to that sort of behaviour...i stood my ground, and refused to hand over money until i at least got to see layna and the room...more than anything i wanted to make sure she was there, and that we had a room...
anywho...the room we had was a box...we each had a single bed, there was a small dresser in between the beds, and we had the smallest bathroom ever...(it makes my bathroom in korea look like a palace!)...there was a tv, though it didn't have much of interest...(but it was still good background noise distraction for me...and i watched the entire bbc newscast)
the main reason we went to hong kong was to get our visas for china...we had heard it was the easiest and quickest place to get them, and that ended up being true...though, being americans, our fee was the highest of any nationality...(ugh)...all we had to do was fill out the form, give them a passport picture and our passport...that was monday morning...thursday morning we went back and picked up our passports, and voila, our visas were in there...after being worried for whateva reason, i'm glad it was so easy to get the visas!!
i'd been to hong kong once before with my irish friend ivan, thank goodness...because i spent the next day in bed, in our room, not doing much...trying to write blogs, get a little caught up on email, upload pictures, etc...i also felt like crap, and was hoping the day of not eating anything would help...but it didn't really...everything i ingested, even just water, made my stomach cramp painfully...two days after this (it had already been going on for 5 or 6 days) it FINALLY got better...i guess i can't complain, this is the only time i've actually been sick during this entire trip...i've definitely been lucky!!
the next day i went out with layna in the afternoon...but the weather was craptastic, thanks to an approaching typhoon...rain, wind, etc...we wandered, but not far...that night i met up for dinner with my friend tanya...she's canadian, we got to know each other through rugby in seoul...she and her partner had moved to hong kong less than a year earlier...(i think?)...it was fantastic to catch up with ty, she's awesome...after dinner we also hung out with david (known to most as jr) who had stayed away from dinner due to an ear infection...a great night, totally chill...
thursday night ended up being the only afternoon/evening with clear skies...we took the opportunity to take the tram up to the peak and look over hong kong at night...beautiful...hong kong has a great night skyline...several of the buildings take part in what's called the night symphony...they light up at night, supposedly working with each other...i never noticed that myself, but i loved all the lights, and watching them change...beautiful...trying to get a picture to work out properly just didn't happen though...darnit...good pictures, but we wanted one with the two of us, and we couldn't make it happen...oh well...
friday morning we crossed the border...really easy to do...take the subway to the border, walk through the appropriate lines, filling out a health form, get passports stamped in the appropriate places, etc and walk out on the other side into a city called shenzen...hong kong residents can cross into shenzen for day trips, it's a special economic zone...a whole lot of CHEAP chinese shopping...cheap foot massages too, i wish i had had time for one:)
we took a bullet train to guangzhou, the capital of that particular province of china...walking out of the train station we walked all over trying to find the ticketing office, it took a while...signs seemed to point one way, but when we went that way, the ticketing office definitely wasn't there...anywho, we finally found it, booked our tickets, and took the metro to where we thought we could find a cheap hotel...we did find a cheap hotel, with the help of a tout, though it wasn't the one we were originally looking for...apparently the posted rates in a hotel in china, mean absolutely nothing...we paid about a 1/3 of what was posted!! we had an air con room, each with our own big bed, a nice bathroom, tv, etc...our own water filter...after some of the places we've stayed, particularly in hong kong, this was a palace...we walked around and explored, and found great street food...(this would be the start of my love affair with real chinese food)...and it's so CHEAP!!! our adventure in china began, and i already loved it, even though it was the country i was least fussed about when our trip started:)

