Java

Okay, I know I have been silent for ages but there is just so much stuff to do here that I am actually suffering from a kind of leisure stress ;) I connection with the bad internet situation this makes for me being a lazy blogger... Anyway, since my last entry tons of stuff happened and we had two weeks off from university which we used for traveling. Last week we went to Java, the "heart" of Indonesia with the majority of the population and economic power... We took a minibus to the harbour and the a ferry to cross the short strait between Bali and Java. In Banyuwangi on the Javanese side we tried to rent a car but after 5 fruitless and very annoying hours of asking around, bargaining we eventually gave up and settled for public transport instead. So we took a public bus to Probolingo. The 5 hour bus ride was a really special experience. The bus was crammed and stopped in every small town to pick up or drop off passengers and in every town a bunch of guys hopped on the bus trying to sell everything from food and drinks to jewelery and clothes as well singers with guitars... it was exhausting. In Probolingo we chartered a Bemo (Minibus) to get to Cemera Lawang which lies at roughly 2000 meters above sea level on the edge of the Tengger volcanic Caldera which took us another 2 hours of steady uphill driving. Overall we were on the road for some 21hours that day so went straight to bed enjoying the cool air (actually it was really cold that night). We got up again at 2.30 in order to climb up to a viewpoint just in time for sunrise which was...

...totally awesome. It took us around two hours of uphill scrambling to get to the viewpoint on Mount Penanjakan (2770m) but it was so worth it.

Its fun to stay at the...

View into the Tengger Caldera which measures around 10km in diameter. In front you can see Mount Batok (2440m), to the left smoking Mount Bromo (2329m) and in the background Mount Semeru which is Javas highest mountain with 3676m. It erupts a cloud of smoke every 20 minutes.

Crossing the "sea of sand" to climb Mount Bromo

On the way back to Cemero Lawang

view into the crater of Mount Bromo

That night we took a Bemo from Cemera Lawang back to Probolingo and from there an overnight Minibus to Yogjakarta in Central Java which took another 9 hours. We got there at 4.30 in the morning and fortunately we found a hotel that let us check in that early so we could catch another few hours of sleep.

Taking a rickshaw to go sightseeing in Yogja. In the 2nd rickshaw you can see Paul sitting next to Ecki. We met him on the bus from Probolingo to Yogja, he is Canadian and did most of our trips in Yogja together with us. Downtown Yogja doesn't really have that many things to see but still I would say that so far it was my favorite city in Indonesia. People there seem to be more relaxed than in other places and the overall atmosphere is somehow pleasant... it's hard to describe. What we did most in the city was shopping for all kinds of stuff. I bought a sarong, "original" adidas sunglasses (1,40€) and some pretty awesome batik pants for myself and some presents for friends and relatives. We also tried some of the local cuisine and all of us found Nasi Gudeg (Rice with Jackfruit) particularly tasty.

A rickshaw is a useful tool for transporting all kinds of stuff.

Westerners seem to be a real attraction for Indonesians... we were asked or sometimes even dragged to be in so many photos.

Yep...

I finally started growing a beard.

On the next day we hired a Bemo with drive to take us around the sights outside of Yogja. This is Borobudur temple, which is often called the Angkor Wat of Indonesia. It is a huge Buddhist temple that was built in the 9th century, later completely buried by ashes from the close Merapi Volcano and only rediscovered sometime in the 19th century. The temple itself is pretty impressive although I had imagined it a little bigger from what I had heard about it before.

Malin (who is visiting from Bonn right now) in front of some of the really impressive and detailed reliefs showcasing buddhist legends. The lower walls of the temple are completely covered in these.

Posing on the "roof" of Borobudur.

Prambanan, a Hindu temple from the 10th century just outside Yogja. You cant really see it in this picture, but an earthquake in 2006 damaged this temple very badly.

Some damage from the quake...

and even more damage... it's such a pity because the temple in its original state must have been so much more impressive than it is now.

After our three days in Yogja we took an overnight bus back to Bali which meant another 21 hours of travelling. Overall a fantastic but also very straining trip. Now back in Bali things have gone back to normal. University, beach, surf, pool, food, laziness...