Lula's photo art

Lula took a long time to publish her photos, which she took with her two analog cameras. Actually, till now she has put just the Hong Kong pics online, so I will let you know when Indonesian pics will be seeable. The pics turned out to be really great. I love Lula's style a lot.

Capturing Indonesia with my Diana F

Finally, I managed to develop all the films from the trip. Besides my DC, I took my Diana, but I am quite bad at taking pictures with it. So here you are, enjoy .)) If you ant to see more, just check my gallery :)) but I repeat, I am not a good photographer.

Lula s ass at Sanur

Sanur

... and the Sea

Before we left to Europe

Before leaving to Europe, we spent two nights and one full day in HK. We just did not do any sight seeing, we spent all the time with shopping, meeting our friends Tanya and Andy, eating good food and sleeping. Unfortunately, we got really sick, the last two days so it was quite exhausting and we did not manage to party too much. And btw. we got a really good couchsurf .)) I have to become more active with the whole couchsurf idea. After this trip, I started to enjoy it a lot.

Night HK view

Lula

Meeting Tanya :) I love this picture of her

Us :)

Indonesia in a nutshell

In the following paragraphs I would like to summarize my "Indonesian impressions". I hope my viewpoint is just realistic (not too pessimistic hopefully). And remember, it is just my impression so who cares.))

On the one hand Indonesia is a beautiful country with outstanding exotic nature, on the other hand the people obviously do not value the nature too much cause the beaches and the water and the forests etc. is usually polluted. This fact decreases the positive impression of the whole Indonesia considerably.

The food in Indonesia consists basically from  rice, egg, cooked or fried veggies and meat, soya products and lot of chili. I was quite surprised, how Indonesian people can eat so much fried and oily food if it is so warm there. If you want something else to eat, you have to go to restaurants, which are mainly for tourists. The second point considering the food is that they use too much sugar. They have so many fruits and do lot of "fresh juices", however they always put so much sugar inside that it makes it a bit disgusting. The same thing with coffee and tea and so on. Actually I was expecting lot of fresh salads and healthy food and the cruel reality disappointed me a bit. But still, they have really good seafood and from the local cuisine the possible vegetarian meals Cap Cay (steamed veggies) and Nasi Goreng (fried rice with fried veggies) were my favorite ones.

The people in Indonesia are basically very friendly and they are always interested in how u do, where do you come from and so on. However, I found it pity that I could not talk to them more (our whole conversation was basically just answering these few basic questions, eventually to doing some "business" with them). Their command of English was usually low and my command of Indonesia was also very low, so it was practically impossible to communicate together what I found really pity.  Anyway there were some exceptions  with which I had really nice talk. One of the local guys told us a big truth about the Indonesian people: they are like chili - small and hot .)).

Doing business with Indonesia people can be quite annoying cause they usually offer you much higher price than to the locals. On the one side it is understandable, on the other side it is just annoying. The bargaining is fun at the beginning, but it can also become really tiring if you have to bargain for every single bottle of water you buy. What I really have to complain about is the police system, which is really corrupted (cause almost everyone is friends with police).

Anyway the whole trip was so good, even if I complain in this text too much, we had just so much fun, seen lot of exotic places, did diving and surfing (these two things were the absolute top for me), met lot of nice people. I think I became more brave after this trip and my border of fear has moved. I learned that I would pack my luggage differently the next time (among others i would definitely take following things, which I either forgot or bought there: just two dresses, board shorts, flip flops, some very thin shirt with long sleeves, more t shirts, just one long trousers, socks, one hoodie, knife,  spoon, big scarf - to cover the bed and to cover myself in transport with strong aircon, sleeping bag, goggles, snorkel, very good first aid kid and cosmetics and washing powder and some oatmeal cause in Indonesia it is so expensive and I was missing it).  I learned that the lonely planet guide is just a must have for backpackers - and the next time I would not travel without it. I learned that it is sometimes good to have a men with you, when you travel in Indonesia - cause girls are an easy target. I passed a diving course and was learning surfing. And I learned that I do not want to stop traveling. I just love it.