bali

this was my third visit to bali....the way i arrived was totally different from my other visits...this time i took the ferry from java....from the town of ketapan to the town of gilimanuk...it's a pretty quick ferry ride, less than an hour...i sat in a room that had a no smoking sign, but this is indonesia, where NOTHING is non smoking...within 5 minutes of me sitting in that room, i counted at least 10 men lighting up...i might as well take up smoking, for all the second hand smoke i've inhaled in this country...
the ferry arrived at gilimanuk, which is really nothing but a transit point...there is a bus station right next to the ferry station, so i headed that way, and only had to wait 1.5 hours for a bus to denpasar...of course while i was waiting, people tried to convince me to hire private transport, or to pay for the rest of the mini bus so it could leave immediately...i didn't, i'm cheap...i ended up arriving at a bus station in denpasar (the capital of the island) at 2 in the morning...not exactly the optimum time to arrive anywhere...i checked out the hotels near the bus station, but they were all full...so lucky me got to sleep at the bus station, which wasn't nearly as bad as i expected...early morning arrived, and i took a bemo to kuta, one of the best known beach towns...
kuta is crowded...very very crowded...bali has well and truly recovered from the bombings of 2002 and 2005...(it remains to be seen whether this year's bombing in jakarta will affect tourism over the rest of the country)...i arrived to find the town considerably more crowded than it was the last two times i visited...this time i had a much more difficult time finding a place to stay...i walked around to place after place after place, only to find places that were full, or WAY out of my budget range...i started to poke my head through every open gate, some were house compounds, some were temple entrances, and some were hotels...it was by doing this that i stumbled into the place i ended up staying...it was a bit dark, but i was getting desperate...and i got lucky...very very very lucky...it was cheap, and perfectly adequate...WOO HOO!!! kuta is crazy full, and each day i was there, i heard the hotel people tell lots of people that they were full...
kuta is in no way representative of indonesia...at all...it's a beach town, and a touristy one at that...on the beach there are no locals, unless you count the numerous vendors, surf instructors, massage ladies, etc...the beach is filled with tourists, in bikinis, boardies, etc...a few european men in speedos, older ladies in bikinis with skin WAY darker than can possibly be healthy...lots of backpackers...the area where people stay is filled with shops where you can buy everything you don't want...knickknacks, clothes, postcards, bus/train/plane tickets...there are official stores of various brands, like quicksilver, billabong and roxy...i bought two new bikinis, one of which i needed...the other i just couldn't say no to...there are also lots of knockoff stores...i laughed every time someone tried to tell me their wares were authentic...riiiiiiiiight...i now where authentic gurci sunglasses:)
there are LOTS of spas...i ended up treating myself to a couple foot massages, HEAVEN...it would've been very easy to spend a lot of money pampering myself...
i spent my days laying out on the beach...soaking up sun...(yes, i wore suncream AND covered my face)...occasionally cooling off in the water...the waves were good for surfing, at least it seemed that way from the number of people out there surfing...or trying to surf...or trying to learn to surf...lots of people seemed to think they could teach themselves to surf, which was entertaining for me to watch...hee hee...(i'm mean, i know, but it's funny to watch people wipe out)...watching all the people on the beach was also entertaining...some people really need to choose different beach attire...
i flew out of bali at 6 in the morning, which required getting to the airport at 4...not fun...but easy, and probably the least crowded i felt the entire time i was there!

java 3

from surabaya i took a local bus to the bus station, which was about 15km from the center of town...then a bus to the city of probolinggo (sp?)...somewhere in probo the bus stopped in front of a travel agency and a man got on the bus and asked if i wanted to get off there...i said no, i wanted to take public transport, and he said they had public transport...he said it was "only" 50,000Rp (about $5USD) for transport to cemoro lawang, which is where i was heading next...my guidebook said that this sort of thing happens regularly in probo...buses drop foreigners off at these travel agents, who then force you to pay ridiculously high fees for not so great transport...the guidebook also said that it should only cost me about 15,000Rp to get to cemoro lawang, so i knew something was funny...he kept saying that it was public transport, and i'm sure it was...anyone could take their transport, but only foreigners can afford that...i knew that even though prices go up, they don't triple in two years...when i looked outside, i could see the sign that listed all their 'services' as well as all the foreigners waiting, so i opted to stay on the bus, all the way until the bus station, from where i could catch real public transport...when i got to the bus station, it was indeed possible to catch local, public transport...for 20,000Rp...which made a whole lot more sense...i asked the price before getting on that minibus, and was told that number, but it didn't surprise me at all when the guy collecting money on the bus tried to raise the price by telling me that was only to an earlier village...i simply refused to hand over more money, and repeated that i had been told 20,000 by people who knew i was going to cemoro lawang, not the earlier village...when we arrived, it was pretty cloudy, but a bit of the landscape was still able to be seen...

cemoro lawang is on the edge of a very old crater...in the middle of this old crater are three smaller, 'younger', cones and craters...one, gunung bromo, is a steaming crater...around these three craters is a sea of sand...nothing but sand...to me it looked a bit like i think the moon might look...really hard to describe, but AMAZING...anywho, the thing to do is either be on the lip of gunung bromo at sunrise, or be at another viewpoint and watch the sunrise as it hits gunung bromo...to do this, you have to get up pretty early in the morning...so i spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering a little, finding a path i could use to make my way down to the sea of sand...i went to bed early...and spent a very cold night trying to get a little sleep...(remember, altitude = chilly nights)

even though i went to bed early, waking up at 0300 was NOT EASY...i made it out the door with my head torch going strong, and made my way to the head of the path i intended to take...at this point, i turned off the head torch and looked up...incredible night sky, full of stars, and total quiet...as i made my way down the edge of the old crater, and across the sea of sand, i repeated this...turning off my headtorch and standing still...just enjoying the fabulous sky and total quiet...(until i started to hear the jeeps, which weren't very quiet at all)...there was a cloud laying on the bottom of the old crater, so i had to walk through that, which was a bit odd with my headtorch...in the dark, walking through a cloud seems a bit like rain is coming across the light...but of course it isn't...anwho, after a while i came across other folks (i had taken a path no one else used but local horse riders) and together we found the proper way to go to get to the steps to take us up to the lip of bromo...there aren't too many steps, and they're not big...but most people stopped a couple times on the way up to catch their breath...that surprised me, i didn't think the steps were very strenuous, and i KNOW i'm not in shape...anywho...the sunrise from the crater wasn't any great shakes, i've definitely seen better...BUT, i loved looking around the landscape in general, and seeing the morning light come across...amazing...i had expected there to be a crowd of people, and while there were other tourists, i never felt crowded...not at all...and everyone remained pretty quiet, sortof in respect for the amazingness we were seeing...i loved it...after a little while up there, i went back down the stairs, and went back across the sea of sand the way i had come...i made it back to my guesthouse by 0715, and packed up my stuff, bought postcards and got ready to go...

