Indonesia

   A great night out in KK where far too much gin was consumed we said our farewells to Barry and Pauline and headed off to KL. Myself, Roberta and Ben to catch a flight to Jakarta and Kirsten and Simon heading off to Africa. There was just time to have a early morning run around the now renamed Petronas Parry towers before our flight. There still looked fantastic to me. Malaysia and Borneo in particular have been excellent. Superb scenery and wildlife along with the great city of Kuala Lumpur. Yet another place I would happily revisit.

   So we are now solo travellers or solo in so much as there will be four of us when Heather joins us in Jakarta.  We arrived in Jarkarta mid afternoon to face one of the most difficult border crossings and immigration points we have seen in SE Asia.  Travelling to the hostel showed us the sights of Jakarta which appear to be endless traffic jams, street stalls, shopping malls and endless high rise buildings.  Oh not to forget a nice layer of smog. It’s dusty, noisy, big, brash and scruffy. Much as expected really. It is a massive sprawling city. The portly taxi driver asked us for a “poverty tip” which we politely refused, he didn’t look like he couldn’t afford to eat! The hostel, once we got over the initial shock of the fact that it was actually an apartment with 8 beds in the spare room, was great. With access to a huge swimming pool and a gym I was more than happy to spend a few days. We did the required cultural visit to the Monas, the statue of independence and the mosque, which is apparently the largest in SE Asia. At the mosque the “friendly” guide invited us to make a contribution to the mosque which we did and then asked “what about a tip for me?” All in the name of religion of course! Another refusal to hand over our cash and we were out of there. It was good to meet up with Heather again and swop tales from the last few weeks and make our future plans.

    A good train journey through paddy terraces and amongst mountains bought us to Bandung. There are no bridges at train stations in Indonesia so the done thing is actually to walk through a stationary train and come out the other side all the time hoping it doesn't start to move.  A good way to keep the heart rate up!   Enroute to our hotel we came across a naked man crouched in the street.  I’m not sure if this is the norm in Bandung or not never having been there before but I'm guessing not!  However he was as Heather rightly pointed out a definite trip hazard as he was blocking the pavement and we had to walk carefully around him.  Anyway the hotel was great unfortunately Bandung not so.    But like most places we’ve been always worth a visit just to experience different ways of life. We’re currently on a train heading for Yogyarkarta.  As I'm writing this the sky is dark and everything is covered in volcanic ash from Mt Merapi.  We'll see what it's like when we arrive.