Goodbye Indonesia

We were supposed to spent few days in Sumatra cause our flight to HK was leaving from Medan. Though, we were just tired of stress connected to getting familiar with new places and transport and so we decided just to fly to Medan and from Medan to HK. In Medan we would wait for 6 hours for the next flight and because there is "so much to do at the Medan airport" we just took a taxi and went to hotel Plaza to have some good food and internet. Official airport taxis from the airport to the city center cost 50 000 Rupiah, which is just a nice bullshit cause it takes about just like 10 minutes driving there. Some guy offered us a ride for 35 000 Rupiah - though he was not an official taxi driver wearing the taxi uniform. Anyway, it felt so ridiculous that the whole trip we tried to travel low cost and the very last they we went to hotel Plaza, but it was a very good decision. We bought buffet breakfast for 27 000 Rupiah and got for it awesome food and there was even internet for free. Actually, that day I felt nostalgic that we were leaving, but in a corner of my soul I was really looking forward why. I will write a little resume in the next post.

Bandung

We spent just three days in Batu Karas, cause we ran out of money and were too lazy to go to Pangandaran for an ATM (we had only Visa card). On the third day, after spending the whole day on the beach, we just left for Pangandaran. The next morning, we woke up at 6 a.m. surfed for the last time and then packed our stuff and left for the bus station. The direct bus to the city Bandung was supposed ("was supposed") to leave every hour. Of course there was no bus coming on time and we had to wait for two hours. Luckily, next to the station there was a market with some local food, which was a good  time killer. Finally, the bus came and we spent the whole day in a bus full of smoking people. 

In the evening we arrived to Bandung, where we spent two days with massages, shopping, eating, going to a ZOO (was so sad) and just doing nothing too exhausting. We heard that in Bandung there were supposed to be lot of designer outlets so we went to few of them and I really can tell  that it s just a bullshit. All the stuff was fake. 

In the cities you can feel all the "poor-rich people" contrasts even stronger and Bandung was no exception. On the main tourist streets mothers with their children were sleeping, eventually begging for money. In the pubs you can see many prostitutes chasing after especially white men (cause here, being white automatically means money).  Actually, I can tell that I did not feel very comfortable and safe in Indonesian cities. I prefer country side, villages, but definitely not the cities.

Waitin for the bus to Banjar

Lula in Banjar

Market in Banjar

Batukaras

After the Green Canyon trip, the drivers took us to the little village called Batukaras. Batukaras is just a perfect place for the surfers - especially for the beginners. There are two spots for surfing, at one spot the waves were really lazy, small but still powerful enough. It was a great place for learning to surf with a longboard. Due to our lame surfing, this was our main "anchor".  The high tide in the afternoon was the "surfing time", when everyone got into the water. The locals were doing really crazy stuff like head-stands or dancing at their longboards.

At the second place there were bigger waves and it was better for experienced surfers. So if you felt confident enough you could try it there. I did not feel that confident, but still one day we decided to go there. For me it was a big challenge and after catching a wave I did not manage anything else but to hold my board with hands and not to die :D. The waves were just too quick for (lazy) me. And after the board hit my head really hard and I got washed by a wave properly, I decided to go out of the water. However, Lula spent 3 hours in those crazy waves. BIG Applause Lula !!! .)))

Batukaras is a small village and there were not that many tourists, which wass just perfect. The whole atmosphere felt extremely "homy". For example if you did not have money with you, you could just pay the next day or whenever. There was also a little internet cafe with really slow internet, but for checking emails it is still ok. The restaurants offered good food, especially seafood, for reasonable prices. All in all, my whole feeling towards Batukaras was just extremely positive and the village became one of our favorite Indonesian spots. We met there a guy who was around 50, was a local, could speak really really good English and worked as a surf judge in Asia. He was even teaching us surfing in the water - so nice.  Another good friend we met there was Anh-Tuasn from New York, who was traveling and surfing for 5 months and was always returning for a longer period of time to Batukaras. I was really missing the place after we left.

And btw. an important information is that in the nearby village there is only a MasterCard ATM, Visa ATM is only in Pandangaran (40 minutes driving away).

Batu Karas Beach during low tide

Me paddling - the waves are really slow and flat .))