then i waited...and waited...i hoped to catch the first minibus to probolingo, and the guy at the bus station in probo had said it left around 0745...but it didn't...it left around 0915...not really a big deal, since i had no specific itinerary to keep...there is no specific spot in cemoro lawang for people to catch a minibus, which results in about 3 of them all trying to get the earliest customers...i ended up sharing with a french family, a pole, a brit, and a couple dutch...along the way we picked up a couple more locals...again, the guy tried to raise the price on all of us, but none of us went for that...as we drove into probo, i tapped the driver on the shoulder and indicated the bus station, which was where we all wanted to go...he nodded, and kept going...the next thing we knew, the minibus had stopped in front of yet another travel agency, and we were told we could get out there...all of us said no, we wanted to go to the bus station, which, we reminded him, we had already told him, AND i had pointed out...he tried to collect our fees at that point, and we also said we weren't paying until we got to the bus station...the travel agent tried to ask where we all wanted to go, but we all said we just wanted the bus station...so our driver didn't make a commission, and the travel agent didn't make any money from us...i suppose they do this all the time...as we got to the bus station, our group split up, as we were going in all different directions...i stayed with the french family, as we were all headed to the same place...we found our next desired bus, hopped on, and only had to wait about 15 minutes before it left...

the adventure started when our bus arrived in bondowoso...we had expected to be able to catch a minibus to sempol, and from there, find transport to another volcanic plateau...but, at bondowoso, they told us minibus service was finished for the day...they pointed out another bus that could drop us a little way ahead, and perhaps from there we could catch onward transport...so, that's bus #1...we got off, and asked around, and found another bus to take us a bit farther...bus #2...at that point we were in sukosari, and met up with another french couple headed to our same destination...now a group of 6, i was the only non french speaker...i could understand a bit, having had french tutoring in the past, as well as studying (though not nearly enough) through high school...it was definitely an advantage to have a bigger group, as well as to be in a group where a language other than english could be used to discuss things...it turned out that the french mom was quite good at bargaining, and obtaining discounts...we asked around the street in sukosari, and she found out from someone that there was supposedly a public bus to sempol in an hour or so, but that sort of information wasn't for sure...anywho, soon enough, a car of sorts pulled up, and we were able to negotiate a ride to sempol...the back of the car was totally open, with just a seat at the very back...but the entire area was filled with pillows...we all piled in, with all our bags, and made room for everything and everyone...the other couple locals in there looked at us with amusement, and i don't blame them...as far as local transport, the pillows actually made it one of the most comfortable rides i've ever had...which was a good thing, given that the road was AWFUL...the worst road i was on in all of indo...TERRIBLE...potholes, pavement falling apart...a plain dirt road would've been far better...i hit the roof several times...thank goodness, as all of you know, i have a hard head:)...we made it to sempol after dark, and started negotiations to continue along the road, up to pos paltuding, which is a park post, and the starting spot of the hike we all wanted to do the next morning...our guidebooks all said we would be able to find accomodation at the post, and it seemed everything else listed was full...the first offer made by the drivers seemed reasonable to me, since there actually isn't any public transport between sempol and pos paltuding...you always have to hire something...but apparently no one else in my group thought so...in the end, after a break for dinner, and lots more negotiations (and discussions between us in french) we got a ridiculously good deal to go all the way to pos paltuding...oddly enough, the road the rest of the way was actually quite good!!

we arrived at the post, took a look at the rooms available, and decided that we'd all share one room...there was a large bed, and two smaller beds...the couple shared one of the smaller beds, i got the other, and the family shared the large bed...we paid our park entrance fee, the tariff for our room (it surprised the park ranger that we all chose to share the same room...we're all cheap, hee hee!) and chatted a bit with the researchers who were in another room in the same cabin...

early to bed, early to rise...we didnt get up in time for another sunrise, but we did get up early...then we started a 3km hike...kawah ijen is in the middle of the ijen plateau...kawah ijen is a crater lake, volcanically active...the lake is a gorgeous blue, and there is a sulfur vent in one corner...we walked UP 3km, to the lip of the crater...it's a steady, fairly steep hike...an easy path to follow, which was nice...we could all feel our hearts pounding the entire way...(i kept thanking my lucky stars for having done the trekking in nepal...i knew that i would eventually reach the top, no matter if others were faster)...looking out over the lake was awesome, despite the wind blowing the sulfur clouds all over the place...

