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...