Us with Anh-Tuan (I know i look so bad .)

Good seafood .))

Green Canyon Trip .))

So as I said in the previous text, we booked the trip to the famous Green Canyon. Two guys on motorbikes were our drivers that day. On the way to the Green Canyon they took us to some little villages, to see some traditional stuff. In the first village there was an old couple producing coconut sugar. The old men was climbing on the coconut palms every morning to collect the nectar from the coconut flowers. His wife was then cooking sugar from the nectar.  The sugar is really good, really yummy. It has some strange, a bit salty aftertaste, but I was eating it instead of candies (unfortunately I already ran out of it).

The second stop we made was in a village, where a guy was living, who was creating the traditional Indonesian puppets. Actually he was not only creating the puppets, he was also an "puppet actor. He did some performance for us, however it was in Indonesian so it sound a bit funny :).

Finally, after those stops we came to the Green Canyon. With one of the guides we took a boat. That day the water was not green but it was brown, because the day before it was raining - everybody was making jokes that it is a Brown Canyon :)). We came to the narrow point of the canyon where the boat stopped and we could take  a swim. Of course we did it - was so much fun. Though, I was a bit scared cause there were supposed to be some snakes in the water, but finally it was all right. None of them ate us, or attacked us or what ever. We did not know that there was a possibility of so called "body rafting" - we saw some guys with life jackets swimming in the river. It looked so much fun. You just wear a life jacket and let the current to take you down the river. The next time I would definitely go for it.

Coconut Sugar

The "puppet guy"

Us, swimming in the river

Our guide

Going to Pangandaran

The cities in Indonesia are really too exhausting for me. After two nights spent in Yogyakarta we decided it was the time to leave again. In the lonely planet travel guide we found out that there should be a little village called Batu Karas, where the waves for surf-beginners should be just perfect. From Yogya we took a train to Banjar. A German couple we met recommended us to take the highest class, as in the lower ones foreigners usually get robbed.  It was quite expensive, there was a strong air condition and again a TV with popular Indonesian videoclips - Indonesian "posh way of traveling" :). We got of in the city Banjar and from here we took a bus to the city called Pangandaran. On the map it seemed to be quite close but the journey from Banjar to Pangandaran was just neverending (of course crazy driving, bad roads, awful traffic).

We arrived to Pangandaran after dark and after the whole day spent in various crazy kinds of transport I really did not feel like taking another bus to Batu Karas. So, we decided to spent one night in Pangandaran. We came to a hostel called "Pondok Wulan", which was quite cheap (100 000 Rupiah per room) , clean and really nice and as we found out the next day - really good breakfast. The people running the hostel proposed us to book a trip to Green canyon and give us a ride to Batu Karas afterwards so we booked the trip for the next day. The evening we just spent in a Bamboo bar having a beer.

Borobudur and Prambanan

In the surrounding of Yogyakarta, there are many possibilities to do nice trips. We chose one of the most impressive ones - we decided to go to the one of the most beautiful Hindu and Buddhist temples.

In our hostel we had the possibility to book a day tour to both temples.

The next day we woke up at 4.30 a.m., at 5 a.m. the driver of a shuttle bus picked us up and with 4 other people.

First we went to the Buddhist temple called Borobudur, which is an ancient Buddhist stupa and temple complex constructed in the 9th century and belongs to the UNESCO World heritage. We came there very early, around 6 a.m., which was really good cause there were not too many tourists, the temperature was not very high yet and the morning fog strengthened the impressive and mysterious atmosphere of the temple even more.

After Borobudur  the driver drove us to the Hindu temple called Prambanan. Prambanan is considered to be the most beautiful Hindu temple in the world. "There is a legend that Javanese people always tell about this temple. As the story tells, there was a man named Bandung Bondowoso who loved Roro Jonggrang. To refuse his love, Jonggrang asked Bondowoso to make her a temple with 1,000 statues only in one-night time. The request was nearly fulfilled when Jonggrang asked the villagers to pound rice and to set a fire in order to look like morning had broken. Feeling to be cheated, Bondowoso who only completed 999 statues cursed Jonggrang to be the thousandth statue.".

Borobudur

Borobudur

Prambanan