i decided to go down into the crater, to get close to the sulfur vents...there is a path, though it's not easy to make your way down...and thank goodness the french dad had given me a mask, because i definitely needed it as i got closer and closer to the vents...i added a scarf i had in my day pack, tying it around my face and nose...and yet, the sulfur wind was so strong, i could still feel the burn in my nose and throst...i was able to see the vents, the incredible yellow colour, the incredible smell...a few pictures, a bit of wandering around closer to the edge of the lake (in which i could see the heat bubbles) and i decided to go back up...as i got back up to the top i looked at my rings, both of which are sterling silver...they had both oxidized quite a bit and were rather dark...a hike to another view point, then all the way back down to the park post...

one of the reasons people go to see this crater, beside the amazing view, is to see the workers...locals make the climb up the outside of the crater, go down in, close to the vents, and fill their baskets full of sulfur, climb back out, go all the way down and to the company office...they do this 2-3 times a day, and work every other day...they're paid per kilo, and we figured out they make about $10USD each day they work...the stunning part is that the average basket load is 80-100kg!!! it's actually a pair of baskets, connected by a bamboo rod, they carry it over their shoulders...i tried picking up one of the basket sets, and barely budged it...these guys are STRONG...and small...they carry the sulfur to the company office, where it is weighed officially, and from there to the "factory/processing plant"...

as the french family is the curious sort, we found the factory, and decided to walk around if we were allowed...and we were...just one giant room, with different areas for different activities...some people took the blocks of sulfur, knocked off the ugly grayish areas, and put the rest of the pure yellow stuff into bags...others took the parts that were knocked off, and put them into large pots set into concrete on top of wood fires...looking into these pots, we could see the sulfur cooking/melting...it's not pretty...yellowish, brackish...and bubbling...one guy was in charge of keeping the fires going hot...another guy had the job of ladling out the melted sulfur and putting it through it's first filter, from which it drained into another pot, which was also kept HOT...a guy ladled from there through two more sets of filters, from which it drained into a large, metal bucket of sorts that sat on a dolly...one guy pulled that dolly to the largest area in the room, which was covered by white tiles, kept cool by water...the mostly pure hot sulfur was scooped onto these tiles, much like you do with sugar, when you are making candy glass...it cooled quickly because of the water...then yet more workers broke it into large pieces, which were then smashed into smaller pieces in yet another area...it sounds confusing, i suppose...these smaller pieces were then packed into more bags, and, like the plain yellow blocks i already mentioned, were shipped off to somewhere...i got to try my hand at picking up the bigger pieces of mostly cooled sulfur and smashing them down on the floor so they broke into smaller pieces...fun:)...we were completely impressed with all the hard work that was done in this factory...and with few, or no safety precautions...no face masks, and only a couple people had gloves...it was stunning...we were able to walk whereva we wanted, and were in there so long in fact that the workers started ignoring us and just did their jobs as normal...the french father is a professional photographer, so he was thrilled with all the pictures he was able to take...the father later bought a pack of cigarettes for the factory workers and gave them to one of the guys, indicating they were for everyone...i haven't seen people move that fast in a while, as all the workers came flying over to get their cigarette...it was awesome, and the smiles on their faces were amazing...

we spent an extra day at pos paltuding, it was super relaxing...the french father wanted more pictures, and i just loved how chilled out everything was...nearly all the tourists were french, unlike the rest of java and sumatra, where you are much more likely to be seeing dutch folks...when in doubt at kawah ijen, speak french! the french couple opted to move on, so the french mom decided we should have a discount on the room...it wasn't looking good, the park ranger said the government set the rates and it wasn't his choice...so she said that if he wanted to be proper, then she needed a receipt for our previous night as well as the park tickets we had all paid for...and whaddya know, we got our discount...so obviously some of the money was going into his pocket...(this is normal all over indonesia)...

the following morning, we got ready to leave after the french father returned from taking more pictures...we got lucky, and joined the researchers on their transport back to bondowoso...it had a flat tire along the way, which was no surprise at all, considering the quality of the road...i leaned out my window, and could actually hear the air hissing out of the tire...ugh...but the driver knew what to do, and did it all rather quickly...back on our way quickly, we made our way to bonodowoso...

upon arrival, i immediately got another bus to situbondo, and from there almost immediately got another bus to ketapan...at ketapan i got to the ferry terminal, and took the ferry to gilimanuk, on the island of bali...

java 2

from yogyakarta i took two local buses and three intercity buses to arrive at the dieng plateau...also an increase in altitude of around 2000m...fortunately, the connections between buses were all pretty quick, i never had to wait more than 10 minutes...
dieng plateau is a volcanically active plateau...it used to be full of temples, archeologists think there used to be about 400 temples!! there aren't many left now, less than 10, and they're not very interesting...the plateau is beautiful though...
i first walked out to a bubbling lake...called the coloured lake in english, telaga warna in bahasa malaysia....really pretty...there is a path that goes all the way round, and even goes up the hillside, so you can look over the lake...it's beautiful, and it's quiet...next, i managed to get myself lost in farming fields in the hills on the other side of town...whoops...one lady came across me and asked where i was going, and when i told her i was looking for a particular temple, she not only pointed me in the right direction, she walked with me most of the way...i was sooooo cold that night...i wore warm clothes to bed, and snuggled under two blankets, but my body was used to heat, and at 2093m, nights are rarely warm, even in summer...
the next day i got up and started walking again...i started my day with temple ruins, which weren't all that interesting...i was more entertained by the animals around the temples...some sheep, a gaggle of geese, etc...have you ever watched a gaggle follow each other around? next up was a crater...a large, steaming, bubbling crater...you can't really see the madness boiling inside very well, because of all the steam...it's awesome...just down the road from dieng village is the highest village on java, at 2300m...this village apparently does quite well with potato farming, and sends a large number of pilgrims to mecca each year...
the best part of dieng in general was just looking around the valley, and enjoying the views...it's a beautiful area...
from dieng i made my way to solo...it's supposed to be important in the batik industry, but still full of cultural stuff...i found a place to stay, as many of the hotels are somewhere close to each other...other than that, there is no tourist hotspot...the tourist information office isn't anywhere close to anything, its only open 3 days a week, for four hours each of those days...the monday i was there happened to be an islamic holiday, which explained why the post office was closed...though i didn't know about the holiday until i arrived at the puri...puri means palace, and is the place in solo where the second ruling family resides (as opposed to the kraton, where the first family resides)...the entrance fee includes a guide, and since i was by myself, i got my own guide:)...she did a good job explaing everything, including the museum collection...some of the displays (old coins, medals, head ornaments, etc) i found interesting...others (belgian crystal sets) i did not...the puri is still lived in, so you don't get to see the entire complex, but that's all right...there has even been a divorce in the current "ruling" generation!! the family has no more political power, but the title is still passed down...from the puri i went to the kraton...definitely a disappointment after the puri...the kraton is the seat of the ruling family, but it's not as wealthy, it's not nearly as well kept, and there isn't very much of it open to the public...and the entrance fee doesn't include a guide, so i was pretty clueless about most of what i was seeing...there were a whole lot of indonesians visiting though...
my last day in solo i paired up with a swiss girl also staying at my guesthouse...we took a couple local buses, then hired ojeks (motorbikes with drivers) to take us up to two temples...we could've walked to the first one (it was only 2km, STEEPLY uphill) but the drivers didnt want to miss out on any money...the second was an additional 9km, and we didn't have the time to do all the walking...candi setho and candi sukuh are quite different from the other temples i've seen in indonesia, it was worth the time and energy to go see them...plus, there were VERY few other tourists...the ojek rides took us through tea, coffee and mustard fields, as well as looking out over the valley...beautiful...the temples are both on the side of a volcano...
to get to my next destination, i opted for another night train...this time, business class...it was supposed to arrive in solo at 0200, and leave a few minutes later...it didn't arrive until almost 0330...i had a hard time staying awake, and was afraid i'd fall asleep and miss it completely...business class was slightly more spacious than economy, the seats were certainly larger, and i was lucky to have a whole row to myself...there were still people in the aisles, but the aisles were larger...
as surabaya isn't a tourist destination at all, there is no traveler spot to head toward...it was simply by walking around and hoping that i found a place to stay...more expensive than i expected, but i had a tv!! and my own bathroom....almost luxury:)
after my day of walking around surabaya, i was ready to call off the rest of the trip...ridiculous attempts at overcharging, an "accidental" boob grab, and more...i was tired of it all...i was only too happy to leave the next morning...the only good thing about surabaya was the lower postal rates...(for whateva reason, postal rates around indonesia vary, and i never found out why)...

java 1

jakarta...the capital of the island, and the capital of the country...java is the most populated island in the country...jakarta is a big city...jakarta isn't known for anything in particular, at least nothing that would interest a traveler...it's a city, but not an exciting one...i arrived later than i expected, after dark...fortunately there were a couple british boys on my bus, so i walked with them to the area where we all hoped to stay...because jakarta is the capital, they do get some tourists, and there is an area where most of the hotels are clustered, fortunately it wasn't far at all from where the bus dropped us off...it's nothing like khao san road in bangkok, but the few restaurants there are definitely geared toward travelers...i found a room quickly, which was a relief...
the day i arrived was also the first day of a street festival on that particular street...it was scheduled to last the two days i expected to stay in jakarta, which was awesome...nothing super exciting, but quite a few food stands, a couple stages, and lots of local families walking around...i enjoyed the food most of all...i tried a few things i didn't recognize, several of which i saw through the rest of my time in indonesia...
jakarta has a monument called monas (i think?) in the middle, it's the national monument...built by one of the former presidents...it's an unfortunate shape, sometimes called his last erection...ooops...it's in the middle of merdeka square, a wide, flat area, where locals gather to hang out...(a great spot for people watching)...when i visited the monument i was interviewed by two local uni students, who recorded the entire conversation on their phone...the monument was also where an indonesian guy just wouldn't listen when i said i didn't want to talk to him...he wouldn't listen when i said my boyfriend doesn't like me talking to strange men...he wouldn't listen when i said go away...he FINALLY went away when i would say nothing but "go away"...i think i said it 12 times before he finally left? and that was after asking "can i know where you're from?"...GO AWAY...
also in jakarta is a large mosque...i read that it's the largest mosque in southeast asia...but i thought i already saw the largest mosque in malaysia? i guess it depends on the definition of largest...the number of people it holds, the space it takes up, size of the building, etc...
buying a train ticket in jakarta reminded me a LOT of india...it took a while to find the proper ticket office, and then the request sheet was entirely in bahasa indonesia...someone helped me fill it out, and was quite surprised that i wanted an economy class night train...but it was cheap!! queueing up was just like india too, people sliding in every which way...the train was even cheaper than i expected, YAY...
it wasn't until i got on the train that night that i realized why the train was so cheap, and why they had been surprised when i had said i really did want that particular train...i did indeed have an assigned seat...there were 2 seats facing each other, 3 could sit on one side, 2 on the other...not comfortably, and definitely not with enough room for our legs in the middle...the five of us ended up with legs intertwined through most of the night...it was indeed a seat i had, definitely no way to lay down...i was lucky to have the window, so at least i had something to lean against...there were people in the aisles, in between cars, etc...a very very crowded train...i didn't get much sleep, but oh well...it was an experience...
i arrived in yogyakarta in the morning, and chose to hire a becak (bicycle rickshaw)...he said 5000 rupiah, about 50 cents (american)...upon arrival, he tried to demand double that, indicating my pack...um, right, like you didn't see my pack when i walked out of the train station? i stayed in the traveler ghetto...a lot like the area in bangkok, perhaps not quite as busy and crowded...but this area still had all the budget accomodation, internet cafes, laundry places, travel agencies, etc...not much street food in the area though...
yogyakarta (pronounced jogjakarta, and usually shortened to jogja) is supposed to be the cultural capital of java...because of this, it's a majour tourist destination...because of that, it's really aggressive...it's impossible to walk more than 100m w/out someone asking you where you're going, or offering to drive you somewhere...argh...they also want to get you into stores selling batik, which is mass produced in and around the city...batik everything...purses, pajamas, shirts, cloth, etc...
the best part of yogya for me were the two temple sights i went to see, slightly out of the city...the first, prambanan, is mostly hindu...(though there is a buddhist temple there)...prambanan is really a temple complex, there are a number of temples to see...unfortunately several of the major temples were damaged in a 2006 earthquake, so you can't go in them...they've been rebuilding these temples, and i think they've done it really well...generally i don't enjoy rebuilt stuff, but this time i did...prambanan is also nice because it's easily accesible by public, local transport...there is absolutely no reason to sign up for any of the overpriced tours offered...i also went to see borobudur, a buddhist temple...according to lots of the postcards, it's the biggest buddhist monument in existence...i don't know about that, again it probably depends on your definition...but it is big, that's for sure...there are a number of levels of the temple, and if you walk all the way around each level, the total distance is 5km...not bad for one temple!!! all the way around each of the lower levels are carvings, and i think none of them are alike...like prambanana, borobudur has been rebuilt, and again, i think they've done a great job...i saw pictures before the rebuilding, and it wasn't much more than a pile of rocks...the entrance fee to borobudur and prambanan were both ridiculously high, especially in comparison to the cost for everything else in indonesia...howeva, the entrance fee to borobudur meant that i got to go through the foreigners/VIP entrance...normally, i wouldn't care, but this one was actually nice...slightly air conditioned (air con doesn't do much when doors are constantly open) and free tea and coffee...little packets of sugar and non dairy creamer as well...plus, there was a bathroom...a clean bathroom...a nice smelling bathroom...AWESOME!!!
one of what is supposed to be the highlights of yogya is the kraton, the palace in which the ruling family used to live...but there wasn't much of anything there...the whole time i walked around i had the feeling i was missing something...the best part of the kraton was taking pictures with some local girls who asked me to be in pictures with them:)
overall, i wasn't very impressed with yogya...because it relies so heavily on tourism, it's quite aggressive, and not very enjoyable...the street food was great though!

sumatra

to get from malaysia to indonesia, i opted for a ferry from the malaysian island of penang to the indonesian island of sumatra...it's a fast ferry boat, but still takes 5-6 hours to do the crossing...(the body of water is called the malaysian straits, for those of you who care about such things)...it wasn't bumpy at all, thank goodness, as we were inside, there was no open deck on this ferry...
upon arriving at the port (i can't remember the specific name of the port, but it's just a few kilometers from the city of medan) we were greeted by lots of wanna-be porters, taxi drivers, etc...and this was all before going through immigration...coming out of immigration there were even more people waiting! we hopped on a bus filled with everyone else from the ferry, (ignoring all the touts) and it dropped us off just a couple hundred meters from where we wanted to be in medan...i should mention that on the ferry i met a dutch girl, who ended up being my travel buddy for the next 5-6 days...on the bus a local guy chatted up me and the dutch girl, as well as a couple british boys, we all ended up following him to a succession of guesthouses, and we all ended up staying in the cheapest place on the planet...(well, maybe not that cheap, but it was the cheapest place i've stayed in a long long time)...i went with the dutch girl and british boys to dinner in a nearby mall, it was the first time i'd been out past dark since the mugging!!
the next morning marije and i got up and made our way to the bus station, to catch a bus to bukit lawang...we got there quickly enough, but then had to wait 40 minutes for the bus to leave...when it left, it pulled out onto the street, drove a few blocks forward, and parked on the street, to wait for more passengers...and by wait, i mean WAIT...buses in indonesia often don't leave until they are full, regardless of any schedule that might or might not be posted...we ended up waiting over another hour on the street, and the british boys ended up on the same bus!! anywho, around 3 hours after we finally got going, we all arrived in bukit lawang...it's a small village at the entrance of a national park...people come to this national park to go trekking, in hopes of seeing orangutans...it's one of the few places in the world where you can still see them in the wild...i decided not to afford the trek, though it did sound interesting...(and later, i got mixed reviews...a canadian i talked to wasn't very fussed about his trek, but the dutch girl and brit boys had been chased by orangutans during their trek, and therefore loved it)...i went to a feeding at the orangutan rehabilitation center, but no orangutans showed up...definitely a disappointment, though i enjoyed the two monkeys that were there...we're so close to monkeys and orangutans genetically that i find it fascinating to watch them, and see similarities in our movements, and looks...there was howeva an orangutan at the entrance to the park who was clearly domesticated, and never likely to go back into the wild...i watched him (or her?) eating from the hands of a local, again, fascinated...
from bukit lawang i made my way to parapat, on the edge of danau (lake) toba...a huge lake in the middle of sumatra...it's supposed to be the biggest lake in southeast asia...one of the largest volcanic crater lakes in the world...it's supposed to be 450m deep!...anywho, from parapat i took a ferry to an "island" in the middle, called samosir...it's not really an island, as it is connected by a small causeway, but since people get to and from there mostly by ferry, it essentially functions as an island...one village, called tuk tuk has most of the accomodation, and the ferry stops as requested at each place...i ended up in a room with a western toilet, shower, two beds, and my own porch!!...all for $5...most of the accomodation in tuk tuk has a swimming area, mine did as well...mine even had a diving board set up...the diving board was high enough above the water and bouncy enough that i could actually get some height and distance...and the water underneath was deep enough that i wasn't worried about cracking my head...(even though with my hard head that would be quite a feat)...the temperature was slightly cool, and just PERFECT for playing around...i had a great few hours each day, praticing back and front flips, just enjoying the water...the dutch girl and i hired mountain bikes one day to go to a couple other villages and see a couple sights...stone chairs, traditional batak houses, a mausoleum...they weren't exciting, but we liked the riding and scenery as well...while huffing and puffing my way up various small hills (samosir is NOT FLAT) i realized that i'm not very fit at the mo...i can walk and walk and walk, all day long, but i have no aerobic capacity...eeeek!!
from danau toba i made my way to bukittingi...this involved a 15 hour overnight bus ride...the bus was all right, and even the road was all right...except that it was NEVER a straight road...i could actually see the bus sway from side to side as it went around each corner...when you see a name like trans sumatran highway, you'd think it would be a good HIGHWAY...but it's just a 2 lane road, not much different from any other sealed road in indonesia...in SLIGHTLY better condition, i suppose...this bus did drive over the equator en route, and i saw it coming slightly ahead of time...so i stood up, and danced a little, and danced my way over the equator...the russian couple sitting next to me thought i was crazy, but then again, what's new about that? hee hee...we were at the back of the bus, so the locals didn't even see me...i am a dork, i know...
anywho, bukittingi is another hill station, with great views over the surrounding area....my first day i just wandered, and my second day i got up early to take local buses to a nearby rafflesia sanctuary...rafflesia are the world's largest flowers...(actually a parasite, but that's beside the point)...when they bloom, the flower can be 1m across, with petals an inch thick...it also emits an awful odor...i'm told it's similar to that of decaying animals...EEWWWW!!...i got off the bus and ended up walking to a house, thinking it was a ticket office of some kind...but it wasn't...the lady told me the rafflesia had bloomed a couple weeks earlier and were now dead...which means the blooms were still there, but they were all black, and not very interesting...but i still wanted to see them, so the lady got her nephew/cousin to lead the way for me...5 other kids came along as well...none of them spoke any english...but it was still a LOT of fun...they kept fighting over who got to be walking right in front of me and right behind me...lots of "hati-hati" (be careful) as i kept them all entertained by stumbling over roots, logs and my own two feet...it ended up taking over an hour to get to the dead blooms, climbing some steep hills through the jungle!!! after arrivign back at the house, the girls and i played with the coffee beans that were drying out front, spelling our names with the beans...a great day, just one of those great days...i got back to bukittingi, walked around a bit more, got rained on, and hung out at my hotel...
from bukittingi, i started to make my way to jakarta, on the next island of indonesia, java...

malaysia 3

from kuala lumpur i took a bus to tanah rata, the tourist center of the cameron highlands...the highlands are another hill station, cooler and less humid than the lowlands of the country...there are a bunch of tea estates in the highlands, the area produces most of the tea in the country...tanah rata itself is basically a village...not much there except travel agencies for tourists, a few convenient marts, and a bunch of yummy indian restaurants...i found a single room, and though it was small and very cozy, that was exactly what i needed...the first day there i didn't do much of anything...walking around a little (10 minutes of walking in tanah rata means you've seen the whole town) and playing with my camera...the whole area has beautiful wildflowers, the likes of which are NOT in indiana...the second day i booked myself a tour...it wasn't so much a tour, as them just driving us around to a number of different places...first up was a flower garden...pretty flowers, a great view over a valley from a particular viewpoint...i loved the sunflowers...the second stop was a strawberry farm...we didn't see much, just rows of where they were growing strawberries...we didn't even get to pick any...we did howeva, get to eat the strawberries...i had absolutely no problem eating two strawberry sundaes at 10:30 in the morning...is that a bad thing? you could also get a waffle, strawberries with cream, strawberries with honey, or a strawberry shake...they were ALL good:)...from the strawberry farm we went to a tea estate...i can't remember the name of the estate, but their brand name is boh, and it's the most common in malaysia...it was gorgeous...rows and rows and hills and hills of tea bushes...i learned that tea bushes grow into trees if they aren't trimmed, and i also learned they can be 150 yrs old!!! i bought a couple packets of tea, and have been making chai most mornings...YUM...then we went to a bee farm...not much there to see except the boxes/hives...that's where you could try to make your way through the world's largest indoor maze, but i don't think anyone in my group did so...from there, our last stop was a buddhist temple...perhaps the most interesting part of the temple were the walls...they were covered in images of buddha...something like 10,000 in all? i don't remember the exact number...think small bathroom tiles, covering the whole wall...nifty...on the way back from the temple we had a new driver, and i ended up with motion sickness about 30 seconds into the ride...i actually had to make him stop and get out early and walk back into town!! why is it that some drivers make me so sick, and others are fine?

from tanah rata i took buses to kota bahru...kota bahru is the state capital, ( i can't remember the name of that particular state, eeek) and it's the only state in malaysia where you can find blue rice...yes, i went all the way across the peninsula because i wanted to eat blue rice...it was fun, and though it didnt taste any different from white rice, i'm still glad i went...kota bahru itself doesn't have much to offer...a central market, in a building that allows you to look down on the ladies selling fresh produce...it gets busy down there!!

from kota bahru, i crossed the peninsula one more time, to the island of penang...off the western side of the peninsula...the main city on penang is called georgetown...this island is actually the oldest settled part of malaysia, older than singapore and melaka...it's another former trading port...howeva, the island is almost all chinese...it is the only malay state with a majority chinese population...but there is still plenty of indian food to be had...and since it was my last stop in malaysia, i indulged, big time...just outside georgetown, in a town called air itam, is a BIG buddhist temple...well, it's actually a buddhist temple complex...there are several temples there, each with different architectural influences...thai, chinese, etc...the best part of the complex is the 7 story pagoda, from the top of which you can look out over the city...awesome, even though it was raining while i was up there...

georgetown also has several mosques which i was able to explore...in one i felt quite welcome, and i enjoyed talking to one of the men after he finished his prayers...in the other one, i felt rather ambushed...one guy showed me around a bit, but kept trying to bait me as to why islam is better/truer/etc than christianity...it wasn't a debate i wanted to have...he kept trying to use specific bible verses to prove his points, and i've always hated when people do that...he said he'd read the bible, but for nearly every verse that looks at things one way, there is another verse that looks at them from the other side...you know, the old eye for an eye vs turn the other cheek debate...i don't know the bible well enough to think of specific verses, and i really felt uncomfortable around him...i'm not likely ever to convert to a religion when someone tells me what i already believe is wrong, and that what they believe is right/better...

the morning of 1 july, i bid a fond farewell to malaysia, and hopped on a ferry to medan, on the island of sumatra, in indonesia...